This episode is a conversation between Naz Cuguoğlu and Steve Dickison. Steve directed The Poetry Center & American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University from 1999 to 2024, and is a writer whose work engages deeply with poetry, criticism, and conversation. Naz is a curator of contemporary art, currently working at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, whose practice unfolds across exhibitions, research, and collaborative formats.
In this episode, Steve and Naz come together around Etel Adnan’s The Arab Apocalypse, whose work sits at the heart of this conversation. Reflecting on poetry, sound, translation and the presence of “the hidden.” They speak of pausing, of breathing with the times we live in, and of calling Etel in—holding space for her work through friendship, care, and attention. The depth of their love for Etel and her work resonates throughout the conversation, carrying something that moves beyond language.
To find a full transcript of this episode, and resources mentioned, visit our website.
This episode is part of a mini-series,Choreographing the Apocalypse, which is guest curated by Mine Kaplangı, a Folkestone-based curator and art mediator from Istanbul.
It forms part of their ongoing research into queer and trans imaginaries of the apocalypse(s). They will be inviting artists, thinkers, and somatic practitioners to explore apocalyptic thinking through speculative world-building and radically intimate frameworks.
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