The cluster up for discussion today is Minimalisms Now: Race, Affect, Aesthetics, edited by Connor Bennett and Michael Dango. This is somewhat ironically a rather maximalist cluster on minimalism, comprising eleven fantastic essays, including Connor and Michael’s introduction, plus a great interview with Mark McGurl.

Contemporaries co-editor Michael Docherty sat down with Connor and Michael to think through some of the issues in contemporary minimalism with which the cluster engages, and the questions it invites. Joining us in our discussion were Annabelle Tseng and Tina Post.

Annabelle wrote “On Being Okay,” one of two essays in the cluster that respond to the writing of Weike Wang, and one which explores what Annabelle calls “a commitment to an unwavering state of being okay” as way of refusing racialized expectations of Asian American affective performance. Listeners who like the sound of that may also want to check out our previous cluster and accompanying podcast episode Gestures of Refusal, where similar ideas are explored.

Tina doesn’t feature in the cluster itself but we were delighted she could join us to share her expertise on the intersections of race, performance, withholding, and minimalism of both affect and aesthetics.

Tina's book Deadpan: The Aesthetics of Black Inexpression was recently published by NYU Press. Michael Dango's book Crisis Style: The Aesthetics of Repair is available from Stanford University Press.

Find Minimalisms Now at https://post45.org/contemporaries/.

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