3 - 3 Gender f- edited by Yedda Morrison & David Bu uck Issue 3 Summer 1999 Contents Edito rs' No tes tripwire: a journal of poetics Diane Ward issue 3 - Gender - Summer 1999 Engender Bcnded edited by Yedda Morrison & D:.~vid Buuck Stefani Barber L..caving a Feminist Organization ISSN: 1099· 21 70 Jocelyn Saidenberg All rights rcve n 10 :.~urhors upon publication. As a I As if & a cerpts from Cusp $8 one issue Tash:t. Robbins $ 15 rwo issues Four Drawings 18 (o utside of US, p lC:.~SC :.~dd $2 per issue) Lind:.~ Russo Gender Q uiz 22 cover i m:.~ge (" Refinery") by Li nd :.~ Cummings. O:.~ vi d Buuck Th :.~nk.s to Am:.~nd:.~ Hughen fo r design tips. Ag:o~inst Masculinisr Priv il ege 24 tripwire invi ra submissions of =ys, tr.m sl u ions, interviews, :o~rt & book reviews, bulletins, letters responding m prcviow issues, & visual Brian Lennon an. Visual ut submissions should be reproducible in bl:lck & white; Power " Book oGender o Machine o Essay 36 visuli urists ue encour.~ged ro include :.1 sratemenr about their wo rk. At this ti me, we arc: not accepting unsolicited poetry fo r publication. Leon :.~ Christie AJI submissions should include :.1 h:.~ r d copy. Six Drawings 4 1 The theme for issue 4 is Work (sec edimrs' notes fo r derails). d :.~ud c Cahun Deadline for submiss ions to issue: 4 is Much I, 2000. from VitwS and Visions (trans. Norma Cole) 48 Subscriptions, submissions, & inqui ries to: Elizabeth Robinson Conversation with Embodied Phantoms SO tripwire do Yedda Morrison & D:.~vi d Buuck Sarah Anne Cox P.O. Box 420936 Tripwirt: Essay 56 San Francisco, CA 94 142-0936 ycdd @:.~o l .com Norma Cole from th~ vulgar tongu~ 59 Disu ibutcd by: Erin Tribble Small Press Distribution Mutilation and Aniculari on in Dan idle Co ll o~ n 's It Thtn 60 800-869-7553 [email protected] Linda Cummings from "Slipping" 63 Elizabeth Treadwell Rotary Public: Combustible Genres & the Heroic She 68 Editors' Notes Rob Halpern Despite the increased participation of women within the traditionally OfTrmhfui'T's 75 male-dominated "avam~garde," and the various advances of feminism, Rebeca Bollinger gender politics continues to be a contested site within aesthetic prac~ Keyword Search Results 91 rice and its articulationfrranslarion/rcccption in a still largely phallo­ centric system. Kevin KiUian Bad Conscience: Ar rhe Page Mothers Conference 97 The following pages contain a selection of writers and anisu actively grappling with the complexities of gender as it pertains to daily life 108 Bulletin from Kosovo: Flora Brovina and social practice. Various tendencies seem to color these works: the Amanda Hughen continued infl uence of feminist theoreticians on current aesthetic, Recent Work 110 formal, and political practice; a recognition and inclusion of daily (domestic) life in both content and form; the desire for a si multaneous Carla Harryman & Lyn Hejinian celebration and eradication of the traditions of one's gender; a decon­ from The Wide Road 116 struction of male-female binarisms, towards a critique of gender itself as a rigid and socially dictated location which limits and dc:lineares its citizens; and the recognition that any move beyond the confines of Jen Hofer & Summi Ka.ipa gende r~based identity and sex~based roles cannot manifest itself by A View of The Wide Road 121 mc=re proclamation or ac=s thetic liberty, but must navigate the dcc:ply c= mbedded material and historical relations of patriarchy. We hope the Louis Cabri & Kristen Gallagher following work will help invigorate and extend these conversations. Heather Fuller's perhaps this is a rncue fitnl~UJ 131 Medieval & P. Inman's ar.Uast. 135 Hun~t~ J~rmcr's tripwire 4: Work Kristin Prevallet Material vs. intellc=cruallabor. Class, production, productivity, Constructing The Hat 137 economy. Practice=, handwork, wordwork, work ethic, workplace, Brian Kim Stef:ms co-workc=r. What is the= significance= of one's work in relation to Rodrigo Toscano's Partisans, Rod Smith's Prouctive writing? Or the significance= of one's writing as work? Labor, & 141 Immediacy, Dan Farrell's lAst lmtanct capital, US(: value, industry. How does one participate within and against local and global c=conomicslcultures? Work force, work~ Roberto Tejada Hoa Nguyen's Dark 147 book, workshop. In a small-press economy, what are the standards for "just compensation,n for exploitation? Knowledge= industries. Kimberly filbee Cultural workers. Appropriation. "Model post-industrial emp l oy~ Lisa Robertson's Debbie: An Epic 151 ees?n Exploitation, task, effort. Mission, se rvice=, vocation, carcc:r(ism). End~producr, by~ product , opus, oeuvre. Jen Hofer Elizabeth Fodas ki 's ftacas 153 Conuibutors' Notes 165 Diane Ward Engender Bended Write a parallel text one that follows a day And "writes" a poem using events, as a source for structure of a poem. Would be a pulled apart Midwinter's Day-would be a Midwinu:r's Day b~d on the visual-where is rhc gender in here, though~ Today- The female being whatever is reached outward Nor not being discussed Not not finding a place to be discussed All of that negative presence in gender history Gender is nor allowing a sc: lf·dctcrmincd con text Con= with Con " opposed Text "' text's definition outside a second sex Experience being in tense I don't wake up but have all night I don't wake up bur resist bending my unconsciousness I don't write about ilic desire to cominuc rhc night as it is laid over the d.ay A Voluptuous Busted Gender About anybody's boundaries Not about victim's hood I grew from a single-headed household Which fact was preceded by violence To be [left] alone as a sign of survival There is this disassociative thing Where I'm in the room but not there Where rhe signposts circumscribing existence are held by really crazy people Where I read them Disassociative thing And if I chose to foreground my reproductive experience But nat ge nder thing I wrote "Milky Wcsr" and "Three" and maybe .alinle of Everything El~ My last ~m was "about" guarding the hospital bed for the last ten years Following language down Work/life 90% of all people who accompany the children to clinic :m: women And I'm seriously engaged with both it is about being in tense Simultaneously Having more arms than genders My memories arc hdd in a visual language And cannot be said Exponemial genders now Is this what makes up human More room for more people My memories :;r,re hdd up More circul.ation Naming being secondary Engendering humanity I'm about to wri te some maps Le.ading back No gender: The truth is closer to "more" than "less". Closer to :;r, multi th:;r,n to a them and us. I'm 42 years old now. My definitions are dem.aterializ.ing all around That there was space to write the way I wanted to write. An audience that was enthusiastic enough to panicip.ate in the unknown along with me. A large and generous support system. And many many genders. N01 wanting labels stuck and having no gender-based need to destroy the fiather, no real reason to feel constricted by gender. I have a deep affection for "my" gender and also have given birth ro 2 sons with "their" gender. In poetry they're really not that much differen t from me. A high-profile Feminine Voice Analyzed in academia A lot of value now Tender A lot to be said about ir return to questioning and invcsrigation outside of the context of con· Stefani Barber ven iem ideology-a complication of my thinking in a real way. I mean I don't want easy answers but I still want answers. who has the leaving a feminist organization: beuer explanation for how I react to getting cruised or why I get a personal/poetics cruised. it seemed easy to say at one point. since age 13 out in the streets for different things, age 17 became "woman-identified" and "C$CUcha, escucha, estamos en Ia lucha" rcsonatc.s in a srrecr filled with age 22 "radical." in a way I guess it was a predictable: trajectory. but people playing drums and drinking water. we walk up a hill and wave when I tried to pry open one or another idea there was nothing but at children hanging out of the windows. give flyers ro their parents more Aarncss and language to simplify rhe struggle (• against sex..ism, down below. come by somcrimc. where would they arrive, looking for homophobia, racism, er al) and I wanted something to sink my teeth the plates of steaming food offered. who would hand it to them. this into. above alii desired a frttdom to complicate things c:ven my own was our work. because nothing's roo good for the working class. an identity. embodiment of the forces of one paradigm (socialist, feminist, ours) in struggle with its arch-nemesis (capitalist, sel(ist, theirs): a liwd TYilliry. (it started the night after the night in the library. a microphone in my hand hoping for a story to share. chased it with a marvrira] in addressing the role of black lesbians: •rhe possibilities for you arc heady and endless." performing identity, scripting, negotiation­ the postmodem seduction what attracted me, or made me want to dedicate my life m the revo­ lution. the liberty I sought, this world "new horn, free:" visualiz.cd as turning to poetry-a stabilizing force.