American Poets in the 21st Century

Poetics of Social Engagement emphasizes the ways in which innovative American poets have blended art and social awareness, focusing on aesthetic experiments and investigations of ethnic, racial, gender, and class subjectivities. Rather than consider poetry as a thing apart, or as a tool for asserting identity, this volume's poets create sites, forms, and modes for entering the public sphere, contesting injustices, and reimagining the contemporary. Like the earlier anthologies in this series, this volume includes generous selections of poetry as well as illuminating poetics statements and incisive essays. This unique organization makes these books invaluable teaching tools. A companion website will present audio of each poet's work.

Poets included:
Rosa Alcalá
Brian Blanchfield
Daniel Borzutzky
Carmen Giménez Smith
Allison Hedge Coke
Cathy Park Hong
Christine Hume
Bhanu Kapil
Mauricio Kilwein Guevara
Fred Moten
Craig Santos Perez
Barbara Jane Reyes
Roberto Tejada
Edwin Torres

Essayists included:
John Alba Cutler
Chris Nealon
Kristin Dykstra
Joyelle McSweeney
Chadwick Allen
Danielle Pafunda
Molly Bendall
Eunsong Kim
Michael Dowdy
Brent Hayes Edwards
J. Michael Martinez
Martin Joseph Ponce
David Colón
Urayoán Noel

Acknowledgments • Introduction by Michael Dowdy • ROSA ALCALÁ • Poems • from Undocumentaries • Everybody's Authenticity • Job #6 • Autobiography • from The Lust of Unsentimental Waters • Rita Hayworth: Double Agent • Patria • from MyOTHER TONGUE • Paramour • Voice Activation • Dear María • Poetics Statement • Poetics of Not-Mother Tongue • Rosa Alcalá's Aesthetics of Alienation, by John Alba Cutler • BRIAN BLANCHFIELD • Poems • from Not Even Then • One First Try and Then Another • If the Blank Outcome in Dominoes Adds a Seventh Side to Dice • from A Several World • According to Herodotus • Edge of Water, Nimrod Falls, Montana • Pferd • Eclogue Onto an Idea • from series "The History of Ideas, 1973–2012," A Several World • Education • Ut Pictura Poesis • Eclogue in Line to View The Clock by Christian Marclay • Open House • Edge of Water, Moiese, Montana • Poetics Statement • from "On Abstraction, Permitting Shame, Error and Guilt, Myself the Single Source" • In the Dark with Brian Blanchfield, by Chris Nealon • DANIEL BORZUTZKY • Poems • from The Book of Interfering Bodies • The Book of Interfering Bodies • from In the Murmurs of the Rotten Carcass Economy • Decomposition as Explanation • Illinois • from The Performance of Becoming Human • Let Light Shine Out of Darkness • The Performance of Becoming Human • Poetics Statement • the continuum: a broken introduction • Pardon Me Mr. Borzutzky / If, by Kristin Dykstra • CARMEN GIMÉNEZ SMITH • Poems • from Odalisque in Pieces • Prepartum • from Goodbye, Flicker • Hungry Office • Hans Hated Girls • from Milk & Filth • (Llorona Soliloquy) • (And the Mouth Lies Open) • from "Parts of an Autobiography" • from Be Recorder • from "Post-Identity" • Poetics Statement • "The Call for Reversal is Native": The Paradox of the Mother Tongue in the Work of Carmen Giménez Smith, by Joyelle McSweeney • ALLISON ADELLE HEDGE COKE • Poems • from Off-Season City Pipe • The Change • from Blood Run • Skeletons • Ghosts • Skeletons • from Streaming • We Were in a World • America, I Sing You Back • Poetics Statement • Quipu: a poetic • Resurrecting the Serpent, Reactivating Good Earth: Allison Hedge Coke's Blood Run, by Chadwick Allen • CATHY PARK HONG • Poems • from Dance Dance Revolution • Roles • from series "St. Petersburg Hotel," Dance, Dance Revolution • 1. Services • Song That Breaks the World Record • from Engine Empire • Ballad in O • Ballad in A • Market Forces Are Brighter Than the Sun • Notorious • Poetics Statement • Building Inheritance: Cathy Park Hong's Social Engagement in the Speculative Age, by Danielle Pafunda • CHRISTINE HUME • Poems • from Musca Domestica • A Million Futures of Late • from Alaskaphrenia • Comprehension Questions • Hume's Suicide of the External World • from Shot • I Exhume Myself • Induction • Poetics Statement • Hum • Utter Wilderness: The Poetry of Christine Hume, by Molly Bendall • BHANU KAPIL • Poems • from The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers • from Incubation: A Space for Monsters • from Humanimal, a Project for Future Children • from Schizophrene • from Ban en Banlieue • Poetics Statement • Perpetual Writing, Institutional Rupture, and the Performance of No: The Poetics of Bhanu Kapil, by Eunsong Kim • MAURICIO KILWEIN GUEVARA • Poems • from Postmortem • Postmortem • from Poems of the River Spirit • A City Prophet Talks to God on the 56C to Hazelwood • The Easter Revolt Painted on a Tablespoon • from Autobiography of So-and-so: Poems in Prose • Self-Portrait • Mirror, Mirror • A Tongue Is a Rope Bridge • The American Flag • from POEMA • Against Metaphor • At rest • Pepenador de palabras • Poema without hands • Poetics Statement • Mauricio Kilwein Guevara's Scavenger Infrapoetics, by Michael Dowdy • FRED MOTEN • Poems • from Hughson's Tavern • Rock the party, fuck the smackdown • five points, ten points • from B Jenkins • gayl jones • william parker/fred mcdowell • frank ramsay/nancy wilson • from The Feel Trio • from series block chapel • [whenever I listen to cornelius I think of cecily] • [welcome to what we took from is the state] • from I ran from it and was still in it • [I burn communities in shadow, underground, up on the] • [I often amount to no more than a stylistics. airrion] • [I am foment. I speak blinglish. at work they call me] • from The Little Edges • the gramsci monument • from The Service Porch • it's not that I want to say • Poetics Statement • Sounding the Open Secret: The Poetics of Fred Moten, by Brent Hayes Edwards • CRAIG SANTOS PEREZ • Poems • from from unincorporated territory [saina] • from aerial roots • from aerial roots • from aerial roots • from aerial roots • from aerial roots • ginen aerial roots • from aerial roots • ginen aerial roots • Poetics Statement • Tidal Poetics: The Poetry of Craig Santos Perez, by J. Michael Martinez • BARBARA JANE REYES • Poems • from Poeta en San Francisco • [objet d'art: exhibition of beauty in art loft victorian claw tub] • [Kumintang] • [why choose pilipinas?] • [why choose pilipinas, remix] • [galleon prayer] • [ave maria] • [prayer to san francisco de asís] • (āzhə fīl) • from Diwata • The Bamboo's Insomnia • Polyglot Incantation • The Villagers Sing of the Woman Who Becomes a Wave Who Becomes the Water Who Becomes the Wind • In the City, a New Congregation Finds Her • Aswang • Poetics Statement • To Decenter English • Acts of Poetry in Troubled Times: Barbara Jane Reyes's Anticolonial Feminist Voicings, by Martin Joseph Ponce • ROBERTO TEJADA • Poems • from Exposition Park • Debris in Pink and Black • from Full Foreground • Untitled [Not a word of my surrounding] • Untitled [Impulse in the great organism of terror] • from Why the Assembly Disbanded • Kill Time Objective • Poetics Statement • The Acoustic Uncanny • Marginal Erotics: Roberto Tejada's Sexiness, by David Colón • EDWIN TORRES • Poems • from The PoPedology Of An Ambient Language • Dirtspeech • The Theorist Has No Samba! • Barrio/Barrier • from Yes Thing No Thing • Of Natural Disasters And Love • from Ameriscopia • And In Trying • Viva La Viva • from "Dome" • Poetics Statement • Bodycatch/Mindtrap: No Edge But In Things • The Us Is Porous: Edwin Torres in Other Words, by Urayoán Noel • Contributors • Index