Poem/NonPoem
[note: this is the talk I gave on February 7 as a collaboration with Jules Boykoff for the spatial practices curriculum]
Last June, a hooded figure in an orange jumpsuit slogged through the streets of New York, ankles shackled. The primary audience, passersby on a bright afternoon, were not cued whether to read this as an escaped prisoner or an artistic performance. While the orange jumpsuit signified Guantánamo, there were no signs, no megaphones, no aids toward interpretation. This figure might have been an incarcerated person, on work release or recently escaped.
In August, Laura Elrick performed “Stalk” at the Kootenay School of Writing Positions Colloquium. She read her poem, timing the language to hit the sequence of images from a video that showed a black car pulling up, an orange jumpsuited figure trudging out—a figure she refers to as “something ‘not-me’ as ‘me’”— walking, ankles shackled, among the crowds of kissing, shopping, chatting people.
In June, her walk through the city was planned with precision, but submitted to the unpredictability of the city. Yet much was predictable about the reactions of crowds of people.
Homeless woman under a blanket. Fervent believer shouting scripture. Orange jumpsuited prisoner shackled and shuffling. We among the crowds don’t respond, part urbane (nothing surprises us); part safe-sure (less contact, less mugging); part co-habitationally respectful (we can all do our “thing,” living in close contact while retaining partial autonomy). We are among a crowd when the performance is not called “performance”; we have our norms. We are among an audience when a performance is called “performance”; we have our norms.
