Another Light: Ethnopoetics, a transformative study

I came across a really interesting article entitled “The Original Performance Poetry” posted on the Poetry Foundation’s website. The article is by a translator from New York, David Noriega.

The article is on ethnopoetics, a term coined in the 1960s by anthologist Jerome Rothenberg. I had heard the term ethnopoetics before, but did not know much (or anything) about it. I had assumed it referenced the study of poetics from “ethnic” cultures, but realized that definition implied a kind of centrality that I was sure the study, itself, would likely reject.

Ethnpoetics is, at heart, the study of primitive poetries and song. In a broader sense, research Professor Dennis Tedlock states that the study of “any poetics is always an ethnopoetics.” And one of the most valuable commentaries, to me, on the usefulness of the study is also provided by Tedlock: “It is precisely by the effort to reach into distances that we bring our own ethnicity, and the poetics that goes with it, into fuller consciousness.” I like his use of the term “distances,” avoiding the suggestion of an alienated other, and, instead, suggesting a place of possibility.

Anyway, the article by Noriega is really informative and fascinating. Be sure to take a listen to the soundclips, without which the power of the article may not be fully realized.