M. Nourbese Philip, Zong!

M. NourbeSe Philip’s Zong! is a powerful work of documentary poetry which writes through a 1781 court case called Gregson v. Gilbert. Be aware that the book, and the materials that follow, contain explicit reference to violence in the transatlantic slave trade.

Read an overview: https://zong.world/

In the ‘Notanda’ that follows, Philip describes a process of discerning how “to not tell the story that must be told” (189). There is the journey of the ship, the journey of the text, and the journey of the poet as Philip discerns what it might mean for poetry to cross through the logic of violence of this legal document, and instead to find “many silences within the Silence of the text” (189). Philip sees the legal text as a public monument or tombstone, and her approach to not-telling the story that can’t be told can also be seen as a way of moving through a space in altered routes, trying “to explode the words to see what other words they may contain.” (p.200).

As you are reading/ listening from Zong! consider:

  • What quotes stand out to you from the Notanda?

  • What elements of M. NourbeSe Philip’s process speak to your own study? What elements of the process of Zong! are not for you to take into your own study?

  • Is there a document or body of language that has come to you as an object of study, in the way that Philip describes?

  • What does it mean to move in pilgrimage through a document or body of language? What processes of interaction might this include? M. NourbeSe Philip describes conditions she created (ceremonial elements while writing, a journey to seek ‘permission,’ a series of conversations with other authors and family). What conditions or permissions might be included in your process of pilgrimage through a document?

  • What sensations did you experience reading or listening to/ watching excerpts from Zong! ?

Excerpts from Zong!: https://www.nourbese.com/poetry/zong-3/zong-selections/

Additional Live Readings: https://www.nourbese.com/zong/

April 28, 2021 4:30pm Eastern: A Conversation with M. NourbeSe Philip: https://intothedeluge.com/m-nourbese-philip.html