Mirene Arsanios's guest appearances

Mirene Arsanios

e-flux podcast

Invitation to the Species

Cecilia Vicuña

Christian Nyampeta

Agnieszka Kurant

Tobias Rees

Elvia Wilk

Xiaoyu Weng

Brian Kuan Wood

McKenzie Wark

Keith Fullerton Whitman

Masha Gessen

Rachel Ichniowski

David Kim

Yazan Khalili

Fiona Connor

Xin Wang

OwlTail

The conversation you’re about to hear, “What kind of language are we left with” was held between Mirene Arsanios and Celina Su, and recorded in February 2021. With Mirene and Celina, both “motherless mothers without mother tongues,” we discuss the lineages of their languages, liminal subjectivities and the impossibility of “we” in light of differentially distributed access to resources. Together we consider how our social relations are being rewritten and disrupted in a time of ongoing crisis and disaster. We talk about alternative economies, how zoom killed the classroom. We contend with loneliness and the limits of the nuclear family, and what it means to be part of an amorphous, and constantly changing collective.Following our conversation, you’ll also hear readings by Mirene and Celina from their own work. From Mirene you’ll hear an excerpt from Notes on Mother Tongues, published with Ugly Duckling Presse in 2020, and “A Collage in Progress” by Celina, also published in 2020, and which can be found in full at thepoetryfoundation.org.

The conversation you’re about to hear, “What kind of language are we left with” was held between Mirene Arsanios and Celina Su, and recorded in February 2021. With Mirene and Celina, both “motherless mothers without mother tongues,” we discuss the lineages of their languages, liminal subjectivities and the impossibility of “we” in light of differentially distributed access to resources. Together we consider how our social relations are being rewritten and disrupted in a time of ongoing crisis and disaster. We talk about alternative economies, how zoom killed the classroom. We contend with loneliness and the limits of the nuclear family, and what it means to be part of an amorphous, and constantly changing collective. Following our conversation, you’ll also hear readings by Mirene and Celina from their own work. From Mirene you’ll hear an excerpt from Notes on Mother Tongues, published with Ugly Duckling Presse in 2020, and “A Collage in Progress” by Celina, also published in 2020, and which can be found in full at <a href="http://thepoetryfoundation.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">thepoetryfoundation.org</a>.

Mirene Arsanios and Celina Su: What kind of language are we left with?

Mirene Arsanios discusses her text, "E Autobiography di un Idioma," published in e-flux journal #92—"on feminisms" (Summer 2018). In conversation with editor-in-chief Kaye Cain-Nielsen. "I would have liked to come to you (abo) with something more reliable, like documents (akto), but I’m an oral language (idioma)—an Afro-Portuguese proto-creole developed on the western coast (kosta) of Africa and brought over to the Caribbean in the seventeen century. That’s one of the theories of my genesis. There are others (otronan). Dutch and Spanish tagged along at later stages, with a few Arawak words (palabranan). Initially, slave traders and slaves used me to 'communicate'; then I was just used (merka). The only document in my possession says I was born on the island of Curaçao, north of the Venezuelan shore. Linguists struggle to match my identity to a location. Words travel and land in places (luganan) that do not match their jurisdiction (a nation (nashon)-state)."—Mirene Arsanios, "E Autobiography di un Idioma"    Other works mentioned:—Iman Mersal, الصوت في غير مكانه (The Displaced Voice); trans. Lisa White (New York: Belladonna* Collaborative, chaplet #232, 2018). Excerpt read by Belladonna editor Ana Paula.—Iman Mersal, "عن الأمومة والعنف، إيمان مرسال (On Motherhood and Violence)," trans. Anna Ziajka Stanton, Makhzin issue #2—FEMINISMS (Daisy Atterbury, Tarek El-Ariss and Mirene Arsanios, editors)—Jamaica Kincaid, The Autobiography of My Mother (New York: Macmillan, 1996).   Mirene Arsanios is the author of the short story collection The City Outside the Sentence (2015). She has contributed essays and short stories to Vida, The Brooklyn Rail, The Rumpus, The Animated Reader, and The Outpost, among others. Arsanios cofounded the collective 98weeks Research Project in Beirut and is the founding editor of Makhzin, a bilingual English/Arabic magazine for innovative writing. On Friday nights, you can find her at the Poetry Project in New York, where she coordinates the Friday Night reading series with Rachel Valinsky.

Mirene Arsanios discusses her text, "<a href="https://www.e-flux.com/journal/92/204493/e-autobiography-di-un-idioma/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">E Autobiography di un Idioma</a>," published in e-flux journal #92—"on feminisms" (Summer 2018). In conversation with editor-in-chief Kaye Cain-Nielsen. "I would have liked to come to you (abo) with something more reliable, like documents (akto), but I’m an oral language (idioma)—an Afro-Portuguese proto-creole developed on the western coast (kosta) of Africa and brought over to the Caribbean in the seventeen century. That’s one of the theories of my genesis. There are others (otronan). Dutch and Spanish tagged along at later stages, with a few Arawak words (palabranan). Initially, slave traders and slaves used me to 'communicate'; then I was just used (merka). The only document in my possession says I was born on the island of Curaçao, north of the Venezuelan shore. Linguists struggle to match my identity to a location. Words travel and land in places (luganan) that do not match their jurisdiction (a nation (nashon)-state)."—Mirene Arsanios, "E Autobiography di un Idioma"  Other works mentioned:—Iman Mersal, الصوت في غير مكانه (The Displaced Voice); trans. Lisa White (New York: <a href="http://www.belladonnaseries.org/chaplets/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Belladonna* Collaborative, chaplet #232</a>, 2018). Excerpt read by Belladonna editor Ana Paula.—Iman Mersal, "عن الأمومة والعنف، إيمان مرسال (On Motherhood and Violence)," trans. Anna Ziajka Stanton, Makhzin issue #2—FEMINISMS (Daisy Atterbury, Tarek El-Ariss and Mirene Arsanios, editors)—Jamaica Kincaid, The Autobiography of My Mother (New York: Macmillan, 1996). Mirene Arsanios is the author of the short story collection The City Outside the Sentence (2015). She has contributed essays and short stories to Vida, The Brooklyn Rail, The Rumpus, The Animated Reader, and The Outpost, among others. Arsanios cofounded the collective 98weeks Research Project in Beirut and is the founding editor of Makhzin, a bilingual English/Arabic magazine for innovative writing. On Friday nights, you can find her at the Poetry Project in New York, where she coordinates the Friday Night reading series with Rachel Valinsky.

Mirene Arsanios on mother tongues