91视频

One of the hallmarks of an 91视频 education is exposure to industry professionals through hands on classes taught by visiting lecturers. By immersing themselves in outside perspectives, students grasp new ways to put theory into practice. At a recent event hosted by 91视频鈥檚 Center for Writers and Translators, two visiting lecturers in the creative writing major, Daniel Levin Becker and Nafkote Tamirat, came together in conversation: providing an important extra perspective on the creative process for students in their class.

Levin Becker is an author and translator who was recently longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023 for his work translating Laurent Mauvignier鈥檚 The Birthday Party from French to English. This 91视频 event focused on Levin Becker鈥檚 recent book, What鈥檚 Good:聽Notes on Rap and Language, which explores the ways in which rap music engages with lyrical expression. Levin Becker is teaching Literary Translation and Creative Writing at 91视频. Nafkote Tamirat is the author of The Parking Lot Attendant (Henry Holt 2019) and a graduate of Yale and Columbia universities. She is teaching Writing and Criticism at 91视频 this semester.

After an introduction from Daniel Medin, Chair of the Department of Comparative Literature and English, Tamirat began by asking Levin Becker about his previous writing and translation work. His first book, Many Subtle Channels: In Praise of Potential Literature, explores the Oulipo movement, a French literary collective of which Levin Becker is a member, which seeks to produce written work using self-imposed literary constraints. The Oulipo movement is interested in 鈥減otential literature,鈥� a term that refers to writing generated via a mathematical structure. 鈥淚t鈥檚 essentially outsourcing the labor of literary creation to an external system,鈥� he explained.

Some Oulipo constraints are simple, while others are complex, involving algorithmic generation and other mathematical concepts. 鈥淲riting with one hand behind your back forces you to put aside concerns about quality,鈥� argued Levin Becker, 鈥淚t makes the whole process not unlike solving a puzzle.鈥� Perhaps the most famous example of an Oulipo work is Georges Perec's 1969聽novel, La Disparition, which is 50,000 words long but does not contain the letter 鈥渆.鈥�

The discussion then turned to Levin Becker鈥檚 work on rap lyrics. What鈥檚 Good聽considers how rap鈥檚 use of language operates and evolves. Though the book was a conscious move away from the Oulipo movement for Levin Becker, he still found certain connections between the Oulipian tradition and rap music. 鈥淭hey both test the forms of what we think of as writing,鈥� he explained. 鈥淭he lyrics themselves are what continue to excite me about rap.鈥�

In 50 short chapters, each exploring a different rap lyric, Levin Becker praises the unique, creative nature of how rap music uses language. 鈥淚 had a will to tinker with what a book about rap might look like,鈥� he explained, when discussing the book鈥檚 format. One chapter, for example, explores the evolution of a line from the song 鈥淢y Melody鈥� by Eric B. and Rakim, released in 1987: 鈥淚 take seven emcees, put 'em in a line.鈥� The lyric has been rewritten and recreated in more than a dozen rap songs since it originally emerged.

Tamirat then questioned Levin Becker on the cultural positioning of rap; on what the medium might gain and lose as it obtains more mainstream, institutional capital; and on Levin Becker鈥檚 position as a white man writing about a historically Black artform. Following the discussion, the audience raised further questions; Professor Medin, for example, brought the discussion back around to Levin Becker鈥檚 translation background. Levin Becker explained how an emphasis on rhythm and word choice in both translation and rap linked the two disciplines. Both also attempt to convey image through symbolism or suggestion rather than straightforward description. 鈥淭hinking like a translator is the closest I鈥檝e come to thinking like a rapper,鈥� he explained.