(S)worn State(s)

Description

(S)worn State(s) is a collaborative poetry project by three of Ireland’s most exciting literary voices. Annemarie Ní Churreáin, Kimberly Campanello and Dimitra Xidous are motivated by revolutionary approaches to art and politics. Their work is characterised by visual, multi-lingual and embodied approaches to language, and they are influenced by writers and artists whose work transcends the author’s point-of-view so that the reader can hear her own voice. They take inspiration from Irish history, landscape and pre- Christian traditions and seek to excavate and re-make language and myth and infuse them with their rich constellation of perspectives, that of an Irish-born poet who is an Irish speaker, an Irish poet with dual American citizenship who is a French speaker, and a poet with Canadian citizenship now resident in Ireland who is a Greek speaker. (S)worn State(s) refers to the language of testimony and declares the poet as witness in language, a witness who remembers and reimagines women’s experiences of shifting historical and cultural landscapes in this decade of centenaries and beyond. The project interweaves autobiography, social history and myth to confront issues around reproduction, labour, and erotic autonomy and evoke a wide range of ‘states’ of female embodiment and thought, including pleasure, joy, and experiences of intellectual interrogation. It challenges ‘worn’ narratives of perpetual female suffering and self-alienation and reminds readers that bodies think, that women move and think, in bodies. (S)worn State(s) is a recipient of the Markievicz Award administered by the Arts Council on behalf of the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and will culminate in a letterpress publication by The Salvage Press in 2021.  

Publications and outputs

Letterpress publication with the Salvage Press and hour-long performance.

Project website

http://www.kimberlycampanello.com/swornstates