Is there an ethical benefit to certain kinds of appropriative practices? To answer this, we can consider the varieties of artistic and cultural appropriation we accept and also reject, while also discussing how our particular fantasies around authenticity may hamper our best efforts to diversify our institutions.
Paisley Rekdal is the author of four books of nonfiction, and seven books of poetry. Her work has received the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an NEA Fellowship, Pushcart Prizes, the Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, and various state arts council awards. The former Utah poet laureate, she teaches at the University of Utah where she is a distinguished professor.
Part of the Kennedy Center's fall 2023 lecture series, "Preserving and Transforming Culture."