Author Spotlight #24

WHO: Claudia Rankine

WHAT: Poet and playwright; 2016 MacArthur Fellow

WHEN: Born in 1963

WHERE: Born in Kingston, Jamaica; currently resides in California

WORK WE HAVE HERE AT LC:

Citizen: An American Lyric: "Claudia Rankine's new book recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in twenty-first-century daily life and in the media. Some of these encounters are slights, seeming slips of the tongue, and some are intentional offensives in the classroom, at the supermarket, at home, on the tennis court with Serena Williams and the soccer field with Zinedine Zidane, online, on TV--everywhere, all the time."

Rankine's work also appears in The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race

WORDS:

“The past is a life sentence, a blunt instrument aimed at tomorrow.” (from Citizen)

“When you arrive in your driveway and turn off the car, you remain behind the wheel another ten minutes. You fear the night is being locked in and coded on a cellular level and want time to function as a power wash. Sitting there staring at the closed garage door you are reminded that a friend once told you there exists the medical term—John Henryism—for people exposed to stresses stemming from racism. They achieve themselves to death trying to dodge the buildup of erasure. Sherman James, the researcher who came up with the term, claimed the physiological costs were high. You hope by sitting in silence you are bucking the trend.” (Citizen)

FOR MORE:

• Read more of Rankine's poetry here
• Check out Rankine's website for a list of interviews with the author
• Learn more about Rankine here