american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
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CONTESTATORY URBAN AGENCY 177<br />
relations. The large arena show, with its implicit emphasis on spectacle<br />
and <strong>the</strong> result<strong>in</strong>g wide-eyed consumption of that spectacle, has a<br />
fundamentally different and distant dynamic.<br />
American pragmatism’s rejection of Cartesian subject–object dualism<br />
is a key to understand<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> immersion possible <strong>in</strong> a live hip-hop<br />
show at a small club. As outl<strong>in</strong>ed by Cornel West <strong>in</strong> his book on pragmatism,<br />
Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, and John Dewey<br />
rejected Cartesian subjectivism and its attendant “fictive” spectator <strong>the</strong>ory<br />
of knowledge, which is predicated upon a subject/object dualism <strong>in</strong><br />
which <strong>the</strong> self (<strong>the</strong> “spectator”) is a detached observer who comes to<br />
know an object from a position fundamentally apart from what she<br />
comes to know. Peirce, James, and Dewey reject <strong>the</strong> subject/object<br />
b<strong>in</strong>ary and show that <strong>the</strong> <strong>in</strong>dividual is always embedded <strong>in</strong> relationships<br />
with o<strong>the</strong>r people, social, <strong>political</strong>, and economic conditions, and <strong>the</strong><br />
“furniture of <strong>the</strong> world” that predate any separation of subject and<br />
object and that are cont<strong>in</strong>uously subject to change. The <strong>in</strong>dividual<br />
always f<strong>in</strong>ds herself <strong>in</strong> medias res—<strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> middle of th<strong>in</strong>gs—so that all<br />
experience is prior to a subject/object split (West 44, 56, 89, 91–92).<br />
This is exactly <strong>the</strong> type of immersion that exists <strong>in</strong> a small club. If<br />
<strong>the</strong> handful of people l<strong>in</strong>ger<strong>in</strong>g at <strong>the</strong> back of <strong>the</strong> club are bracketed,<br />
<strong>the</strong>re are few “spectators” at a small club hip-hop show. The vast<br />
majority are active participants emerged fully <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> middle of th<strong>in</strong>gs.<br />
The only way one can really know <strong>the</strong> small club show is not by be<strong>in</strong>g<br />
a detached observer but by sweat<strong>in</strong>g and participat<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> callsand-response,<br />
by chant<strong>in</strong>g song choruses when prompted, by jo<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g<br />
<strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> enactment of collective agency, and by “act<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> concert.” In<br />
many of <strong>the</strong> live shows I have attended, <strong>the</strong> artists have often ridiculed<br />
(“called out” <strong>in</strong> hip-hop vernacular) or encouraged <strong>the</strong> few stragglers<br />
usually present <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> back of <strong>the</strong> room. These outliers, <strong>the</strong> artists<br />
imply, are anti<strong>the</strong>tical to <strong>the</strong> art form and to live hip-hop aes<strong>the</strong>tics. In<br />
large arena shows, this level of <strong>in</strong>timacy and <strong>in</strong>teraction is much more<br />
difficult, and passive consumption is closer to <strong>the</strong> norm, especially if<br />
we consider applause and scream<strong>in</strong>g not primarily participatory but<br />
congratulatory. A crude maxim largely holds: <strong>in</strong> a small club <strong>the</strong> audience<br />
participates, <strong>in</strong> a large arena <strong>the</strong> audience observes, at a <strong>poetry</strong><br />
read<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> audience politely applauds.<br />
Ano<strong>the</strong>r way of describ<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> immersion possible <strong>in</strong> a small club is<br />
<strong>in</strong> terms of synaes<strong>the</strong>sia. The experience of collective identity and<br />
agency created <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> space of <strong>the</strong> live show to some extent cannot be<br />
separated from <strong>the</strong> multiple sensory experiences that merge <strong>in</strong>to each<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r and <strong>the</strong> senses that are elicited by o<strong>the</strong>r senses. A Handbook to<br />
Literature def<strong>in</strong>es synaes<strong>the</strong>sia as “<strong>the</strong> concurrent response of two or