Poet Cyrée Jarelle Johnson explores the way anti-Blackness, trauma, and environmental degradation converge to create bodies that internalize overcorrection, resulting in disablement, debility, and disability. Viewing systemic disabilities through the lens of cyborg studies, Johnson uses their background in library and information science to consider the role overcorrection and planned obsolescence play in contemporary American culture.

Cyrée Jarelle Johnson is a poet from Piscataway, New Jersey. He is the author of SLINGSHOT (Nightboat Books, 2019), winner of a Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry. Johnson was awarded a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation and served as the inaugural poet-in-residence at the Brooklyn Public Library. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Apogee, Foglifter, WUSSY, and Atmos among other publications. WATCHNIGHT, his forthcoming book of poetry, considers ancestry as history in the context of the Great Black Migration of the 20th century, familial estrangement, and queer family. He is a 2023 National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellow.

Correction* Seminar Series 

A series of twelve seminars, presented from September 2022 through May 2024, Correction* is structured as an open curriculum. Led by Vera List Center faculty and staff, each monthly seminar in this two-year series explores the perils and potentials of the political, social, and metaphorical implications of “correction.” Bridging theory and practice, Correction* unfolds through three distinct research clusters every semester set to guide our joint investigation into Restitution, the Body, and Carcerality. It is presented as part of the Barbara Jordan Lectures: The State of Democracy series.

The Vera List Center is committed to ensuring that our programs are accessible to and inclusive of all. This program will feature American Sign Language interpretation as well as auto-generated captions. Please let us know when registering if you need any additional accommodation.