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Bloody hell - I've just gone into the Gringpo (isn't that word racist?) website. They seem to have a bigger hate list than Islamic State!  I think this conference is essentially an issue for Americans.  The British avant garde was and is just a bunch of poetic loonies who for the most part are ignored - we would love to have people of other races join in.  Join us now.  Please do.  No application form to fill in just write some really crazy poetry. Does it need to be more complex than that? All are welcome. No one has ever been barred. Of course you'll be ignored by the majority of the poetry world but you'll  get used to it but you're probably not reading this because it's a site mainly for avant garde poets.  I'm not denying people of different races don't have rough time and have been treated shockingly in the past and still are, but, in the British avant garde poetry scene?  Never ever come across it myself. 
 
And now a question. When the anti-gringpo people say 'white' they often seem to  mean 'Jewish' and I find that very disturbing because everyone knows that most American avant gardists are in fact Jewish.  Are Jewish people 'whites'?  I thought they originated from the East of the Med. Isn't it a bit of a confused argument about race that steadfastly refuses to state the race they are mostly attacking by miscalling them 'white'.  Does anyone else find this a bit odd?
 
I haven't read Andrea's piece, I'll  see if I have time later this evening.  If not I'll see some of you tomorrow at the Eric Mottram conference.  Eric who?  As someone said to me last night.  Groan.
 
G.
 
 
 
Geraldine Monk
Affiliated Poet
Centre for Poetry & Poetics
The University of Sheffield
----- Original Message -----
From: [log in to unmask] href="mailto:[log in to unmask]">Joey Frances
To: [log in to unmask] href="mailto:[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2015 12:58 PM
Subject: Re: Race and Poetry and Poetics in the UK (Feb. 27, 2016)

I'm sorry, but that's a really problematic and inadequate response to an event trying to discuss race. The implication seems to be that you object to discussions of any power relations that aren't focussed around the concept of class - as if a question like "How do racialized assumptions structure and determine English language poetics and aesthetics?" is somehow offensive, or ignores the way people are marginalised based on class. Spoiler, it's not, and it doesn't.

There's nothing about the post below which suggests class isn't also an issue. It clearly is a massive one. But any reading of class that is capable of claiming things like "The problem is class, not race or gender or sexuality, and it always has been" is just a misreading of the different ways that different identities can be marginalised, and a frankly oppressive one. I can't say in strong enough terms that it's just a not ok thing to say, at all. Like, as a white man (which I also am), you definitely do experience certain race and gender based privileges, even as you also experience class based marginalisation. That needn't be seen as contradictory.

I agree with your claim that "Class is a generalised form of behavior that encodes power relations", and think that there can be useful to think of race and gender as existing as kinds of class distinctions, maybe. But to do so in a way which ignores their specificity, and actively objects to discussions of it, misunderstands the complicated nature of those relationships.

I'm trying to be nice and engage with the argument here - but basically your post seems to claim that it's not ok to talk about gender or race specifically, and that women or non-white people aren't oppressed in any ways that are specific to them. Which is horrible nonsense. Try like, asking someone who isn't a white man.

I'm sorry if i've got the wrong end of the stick here. I'm not trying to be argumentative or confrontational, but i really think it's not ok to dismiss these things like that.

Joey

Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2015 12:32:25 +0000
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Race and Poetry and Poetics in the UK (Feb. 27, 2016)
To: [log in to unmask]

Speaking as a white, male, English but lower-class ex-poet I can point out that I have, and had, no 'privilege in British poetry' whatsoever. The problem is class, not race or gender or sexuality, and it always has been.  Part of the reason why I have retired from writing was local power politics in the literary crappyverse that was as much driven by females as males, and certainly not restricted to whites. Class is a generalised form of behavior that encodes power relations, the universities themselves amplify it.

On 18 November 2015 at 21:42, Wang, Dorothy <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Call for contributions:

Race and Poetry and Poetics in the UK 
University of Sussex and the Poetics Research Centre, Royal Holloway, University of London present:
Race and Poetry and Poetics in the UK
 9.30am-6pm, Saturday 27th February 2016
Bedford Square, London
In 2015, discussions about race and contemporary poetry and poetics in North America have dominated creative and critical communities. Following Boston Review’s forum on ‘Race and the Poetic Avant-Garde’, co-curated by Dorothy Wang, boundary 2 published the dossier ‘On Race and Innovation’ this November. The Mongrel Coalition Against Gringpo continues to mobilise social media, disseminating their anti-racist and anti-colonial campaigns. The whiteness of the avant-garde and conceptual art and poetry has been disclosed, and readers, writers, and critics are asked to consider their complicity in a movement inextricable from its racialized and possibly racist origins. 
How do these discussions relate to poetry and poetics in the UK? How do readers, writers, and critics address the complexities of social and political histories and contemporary realities of race in British and Irish contexts? How do racialized assumptions structure and determine English language poetics and aesthetics? Why are the intersections between literary tradition and contemporary practice and post-colonialism, diaspora, racial identity and inequality so rarely addressed? This year, Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric won the Forward Prize for Best Collection; Andrea Brady published an article stating ‘The White Privilege of British Poetry is Getting Worse’; and Paul Gilroy discussed racism in Britain in the interview ‘What “Black Lives” Means in Britain’. Furthermore, the issues of the pressures on multiculturalism – with rising xenophobia, racialized policing, immigration policy and detention, and material inequality stratified along racial lines – hold great significance for the current of cultural production in the UK. This event will create a platform for questions, dialogues, and collaborations in response to the subject of race and poetry and poetics in the UK. 
We invite contributions in the form of short presentations (10-15 minutes), workshop activities (25-50 minutes), topics and texts for group discussion (25-50 minutes), and poetry readings and performances. We hope to schedule two panel discussions and two workshops during the day (at Bedford Square), and a programme of poetry readings and performances in the evening (venue to be confirmed).
We intend to record presentations, readings, and performances, and to make them available on our website. It is our hope that the questions, dialogues, and collaborations initiated by the event will continue online. This event is part of a larger project, which will include further events, digital media, and creative and critical publications.
If you would like more information about this project, or if you would like to get involved, please contact: [log in to unmask].

Race and Poetry and Poetics in the UK is an international research group founded by Dr Sam Solomon (University of Sussex) and Professor Dorothy Wang (Williams College). The steering committee, which includes Professor Robert Hampson (Royal Holloway, University of London), Nat Raha (University of Sussex), and Dr Nisha Ramayya, is organising a programme of events and activities that will take place at various sites in the UK, internationally, and online.





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