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Lytton Smith commented on the post, My Own Poetry, on the groupblog
The Contemporary Poem 2 months, 3 weeks ago
These are great goals to set, and a great way to start out the semester: looking to see what makes your poetry most itself (a question we’re always asking, never fully answering, but still learning from) and what […]
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Lytton Smith commented on the post, Music as Poetry, on the groupblog
The Contemporary Poem 2 months, 3 weeks ago
These musicians are interesting examples that beg the question of where the blurry divide between music and poetry can be found; remember, as we mentioned last class, poetry is at the intersection of music, visual […]
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Lytton Smith commented on the post, Writing a Definition, on the groupblog
The Contemporary Poem 3 months ago
Witty and insightful first post. Line breaks are a thing, but maybe they’re an action too: they break things, like expectations or perceptions, assumptions, making us need to reexamine them. (You can’t really fix […]
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Lytton Smith commented on the post, to isolate, on the groupblog
The Contemporary Poem 3 months ago
Thanks for this lovely and thought-provoking first post. It’s fascinating how you move from isolation to sharing, from the verb “to lock” to a fierce commitment to sharing: translation doesn’t have to be throwing […]
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Lytton Smith commented on the post, Invasive: tending to intrude on a person’s thoughts or privacy, on the groupblog
The Contemporary Poem 3 months ago
You’ve hit on a fascinating paradox in the genesis and reading of much poetry: that we’re often engaging with the past and memory (it can be why we write) but we’re also working towards, even anticipating, a […]
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Lytton Smith commented on the post, On changes and poetry in translation, on the groupblog
The Contemporary Poem 3 months ago
Welcome to the class, Kayla. Yes, I think it’s really important to be able to stay within the process, to defray the end (wasn’t that what “hoarding the hours” was partly about, anyway?) – not because the end is […]
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Lytton Smith commented on the post, Re-Visiting ENGL 301, on the groupblog
The Contemporary Poem 3 months ago
First, welcome back! I do hope you’ll find this class a change rather than a repeat, and I know you’ll be part of what makes it a change. Already in this post you’re translating locations and experience for us; I […]
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Lytton Smith commented on the post, Translation through Poetic Landscapes, on the groupblog
The Contemporary Poem 3 months ago
Rich ideas here, and I’m excited to see where they take you. I love the physicality of that “little mailman” image, with his bulky crate. And, at the same time, both it and your sense of the “translational view” […]
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Lytton Smith commented on the post, transformation of poetry, on the groupblog
The Contemporary Poem 3 months ago
Thanks for sharing this path you’ve taken to poetry. I love the mixture of techniques and approaches: we might think of ekphrasis as placing emphasis on the visual, but it’s wonderful you were (also) able to find […]
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Lytton Smith commented on the post, Love for Poetry, on the groupblog
The Contemporary Poem 3 months ago
Thanks, Mya. The books we’re reading this semester will help you think about this, but let’s also look at chapbooks, too, including recent graduate Erin Kae’s wonderful chapbook GRASP THIS SALT from Finishing Line Press:
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Lytton Smith commented on the post, Inspiration, on the groupblog
The Contemporary Poem 3 months ago
Let’s talk more – office hours! In general, I’ve found formal constraints and writing exercises help; I love the exercises in The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets who Teach, which you can preview […]
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Lytton Smith commented on the post, Afrofuturism portrayed by Mos Def & Talib Kweli, on the groupblog
(Im)Possibilities 1 year, 2 months ago
Lovely work not just with an album but a specific text, a song from that album. The Bluest Eye is a Toni Morrison novel, and her work has interesting connections with Afrofuturism, even if not conventionally seen […]
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Lytton Smith commented on the post, The Forces We Bring-Kazon Robinson, on the groupblog
(Im)Possibilities 1 year, 2 months ago
You might look especially at the ending to Snead’s piece as an example of the pluralistic possibility – ultimately, he’s calling European culture Black without that culture knowing it. And you’re right that Snead […]
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Lytton Smith commented on the post, AfroFuturism in J Coles KOD album, on the groupblog
(Im)Possibilities 1 year, 2 months ago
Your identification of KOD here raises a really important question for our class: when is a work Afrocentric or Afroaware, and when Afrofuturist? I love noname’s Telefon […]
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Lytton Smith commented on the post, “Invisible Man”, Afrofuturism, and Ethnocentrism, on the groupblog
(Im)Possibilities 1 year, 2 months ago
A worthy choice of text here, Luke; it’s sometimes seen as the earliest Afro-futurist text (before that term was coined) although we can go back further, and need to think about specifically African, rather than […]
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Lytton Smith commented on the post, Renee Cox (Afrofuturism), on the groupblog
(Im)Possibilities 1 year, 2 months ago
Great find, Lael! And interesting because of the ways it brings in the kinds of intersectionality we’ve discussed, something I see modeled not just in the gender presentation of the figures here (the re-casting of […]
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Lytton Smith commented on the post, Afrofuturism in Food, on the groupblog
(Im)Possibilities 1 year, 2 months ago
There’s also, to add to Lael and Luke’s comments, a sense in which food can cross the boundary from necessity to art, which you’re getting at with your point about trends towards the vegan, Grainger (though we […]
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Lytton Smith commented on the post, Afrofuturism in furniture, on the groupblog
(Im)Possibilities 1 year, 2 months ago
What a great idea to bring to the table! Not least because it might help us see that Snead isn’t validate a mechanistic repetition (dehumanizing industry) so much as a kind of cultural satisfaction with […]
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Lytton Smith commented on the post, Modern Music and Afrofuturism, on the groupblog
(Im)Possibilities 1 year, 2 months ago
A wonderful, challenging idea here, Emma; you’re pointing out some important qualifications and working through them well via the theory. I particularly think there’s exciting potential for work here on the lines […]
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Lytton Smith commented on the post, response week 3, on the groupblog
(Im)Possibilities 1 year, 2 months ago
I love this thread! So glad so many of you are on it.
You’re also working with partial evidence – not reading the whole of the Libretto – and that limits what you can conclude. But notice how he talks of […]
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