In these continued changing times, ARC has taken the idea of a poetry festival and spread it out over a semester, online. The theme for Poetry & the Senses this past year has been emerge/ncy, and extends into the idea of voices we want to carry with us in imperiled times. We are interested in what is emergent or birthed at times of crisis, the voices that become maps, guideposts, and sustenance along the way.
In addition to larger monthly readings, we have also invited 20 Bay Area poets to be a part of a new Flash Readings Series. Each featured poet will give a 3-5 minute reading of one of their poems, related in some way to the theme. These short readings will be carried on our website and YouTube channel, and shared on social media. The Bay Area offers a rich, deep, and broad tapestry of voices – we could easily have tripled the number of reading slots and still barely skimmed the surface of wonder and beauty that surrounds us. We are lucky and grateful to these poets for participating in this celebration of community, for helping us think through and within crisis, understand moments of emergency as catalysts for renewal, as ruptures that signal massive—if painful—change, and lean into the possibility of rebirth and new beginnings.
The theme for 2021 is emerge/ncy. Motivating questions include, what kinds of poetic modes of address might be recruited in times of global catastrophe? How does poetry help us think through and within crisis? “Emergency” implies urgency, sudden harm, life-threatening violence, and extreme circumstances, but embedded within it is the word “emergence;” suggesting rebirth and new beginnings. How can we understand moments of emergency as catalysts for renewal, as ruptures that signal massive—if painful—change?
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Leena Joshi is an artist, writer, and educator. Their recent written work can be found in SFMOMA’s Open Space, the Berkeley Poetry Review, and Monday: the Jacob Lawrence Gallery Journal, among others. Their MFA thesis exhibition will be on display at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) May 14 to June 20, 2021.
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