Ariana Reines

Ariana Reines (born on October 24, 1982) is an American poet, playwright, performance artist, and translator.

Ariana Reines at Temps Libre, Montréal, Quebec, Canada (2017)

Quotes

• Poetry shows up where language shows up – a mysterious supplement, to borrow or deform an old Derrida epithet, that we cannot do without, and that just might be the basis of the material world as we know it. Well, if not language as such, then sound…
  • On poetry in “INTERVIEW WITH ARIANA REINES” in The White Review (July 2019)

• Writing is a transformative act and writing the occult, which I interpret as writing what’s invisible, or apparently invisible, is inevitably connected to writing my desire as a woman…
  • On writing as a woman in “INTERVIEW WITH ARIANA REINES” in The White Review (July 2019)

• Asking poetry to fulfil a (merely) political function would be a mistake. This tends to lead us to poetry that, however cleverly or inventively, can do no better than denounce the apparently evil and/or praise the good. Worse, we get something that is very much in fashion right now: the fetishisation and weaponisation of our own pain.…
  • On keeping poetry apolitical in “INTERVIEW WITH ARIANA REINES” in The White Review (July 2019)

• The study and practice of poetry can equip you to 'boldly go where no man has gone before,' but it's not enough to go there—you have to be able to bear witness. Without witnessing, experience dissolves into nothing.
  • On the practice of poetry in “Ariana Reines Knows That Not All Surrender Is Bad” in Nylon Magazine (2019 Oct 15)