Gender & Poetry

Jessica Smith always has interesting things to say, and her recent post about women and publishing has sparked some discussion over at the Harriet blog. Craig Santos Perez (whose post "'Afro Picks,'" Publisher's Weekly, & the Racialized Pun" is a must-read) asks, "do you think women’s self-promotion in poetry differs from men’s self-promotion?" Here is what I posted in the comments:

The men who have established the professional standards that govern the world of poetry are by and large men who have benefited from many different kinds of unearned privilege, including the uncompensated labor of many women (domestic, secretarial, and creative). Therefore, the question should not be “how can women learn the skills that men seem naturally to possess (self-promotion)?” Those skills, upon closer inspection, reveal themselves to be not much more than plain, old-fashioned bourgeois entrepreneurialism that is rooted in inequality. I think it is good that men are asking what they should do vis-à-vis feminism, but I think the best way to begin is through careful scrutiny of their own practices. If one finds oneself with a creative project that does not include women, one should not conclude that it is the fault of women. Rather, one should ask “what’s wrong with this creative project in that it excludes women?”

Another thing that seems important to this discussion is time (see this article about sleep as a feminist issue). Who has time and who does not. Many women I know struggle to find the time to complete their own projects, and this lack of time surely has something to do with "self promotion." I talk more about time and gender and poetry in a post I have forthcoming over at delirious hem (where Jennifer Bartlett is asking some very important questions about gender, poetry, and disability; you should check out her blog too).

related posts: responding to #s trouble ; rearview mirrors ; notes on poetry and capitalism ; womb as the title of a publication ; hex presse mission statement

ETA: Craig's new post, with incisive, thoughtful comments from the rad Reb Livingston and the fab Danielle Pafunda

vex and bury

Feminaissance and Wack

So I did get a little taste of Feminaissance on Saturday. It took us forever to leave the house so we only made the last panel, but it was a very interesting one. I wish that I had been less caffeine deprived...but this is what happens when you stay up until 4 am every night!

As I mentioned earlier, Eileen Myles is AMAZING. I'm still organizing my thoughts about the other presentations, but here are some of the notes I took during E.M.'s presentation from the "categories" panel:

- the world determines your gender before you do
- one can be caught in the midst of two [gendered] performances: one true and one false
- hormones are writing (!!!)
- gender is a public thought
- gender and "things." In inflected languages (i.e. Latin) nouns are given masculine or feminine endings. In English, some things are gendered. For example, ships are "she." Also discussed gender and hurricanes. After the panel I did some research. As it turns out, the gender of hurricanes alternates through the alphabet, which seems sort of conceptually elegant to me -- this idea of alternating gender as something controlled/contained by letters and "names." You can see this list of names here. Also, why don't we name earthquakes or volcanic eruptions? Does a hurricane seem somehow more "live"; or perhaps a storm seems more distinct from the planet itself?

We also made what felt like a very cursory tour of the WACK show, which is electric and dense and mesmerizing. The concentration of feminist art creates a very palpable sense of urgency and power. It also highlights a desire to "get out" of the museums, which is to say that it draws attention to/makes clear the limits of the museum. Forms are used and simultaneously undermined. Museum spaces are productive and necessary and often feel like sanctuaries, but the underlying imperative -- the quicksilver vein of the WACK show -- is that we must change the world outside the museum. This may seem like a banal point, but trust me -- it has a sharpened tip in the context of this exhibit.

Anyway, the MOCA is one of my favorite places in Los Angeles. Besides the WACK show, there are some very interesting pieces there. Among them are some texty pieces by Alexandra Grant, including a glinting silver wire mesh sphere which seemed like something out of one of my dreams. Another piece I *loved* was by chilean artist Livia Marin. This piece involved over 2k tubes of lipstick (!!!) aranged on a curved base; the tips of the lipstick were sculpted into all sort of shapes and reminded me of chess pieces in drag. Thrilling.

x-posted to WOMB and FluffyDollar$$$

May Day

There is this. Police firing rubber bullets at protesters? And the numbers -- can it really be true that only 25k showed up this year when last year there were more that 500k?

The bellumletters april project is done; it wasn't about "a poem a day" as much as it was about a daily act of protest. This is not enough. I'm going to keep thinking about different ways to make poems acts of protest. Also, I want to make different kinds of protests.

And this is what is killing the birds. Today I saw a dead seal on the beach.

Sometimes I dream that there are new letters in the alphabet -- that they are on a string. Sometimes I dream that I am not shy and not afraid to talk to people who I like and admire because they may not like me back. In real life I can pretend that I am not this way, but pretending makes me tired.

The garden is growing, which seems like magic to me.

There have to be better ways for people to be in groups.

I am beginning to dislike things that are precious, yet I continue to like things that are cute. Eileen Myles said the most genius things about pets and gender -- how pets/cute things create a sort of gender-neutral space.

Which reminds me, I an now a *huge* fan of Eileen Myles. Also, I am determined to meet K. Lorraine next time I'm south of SB.