The Arts Research Center—a think tank for the arts at UC Berkeley—will gather 19 fellows chosen to participate in the 2023 Spring/Fall Poetry & the Senses program for a series of readings, conversations, and workshops, hosted at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and led by the year's facilitators Natalie Diaz, Craig Santos Perez, and Beth Piatote. The readings are all free & open to the public, along with a book signing, and will be held Friday Feb 16 and Saturday Feb 17, 2024. This program is in coordination with Duane Linklater: mymotherside exhibit at BAMPFA, and is generously funded by The Engaging the Senses Foundation, with support from the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Townsend Center for the Humanities, and an Arts & Humanities Community Building Grant.
Under the theme of Reclamation, ARC’s 2023 spring & fall terms of Poetry & the Senses were led by Indigenous writers who draw on Indigenous languages and aesthetics: Craig Santos Perez (Chamoru, Spring 2023), Natalie Diaz (Mojave, Fall 2023), and ARC Director Beth Piatote (Nez Perce, 2023 year). Berkeley’s poetry fellows were joined by a team of writers chosen from University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa (Perez); Arizona State University and the Center for the Imagination in the Borderlands (Diaz); and luk’upsíimey: NorthStar Collective (Piatote). The intent was to create connections around Indigenous issues across 4+ different western states and explore poetry and the politics of language in a wider framework. The interest is in creating a trans-Indigenous conversation, with juxtapositions that decenter European thought and begin to translate an ocean-to-desert-toriver-to-forest poetic imaginary.
This gathering is the culmination of ARC’s Poetry & the Senses program, a multiyear exploration of the relevance and urgency of lyrical making and storytelling in times of political crisis, and the value of engaging the senses as an act of care, mindfulness, and resistance. Generously funded by the Engaging the Senses Foundation.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Friday February 16th
11:30am: Fellow Reading & Conversation 1, Crane Forum, BAMPFA
featuring Al-An deSouza, Ayling Dominguez, Ines Hernandez-Avila, Chris Hoshnic, Amanda Galvin Huynh, Cristina Mendez, Angel Sobotta, Tierra Sydnor, Kellen Trenal, Sa Whitley
2:00pm: Fellow Reading & Conversation 2, Crane Forum, BAMPFA
featuring Cody Achin, Julian Ankney, Carol Ann Carl, Phil Cash Cash, Fede Kong-Gonzalez, Marisa Lin, No’u Revilla, Aimee Suzara, Taté Walker
Saturday February 17th
1:30pm: Reading featuring Natalie Diaz, Craig Santos Perez, & Beth Piatote, Osher Theater, BAMPFA
3:00pm: Booksigning to follow, outside Osher Theater, BAMPFA
FEATURING 2023 POETRY FELLOWS
Cody Achin, Julian Ankney, Carol Ann Carl, Phillip Cash Cash, Al-An deSouza, Ayling Z. Dominguez, Amanda Galvan Huynh, Ines Hernandez-Avila, Chris Hoshnic, Fede Kong-Gonzalez, Marisa Lin, Cristina S. Mendez, Noʻu Revilla, Angel Sobotta, Aimee Suzara, Tierra Sydnor, Kellen Trenal, Taté Walker, and Sa Whitley
FACILITATORS
Natalie Diaz, Arizona State University + Center for the Imagination in the Borderlands
Beth Piatote, Berkeley Arts Research Center + lukupsíimey
Craig Santos Perez, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
The Arts Research Center is a think tank for the arts. For over 20 years it has acted as a hub and a meeting place, a space for reflection where artists, scholars, curators, and civic arts leaders from a variety of disciplines can gather and learn from one another, creating meaningful opportunities for engagement, research, and collaboration. ARC advances but also challenges the “cross-disciplinary” ethos in contemporary art practice by bringing innovators in the fields of visual art, creative writing, dance, theater, music, architecture, film, public art, photography, and social practice into dialogue and debate. ARC’s Poetry & the Senses program focuses on the relevance and urgency of lyrical making and storytelling in times of political crisis, and the value of engaging the senses as an act of care, mindfulness, and resistance.