Electronic Literature Day 2020
Electronic Literature Day (ELD) was conjured in response to the need for remote, dynamic environments through which to share and distribute literary work and discourse and facilitate collaborations. In a series of readings, interviews, audiovisual, and text, a gallery of thought was constructed around the thematics of each day - Language and Memory, Technology and the Word, and Literature in Action. The festival was produced by Barakunan in partnership with Electronic Labor Day, a non-profit online music festival, and was partially supported by Art Jameel’s Research and Practice Platform.
You can find more information on the official website of the festival, and more information on our guests and participants on the author bio page.
We've gathered some highlights from the festival here:
For Day 1 of Electronic Literature Day, poet, novelist and clinical psychologist Hala Alyan reads her poem "Bones". The visual montage is produced by Barakunan.
As part of Day 3 of Electronic Literature Day, writer and artist Molly Crabapple speaks to Barakunan's Dani Arbid about the Jewish Labor Bund, an anti-zionist, deeply secular Jewish revolutionary movement and political party that peaked in Warsaw in 1939.
For Day 2 of Electronic Literature Day, poet, writer, and editor John Freeman is reading an excerpt from his book, The Dictionary of Undoing, published by Macmillan in 2019. the book offers necessary rhetoric on our modern dependency on projecting a digital self, and all that we lose along the way. The visual montage has been put together by Barakunan.
For Day 1 of Electronic Literature Day, novelist Rabih Alameddine reads from his essay, Comforting Myths; Notes from a Purveyor. The essay was originally published in Harper’s in June 2018. The visual montage is produced by Barakunan with sound by Jad Atoui.
For Day 3 of Electronic Literature Day, Barakunan’s Dani Arbid speaks with Dr. Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung on his work with Savvy Contemporary, his starting out as a scientist, notions of radical conviviality, and his ongoing community, curatorial work, including “Rest Assured”.
For Electronic Literature Day 2, writer, editor and PhD. candidate Kareem Estefan presents a reading from his essay, Opacity, Repair and Relation in the Age of Telepresence, based on a talk he did for Internet of Things: Another World is Possible curated by Darat Al Funun. The essay was published in Immune Systems and Antibodies, 2020. The visual montage is produced by Barakunan.
For Day 2 of Electronic Literature Day, Barakunan's Dani Arbid speaks with Róisín Tapponi on the epistolary form in cinema, the role of letter writing in films, particularly those by Arab women from the region, with special focus on two films in particular- Mona Hatoum's "Letter to a friend" and Emily Jacir's "Letter to a friend".
For Day 2 of Electronic Literature Day, Angela Brussel reads her gut-wrenching essay Death and the Cloud: How to Grieve in the Digital Afterlife, first published in Literary Hub, June 2020. The visual montage is produced by Barakunan and sound by Jad Atoui.
For Day 3 of Electronic Literature Day, poet and activist Dayna Ash reads her stirring poem " I Am A Fear Within Myself".
For Day 3 of Electronic Literature Day, poet and activist Lisa Luxx reads her poem "I Want A Feminist Currency", published in her recent collection Trust Your Outrage. The visual montage has been put together by Barakunan.