Nathaniel Mackey, Destination Out: Essays on His Work (Contemp North American Poetry)

In this first book of essays devoted entirely to Nathaniel Mackey’s work, prominent critics respond to a major oeuvre that is at once affirmative and utopic, negational and dystopic. Drawing on multiple genealogies and traditions, primarily from African and African diaspora histories and cultures, Mackey’s work envisions cultural creation as cross-cultural, based in the damaging relationships of Africans brought against their will to the Americas and the resulting innovations of New World African literatures and music. This collection is organized through broad topics in order to provide entrances into his challenging work: myth, literature, and seriality; music, performance, and collaboration; syncretism, synopsis, and what-saying. It engages Mackey’s spiritual and esoteric disposition along with his attention to what Amiri Baraka called the “enraged sociologies” of Black music. In his manifesto “Destination Out,” Mackey describes his work as “wanting to bid all givens goodbye” and as “centrifugal.” It is also centripetal, manifesting a reflexive interiority that creates itself through recurring forms. **Contributors:** Maria Damon, Joseph Donahue, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Norman Finkelstein, Luke Harley, Paul Jaussen, Adalaide Morris, Fred Moten, Peter O’Leary, Anthony Reed "As the first book to concentrate solely on the work of poet, novelist, literary critic, and editor Nathaniel Mackey, Nathaniel Mackey, Destination Out will make an important contribution to African American and Contemporary American literary and poetry criticism. Heuving provides an overview of Mackey's biography, work, and critical reception of his work, then brings together new and already important criticism from the field from scholars such as Fred Moten, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, and Peter O'Leary. Mackey cites poets William Carlos Williams and Amiri Baraka, in addition to jazz musicians John Coltrane and Don Cherry, as early influences in his exploration of how language can be infused and informed by music. Indeed, Mackey has broadcast jazz and world music as a DJ on local radio since the late 1970s, an endeavor he describes as similar to that of bringing together journal issues during his long tenure as the editor of Hambone magazine. About his own writing, he has said, "I try to cultivate the music of language, which is not just sounds. It's also meaning and implication. It's also nuance. It's also a kind of angular suggestion." In keeping with this melding of language and music, Heuving's volume is organized according to three distinct focuses of Mackey's work, which is especially useful for newcomers: myth, literature, and seriality; music, performance, and hybridity; and improvisation, what-saying, and so what? The authors the last section choose unconventional modes of essay writing, imitating Mackey's work even as they engage in criticism. Together, the volume represents an essential addition to the field"-- Provided by publisher

In this first book of essays devoted entirely to Nathaniel Mackey's work, prominent critics respond to a major oeuvre that is at once affirmative and utopic, negational and dystopic. Drawing on multiple genealogies and traditions, primarily from African and African diaspora histories and cultures, Mackey's work envisions cultural creation as cross-cultural, based in the damaging relationships of Africans brought against their will to the Americas and the resulting innovations of New World African literatures and music.This collection is organized through broad topics in order to provide entrances into his challenging work: myth, literature, and seriality; music, performance, and collaboration; syncretism, synopsis, and what-saying. It engages Mackey's spiritual and esoteric disposition along with his attention to what Amiri Baraka called the "enraged sociologies" of Black music. In his manifesto "Destination Out, " Mackey describes his work as "wanting to bid all givens goodbye" and as "centrifugal." It is also centripetal, manifesting a reflexive interiority that creates itself through recurring forms. Contributors: Maria Damon, Joseph Donahue, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Norman Finkelstein, Luke Harley, Paul Jaussen, Adalaide Morris, Fred Moten, Peter O'Leary, Anthony Reed

Contents 8 List of Abbreviations 10 Introduction | Jeanne Heuving 12 Part I | Myth, Literature, and Seriality 28 Chapter One | Norman Finkelstein - Mythos, Quest Romance, and Mackey’s “Wandering ‘We’” 30 Chapter Two | Peter O’Leary - Myth’s Ythmic Whatsay and Nathaniel Mackey 46 Chapter Three | Joseph Donahue - The Long Song and the Religion of Love 68 Chapter Four | Rachel Blau DuPlessis - “The / Whole Was Not the Half of It”: Mackey’s Long Poem and Its Poetics 94 Part II | Music, Performance, and Collaboration 114 Chapter Five | Paul Jaussen - Mackey’s Late Style 116 Chapter Six | Adalaide Morris - Thinking with “The Slave’s Day Off”: Speculative Practice in Mackey’s From a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate 134 Chapter Seven | Anthony Reed - A Common Wish to Make Real: Mackey’s Musicality Reconsidered 152 Chapter Eight | Luke Harley - Wariness Notwithstanding: Mackey’s Collaborations with Musicians 172 Part III | Syncretism, Synopsis, and Whatsaying 192 Chapter Nine | Maria Damon - Decapitism: Mackey’s Riverine Poiesis 194 Chapter Ten | Fred Moten - Soul Looks Back 216 Acknowledgments and Permissions 234 Notes 236 Works Cited 248 Contributors 260 Index 262