Claudia Rankine

Claudia Rankine (/ˈræŋkɪn/; born September 4, 1963[1]) is an American poet, essayist, playwright and the editor of several anthologies. She is the author of five volumes of poetry, two plays and various essays.

Claudia Rankine
Rankine in 2016
Rankine in 2016
Born (1963-09-04) September 4, 1963[1]
Kingston, Jamaica
OccupationProfessor
NationalityAmerican
Alma materWilliams College (BA)
Columbia University (MFA)
GenrePoetry; Playwright
Notable awardsMacArthur Fellow
SpouseJohn Lucas
Website
claudiarankine.com

Her book of poetry, Citizen: An American Lyric, won the 2014 Los Angeles Times Book Award,[2] the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award[3] in Poetry (the first book in the award's history to be nominated in both poetry and criticism), the 2015 Forward Prize for Best Collection, the 2015 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Poetry, the 2015 NAACP Image Award in poetry, the 2015 PEN Open Book Award, the 2015 PEN American Center USA Literary Award, the 2015 PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles Literary Award, and the 2015 VIDA Literary Award. Citizen was also a finalist for the 2014 National Book Award and the 2015 T.S. Eliot Prize. It is the only poetry book to be a New York Times bestseller in the nonfiction category.

Rankine's numerous awards and honors include the 2014 Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the 2014 Jackson Poetry Prize, and the 2014 Lannan Foundation Literary Award. In 2005, she was awarded the Academy Fellowship for distinguished poetic achievement by the Academy of American Poets. In 2013, she was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.[4]She is a 2016 United States Artist Zell Fellow and a 2016 MacArthur Fellow. In 2020, she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Rankine previously taught at Pomona College. She was the Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry at Yale University.[5] In 2021, she joined the New York University Creative Writing Program as a Professor.[6]

Life and work

Claudia Rankine was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and later immigrated to the United States during childhood. After growing up in New York City, she was educated at Williams College and Columbia University.

In 2003, Rankine started work as an associate professor at the University of Georgia.

She taught English at Pomona College from 2006 to 2015.[7][8]

Her work has appeared in many journals, including Harper's, GRANTA, the Kenyon Review, and the Lana Turner Journal, and she is a contributor to New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.[9] Rankine co-edits (with Juliana Spahr) the anthology series American Women Poets in the 21st Century: Where Lyric Meets Language.

Winner of an Academy of American Poets fellowship, Rankine's work Don't Let Me Be Lonely (2004), an experimental project, has been acclaimed for its unique blend of poetry, essay, lyric and television imagery. Of this volume, poet Robert Creeley wrote: "Claudia Rankine here manages an extraordinary melding of means to effect the most articulate and moving testament to the bleak times we live in I've yet seen. It's master work in every sense, and altogether her own."[10]

Rankine's play The Provenance of Beauty: A South Bronx Travelogue, commissioned by The Foundry Theatre,[11][12] was a 2011 Distinguished Development Project Selection in the American Voices New Play Institute at Arena Stage.[13]

In 2014, Graywolf Press published her book of poetry Citizen: An American Lyric.[14] Kamran Javadizadeh dissects this novel, particularly Rankine's allusion to Robert Lowell's Life Studies. He writes that Citizen takes a new angle on and recognizes Lowell's whiteness,[15] a subject of interest for Rankine.

"Not long ago you are in a room where someone asks the philosopher Judith Butler what makes language hurtful. You can feel everyone lean in. Our very being exposes us to the address of another, she answers. We suffer from the condition of being addressable. Our emotional openness, she adds, is carried by our addressability. Language navigates this.

For so long you thought the ambition of racist language was to denigrate and erase you as a person. After considering Butler's remarks you begin to understand yourself as rendered hyper-visible in the face of such language acts. Language that feels hurtful is intended to exploit all the ways that you are present. Your alertness, your openness, your desire to engage actually demand your presence, your looking up, your talking back as insane as it is, saying please."

Claudia Rankine[16]

Rankine also works on documentary multimedia pieces with her husband, photographer and filmmaker John Lucas. These video essays are titled Situations.

Of her work, poet Mark Doty wrote: "Claudia Rankine's formally inventive poems investigate many kinds of boundaries: the unsettled territory between poetry and prose, between the word and the visual image, between what it's like to be a subject and the ways we're defined from outside by skin color, economics, and global corporate culture. This fearless poet extends American poetry in invigorating new directions."[17]

In a 2023 review in The Guardian of her 2001 collection Plot, critic Kate Kellaway wrote: "It is a bracing, discomfiting and complicated read partly because it breaks a taboo. It is often oppressively assumed that women will necessarily rejoice at pregnancy but this work involves a complicated dredging of doubt, an examination of the visceral and cerebral burden of pregnancy, a deliberate losing of the 'plot' (the word encompassing several meanings)."[18]

Rankine additionally founded and curates the Racial Imaginary Institute, which she called "a moving collaboration with other collectives, spaces, artists, and organizations towards art exhibitions, readings, dialogues, lectures, performances, and screenings that engage the subject of race."[19]

In 2017, Rankine collaborated with choreographer and performer Will Rawls to generate the work What Remains. Collaborators included Tara Aisha Willis, Jessica Pretty, Leslie Cuyjet, and Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste.[20] The work premiered at Bard College, and has been performed at national venues, including Danspace in New York, the Walker Art Center, Yale Repertory Theatre, and Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art Warehouse Space. In an interview with Rawls, Rankine described how text and language were manipulated in the performance: "As a writer, you spend a lot of time trying to get all of these words to communicate a feeling or to communicate an action, and to be able to get rid of the words but still hold the feeling was stunning to me."[21]

The Racial Imaginary Institute

The Racial Imaginary Institute (TRII) is an interdisciplinary collective established in 2017 by Rankine using funds from her 2016 MacArthur Grant.[22][23] TRII is a think tank for artists and writers who study whiteness and examine race as a construct.[24][25] Its mission is to convene "a cultural laboratory in which the racial imaginaries of our time and place are engaged, read, countered, contextualized and demystified."[26]

Rankine envisions the organization as occupying a physical space in Manhattan;[27] until that is possible, the institute is roving.[24] In 2017, the Whitney Museum presented "Perspectives on Race and Representation: An Evening With the Racial Imaginary Institute" to address the debate sparked by Dana Schutz’s painting Open Casket.[25][28] In the summer of 2018, TRII presented "On Whiteness," an exhibition, symposium, library, residencies, and performances, at The Kitchen in New York.[29][30][31]

Awards and honors

Selected publications
  • Nothing in Nature is Private. Cleveland St U Poetry Cntr. 1994. ISBN 978-1-880834-09-1.
  • Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric, Graywolf Press, 2004. ISBN 9781555974077
  • The End of the Alphabet, Grove Press, 1998; The End of the Alphabet. Grove/Atlantic, Incorporated. December 1, 2007. ISBN 978-0-8021-9853-2.
  • Plot, Grove Press, 2001; Plot. Grove/Atlantic, Incorporated. December 1, 2007. ISBN 978-0-8021-9852-5.
  • Citizen: An American Lyric, Graywolf Press, 2014, ISBN 978-1-55597-348-3
  • The White Card: A Play, Graywolf Press, 2019, ISBN 978-1-55597-839-6
  • Just Us: An American Conversation, Allen Lane, 2020, ISBN 9780241467107

See also

References
  1. Rankine, Claudia (June 22, 2015). "The Condition of Black Life Is One of Mourning". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
  2. Carolyn Kellogg (April 18, 2015). "The winners of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes are ..." Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on July 1, 2017. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
  3. "National Book Critics Circle Announces Award Winners for Publishing Year 2014" Archived February 15, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, Critical Mass, March 12, 2015.
  4. "Claudia Rankine Archived September 26, 2017, at the Wayback Machine "Poets.org"
  5. "Claudia Rankine | English". english.yale.edu. Archived from the original on October 12, 2017. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  6. "Claudia Rankine". as.nyu.edu. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
  7. Pepitone, Paige (April 29, 2016). "Claudia Rankine Reads Poetry, Discusses Racism at Garrison". The Student Life. Retrieved August 30, 2020.
  8. "First Lee Professor Appointed". Pomona College Magazine. No. Fall 2006. Pomona College. Archived from the original on May 12, 2008. Retrieved September 22, 2020.
  9. Salandy-Brown, Marina (April 13, 2019). "Of Africa and of India". Trinidad and Tobago Newsday. Retrieved December 25, 2021.
  10. Pomona College Magazine online Archived May 12, 2008, at the Wayback Machine: news release.
  11. Isherwood, Charles (September 17, 2009). "Have You Ever Visited The Broncks?". The New York Times. Retrieved September 17, 2009.
  12. "Productions: The Provenance of Beauty". The Foundry Theater. September 18, 2009.
  13. "The Bollingen Prize for Poetry 2011 Winner". Beinecke.library.yale.edu. Archived from the original on June 16, 2010. Retrieved June 18, 2011.
  14. Dan Chiasson, "Colour Codes" Archived February 15, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, The New Yorker, October 27, 2014.
  15. Weiskott, Eric (2022). "Claudia Rankine and Robert Lowell, again". Explicator. 80 (3/4): 103–105. doi:10.1080/00144940.2023.2166393. S2CID 255911993. ProQuest 2863236690.
  16. Step into a World: A Global Anthology of the New Black Literature Archived May 22, 2016, at the Wayback Machine page at African American Literature Book Club site.
  17. Claudia Rankine Archived February 15, 2021, at the Wayback Machine at poets.org.
  18. Kellaway, Kate (April 11, 2023). "Plot by Claudia Rankine review – the lives of mothers". The Observer. Retrieved May 25, 2023.
  19. Rankine, Claudia (February 12, 2001). "Claudia Rankine". Claudia Rankine. Archived from the original on September 26, 2017. Retrieved November 19, 2018.
  20. Studio, Familiar (April 2, 2019). "Tara Aisha Willis, Leslie Cuyjet, Jess Pretty, and". Movement Research. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
  21. "Claudia Rankine and Will Rawls Interview, 2018". YouTube. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
  22. Charlton, Lauretta (January 19, 2017). "Claudia Rankine's Home for the Racial Imaginary". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  23. Cornum, Lou (July 23, 2018). "How Whiteness Works: The Racial Imaginary Institute at the Kitchen". Art in America. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  24. "New World Disorder: Claudia Rankine". Artforum. March 21, 2017. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  25. Greenberger, Alex (March 30, 2017). "Whitney Museum to Partner with Claudia Rankine's Racial Imaginary Institute for Discussion About Dana Schutz Controversy". ARTnews. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  26. "The Racial Imaginary Institute". theracialimaginary.org. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  27. Thrasher, Steven W. (October 19, 2016). "Claudia Rankine: why I'm spending $625,000 to study whiteness". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on September 5, 2017. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  28. "Perspectives on Race and Representation: An Evening With the Racial Imaginary Institute". whitney.org. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  29. Wong, Ryan (July 24, 2018). "How to Talk About Whiteness". Hyperallergic. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  30. Landesberg, Paige (September 26, 2018). "To Watch and Be Watched". THE SEEN | Chicago's International Online Journal. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  31. "The Kitchen: On Whiteness: Exhibition". thekitchen.org. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  32. "National Book Critics Circle Announces Finalists for Publishing Year 2014". National Book Critics Circle. January 19, 2015. Archived from the original on January 22, 2015. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  33. Alexandra Alter (March 12, 2015). "'Lila' Honored as Top Fiction by National Book Critics Circle". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  34. "84th Annual California Book Awards Winners". Commonwealth Club. Archived from the original on June 6, 2017. Retrieved August 13, 2015.
  35. "Claudia Rankine Wins $50,000 Jackson Poetry Prize" Archived February 15, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, Poets & Writers, April 21, 2014.
  36. "2015 PEN Literary Award Winners". PEN. May 8, 2015. Archived from the original on March 2, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
  37. Carolyn Kellogg, "Claudia Rankine and Meghan Daum lead 2015 PEN Literary Awards", Los Angeles Times, September 10, 2015.
  38. "Best Sellers". The New York Times. January 18, 2015. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
  39. "Winners of the '46th NAACP Image Awards'". NAACP. February 10, 2015. Archived from the original on June 22, 2016.
  40. "Claudia Rankine's 'exhilarating' poetry wins Forward prize" Archived February 15, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, BBC News, September 29, 2015.
  41. Tristram Fane Saunders (September 30, 2015), "Claudia Rankine wins £10,000 Forward prize with book of prose poems" Archived February 15, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, The Telegraph.
  42. Chow, Andrew R. (March 28, 2017). "Claudia Rankine Wins Bobbitt Poetry Prize". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved November 2, 2018.
  43. Daniel DeVries (February 28, 2017), "Poet Claudia Rankine to deliver 2017 commencement keynote" Archived February 15, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, Colgate University News.
  44. "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Claudia Rankine". www.gf.org. Retrieved November 19, 2018.
  45. "AmAcad". Retrieved June 18, 2023.
  46. "Inaugural RSL International Writers Announced". Royal Society of Literature. November 30, 2021. Retrieved December 25, 2021.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Claudia Rankine.
External video
video icon Interview w/Tavis Smiley, December 8, 2014; c. 15 minutes.
video icon Book Discussion on Citizen: An American Lyric, C-SPAN, April 19, 2015
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