Human Conditions

In the final episode of Human Conditions, Brent and Adam turn to Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider, a collection of prose with exceptional relevance to contemporary grassroots politics. Like Du Bois, Césaire and Baraka, Lorde’s work defies genre: as she argues in this collection, ‘poetry is not a luxury’ but an essential tool for liberation. Throughout her work, Lorde sought to find and articulate new ways of living that encompassed her whole self – as a Black woman, poet, essayist, novelist, mother and lesbian. Brent and Adam discuss Lorde’s radical poetics and politics, and the case for poetry, anger, vulnerability, love and desire as the arsenal of revolution.

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In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings

Brent Hayes Edwards is a scholar of African American and Francophone literature and of jazz studies at Columbia University.

Get in touch: [email protected]

Further reading and listening in the LRB:

Reni Eddo-Lodge & Sarah Shin: On Audre Lorde

https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/at-the-bookshop/reni-eddo-lodge-and-sarah-shin-on-audre-lorde-your-silence-will-not-protect-you

Jesse McCarthy & Adam Shatz: Blind Spots

https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/the-lrb-podcast/blind-spots

Sean Jacobs: Chop-Chop Spirit

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n09/sean-jacobs/chop-chop-spirit

Ange Mlinko: Waiting for the Poetry

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n14/ange-mlinko/waiting-for-the-poetry

In 'Black Music', a collection of essays, liner notes and interviews from 1959 to 1967, Amiri Baraka captures the ferment, energy and excitement of the avant-garde jazz scene. Published while he still went by LeRoi Jones, it provides a composite picture of Baraka’s evolving thought, aesthetic values and literary experimentation. In this episode, Brent and Adam discuss the ways in which Baraka tackled the challenge of writing about music and his intimate connections to the major players in jazz. Whether you’re familiar with the music or totally new to the New Thing, 'Black Music' is an essential guide to a period of political and artistic upheaval.
Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:
Subscribe to Close Readings:
Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq
In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings
Brent Hayes Edwards is a scholar of African American and Francophone literature and of jazz studies at Columbia University.
Get in touch: [email protected]
Further reading in the LRB:
Adam Shatz: The Freedom Principle
https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2014/may/the-freedom-principle
Adam Shatz: On Ornette Coleman
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v37/n14/adam-shatz/diary
Philip Clark: On Cecil Taylor
https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2018/april/cecil-taylor-1929-2018
Ian Penman: Birditis
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n02/ian-penman/birditis
Ian Penman: Birditis
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n02/ian-penman/birditis
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Brent Hayes Edwards talks to Adam about Aimé Césaire's 1950 essay Discourse on Colonialism, a groundbreaking work of 20th-century anti-colonial thought and a precursor to the writings of Césaire's protégé, Frantz Fanon. Césaire was Martinique’s most influential poet and one of its most prominent politicians as a deputy in the French National Assembly, and his Discourse is addressed directly at his country’s colonisers. Adam and Brent consider Césaire’s poetry alongside his political arguments and the particular characteristics of his version of négritude, the far-reaching movement of black consciousness he founded with Léopold Sédar Senghor and Léon Damas.
Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:
Subscribe to Close Readings:
Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq
In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings
Further reading and listening:
Musab Younis: The Mouth of Calamities
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n23/musab-younis/the-mouth-of-calamities
Musab Younis: Against Independence
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v39/n13/musab-younis/against-independence
Brent Hayes Edwards: Inside the Barrel
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v31/n17/brent-hayes-edwards/inside-the-barrel
John Berger & David Constantine: Aimé Césaire’s Return to My Native Land
https://lrb.me/bergercesaire
Brent Hayes Edwards is a scholar of African American and Francophone literature and of jazz studies at Columbia University.
Get in touch: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brent Hayes Edwards and Adam discuss the ‘ur-text of Black political philosophy’, W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk. Spanning autobiography, history, biography, fiction, music criticism and political science, its fourteen essays set the tone for Black literature, political debate and scholarly production for the course of the 20th century. Souls was an immediate bestseller, the subject of furious debate and a foundational work in the new field of sociology.
Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:
Subscribe to Close Readings:
Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq
In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings
Further reading in the LRB:
Adam Lively: Fisticuffs
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v16/n05/adam-lively/fisticuffs
Kevin Okoth: Resistance from Elsewhere
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n07/kevin-okoth/resistance-from-elsewhere
Lewis Nkosi: An UnAmerican in New York
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v22/n16/lewis-nkosi/an-unamerican-in-new-york
Brent Hayes Edwards is a scholar of African American and Francophone literature and of jazz studies at Columbia University.
Get in touch: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After reciting an unflattering poem about Stalin to a small group of friends, Osip Mandelstam was betrayed to the police and endured five years in exile before dying in transit to the gulag. His wife, Nadezhda, spent the rest of her life dodging arrest, advocating for Osip’s work and writing what came to be known as Hope against Hope.
Hope against Hope is a testimony of life under Stalin, and of the ways in which ordinary people challenge and capitulate to power. It’s also a compendium of gossip, an account of psychological torture, a description of the poet’s craft and a love story.
Pankaj Mishra joins Adam to discuss his final selection for Human Conditions. They explore the qualities that make Hope against Hope so compelling: Nadezhda Mandelstam’s uncompromising honesty, perceptiveness and irrepressible humour.
Non-subscriber will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up:
Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq
In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings
Further reading in the LRB:
Seamus Heaney: Osip and Nadezhda Mandelstam
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v03/n15/seamus-heaney/osip-and-nadezhda-mandelstam
Clarence Brown: Every Slightest Pebble
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v17/n10/clarence-brown/every-slightest-pebble
Frances Stonor Saunders: The Writer and the Valet
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n18/frances-stonor-saunders/the-writer-and-the-valet
Pankaj Mishra is a writer, critic and reporter who regularly contributes to the LRB. His books include Age of Anger: A History of the Present, From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia and two novels, most recently Run and Hide.
Get in touch: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.