"Nothing in the Way of Things"
Lecture by Fred Moten
M.H. Abrams Distinguished Visiting Professor

Amiri Baraka’s poetry was committed to the problem and the practice of what he called “social development.” This is evident in a late poem of his called “Something in the Way of Things (In Town).” The evidence is rhythmic, which is manifest in Baraka’s oral performances of it and in what Du Bois might have called the poem’s sociological hesitancy. The lecture attempts to read Baraka's reading, in deviant adherence to his rhythm, and then to investigate poetry’s dissident sojourn in the way of things.

Attendance Requirements
In-person attendance is open to the Cornell community: Cornell ID REQUIRED
Livestream is open to all via Zoom: https://cornell.zoom.us/j/94475503478?pwd=ekUyaWNvZytHUlNJTXNqRUVpZElTd…
Passcode: 740326

Fred Moten is Professor of Performance Studies and Comparative Literature at New York University. He is interested in social movement, aesthetic experiment and black study. Moten has written a number of books of poetry and criticism, including In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition; Hughson's Tavern; B. Jenkins; The Feel Trio; The Little Edges; The Service Porch; consent not to be a single being; and All That Beauty.

The M.H. Abrams Visiting Professorship was established in 2006 by Stephen H. Weiss (’57) in honor of Meyer H. Abrams, Class of 1916 Professor, Emeritus.

This event is presented by the Department of Literatures in English