What happens when poets form a committee to organize a conference for other poets? Metaphorical herds of cats come to mind, at the least. But in the end the event itself was a dream come true. The faculty and graduate students who organized this year’s poetry working group imagined a “dream team” of poets they wished they could bring, and then to everyone’s amazed delight, the dream team all said yes.

The poetry working group’s planning committee had a busy and exciting year planned already, sponsoring the Minor American reading series, which brought in two or three poets each month for readings, as well as holding regular working group meetings.

The committee (Prof. Fred Moten, Prof. Priscilla Wald, and graduate students Keith Jones, Tony Tost, and Magdalena Zurawski) spent over a year planning a dynamic collection of poets to be the readers and “curators” at an event that was truly more a festival than a conference. Speakers included Cecil Taylor, Renee Gladman, Myung Mi Kim, Cecilia Vicuña, Brent Edwards, Susan Howe, Eileen Myles, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Christian Bök, Tracie Morris, and Jed Rasula. Local poets joined the mix to hold poetry workshops Friday morning for undergraduates.

Links to recordings of the event will be posted as soon as it’s possible!

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This Month at Duke article

On Dec. 9th, Special guest Richard Brodhead guest-starred in a dramatic reading from Paradise Lost, joining Dean Gregson Davis and Professors Sarah Beckwith and Reynolds Price as the English Department wound up the end of semester festivities with a celebration in honor of the 400th birthday of John Milton.

Dean Davis took the role of narrator, Prof. Beckwith was Beelzebub, and President Brodhead delighted us all by taking the part of Satan.

Price opened with a brief commentary, saying, “This is ominously described as a talk. Well, I timed it this morning for the sake of your nerves, and the talk lasts six minutes, so fear not.”

Price has been studying and teaching Milton since the 1950’s. “At times I feel my relations with his work have lasted as long as he has endured among us, and he was born (as we just learned) 400 years ago today, on December the 9th, 1608.

“What has rewarded me so continuously? When I first encountered him I was captured by the outright love of beautiful language, which drove him far more than meaning or moral intention. My meeting with Milton…was of a different order of power, one that’s never relented. Such power is inexplicable, as is all beauty: from the smallest flower to the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, the giant pillars of Durham Cathedral in England, or Milton’s language and structure, from his first great poem on the morning of Christ’s nativity, to the late sonnet on the wife who, owning to his blindness, he never saw, and the overwhelming 10,000 lines of Paradise Lost. Yet so important has he been to the core of my happiness (and finally my survival of paraplegia at the age of 52), that I’ve struggled to convey the mystery of his poetry to as many Duke students as I can reach – and it’s a huge joy to see this room largely filled with you.

“Obviously my feeling for Milton’s work has evolved in those five decades, and that evolution has changed my teaching of his poems. …In recent years I’ve found my own answer to the long unsolved question of the identity of Milton’s hero in the poem. Is it Satan, as so many believe, Adam, or the son of God himself? Surely, though, we gradually learn that the hero of the poem is Eve.

“I’ve long felt that most women are better creatures than men. Milton is sometimes thought of as being a misogynist, but the conclusion of his epic profoundly denies that charge, and after a history of 400 years Milton is more alive than ever. Male or female, if you missed him in college it’s by no means too late to add his genius to the depths of your mind. Since his power as a moral teacher is a great as his beauty, you may well be a better creature once you’ve read the last line.”

As with the Rackett performance the week before, we were thrilled to see a very mixed audience of students, faculty, administrators, alumni and other friends join to hear the magic of Milton’s words brought to life. And the readers were clearly having as much fun as the audience! A recording of this memorable event is available free through Duke Today and iTunes U. (We hope you’ll all enjoy it!)

Milton’s own mom would have been impressed by the birthday cake, made to look like a gigantic book. During the reception, fascinated groups of guests were toured through the Rare Book collection, especially enjoying a highlighted display of beautiful first editions of Milton’s works. At the end of the semester and the end of the event we found we still felt sufficient to stand, but were very glad to be free to fall into the library’s lounge chairs.

Happy Birthday John Milton – many more!

The English Department celebrated the semester’s end with a poetry reading by Paul Muldoon, “the most significant English-language poet born since the second World War” (Times Literary Supplement). Prof. Michael Moses, introducing the event, described his first encounter with Muldoon’s poetry with a quote from Meeting the British:
“We met the British in the dead of winter.
The shy was lavender
And the snow lavender blue…
“They gave is six fishhooks
and two blankets embroidered with smallpox.”
For me, at least, the encounter with Muldoon did not prove fatal, but my blood still rages with the contagion with which he infected me that day.”

Audience members — packed into the Rare Book Room like sardines — were completely captivated. Muldoon’s gentle manner and quiet good humor created a feeling of peaceful relaxation, leaving listeners open and vulnerable to the sparkle and lightening flash of his poetry.

Moses described Muldoon’s work as “difficult, arcane, densely allusive, and characterized by a Joycean playfulness and complexity….
“Be forewarned, Muldoon is a wizard. Once he casts his spell on you, you are bound for life.”

The remarkably diverse audience (from undergraduate students to administrators and alumni; dedicated Muldoon fans and new converts) returned that evening for another treat: Muldoon performed again, this time with the band Rackett. Local favorites Veronique Diabolique opened the show at the Duke Coffeehouse, a funky, wacky, hip little venue on East Campus. Rackett followed with a rockin’ line up of marvelously poetic pop.

“The two events let anyone attending both think about the music within poetry … and how contemporary rock music is strengthened through language so rich,” said English department chair Ian Baucom.

(Read more here.)

When I picked her up in our first date
Jenny’s dad came to the gate
He said I wrote the book
On the scenic overlook
Where you stop to view the Alleghenies
Remember that sunsets rarely come cheap
You may just sow what you reap
When you’re riding in the Jeep
Riding in the Jeep
Riding in the Jeep with Jenny
– Saab with Sandi

I’ll be McCartney to your Lennnon
Lenin to your Marx
Jerry to your Ben &
Lewis to your Clark
…
I’ll be at Ticonderoga
I’ll be there for you at yoga
I’ll be your sideman, baby,
I’ll be by your side
– Sideman

Even under the glare of florescent lights, poet Jane Hirschfield managed to transform the stark Von Canon B into a Zen haven, all by the power of her spoken word.
As it happens, inner peace is also an area of Hirshfield’s expertise: during a temporary hiatus from the writing world, she studied Soto Zen Buddhism at the San Francisco Zen Center and was lay ordained in 1979.
So, what she presented to a Duke audience during her October 23 poetry reading could be deemed a fusion of her two best-practiced gifts: words and wisdom. And, if the audience’s awed silence–save for the occasional collective ooh-ahh reaction to a particularly salient image—is to be trusted, it is safe to say that Hirshfield’s poems brought most of the room a little closer to nirvana.
Sure, there were minor obstacles—a faulty microphone, a lack of mood lighting, a room as corporate as they come–but Hirshfield remained unruffled, assuming her podium with an air of collectivity that suggested calm and cool are her behavioral defaults.

“To her, it is the poems that are important,” said Duke Professor Deborah Pope. In her introduction, Pope devoted little time to describing the finer points of Hirshfield’s illustrious reputation, instead opting to describe her character. In waving away the specifics of such honors as The Poetry Center Book Award, Columbia University’s Translation Center Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, Pope made her point: that accolades and titles seem to have as little bearing on Hirshfield’s attitude towards her work as the carpet underfoot or bulbs overhead.
This modesty tranquility was also observed by audience members. “It was interesting to realize that such powerful, evocative writing came from someone so soft-spoken and quietly self-deprecating,” said sophomore Lindsay Wallace, who first encountered Hirschfield when she paid a visit to her undergraduate creative writing classroom. In speaking to the class, Hirschfield described how living in a monastery helped fine tune her writing abilities. This conversation was both inspirational and instructive, Wallace said. “I realized that it’s only when you clear your mind that you can truly concentrate on the true act of creation.”
Given the aforementioned renown that surrounds her poetic creations, it stands to reason that Hirshfield’s creative process is one worth taking notes on. Her most recent book, “After,” which was named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post, is a collection of poems she wrote during a dark period of her life –the aftermath of 9/11. She describes the work as “recipes for getting through dark times.”
However, she will be the first to admit that good poems do not necessarily always stir readers in the intended direction. Before reading her poem “For What Binds Us,” she told the tale of a zealous fan who once thanked her for writing the poem she had read at her wedding. The irony? Hirschfield wrote that poem after a terrible breakup. Thus, she explained, the meaning of poetry is not a singular answer, but rather found in the eye of the beholder.
“She said poetry was something to be enjoyed and felt rather than dissected,” said Wallace. “This highlighted to me the importance of realizing that poetry is something beautiful, something special.”
Hirschfield’s visit was made possible by the William Blackburn fund.
– Anne Rhett, ‘09

At its conception in the 1960s, the internet’s great aspiration was innocent enough: it sought to facilitate nerd-to-nerd connection, information sharing at its most erudite and least user-friendly.
But today’s internet occupies a whole new frontier.
It could be said that on its pages plays out a duel of divergent imperatives: the noble educational intentions of yore must duke it out daily with siren-song sites like Juicy Campus and Facebook—just ask any professor who has allowed laptops in his classroom only to have his teachings eclipsed by the Twittering of his students.
Enter: “HASTAC,” the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory, a band of renegade intellectuals who are exploring uncharted territory, searching for new and creative ways to harness the potential power of the wild wild web.
According to HASTAC’s co-founder Cathy Davidson, a Ruth F. Devarney Professor of English at Duke, the initiative has “three intertwined goals: creative, innovative design and development of technology; critical thinking about the social and ethical implications and applications of technology; and participatory learning (using digital technologies to share ideas and research, collaborate, create art, or design and implement goals together).”
In short, HASTAC hopes to bring computers into the classroom in more than the physical sense.
“HASTAC wants to spur interaction between internet and learning,” said Duke English graduate student Patrick Jagoda.
“The internet changes who we are, how we think, and how our brains work,” said Jagoda, who is one of fifty HASTAC Scholars chosen this year in recognition of their commitment to innovative technological work. Through his association with HASTAC, Jagoda will spend the year as part of a virtual community of good guys. According to the Scholars’ website, the group’s prerogatives include, “creating, reporting on, blogging, vlogging, and podcasting events related to digital media and learning for an international audience.”
Both the internet and the concept of the internet are integral to Jagoda’s personal research, which concerns the relationship between networks, connectivity and terrorism as depicted in literature and film (to put it oversimply.) Being online for him is both a tool and an object of analysis.
“With Google and Wikipedia at my disposal, I am constantly and frantically connected at super speed.”
It is this super-connection that HASTAC and its allies are trying to funnel into the classroom, championing the concept of “participatory learning” that has already been embraced by user-generated content sites like YouTube and Wikipedia.
In 2006, one of these allies, The MacArthur Foundation, launched a five-year, $50 million digital media and learning initiative with aims of, as put on its website, “changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life.”
Together with HASTAC, the foundation hosts a yearly Digital Learning and Media Contest in hopes of rooting out the technology of tomorrow.
Its latest winner, the Virtual Peace project, was created Duke’s own Kimberly Jenkins Chair for New Technologies and Society, Tim Lenoir, and has the potential to turn the digital gamefront on its head.
Let’s just say the good guys have put up their dukes.
Virtual Peace is a video game, but not just any video game. It is HASTAC’s answer to the popular mass-destruction post-doom video game model. The game’s format will look familiar to fans of other virtual simulation games like World of Warcraft, but make no mistake: there is a plot twist in store. Instead of blowing up innocent bystanders or stealing their cars, users are assigned to the task of disaster relief and challenged to virtually manage the after effects of natural disaster.
“This is an example of gaming being used for more complex purposes,” Jagoda said. “How great would it be if we could refocus the interest in games like Counterstrike and apply them to productive peace generation?”
Although the effects of Virtual Peace are yet to be seen–the program is still in its initial testing phases—Jagoda seems confident that this and all of HASTAC’s efforts will ultimately greet the dawn of a new internet era.
“Today the internet is phenomenal—I can instantly satisfy any passing curiosity or intellectual itch with one click on Wikipedia,” he said. “Something about that model is really promising.”

– Anne Rhett, ‘09

English Major Chelsea Allison won the Middlesworth Award, given by the library for the best paper based on work done in Special Collections. Chelsea won for her wide-ranging research on letters, journals, diaries, and other records written by women during periods of war, out of which she produced a remarkable manuscript of poems.
Chelsea carried out her project as an Independent Study with Prof. Deborah Pope, who emphasized that winning the Middlesworth for a creative work is especially noteworthy since the prize almost always goes to an academic paper.