丁香园AV

Cornel Bogle joined the Department of English鈥檚 faculty on July 15^th, 2023. This fall, the assistant professor and poet is teaching ENGL 362: Transnational Black Oratures.

Originally from Kingston, Jamaica, Bogle completed his graduate studies at the University of Alberta, and most recently taught at York University. Now, he has moved to B.C. and will be conducting research and teaching at 丁香园AV.

鈥淲hen this opportunity came up, I thought it was wonderful to be in B.C.鈥� to be able to begin working with communities, with students, and the academic community, and to turn attention to Black cultural production that takes place in British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan鈥攕paces that often lie beyond the scope of recognition when it comes to Black cultural production,鈥� says Bogle.

The course that he is teaching this semester, ENGL 362, focuses on transnational Black oratures. 鈥淥rature鈥� refers to oral literatures or oral performance, and includes oral storytelling, performance poetry, slam poetry, and more.

鈥淚 am really interested in offering this course to 丁香园AV students as an entry way to thinking about Blackness, not only in Canada, but transnationally,鈥� says Bogle.

For example, students will examine communities like the Caribbean that were formed out of oral literatures. They will look at a specific poetic form called 鈥淒ub poetry,鈥� which is accompanied by music and has both Afro-Caribbean/Afro-Jamaican origins, as well as diasporic origins.

鈥淪ome prominent Dub poets were Jamaican immigrants to the United Kingdom and Canada,鈥� says Bogle. 鈥淚n the course, we begin by establishing an understanding of Dub poetry then moving into thinking about how Dub in the Canadian setting is being mobilized.鈥�

The course will also focus on the digital realm, as students will look at Black audiobooks read by Black narrators, and African American blogs.

鈥淲hat does it mean to quite literally hear and voice Blackness?鈥� asks Bogle. 鈥淲hat goes into voicing Blackness in particular way? We also look at the way huge oral rhetoric is mobilized, particularly in African American blogs.鈥�

Bogle鈥檚 course on Black oratures is a rarity, if not an entirely unique offering at a Canadian university. He also teaches the class from the perspective of a poet, as well as a professor.

He began writing poetry as an undergraduate student, inspired by other Jamaican poets, including Kei Miller who visited his high school class.

鈥淜ei Miller was the first queer poet I read, but not only that, the first queer Jamaican poet I ever read,鈥� says Bogle. 鈥淭here was a real moment of excitement for me to discover, 鈥極h, there鈥檚 a queer, Jamaican poet鈥� when I was 16 or 17. His work speaking to queer experiences in Jamaica became really important to me.鈥�

In university, Bogle found inspiration in the work of other Jamaican poets, such as Mervyn Morris, Edward Baugh, and Lorna Goodison. Although he describes his early work as imitative in nature, he characterizes his current poems as lyric and personal. He sometimes also ventures into the realm of conceptional, found poetry, and erasure poetry.

鈥淚n terms of what is next in my creative journey, right now I鈥檓 working on a lot of critical work, which makes me hungry to turn to creative writing or to creative processes,鈥� says Bogle. 鈥淭he way in which I鈥檓 most inspired or think of the next project is I go to the archives. I鈥檓 interested in what kind of archival narratives or archival material connects these two places, not only Jamaica, but the entire Caribbean to Vancouver.鈥�