Manifestos!

ASSIGNMENT:  DEEP SONG AND URGENCY

Artistic Praxis:  Write a manifesto. Go to www.manifestos.net and nose around (not just poetry here, much art and politics).  Do a ton of nosing around.  Think about your own particular obsessions/commitments/desires.  A manifesto is a statement of need—a calling into being of a movement into the world.  If you can’t manage one—a passionate and bombastic proclamation about how what you believe could and should change the world (through politics, art, work, living, etc.)... then write a defense or an apology for your less dogmatic position. 

Whatever you write (even if it is a defense) should be a big statement, by which I mean a philosophy of making/being.  You can tie your statements to other passions (birdwatching/comics/whathaveyou) but be aware that such statements are intensely public statements of private practices and will be read as such.  You should be nailing your soul to the door of city hall, and daring others to refute or join you. 

   

Manifestos often have three sections:

    * An Intro which declares its context—a specific place and time. The description can itself be an explanation of the kind of art/life/work you are calling for. This section should identify what you are against and why.

    * Mission statement for your art in list form (often numbered).

    * Conclusion: how this would change the world—why others should enter into your utopian/dystopian vision.

Make others want to join you.  Make me.

Musings: “Play and Theory of the Duende” from In Search of Duende, Federico Garcia Lorca (p.56-72) 

Prompt:  Was this difficult?  Why, do you think, it was difficult?  And if it wasn’t—why do you think this was easy for you, in particular, as an artist?