PoemTalk #166: on Cecilia Vicuña's "Colliding and not colliding at the same time"

Earlier this week we released episode #166 in the PoemTalk Podcast series, which addresses Cecilia Vicuña's performance of "Colliding and not colliding at the same time," taken from "a ninety-minute presentation titled 'An Illustrated Conversation' that took place ... at the Writers House in February of 2017." Joining host Al Filreis for this program are panelists (from left to right) Huda Fakhreddine, Edwin Torres, and Jena Osman.

Filreis' Jacket2 blog post announcing the new episode offers up some useful contextual information on the performance under consideration: "The segment begins as the audience, having been encouraged to ask questions about an art video that had just been screened, went momentarily silent. No questions were being asked, so Vicuña began improvisationally to fill the room with words and sounds, exploring a convergence or collision of topics: the then-recent election of Donald Trump, 'the millionaires' coup;' in Brazil, the 'mystery of what is happening at this moment in the earth,' the collective thought of the people in the room, and the room itself." He continues, "Vicuña has an unusual talent for reading you in the room. 'I feel read' and 'She is accurately reading me' are typical responses of members of her audiences," before asking, "From what does she derive the various seemingly incidental topics of her improvisation?"

You can listen to this latest program and read more about the show here. PoemTalk is a joint production of PennSound and the Poetry Foundation, aided by the generous support of Nathan and Elizabeth Leight. You can browse the full PoemTalk archives, spanning more than a decade, by clicking here.