An American Conversation: Claudia Rankine

American-Jamaican author Claudia Rankine has made a big impression in recent years with her collections of poetry, essays and interdisciplinary books. She writes ruthlessly about racism in the United States, using words to make sense of what it is like to be discriminated against, and what it is like to discriminate, the shame and anger that comes with both. In June, Atlas Contact will publish the Dutch translation of her most famous work, Citizen: An American Lyric, translated by Janneke van der Meulen. In this program, Nancy Jouwe interviews Rankine at length about her work and thought, and Claudia Rankine will recite a long excerpt from Citizen.

Nancy Jouwe is a cultural historian and works as a freelance researcher, writer, lecturer and public speaker with a focus on the (post)colonial past and present, intersectionality and social and cultural practices.