John Lee Clark

If you had to make a self portrait of your daily morning routine through language and sensation, what would you include? John Lee Clark offers memories of a birthday through experiences the body holds.John Lee Clark is a DeafBlind poet, essayist, historian, translator, and an actor in the Protactile movement. He is the author of the poetry collection How to Communicate (W. W. Norton & Company, 2022) and the essay collection Where I Stand (Handtype Press, 2014). Clark is a 2021-2023 Bush Leadership Fellow, a core member of Protactile Language Interpreting National Education Center, and a research consultant with the Reciprocity Lab at the University of Chicago.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.We’re pleased to offer John Lee Clark’s poem, and invite you to connect with Poetry Unbound throughout this season.

Raymond Antrobus and John Lee Clark discuss tactile poetry, diverse voices in literature, sign language syntax, and the influence of music on Black British poetry. They explore sensory imageries, cultural influences on sign language, and the significance of their poems 'A Protactile Version of ‘Tintern Abbey’' and 'Signs Music.'