About Édouard Glissant at The Graduate Center
Édouard Glissant (1928–2011) is widely recognized as a poet, novelist, theorist, and thinker of difference. His concepts of opacity, poetics of relation, and the all-world have been particularly strong touchpoints for scholars across disciplines since the 1990s, as has his participation in anti-colonial political movements.
Born in Martinique and a longtime Parisian, Glissant spent sixteen years teaching at the Graduate Center as a Distinguished Professor in the French Department (1995–2011), where he connected with countless students in his weekly seminars and Friday evening Poetry Club meetings at his apartment.
In 2018-2019, curators Hans Ulrich Obrist, Asad Raza, and Gabriela Rangel will bring Glissant back to New York with the exhibition Lydia Cabrera and Édouard Glissant: Trembling Thinking at the Americas Society (680 Park Ave.), featuring his work alongside that of Cuban anthropologist Lydia Cabrera (1899–1991), an expert on Afro-Cuban religions. Their scholarship will be read through modern and contemporary artists, such as Roberto Matta, Wilfredo Lam, Tania Bruguera, and Anri Sala.
During the run of the exhibition, from October 9, 2018 to January 12, 2019, The Graduate Center CUNY will host events about his wide influence on today’s scholarship. Ephemera from his time here will also be displayed in a showcase in The Object Library on the ground floor.
Related events:
Édouard Glissant: One World in Relation, Tuesday, November 6, 6:30pm, Segal Theater – Film screening of Édouard Glissant: One World in Relation, directed by Manthia Diawara. Following by a discussion with Manthia Diawara.
Édouard Glissant’s Tout-Monde: Transnational Perspectives. A Symposium Honoring the Memory of Édouard Glissant, Friday, November 16, 1:00 – 6:00pm, Elebash Recital Hall – Organized by the Henri Peyre French Institute; co-sponsored by IRADAC, The Center for the Humanities and ARC.
