There were two great poetry-related sessions on Saturday evening. The first was an interdisciplinary discussion of jazz and poetry organized by Aldon Nielsen. Patrick Pritchett kicked things off with an analysis of sonic patterns in John Taggart. Radical repetition, flirting with nonsense even as it insists and emphasizes, becomes, according to Pritchett, a material means to a spiritual end. Pritchett linked this repetition to Coltrane's explorations, that insistent sound that uses time to develop conceptual patterns and, ultimately, surprise. Surprise can become elation, and this is one of the ways I understood Pritchett's claim that sound can transform itself into something like a secular prayer in Taggart, an act of affirmative resistance:
To want to be a saint to want to be a saint to want to
to want to be a saint to be the snake-tailed one to want to
be snake-tailed with wings to be a snake-tailed saint with wings to
want to be a saint to want to awaken men wake men from nightmare. ("Giant Steps")
Affirmative prayers, mourning, and memory were also central to Meta DuEwa Jones's lively presentation on the genre of the "post-soul Coltrane poem." Jones called attention to the role of the body both as oeuvre, in the case of poems that recall and re-perform Coltrane's work, as well as physically, in reconstituting Coltrane's own physical presence and, in some poems, linking that presence, that sound, to other bodies. Jones concluded by attending to a beautiful example of the genre by Linda Susan Jackson, "September 15, 1963," a means of mourning racially-motivated violence in such a way that exemplifies Nate Mackey's claim that the dead will not rise without a song.
Michael New’s concluding paper explored the “expressive gap” between “jazz” and “poetry,” and the implications of that gap for genre formation and creativity. Beginning with Thelonius Monk’s claim that writing about jazz was akin to “dancing about architecture,” New pointed out that Monk’s simile is not merely dismissive of jazz writing. Indeed, the evolution of the notion of jazz itself speaks to the value of genre not as a controlling notion but, particularly in the case of jazz, as a process. I was reminded of Cecil Taylor’s parallel and interacting sonic levels in Unit Structures, a notion that has influenced Nate Mackey. New’s discussion of Gil Scott-Heron made me want to go dig up his albums.
One of the most interesting topics addressed in the discussion was the almost exclusive attention to bop/post-bop among poets influenced by or writing about jazz. Pritchett pointed out that this may have something to do with the perception that jazz becomes truly modern with bebop. Someone else made the point that pre-World War II jazz was still establishing an identity distinct from blues, which made me think about the possible histories of blues poetry. And, in light of the rising interest in the poetics of hip-hop, would it be too much to link the history of blues, jazz, and hip-hop to corresponding poetries, attending to differences and parallels.
Speaking of poetic histories, immediately following the jazz poetry panel there was a special session on Jacket magazine. It was great to hear about the origins of Jacket from its founding editor, John Tranter, as well as retrospective reflections, and thoughtful criticisms, from Kate Lilley and Marjorie Perloff. Michael Hennessey and Julia Bloch, two of the new editors of Jacket 2, were also on hand to discuss the future of the new magazine. It sounds as if there are some potentially exciting developments with other digital tools (maybe even a Jacket app?) and a deliberate effort to continue to build on Jacket’s already strong profile.
My one regret from Saturday evening was that I overestimated my conference energy and, as a result, was too tired and hungry to successfully make it to the MLA off-site poetry reading. I had a great time at the Philly off-site last year, and this year’s line-up looked really impressive. I hope there will be recordings of the event available at some point in the future.
Well, this is my last dispatch from LA. I had a great time, and learned a lot at MLA 2011. Thank you for following along, and thanks to Tim and Heather for their contributions (a particular thanks to Tim for setting up this blog!). I’d love to hear from other attendees as well, so please feel free to email me your thoughts and reflections.
Next year: Seattle!
