Catastrophe, Inventions, Endless Abandon

The workshop takes its instruction from Frantz Fanon’s call to “leap” out of the prescriptive “destiny” of History and to introduce “invention into existence”; a mode of invention that is neither organised as dependent nor determined by that History. Drawing on David Marriott’s readings of the “Inventions of Existence” in the work of Sylvia Wynter and Frantz Fanon (most notably in Whither Fanon?), we bring together four leading scholars—David Marriott (Emory University), Charissa Granger (University of West Indies, Trinidad), Pat Noxolo (University of Birmingham) and Arun Saldanha (University of Minnesota)—to think about the practice of inventions in the context of colonial histories, restitution geographies, reparations and in the aesthetics of restitution, in excess of the reinvention the Human or reparations. Engaging with the terms and practices of liberated existence, made elsewhere from the confines of colonial dialectics that historically “placed” colonised peoples in genealogies of deficiency and spatial dispossession, this workshop will look at the “restitution geographies” necessary to hold inventions, its spatialities (the pan yard, the dancehall, the poem), and worlds of making that veer sharply away from the telos of imperial frames of reference into that which is uncontained and uncontainable by its Historicity.

David Marriott, Charles T. Winship Professor of Philosophy, Emory University

Dr Charissa Granger, Musicologist and Lecturer in Cultural Studies, University of West Indies, Trinidad

Patricia Noxolo, Professor in Human Geography, Chair in Postcolonial Geographies, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham University, UK.

Arun Saldanha, Professor of Geography, Environment and Society, University of Minnesota.

Chair: Kathryn Yusoff, Professor of Inhuman Geography, School of Society & Environment, QMUL.

Sponsored by Forum for DeCentering the Human and Critical Cultural Geographies (CCGeog).

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Endless Abandon, 6.30-8.30pm, Thursday 12th March, London (Queen Mary University of London)

An evening of poetry and performance that asks: what ‘inventions into existence’ can poetry propose? What in the world can poetry make, if not do? As the interlocking tidal waves of crisis and catastrophe move through us – psychically, materially, ecologically – and as we perceive the ways language is put in service of death, we wonder at poetry’s hold. Poetry and music can create spaces for us to meet, to listen together, to refuse meaning and amplify life, to leap with abandon. Join us and hear from extraordinary poets D. S. Marriott and Jay Bernard and steelpan musician Charissa Granger.

Hosted by the Centre for Contemporary Writing.

These events are free and open to all, booking required via Eventbrite. Please register for each event you'd like to attend. There will be refreshments and time for conversation. Please see here for access information and contact us if you’d like any more information: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/bloc/access/