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  #1  
Unread 02-14-2018, 06:45 AM
Jennifer Reeser's Avatar
Jennifer Reeser Jennifer Reeser is offline
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Default Brosman's lecture on me

My work will be a topic of Dr. Brosman's lecture "Four Independent Louisiana Poets," in Griffin Hall at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, one week from today at 7 p.m. By "independent," I believe Dr. Brosman means that I am a maverick who cannot readily be lumped in with schools or philosophies, (i.e. "New Formalism," etc). but that I work outside the Establishment, institutions, and "doctrinal sects" of literature. I hope to see you there, if you are in the vicinity.

Jennifer
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Unread 02-14-2018, 10:47 AM
Michael Juster Michael Juster is offline
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"Louisiana" and "independent" seem almost redundant as adjectives to me.
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Unread 02-14-2018, 02:08 PM
Michael Cantor Michael Cantor is offline
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Is that Catherine Savage Brosman?
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Unread 02-14-2018, 03:37 PM
Matt Q Matt Q is online now
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I found the lecture on YouTube here -- an opportunity for those of us who can't get there to see it. Or will next week's be recorded, do you think, Jennifer?
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Unread 02-15-2018, 05:08 PM
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Jennifer Reeser Jennifer Reeser is offline
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Mike, I know what you mean -- but I am even more distant and unreachable than most of my neighbors here, by bayou standards.

When X.J. Kennedy introduced me to Dr. John Wood at the local university here, several years ago, John roared, "Well, Jennifer, where the HELL have you been?"

I am shy

Matt, thank you so much for posting this. Yes, I believe it will be the same address, given to The Abbeville Institute intellectuals.

The thrust of her particular portion regarding me, is that I am a poet who resists radicalization, political, moral, etc. She stresses my lack of anger and accusation, my refusal to participate in marches, mob tactics, righteous "finger-pointing," my eschewing of aggression, and my objectivity in dealing with reality, through history, through science and nature, etc. Also, one reason I wanted to post this here, is that she mentions my forthcoming book, INDIGENOUS, from Able Muse Press.

It is really beautifully accomplished. She sees me as a poet of peace and I am grateful for her attention.

Jennifer
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Unread 02-16-2018, 11:52 AM
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Jennifer Reeser Jennifer Reeser is offline
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One thing else I would like to say, as the lecture brings up the Cherokee -- I would like to emphasize and repeat, I do not claim to be a Cherokee Nation citizen. I have family in Oklahoma who are a part of the Nation, and I share a common heritage with the Cherokee, being a part of the Griffin family, many of whom walked the Trail of Tears, but my direct ancestors assimilated into white society and culture, and took on "white" self-identifications, before the beginning of the Removal.

I have tried to stress this, from the beginning, so as not to appear to be in any way capitalizing on an exploitation of the tribe, for my own personal gain. I really, really prefer to refer to myself as simply "Native American," since it also covers tribal associations on the side of my father, whose people come from Siouan territory. And I am as much Native through my father as through my mother.

Thanks for letting me clarify.

Jennifer

Last edited by Jennifer Reeser; 02-16-2018 at 11:57 AM.
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Unread 02-17-2018, 09:39 AM
John Riley John Riley is offline
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I am from the South. My father was born in deep Mississipi to a white man and a Choctaw mother who developed puerperal fever and died two weeks later. My mother's family is from the Piedmont region of North Carolina, where I grew up. I leave my accent alone when I am in New York and think that Dr. Brosman and I have different ideas of what is political and what is not. She starts by celebrating the poets she will discuss as being independent of political schools and then begins talking of how the South, and by all indication she means the White South, must continue to resist the attacks on our culture. She quotes Robert Penn Warren, of course, and manages somehow to ignore that the one challenge White Southerners have had to face in the last fifty years is to finally come to terms with a past that included owning and selling human beings and then passing laws to create defacto slavery for another century. We are lucky, as I heard Jimmy Carter say once because the decision we must make about race and the Southern past provides us a clear opportunity to make a clear, moral decision to measure the depth of our humanity. That is our challenge in a time when D.C. is overrun with White Southerners working to take us back to the pre-Civil Rights past. (During the second Bush years a White Southern male controlled every important committee in the House and most in the Senate. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions is the Attorney General.)

Jennifer, you don't know me but I read your poetry every chance I have as well as your Russian translations. However, this antiquated Southern pride and honor talk does your work an injustice. The talk of how we have been alienated by the intellectuals in New York when many of the best poets and novelists since the Civil War have been from down here is embarrassing. Perhaps she moves away from this, as she notes, 85-year-old Fugitive silliness as the lecture moves on. I may try to get to what she says about you later. It's too much to take this cloudy Saturday morning in Greensboro,

P.S. I agree the rush to destroy all cultures and societies within a country ravaged by the drive for profit is a tragedy. I just don't think the way to define a culture against the masses requires me to do it in defiance of other cultures.
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Unread 02-17-2018, 12:06 PM
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Jennifer Reeser Jennifer Reeser is offline
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John, thank you so much for your thoughts, and your support. I am glad to know you, now.

When one has taken as much abuse as I have (and believe me, the abuse far, far outweighs the praise -- and from the highest, heaviest outlooks), one becomes very grateful for the good.

My husband and I were in Cherokee, North Carolina, a few months ago. Beautiful country. My grandparents missed those mountains, till the day they died. I miss them, too. My very best to you, and thank you, again.

Jennifer
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  #9  
Unread 03-01-2018, 03:40 AM
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Jennifer Reeser Jennifer Reeser is offline
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While I don't think the lecture was recorded, this update may be of interest to some.

"The Vermilion" has just published a story on Dr. Brosman's lecture. I attended, and gave comments to Reporter Watson who was there. You can read it here:

https://www.thevermilion.com/news/un...ff73d4446.html

Jennifer

Last edited by Jennifer Reeser; 03-01-2018 at 04:54 AM.
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