Featuring DeeSoul Carson, CD Eskilson, Leah Mensch, and MaKshya Tolbert, moderated by Alexa Luborsky

In Optic Subwoof, Douglas Kearney writes: “Humor and horror, there is no or.” This panel will examine how invoking the laughable in poetry not only recognizes the ridiculous, but also links a reader with their power in relation to the inciting horror. “It is better to say, ‘I am suffering,’ than to say, ‘This landscape is ugly,’” says Simone Weil. This panel will speak to why it might be better to say “this is what I can’t endure alone” than to say “this is what I can’t endure.” 

We’ll be discussing how humor influences our ways of writing towards not only diagnosing, but also imagining alternatives to the everyday horrors that are deeply entangled in the business of living. This is an under-examined area of craft that acts as a mode of resistance against hegemonic norms necessary for empire-making. This discussion will center on humor as a method of disorientation that lends itself towards an invitation for mutual care.