almost home
JVL
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
Kiana Khansmith
trying on a metaphor
pixel skylines
Mike Driver
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
No title available
izzy's playlists!
occasionally subtle
★
YOU ARE THE REASON
祝日 / Permanent Vacation
No title available
2025 on Tumblr: Trends That Defined the Year
Sade Olutola
No title available
Stranger Things
Peter Solarz
seen from Netherlands
seen from Canada
seen from Spain
seen from Canada
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Türkiye
seen from Uruguay
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Paraguay
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from Netherlands
seen from Canada
@activistpoetics
Video Archive
The videos of the Activist Poetics symposium and performance night are now on Archive.org. We hope you find these an enriching continuation of our conversations! Please share widely.
https://archive.org/details/ActivistPoeticsPart1AlexisDavida
Image: Alexis Pauline Gumbs reading from her work M Archive: After the End of the World at the Seattle Public Library at the “Activist Poetics” performance event.
Expressing our thanks
These wonderful photos documenting the symposium’s panels and evening performances at Central Library were taken by Seattle photographer Robert Wade. Thank you to Robert and to everyone who made this day possible, including the presenters, who travelled from all over the country and gave brilliant talks about their work and poetics; the staff of the Simpson Center, who made sure everything ran smoothly and everyone was nourished; the audience, who brought an engaged presence and thoughtful questions; and the following sponsoring groups:
The Simpson Center for the Humanities
The Seattle Public Library Foundation
The Gates Public Service Law Program
The MFA in Creative Writing & Poetics
and the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, UW Bothell
With our deep gratitude,
micha, Amaranth, and Sarah
We are grateful to everyone who joined us for the Activist Poetics symposium. These photos of our final panel, with Kai M. Green and Dawn Lundy Martin, are provided by the Simpson Center for the Humanities.
Learn more about Green and Martin’s projects here:
The Agenda to Build Black Futures: http://agendatobuildblackfutures.org/
The Center for African American Poetry and Poetics: http://www.caapp.pitt.edu/
Activist Poetics Symposium Schedule
Activist Poetics: Affect and Audience in the Digital Age
Symposium: February 3, 2017
The symposium Activist Poetics examines notions of activist poiesis and activist poetics to investigate the intersections between digital activism, contemporary experimental writing and performance, and new media practices. This symposium includes a public performance shaped by the engagements of our participants.
#Blacklivesmatter, #sayhername, #blacktranslivesmatter: these hashtags are incantations, poetic phrases used to mobilize social movements through digital networks. Recent years have seen a series of public controversies within North American poetry around the use of racially-charged and, in some cases, racially-insensitive material used in the name of an avant-garde aesthetics based on shock-value. This work has been widely criticized; many have argued that the world itself is already a far more shocking place than such works reveal, and that the aforementioned hashtags have done more to draw attention to its horrors. Cathy Park Hong, Associate Professor at Sarah Lawrence College and poetry editor of The New Republic, has named contemporary activist poetics as the new avant-garde. Writers working in this vein have been influenced and inspired by—and have also participated in—the surge of public, digitally inflected social movements, which are themselves a mode of poiesis—an act of making that forges coalitional bonds. Free Registration through Eventbrite
Activist Poetics Symposium Schedule
Petersen Room, Allen Library (4th floor), University of Washington, Seattle
Parking Information
Public Transit Information
10-10:15 am
Opening Remarks, micha cárdenas (Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences and Interactive Media Design, UW Bothell), director of the Poetic Operations Collaborative
10:15-11:30 am
Alexis Pauline Gumbs (PhD in English, African & African American Studies and Women & Gender Studies from Duke University), the founder of the School of Our Lorde, an inter-generational multi-media education initiative.
C Davida Ingram (Independent Artist), 2014 Stranger Genius award winner and co-founder of Seattle People of Color Salon.
12:45-2 pm
Fabian Romero (English, University of Washington), workshop facilitator, member of Hijas de Su Madre, Las Mamalogues and Mixed Messages: Stories by People of Color, and author of the chapbook Mountains of Another Kind.
Layli Long Soldier (English, Diné College), a Lannan Literary Fellow, recipient of a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation artist fellowship and a Whiting Writers Award, and author of the forthcoming Whereas (Graywolf, 2017).
2:30-3:30 pm
Dawn Lundy Martin (English, University of Pittsburgh), co-founder of The Third Wave Foundation and Center for African American Poetry and Poetics (CAAPP), whose most recent book, Life In A Box Is A Pretty Life received a 2015 LAMBDA Literary Award for Best Lesbian Poetry.
Kai Green (Feminist Studies, UC Santa Barbara), a scholar, poet, and filmmaker who combines scholarship, art and activism in his research on race, gender, and sexuality in black LGBT communities and cultural production.
3:45-4:15 pm
Roundtable
4:15-4:30 pm
Closing Remarks
Activist Poetics Performance
Microsoft Auditorium, Seattle Public Library-Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave.
Parking Information
Public Transit Information
7:30-9 pm
Performances by symposium participants and local artists. Free and open to the public. Please come scent-free!
Featuring: Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Kai Green, Fabian Romero, Carmen Gimenez Smith, Layli Long Soldier, and special guests.
There will be a scent-free section at the front of the theater.
Arrangements can be made (with two weeks notice) for sign-language interpreters for Library-sponsored classes, tours, events and programs. Schedule an interpreter through the LEAP coordinator: email [email protected] or call 206-615-1380 (v/tty) or use Sprint Relay Online.
Upcoming Related Events that May Be of Interest
February 2, 2017, 6-8pm, UW1-041. From the Convergence Zone: A Poetry Reading by Dawn Lundy Martin and Layli Long Soldier. University of Washington, Bothell.
Feb 2, 5:30-9:30pm. The Design of Dissent. Civilization, 531 1st Ave S. [Facebook]
Monday, Feb. 6, 2017, 4:30-7PM. Revolutionary Mothering and Queer Survival with Alexis Pauline Gumbs. William H. Gates School of Law, University of Washington. [Facebook]
Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017, 3:30-8PM. Womxn Who Rock: Water is Life Unconference. [calendar & Facebook]. Washington Hall, 152 14th Avenue, Seattle, WA
Friday, Feb 10, 2017. 6:30-9PM. American Visionaries: Immigration, Innovation & Freedom. With Luis Ortega - Storytellers for Change, MyTam Nguyen - Public Servant, Yurij Rudensky - Columbia Legal Services, Ardo Hersi - RadioActive Youth Media, Seattle, Rekha Kuver - Seattle Public Library, Scott Kurashige - University of Washington, Bothell School of Interdisciplinary Studies, Nataly Morales - Office of Senator Patty Murray, Andrea Lopez-Diaz - Youth Organizer, and Shankar Narayan - ACLU Technology and Liberty Director [Facebook]
Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017. 3-4PM. Writing, Redress and Social Justice: 75 years after Executive Order 9066. With Mira Shimabukuro and Bob Shimabukuro. The Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 Tenth Avenue. [Elliott Bay Book Company]
Monday, Feb. 13, 2017. 12pm. Nuclear Life in the Anthropocene - Hanford Conversations with John Findlay and Bruce Hevly. UW Seattle, Simpson Center for the Humanities, Room 202. [Calendar]
Feb 18, 2017. 2-3:30pm. Elissa Washuta Discusses her Fremont Bridge Residency. Seattle Public Library, 1000 4th Avenue. [Facebook]
Feb 19, 2017. 2-3:30pm. Never Again: Japanese American WWII History and American Muslim Rights Today. Seattle Public Library, 1000 4th Ave. [Facebook]
February 22, 2017. 5:30-7:30pm. Dalia Mogahed, “Islamophobia: A Threat to All.” American Muslim Research Institute Lecture. Moderated by Karam Dana. UW Bothell, North Creek Event Center [calendar, RSVP]
Feb. 22, 2017. 7:30pm Roxanne Gay at Town Hall Seattle [Facebook]
Feb 24, 2017. 9am-5pm. Equity and Inclusion Conference at UW Bothell. [RSVP]
Feb. 25, 2017. Sacred Breath: Writing & Storytelling. With Ernestine Hayes, Raven E. Heavy Runner, and Elissa Washuta. [Facebook]
March 1, 2017. 12-1:30pm. Critical Acts: Decoding Art and Performance. With Jade Power-Sotomayor, Thea Quiray Tagle, and Anida Yoeu Ali. Activities and Recreation Center Overlook, UW Bothell. [calendar]
Saturday, March 4, 2017. 2-4PM. Women's Prisons, Art & Queerness. Seattle University Wyckoff Auditorium [Facebook]
March 8th, 2017. International Women’s Day. Events at Northwest Film Forum and Town Hall
March 17, 2017, 7-9PM. LiTFUSE Poets' Workshop Anthology reading. Poets UNiTE! (Cave Moon Press, 2016) with Alice Derry, Shankar Narayan, Talena Lachelle Queen, and Matt Gano. [Facebook]
April 15, 2017. 2pm-6pm. Black Lives Matter March. Westlake Park, 4th Ave, Seattle. [Facebook]
April 20, 2017, 9:30am-4:30pm. Storytelling Strategies for Dismantling Racism. With Toi Sing Woo, Natasha Marin, Patricia Julio, Bert Hopkins, and Fleur Larsen. 2100 24th Avenue South. [Event]
TBD, Spring 2017: Moving The Needle
UW Bothell is working with the Henry on Move the Needle (MTN) an upcoming collaborative program that will commence in the spring. Move the Needle is an artist driven pilot supported by the Henry Art Gallery that explores racial intersectionality to widen the lens and help shift the scope and direction of museum and cultural institutional practices within universities and cities. Conceived and spearheaded by artists Susie Lee and Royal Alley-Barnes, MTN frames the role of arts and cultural institution as hubs for sustained coalition-building and on-going relationships -- places to hold both conversation and activate organized efforts. MTN is a flexible, iterative platform that gives these places the ability to acknowledge and respond to rapid societal changes, and to give voice to diverse communities’ work within institutions.
Activist Poetics at Seattle Public Library
Join us for the evening component of “Activist Poetics”, after the daytime symposium, at the Seattle Public Library!
1000 Fourth Ave. Seattle, WA 98104
The following poets will be performing their work.
Alexis Pauline Gumbs (PhD in English, African & African American Studies and Women & Gender Studies from Duke University), founder of the School of Our Lorde, an inter-generational multi-media education initiative; Kai M. Green (Assistant Professor of Queer Theory, Feminist Studies at UC Santa Barbara) Scholar, poet, and filmmaker.
Fabian Romero (PhD Student, University of Washington Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies) Writer, performance artist and activist.
Carmen Gimenez Smith (Associate Professor, New Mexico State University) Poet, writer, editor-in-chief of Puerto del Sol and publisher of Noemi Press.
Layli Long Soldier (English, Diné College), recipient of a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation artist fellowship.
Facebook event here, please share widely!
https://www.facebook.com/events/109054376266099/
Activist Poetics Symposium
The Activist Poetics symposium examines notions of activist poiesis and activist poetics to investigate the intersections between digital activism, contemporary experimental writing and performance, and new media practices. This symposium includes a public performance from 7-9pm at the Seattle Public Library shaped by the engagements of our participants. The event is part of the Affect and Audience in the Digital Age series of events.
#Blacklivesmatter, #sayhername, #blacktranslivesmatter: these hashtags are incantations, poetic phrases used to mobilize social movements through digital networks. Recent years have seen a series of public controversies within North American poetry around the use of racially-charged and, in some cases, racially-insensitive material used in the name of an avant-garde aesthetics based on shock-value. This work has been widely criticized; many have argued that the world itself is already a far more shocking place than such works reveal, and that the aforementioned hashtags have done more to draw attention to its horrors. Cathy Park Hong, Associate Professor at Sarah Lawrence College and poetry editor of The New Republic, has named contemporary activist poetics as the new avant-garde. Writers working in this vein have been influenced and inspired by—and have also participated in—the surge of public, digitally inflected social movements, which are themselves a mode of poiesis—an act of making that forges coalitional bonds.
The event will take place at the Simpson Center for the Humanities on the UW Seattle Campus.
University of Washington 206 Communications Box 353710 Seattle, WA 98195-3710
Maps and directions are here.
Confirmed participants include:
Alexis Pauline Gumbs (PhD in English, African & African American Studies and Women & Gender Studies from Duke University), founder of the School of Our Lorde, an inter-generational multi-media education initiative
Davida Ingram (Artist and activist, Seattle), 2014 Stranger Genius Award Winner, co-founder of Seattle People of Color Salon
Dawn Lundy Martin (English, University of Pittsburgh), a poet, cultural critic, new media performer, and co-founder of The Third Wave Foundation
Kai Green (Gender & Sexuality Studies and African American Studies, Northwestern University)
Layli Long Soldier (English, Diné College), recipient of a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation artist fellowship.
Carmen Gimenez Smith (poet, writer, editor), editor-in-chief of Puerto del Sol and publisher of Noemi Press. She teaches at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico
"Message Received": a collage by Alexis Pauline Gumbs in honor of Audre Lorde.
Header and avatar image by Alexis Pauline Gumbs.