I believe that fully showing up as yourself, and radically more, creates the groundwork for an infinite amount of possible futures.”
Temperance Aghamohammadi (she/her)
PhD Student in English
Temperance Aghamohammadi is a first-year PhD student in English in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. She studies global radical poetry and poetics written by women, queer writers, and writers of color. Temperance’s poems have been published or are forthcoming in many literary magazines including New England Review, Kenyon Review, ANNULET, and PRISM international.
How would you describe your research and/or work to a non-academic audience?
I research global contemporary experimental poetry and poetics through the lens of art theory & practice, sound/sonics, phenomenology, and critical hermeneutics. I study networks of sound, image, and thought in poetry, poetics, and music—particularly in radical works written by women, queer writers, and writers of color—and how they serve as non-normative, hidden, or subterfuge modes of meaning-making. I am particularly in the realm of the non-representational, the somatic, and the abstract. What’s at stake in this work is how we engage with the world and with each other; what it means to communicate; what it means to create; and how we can move forward into the productive unknown.
Tell us what inspired your research and/or work.
I am a poet myself and find that my research questions always route themselves back through my artistic practice. Always curious about how others approach their art, I find myself tracing the ways their work moves, operates, and breathes. In my own poetry, I am always moving to the brink of language, the cliff’s edge, the deep abyss, where language threatens to catch fire or fail.
What books are on your bedside table?
Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season by Forough Farrokhzad. She was a dynamic, rebellious, and inventive poet, one who always shines a light for me in the dark. As an Iranian-American poet myself, she inspires and encourages me to move forward, take risks, and experience the world fully and passionately. Because of her, I always discover and see love, magic, and mystery in the world.
What inspires you?
Experimental film. Bold fashion. Music—from experimental electronic to classical to jazz to standards. Flowers—hyacinths, violets, and wisteria. My friends, both near and far, and their commitment to creating art and new ways to live our lives. The sublime, the exquisite, and the decadent. I believe that fully showing up as yourself, and radically more, creates the groundwork for an infinite amount of possible futures.
What advice would you give your younger self or someone considering a similar path?
If what you're doing is difficult and still feels right, you're on the path of something important, alchemical, and essential; push forward and don't forget to rest. Search out those people who will support you on the quest you're on—look far, look wide, and beyond expectations. These people will revive you. Open yourself up to the world; the ordinary and the extraordinary will push you and your work to new horizons of possibilities. Do not be afraid to live your life; your life is your ultimate work. Finally, always allow space in your life for mysteries and magic to blossom and to thrive.
What are you most proud of in your career to date?
I am most proud of my commitment to continually evolve, transform, and push myself. I want to do bold work, work that challenges me, work that transforms me. When I’ve reached a place where I can feel my research or artistic practice begin to do work on me as opposed to the other way around, I know I’m on the track of something beautiful and ecstatic.
Publish Date: November 26, 2024
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