Citizen: An American Lyric (VUSM 200): About the Author

Claudia Rankine, chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, speaks about her much-awaited follow-up to her groundbreaking work Don’t Let Me Be Lonely. A provocative meditation on race (and short-listed for the National Book Award), Citizen: An American Lyric recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in twenty-first century daily life and in the media. Some of these encounters are slights, seeming slips of the tongue, and some are intentional offensives in the classroom, at the supermarket, at home, on the tennis court with Serena Williams and the soccer field with Zinedine Zidane, online, on TV—everywhere, all the time. The accumulative stresses come to bear on a person’s ability to speak, perform, and stay alive.

Poet, playwright, and Yale University professor Claudia Rankine was at the American Academy in Berlin in November 2019 to deliver the John W. Kluge lecture, entitled “The Racialized Space of the Conversation.” The Academy’s “Beyond the Lecture” podcast sat down with Rankine to discuss the social and psychological dynamics at work in the conversations she cites in her forthcoming book, Just Us, a collection of essays that critically engages with issues of race, privilege, and whiteness.

This episode was made quickly during a time of uprising following the killing of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade and countless other African Americans by police. It connects these serious concerns to two #100hardtruths: Black Lives Matter (#44) and Digital Participation is Reflexive (#97). For this episode, we chose to play the audio from “Situation 8,” one of a series of Situation videos Claudia made with her husband, the filmmaker John Lucas, from 2015-2017. These are multi-genre responses to contemporary America that resonate with us, not only as people, but as citizens. “Between us. Between strangers. Our civic contract states. We will act in each others best interest for no other reason. Than we are here together.” (Claudia Rankine and John Lucas, "Situation 8"). Please be advised, the soundtrack from Situation 8 includes graphic audio of violence.

The United States is experiencing a time of reckoning, but too often it seems like we’re all talking past each another other rather than attempting meaningful dialogue. In Just Us, Claudia Rankine provides a blueprint for how we talk about and experience race in America. Listen as she and Amanda examine the emotions underpinning white privilege, shine a light on racial inequality in its less obvious forms, and explain what it actually means when a white person, "doesn't see color."

It is such an honour to welcome the extraordinary Claudia Rankine to the podcast. She is a poet, playwright and essayist, a woman who's life's work has been devoted to the interrogation of race and white supremacy and to the discovery of what connects - and divides - us as human beings. Her 2014 book, Citizen: An American Lyric is the only poetry book to be a New York Times bestseller in the non-fiction category. It also won the Forward Poetry Prize. Her latest work, Just Us, explores a series of real encounters with friends and strangers. Its genre-defying essays, images and poems span everything from Beyonce to airport lounges. This was, I think, one of the most important conversations I have *ever* had about race. Being able to listen and learn from Claudia's wisdom and intellect was an unforgettable experience and I'm so glad that I get to share it with you.

The poet, essayist, and playwright Claudia Rankine says every conversation about race doesn’t need to be about racism. But she says all of us — and especially white people — need to find a way to talk about it, even when it gets uncomfortable. Her bestselling book, “Citizen: An American Lyric,” catalogued the painful daily experiences of lived racism for people of color. Claudia models how it’s possible to bring that reality into the open — not to fight, but to draw closer. And she shows how we can do this with everyone, from our intimate friends to strangers on airplanes.

Host Helga Davis talks to author Claudia Rankine about who holds the power in our democracy, and what it means to earn a mother’s understanding of your work. In this episode, Rankine also reveals her superpower, and the advice she would offer everyone who looks for fresh inspiration.