AGGRESSION
A CONFERENCE ON CONTEMPORARY POETICS AND POLITICAL ANTAGONISM
Panel: An Ethnic Avant-Garde?
This panel will investigate the often volatile and contentious relationship between race and the idea of an “avant-garde,” however broadly or narrowly either term is construed. Where does the accent fall when we speak of diasporic, ethnic, cross-ethnic, and/or "white" avant-gardes?
Panelists will have the opportunity to explore the contemporary relevance of the distinction, drawn by an earlier generation of critics and poets, between creative projects organized under the sign of “identity” or “difference,” versus a “poetics of indeterminacy” informed by critiques of what Charles Bernstein once dubbed “the official cultural space of diversity.”
Tyrone Williams teaches literature and theory at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is the author of two books of poetry, c.c. (Krupskaya Books, 2002) and On Spec (Omnidawn Publishing, 2008). He also has several chapbooks out, including AAB (Slack Buddha Press, 2004), Futures, Elections (Dos Madres Press, 2004)and Musique Noir (Overhere Press, 2006).
Recent poems are in or forthcoming from Critiphoria, Laurel Review and The Nation. He is currently writing a book of poems for the innovative writing press, Atelos Books.

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