Artist-scholar L. Martina Young (Dance BFA 78) offers a timely response to poet and Humanities scholar Joan Retallack’s question, “How can one frame a poetics of the swerve, a constructive preoccupation with what are unpredictable forms of change?” Young explores the concept of the ”‘arabesque” by drawing on its origins in Persian aesthetics, somatic ways of knowing, Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, and David Bohm’s physics. Weaving together these diverse fields with elements of memoir and poetry, the essay is centered on the wisdom and beauty of unity. This exploration frames a “poetics of the swerve,”addressing the unpredictable nature of change and its relevance to our contemporary socio-cultural landscape. Young posits unity as a critical ethos for the 21st century.

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Email: martina@apoeticbody.com
Website: www.apoeticbody.com