Poems as Livable Worlds: A Conversation with Afshan D'souza-Lodhi and Jay Bernard

Abstract

Sometimes the best projects emerge out of serendipitous encounters. It was, indeed, serendipity which allows us to bring you the following conversation. Recorded involuntarily and transcribed thoroughly, the following text is a testimony of an encounter between poets Afshan D'souza-Lodhi and Jay Bernard and a community of scholars and students, during a time when gatherings in rooms were not marked by the laws of social distancing. During our conversation, Jay and Afshan speak to us about languages and mother tongues, queer identities, love and desire, activisms and the archive, affect, politics and the role of literature. Through their answers, as well as the poems that accompany them, we become witnesses to the power of words to create alternative realities, ones that are more livable, gentle and embracing of nonnormativity...