a video installation based on a research project called "Writing in Times of Crisis".
A rhetoric of protest is a rhetoric of poetic realism.
A rhetoric of protest portrays the exuberance of pain, the fluid compass of suffering, and the power that oppression unwittingly fosters among the powerless. A rhetoric of protest targets the human in the inhuman.
A rhetoric of protest is not beautified trauma (smart wordsmanship, academic verbal gymnastics, or official lip service). A rhetoric of protest is traumatized beauty.
A rhetoric of protest cannot be encouraged, inspired, or taught. It just happens. Like a lump of outrage in the throat.
A rhetoric of protest is not meant to persuade. Does not engage in debate. Does not conform to the oppressor’s deceitful projection of civil dialogue (Remember? He has always been the only speaker!).
A rhetoric of protest prisms human relations through righteous tints, tones, and tunes. Through sophisticated primal rhythms that capture the multilayered-ness of oppression. Its shades of aggression. All its complex apparitions. Its sharp shadowed corners.
A rhetoric of protest is shaped through forest fires, poisoned waters, tar sands, reservations, disappearing forests, heroin syringes, debt, abuse, incarcerated labour, foodbank lines, factory farm antibiotics, bombed school yards, drone-struck villages, … .
A rhetoric of protest burns like His bombs, drones, missiles, drills, and chainsaws. It boils like the recurring nightmare of savage occupation of lands, languages, spirits, and spiritualities.
A rhetoric of protest cannot be formulated. It prevents genre dictatorship and propels rhetorical revolution.
A rhetoric of protest is not peer reviewed. It will not conform to institutional manuals of style.
A rhetoric of protest is not published in prestigious journals or in corporate bestsellers. A rhetoric of protest can be plagiarized, does not follow copyright rules. Like prayers and lullabies. Ancient ethnic songs. Communal farm chants.
A rhetoric of protest is accented. Is written in mother tongues. A rhetoric of protest smells like immigrants’ spices. It looks like the rawness of labouring hands. Is bitterly wise like survivance. Is colored. Is colorful. Multi-shines like the rainbow.
A rhetoric of protest is not plugged, promoted, or advertised. It doesn’t have an author photo. It doesn’t require paid interviews. It’s organically contagious. It catches imaginations like wildfire, like the peak of a pandemic.
Like reality, a rhetoric of protest just exists. It organically happens.
Like poetry, it complexifies with each reading, each interpretation, each whisper, each shout.
Like reality, it cannot be avoided.
Like poetry, it mobilizes anger towards the ultimate creation.
Like poetry, it warms the lips and burns the hearts. Like reality, it is easy to grasp but wets the eyes.
Citation:
Kalan, A. (2021). A Rhetoric of Protest [poetry]. The College English Association Mid-Atlantic Review. 29, 78-79.
Other publications related to this project:
Kalan, A. (2021). Sociocultural and power-relational dimensions of multilingual writing: Recommendations for deindustrializing writing education. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Kalan, A. (2021). COVID-19, an opportunity to deindustrialize writing education. In I. Fayed, & J. Cummings (Eds.), Teaching in the post COVID-19 era: World education dilemmas, teaching innovations and solutions in the age of crisis (pp. 511-519). Springer.
Kalan, A. (2021). Writing in times of Crisis: A theoretical model for understanding genre formation. In E. B. Hancı-Azizoğlu, & M. Alawdat (Eds.), Rhetoric and sociolinguistics in times of global crisis (pp. 214-234). IGI Global.
