Liberated territory : on the poetry and pedagogy of Tongo Eisen-Martin

This article considers the poetry and pedagogical work of the Bay Area poet, organizer and activist, Tongo Eisen-Martin. I begin from the premise that, for Eisen-Martin, poetry and political praxis share a deep affinity, and I seek to elaborate what this affinity is and how it affects our understanding of poetry and the political. I start by reading Eisen-Martin’s own writing on aesthetics, which suggests that, for him, poetry is essentially paratactic and that its proximity to praxis lies in the capacity for both to manifest the changeability of the world. Following this, I close-read passages from Eisen-Martin’s own compositions and suggest that the capacity for parataxis to manifest tension between part and whole is a key element of the effect he seeks to produce in his work. I then consider Eisen-Martin’s online syllabus, We Charge Genocide Again!, and suggest that a similar tension between part and whole forms a structuring principle of his pedagogical philosophy. I follow how Eisen-Martin seeks to create a sense of individual and collective agency via engagement in the tradition of radicalism and the stimulation of creative reflection amongst his students. I conclude by suggesting that it is within the gaps opened by paratactic composition that what Eisen-Martin understands as critical intelligence, and a capacity for praxis, comes to life.