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Solmaz Sharif’s ‘Exquisite Face’ of the Other: Creating Grievable Lives through the Lyric
Full text linkLyric poetry is a genre constantly being renegotiated and redefined. From the fragmented parchments of Sappho’s ancient sung texts to the “American Lyrics” of Claudia Rankine, part of the thrill of the lyric form is its mutating nature. Solmaz Sharif’s poetry book, Look, is a masterful adaptation of the lyric form. Her poems combine erasure, Department of Defense terms, Wikipedia entries, and references to the Iran-Iraq and US wars of imperialism, collaging experiences of soldiers, immigrants, and citizens on both sides of the United States’ so-called War on Terror. In a world of political extremes, “cancel culture,” and reactionary social media platforms, Sharif’s political lyrics question representation itself. She calls upon her western reader: “It matters what you call a thing: Exquisite a lover called me. / Exquisite” (3), acknowledging the lyric’s traditional apostrophe—the fragile woman. Look\u27s opening lines juxtapose the speaker’s exquisite body with the objectified targets of the Iraq war detailed throughout the poem: “Whereas the lover made my heat rise, rise so that if heat sensors were trained on me, they could read my THERMAL SHADOW through the roof and through the wardrobe” (3). The speaker is both the Petrarchan beloved and the military target, a target that refuses to remain outside the frame of war: “Whereas I thought if he would LOOK at my exquisite face or my father’s, he would reconsider” (4). While beautiful, Look is not a fragile collection of poems: her work is emotionally haunting, filled with raw, violent images. Particularly when viewed against the backdrop of the white, masculine lyric, Sharif’s work enacts social renegotiations of the lyric
Immunology at Eye Level: An Artistic View of the Immune System
Full text linkAfter being inspired by social media, clinical experiences, and travel, Chelsea Higgins published Immunology at Eye Level, a basic guide to the immune system. Chelsea realized that the general public had a fundamental lack of understanding of the immune system, evidenced by the anti-vaccination movement, false information spread online, and overheard patient conversations. Even educated adults can struggle with understanding the news when complex jargon is used, so Chelsea decided to create a guide in an attempt to foster constructive conversations and positive health outcomes among those willing to learn. She described major topics of the immune system, from antibodies to viruses to research, through photos of Kenya, poetry, illustrations, and easily digestible scientific explanations. The photos were meant to show how daily actions and events resemble things that are happening in your immune system without you even realizing. The poetry connected the photo to the text, and the illustrations were added to drive the point home, showing what may be seen at a molecular level. Through creating this book, Chelsea hopes to foster a foundation of immunology knowledge so every educated adult can understand the news or their diagnosis, especially in the age of the covid-19 pandemic
Between Fluxus and the Situationist International: Gerz’s \u3ci\u3ePostsachen\u3c/i\u3e
Full text linkThe Shock of Seeing the Freedom of American Life: The Iowa International Writing Program as Cultural Diplomacy during the Cold War
Full text linkLakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power
No full textReview of: Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power, by Pekka Hämäläinen
