ANIMALITY show at Evanston's Xiao Space, opening July 2

I’ll be showing three collages/collage poems in the Animality show curated by Nicholas Alexander Hayes, during the month of July 2022. There’s a literary event on July 10, in conjunction with the show, at which you can hear poems from Theories of Performance (& perhaps buy a copy of the book!). I won’t be there in person, but my co-participants will be trying on my presence for this event. The details are here: ANIMALITY AT XIAOSPACE

From My 2020 Journal: On Poetry-As-Usual (Events, Consent, Labor & Disability)

This essay is very slightly modified from a journal entry dated May 17, 2020

In the traditional poetry reading or event as framed or instrumentalized as a social occasion, the poet is a focus for or excuse for the attendees to interact with one another, & also a figure whose expected function or behavior is complex. This is rarely acknowledged or analyzed, much less made open to negotiation or clear consent.

Not only is the poet expected to deliver a reading to the audience (labor 1), but they are also expected to offer the audience direct access to their bodies, through social interaction, in what is often uncompensated but very difficult labor (labor 2). Sometimes, if the poet is the one who puts together &/or hosts the event, there are third & fourth layers of labor, again for which the poet is rarely compensated. 

To get at the crux of this, to unpack the assumptions surrounding the poetic labor of the reading, seems to be unusual or unpalatable. But I have had to do it in analyzing the reasons why it has become untenable & impossible for me to perform this labor, whether it's compensated or not. 

Compensation (i.e. payment) is less of an issue for me because paying me won't magically make it possible for me to do something I can no longer do. The major problem for me in this is the incomprehension of others that there are multiple layers of labor demanded of a poet at their own reading, & the poet is rarely offered a chance to negotiate this labor, to actively consent to any or all of it. To agree to, or arrange to, "do a reading" implies global consent to these unnamed, unacknowledged forms of labor. To refuse for any reason to do any of it is offensive to many people, but the same people refuse to examine their assumptions that agreeing to read a set of poems in the company of others explicitly includes placing a poet's body within the access of those others. To play along, to play the Poetry Reading Game, is assumed to mean one slots one's presence, performance & even one's poems into the received framework with no objection, no complication. 

I have never seen an event contract that explicitly names the expected duties of socializing, networking, dispensing of free advice--of physical availability to the audience members on an individual, sequential or mass basis. Occasionally a specific Q&A session is named, a book signing, or attendance at a reception.  But that's not true of every contract, & plenty of event organizers do not provide formal contracts. 

From the viewpoint of disability justice, this approach to poetic labor is violent & unacceptable. There is no space for negotiation of poetic labor provided at events without risking the loss of the opportunity to participate at all, or the loss of compensation, or both. But it is also deeply problematic from a more general, personal-agency point of view. If a poet has no option to refuse, or even to negotiate consent for, certain unspoken types of labor assumed to be "givens" in a poetry event, how can that poet safely set & hold boundaries, especially in a high-contact situation where intoxicants are frequently also held to be unquestionable presences in the scene? If poets can't even safely refuse consent to the parts of an event that are too strenuous, or outright dangerous, or impossible for them, how can they safely participate at all? The poetry community is known to foster predatory & abusive behavior. This way of approaching events is part of the problem. It needs to be re-examined & recast in a myriad of different, consent-empowered modes.

 

Statement of Solidarity with Poetry Workers Union

As an established poet whose books are distributed by Small Press Distribution (SPD), and an author on one of SPD’s most revenue-generating presses, I need to publicly articulate my support for the organizing and action taken by Poetry Workers Union. Rather than rehashing their argument and demands—I couldn’t hope to do it as well—I urge you to learn more by consulting the Poetry Workers Union statement here before reading further.

My own work history and other past experiences mean that I usually believe allegations of wage theft and workplace abuse. So I have been following the situation with great distress since it was made public late last year. I contacted a board member for SPD to inquire further about the role of the board in grievance procedures and found the exchange unsettling but illuminating. I am familiar with the mechanics of nonprofit organization operations and administration, and in many ways the emerging facts were not a surprise. I had also had my own difficulties with the SPD administrative staff during the divestment of one of my host presses from the organization. I felt a need to act, but I didn’t know what to do. I stopped ordering books through SPD in the meantime, until I could decide how to respond according to my conscience and my ability. (I haven’t ordered from them in roughly six months.)

A couple of days ago, upon seeing a Tweet with a link to the Poetry Workers Union statement, I became aware of their boycott of SPD and several top-earning, influential small presses—including my home Brooklyn Arts Press. I had a strange feeling: I wanted to support the boycott, but how do I boycott myself? I have subscriptions to some of the other named presses. I am close friends with the people who run other named presses, and authors who publish with them. How does a boycott look for me if I am also committed to supporting the work of my friends—many of whom are writing from multiply marginalized & oppressed backgrounds? Is it breaking the boycott to alert readers of various publications, projects and honors of my own? I don’t know if I really can participate in the boycott to the fullest or most rigorous extent.

But I can publicly assert my solidarity with the boycott action, fact-sharing & communication labor of the members of the Poetry Workers Union.

I can make use of my privilege as an established author on an influential small press, as a Lambda Literary and Publishing Triangle Award finalist, and a poet with many personal relationships with other authors and editors attached to these presses.

I can open the necessary conversations with friends and colleagues. I can urge my editors to explore divestment and distribution alternatives.

I can make financial readjustments to more fully align my support with my commitment to justice, change and accountability in publishing and distribution.

I can continue to consider deeply the ethos of presses I align with before initiating such relations.

I have already begun some of these actions; others have been ongoing for some time. But here I assert my commitment to continue the process.

I am counting on my editors and friends to help me open and expand space for discussion, exploring distribution alternatives, and more. I know that they too are disturbed by what’s happening at SPD, and are also committed to justice and accountability in publishing. I hope that my statement empowers others to join me in public solidarity action, especially those who have benefited from SPD’s distribution and have brought revenue to that organization.

Some may consider it self-defeating to openly claim solidarity for a boycott effort that, from one perspective, potentially does me harm (in lost royalties, etc.). I find that perspective limiting. I donate my royalties to support others. I have no publishing job to lose, no institutional or organizational attachment to be threatened, no possible tenure to be denied. There is no defeat for me in supporting the Poetry Workers Union, opening comminication, or making conscience-driven choices. I recognize that other authors and editors may have more complex entanglements, but I urge us to take the risks. Let’s use what we have and stop playing career games at the cost of real people’s lives and livelihoods.

With love and solidarity,

JAY BESEMER

2021 LAMMY AWARD FINALIST & A NEW BOOK FORTHCOMING!

Big news: I am a finalist for the 2021 Lambda Literary Award, or Lammys, in the category of Trans Poetry for Theories of Performance!

To tune in to the free/by donation online awards ceremony on June 1 (with ASL interpretation & captioning), register at Lambda Literary.

Also, a new experimental poetry collection, Men & Sleep, will be released by Meekling Press in fall of 2022. More details to come!

THEORIES OF PERFORMANCE an SPD Recommended Title! Plus: Two Projects I'm Proud Of

SPD Recommends THEORIES OF PERFORMANCE for June 2020

The independent nonprofit book distributor, Small Press Distribution, has included Theories of Performance in its June list of recommended publications. If you purchase it through SPD in June, SPD will contribute 25% of the proceeds to bail and legal aid funds.

https://www.spdbooks.org/Products/CategoryCenter/1SP/SPD-Recommends.aspx

Contribution to Brandon Shimoda’s Online Residency “The Afterlife” at Futurefeed

My friend Brandon Shimoda invited me (and over 50 other people!) to take part in the ongoing discussion at his “residency” at Futurefeed, the blog for the independent poetry press Futurepoem. The result of this invitation is gloriously wild, free-ranging, magical and engrossing! I am grateful to have participated.

https://future-feed.net/the-afterlife-part-4-the-ancestors-reside-in-the-answers-themselves#107

My Prompt for the “Prompts Against Anxiety” Partnership Between Woodland Pattern Book Center and the Milwaukee Public Library

I was also invited to contribute a prompt to a very exciting project offered by my friends at Woodland Pattern Book Center, in partnership with the Milwaukee Public Library. This prompt is very important to me and I am honored to be in such good company! Try it out:

https://www.woodlandpattern.org/project/writing-playing-the-archive

OFFICIAL RELEASE! Theories of Performance available both directly from the press & at Small Press Distribution!

You can now purchase Theories of Performance directly from The Lettered Streets Press AND through the stalwart Small Press Distribution (SPD)! Both are excellent choices for supporting small-press poetry presses and poets in this deeply challenging time.

Also, check out this (yes, long and dense!) interview about the book, conducted by Logan Berry of The Runaways Lab Theater.

You can also find it linked to my Interviews page!