Kristin Dykstra

Intermedium

Zone

Jen Hofer & John Pluecker, Blaffer Museum. Photo courtesy of Antena/Madsen Minax
Jen Hofer and John Pluecker, Blaffer Museum. Photo courtesy of Antena/Madsen Minax.

The Intermedium series concludes with my conversation with Antena, the collaborative created by Jen Hofer and John Pluecker.  As individuals Hofer and Pluecker have carried out extensive projects in translation and poetics.  United as Antena, they create manifestos and how-to guides regarding translation, among many other thought-provoking interventions.  As the conversation demonstrates, Hofer and Pluecker have reflected extensively on values and practices associated with literary translation while pursuing experiment.  In the context of a poetics magazine, the Antena project merits special attention for another whole zone of exploration:  it advances conversations and events to highlight specific complexities of interpretation (spoken and signed), with special attention to language justice. 

Yoandy Cabrera on Rito Aroche

'Cosmos and Recycling / Cosmos y reciclaje'

Yoandy Cabrera
Yoandy Cabrera

In May 2015 I squeaked into a packed session on contemporary Cuban writing at the Latin American Studies Association’s annual meeting.  Among the many points of interest was the fact that I heard Rito Aroche named several times as a key figure amongst the various tendencies of contemporary poetry in recent decades.

Xeno / with audio

Omar Pérez in Playa, 2010.  Photo K.Dykstra.
Omar Pérez in Playa, 2010. Photo K.Dykstra.

Xeno-, OED: “before a vowel xen-, repr. Greek ξενο-, ξεν-, combining form of ξένος a guest, stranger, foreigner, adj. foreign, strange”


Xeno-, OED:  “before a vowel xen-, repr. Greek ξενο-, ξεν-, combining form of ξένος a guest, stranger, foreigner, adj. foreign, strange”[i]

Work in progress: A Robopoem@s photo essay

Botpieces by Tina Escaja.  Photo K. Dykstra.  Generator Makerspace, Nov. 2015.
Botpieces by Tina Escaja. Photo K. Dykstra. Generator Makerspace.


Tina Escaja working out the first phase of 3-D robot construction, including a wall display and augmented reality sequence, for the Robopoem@s / Robopoems.  Photographed at Generator makerspace, Burlington, VT, in November 2015.

BotStruction by Tina Escaja.  Photo KDykstra, 2015.

Vis-à-vis miau

Cover: Did You Hear about the Fighting Cat.  Shearsman Books Ltd., 2010.
Cover: Did You Hear about the Fighting Cat. Shearsman Books Ltd., 2010.

Omar Pérez reads five poems from his 1998 collection, ¿Oiste hablar del gato de pelea?  The bilingual Spanish/English edition of this complete book was published by Shearsman Books, Ltd., in 2010.

Audio recorded in Havana, 1 June 2010, at the studio of Dennis Casteleiro.