Dear John, I’ve been reading “Ten Things I Do Every Day” every day. “Now I don’t know anything anymore.” What does sacred, ordinary protocol have to do with knowing anything…
Posts Tagged ‘Black studies’
Mere Horizon: The Form of Desire in John Keene’s Poetics
10.06.23
I. “Dark to Themselves,” the eponymous poem of the sixth section of John Keene’s Punks, begins with a command, which also serves as an ars poetica:”Invent, experiment: chaos . ….
An Escaped Slave and a Good Person
10.06.23
One of the joys of encountering John Keene’s work is reading his many interviews. Out of respect for his interviewers and readers, time and again Keene finds ways to expand…
An Abstract Architecture: John Keene’s Counternarratives
10.06.23
“Long hours in the study of any text will reveal inner, unseen contours, an abstract architecture,” writes John Keene.1 But even long hours of studying the stories and novellas that…
Passagens Estranhas: Translating the Obscene with Hilda Hilst and John Keene
10.06.23
“Oh, how delicious and practical it is that people think us strange . . . ” — Hilda Hilst, Letters from a Seducer, translated by John Keene At the outset…
John Keene’s Keywording
10.06.23
*** “In the mark event, you enter your signature.” So begins Seismosis, John Keene’s 2006 book of poetry, published as a collaboration with the artist Christopher Stackhouse. The quoted line…
The Black Experimental Impulse: Returning to Seismosis
10.06.23
A student in my recent “Twenty-First Century African American Literature” seminar insisted, “We should stop using the phrase ‘Experimental Literature.’ All creative writing is an experiment.” This is true, but…
Unembodied Blackness and Social Critique: John Keene’s Annotations
10.06.23
One of the most remarkable features of John Keene’s thoroughly remarkable 1995 publication Annotations is that it manages to register as a distinctly African American work without even attempting to…
Sui Generis: On the Genius of John Keene
10.06.23
Those times when I stareat the blank white screen or pageI may despair that I cannot showor testify how much I love blackpeople and want other black peopleand all people…