Welcome to issue ten of The Attention Span Newsletter by me, Canan “Ja’anan” Marasligil. I’m a writer, a literary translator, an artist and a curator of cultural programmes based in Amsterdam.  

Every other week, I take the time to reflect and offer a glimpse of how I see and feel the world through the lens of culture, art, translation, poetry and literature. Each issue has a short essay or reflection, a nerdy look at translation, a page from one of my notebooks, a list of things to read, watch or listen to, and a highlight from my archives.

I invite you to support my work via Patreon: http://patreon.com/theattentionspan

Thank you for your presence and attention!

SHOW NOTES

Citations from: Elena Ferrante. Frantumaglia. A Writer’s Journey. (Translated by Ann Goldstein) Europa Editions, 2016. https://www.europaeditions.com/book/9781609452926/frantumaglia

Reading/Watching/Listening to

Listen/ Serpentine Podcast: Intimacies considers many forms, ideas, and understandings of intimacy. Host Gaylene Gould gathers perspectives from artists, designers, writers, thinkers, and others on how we can rekindle trust, and open ourselves up to new possibilities for connection. I was particularly touched by a reminder in the first episode, of the etymology of the word “curate”, which in its essence means “to care”.  https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/art-and-ideas/serpentine-podcast-intimacies/

Read/ Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest by Laura Raicovich. Since I’m talking about curating in this issue, I am sharing this book, in which Raicovich, a former director of the Queens Museum in New York, shows how art museums arose as colonial institutions bearing an ideology of neutrality that masks their role in upholding capitalist values. And she suggests how museums can be reinvented to serve better, public ends. There are lots of US specific cases, but most of the book can also speak to many of us working in different geographical and political contexts, it spoke to my vision as a curator of literary programmes, on many levels. https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2560-culture-strike

Watch/ Dichter bij Onze Coloniale Erfenis/Closer to Our Colonial Heritage is a programme series featuring poets, writers and spoken word artists accompanying the exhibition Our Colonial Heritage on show at the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam. They offer powerful and poignant reflections on colonial heritage and how colonialism affects our bodies, hearts, minds, relationships, life, and work. How this heritage belongs to all of us. I had the immense pleasure and honour to host one of the conversations after a performance by one of the poets, Nisrine Mbarki, and I have also translated the poems/performances of Nisrine and Joshua Timisela for these videos, made by the amazing Beyond Walls Collective, in partnership with the Tropenmuseum and Read My World. You can watch all the videos on the museum’s website: https://www.tropenmuseum.nl/nl/zien-en-doen/tentoonstellingen/onze-koloniale-erfenis/filmreeks-dichter-bij-onze-koloniale-erfenis (the website is in Dutch, but the videos have all English subtitles).