Naropa Summer Writing Program, Boulder, CO

Naropa Summer Writing Program, Boulder, CO

WEEK 1: July 1-July 7 2013

History, Race and Polis, and “Karma” of the Modernists

The Kerouac School at Naropa University, founded in 1974 of its own volition and not as an extension or offshoot of an English Department, has roots in the most innovative aspects of the New American Poetry, and has extended itself over decades to include new praxis and world poetics, reveling in diversity and hybrid form. It seems important given the sorry divisive and tormented nature of US of A political adversity, including gender, class and racial divides, to review and examine “where we have been.” What is the legacy of Williams, Stevens, Pound and Stein, and their post-modern inheritors? How did they set the bar, what were their prejudices and why do we still feed off their work? What is the continuing narrative? Where has the gaze gone since, beyond Euro-centrism? This week we will look at our own modes of attitude, and the dark shadows of influence under newer world “orders.” The Kerouac School has always looked to collaboration amongst artists and art forms and the philosophies and orality of Asian and indigenous art forms. Poet/art thinker Bill Berskon will present a lecture on Gertrude Stein and her family art legacy, and Jerome Rothenberg will carry us forward to investigate the continuing shamanic powers of poetry.

For more information on Week 1, read here.

 

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