There are ways of being together that are subordinate, imposed, forced, and enforced by the State. How can we change language and/or its meaning in order to subvert or trouble these ways of being together, or to be aware of them in the first place? How can we use documents — such as President Barack Obama’s “apology” (The Congressional Resolution of Apology to Native Americans) in Layli Long Soldier’s WHEREAS — or dictionary definitions — as in Marwa Helal’s Invasive species — to do this? How can language help us to reimagine modes of being together that are driven by compassion and value shared knowledge and lived experience (the subjective) over those that are enforced upon us, driven by greed, authority, capitalism, and ownership (the objective)?

During The Poetry Project’s March 2019 Dis/Courses session, Bring Down The State But Have Fun Doing It: Poetry and Nations, we took time and created space to consider ways in which we might be together outside of the capitalist, empirical, colonial, hetero-patriarchal, white supremacist structures of the State. As a part of that session, we came up with our own re-definitions of “key terms” of our choosing in order to trouble or subvert what’s been imposed, to change the narrative, and re-envision more just ways of being together.

To be considered for publication in an upcoming issue of HOUSE PARTY, submit your responses, disruptions,  protest & resistance strategies to PARTY LINE #5