Cirrus@Austlit

'Poetry. A collection of work by innovative Australian poets whose work shares an interest in "a primary art of transformation in language" (from the introduction). All contributors traveled to the San Francisco Bay Area in April 2016 to participate in a four-day meeting with similarly-committed U.S.-based poets. The title of the event is also that of the anthology, which its editors intend as an extension and prolongation of the April gathering. ACTIVE AESTHETICS brings news across the Pacific and across the equator of Australia's current radical poetry and poetics. As is true of new poetry in the US, much of the work here reflects the complexity and urgency of political thinking within the aesthetic sphere.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'W ith the release of ‘Formation’ and Beyonce’s performance at this year’s Super Bowl, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) campaign pierced living rooms across the United States. Complete with Black Panther salute and iconography, accompanied by a film clip with a hurricane-drenched landscape and graffiti reading ‘stop shooting us’, a movement that had been demonised by the mainstream media and the right was given a heroic performance in what is, arguably, capitalism’s ultimate spectacle.' (Jacinda Woodhead : Editorial introduction)