Docupoetics: Distilling Truths in Oral Histories

Workshop Description: With commonly known forms of western documentary and its history of exploitation, there are potential risk factors that can affect the way a community and/or self tells a story, such as including identifying information that endangers other community members, exposure of immigration status, unintentionally increasing surveillance of a community, and more. Drawing examples from Philip Metres, Tarfia Faizullah, and Dena Igusti's personal anecdotes of navigating state surveillance in post 9/11 New York City, we will explore docu-poetics, and how being able to place archives and oral history in poems allows emotional exploration and distills truths without fully compromising identity risks.

About the Presenter: Dena Igusti is a queer Indonesian Muslim writer born and raised in Queens, New York. They are the author of CUT WOMAN which has been listed as a Perennial Award Winner, Harvard Bookstore Staff Pick, and Entropy Mag’s Best Of. Their work has been published…