Conceptualisms in Crisis: The Fate of Late Conceptual Poetry

Conceptual poetry, widely considered to be one of the twenty-first century's preeminent avant-gardes, is now under attach Kenneth Goldsmith's failed performance "The Body of Michael Brown" has thrown conceptualism into crisis-especially in regards to the racial politics of appropriation. Nevertheless, works such as M. NourbeSe Philip's Zong ! and Claudia Rankine's Citizen show how conceptual techniques can effectively respond to racial traumas. Similarly, Chilean poet Carlos Soto Roman's textual appropriations protest against state-sponsored murder and suggest new modes of political critique from the global South. Moving beyond a North American context and disentangling the conceptualisms of the movement's most high-profile practitioners from late conceptual projects by writers of color demonstrate how conceptual poetry is not dying, as some claim, but evolving along different lines of lineage.