Urayoán Noel: Radical Imagination
Urayoán Noel introduces recordings of Ai engaging with war through necessary fury (“The Root Eater”), Lehua M. Taitano composing a lifeline to communities living with the legacies of colonialism (“A Love Letter to the Chamoru People in the Twenty-first Century”), Ofelia Zepeda on the untranslatability of song (“Ñeñe'i Ha-ṣa:gid / In the Midst of Songs”), and a fable of radical imagination by Gloria E. Anzaldúa (“Nepantla”). Noel ends the episode with his poem “Molecular Modular,” built around open-ended questions considering virality and modes of community.Listen to the full recordings of Ai, Taitano, Zepeda, and Anzaldúa reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Ai (1972)Lehua M. Taitano with the board of Thinking Its Presence (2017)Ofelia Zepeda (2015)Gloria E. Anzaldúa (1991)Listen to a performance by Urayoán Noel on Voca, presented as part of the Thinking Its Presence conference in 2017.