Catastrophe, Inventions, Endless Abandon

When: Thursday, March 12, 2026, 2:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Where: BLOC, Arts One, Mile End Campus

Speaker: David Marriott, Charissa Granger, Pat Noxolo, Arun Saldanha, Jay Bernard

A series of events responding to Frantz Fanon's call to introduce 'invention into existence' via philosophy, restitution geography & poetry

Inventions (Thursday, 2-5pm): Drawing on David Marriott’s readings of the “Inventions of Existence” in the work of Sylvia Wynter and Frantz Fanon (most notably in Whither Fanon?), we bring together four leading scholars—David Marriott (Emory University), Charissa Granger (University of West Indies, Trinidad), Pat Noxolo (University of Birmingham) and Arun Saldanha (University of Minnesota)—to think about the practice of inventions in the context of colonial histories, restitution geographies, reparations and in the aesthetics of restitution, in excess of the reinvention the Human or reparations.

Endless Abandon (Thursday, 6.30-8.30pm): An evening of poetry and performance that asks: what ‘inventions into existence’ can poetry propose? What in the world can poetry make, if not do? As the interlocking tidal waves of crisis and catastrophe move through us – psychically, materially, ecologically – and as we perceive the ways language is put in service of death, we wonder at poetry’s hold. Poetry and music can create spaces for us to meet, to listen together, to refuse meaning and amplify life, to leap with abandon. Join us and hear from extraordinary poets D. S. Marriott, Jay Bernard, James Goodwin and steelpan musician Charissa Granger.

A collaboration between QMUL’s Forum for DeCentering the Human, Critical Cultural Geographies, Centre for Contemporary Writing, and the Judith E Wilson Drama Studio in Cambridge.