MANIFESTO FOR CONCRETE POETRY

Jody Stillwater
2024-10-04

0
7 min

In 1979, Native Hawaiian poet Wayne Kaumualii Westlake (1947–1984) published MANIFESTO [for Concrete Poetry], a sardonic and avant-garde three-page poem that challenged the conventions of language and form. Reexamining the roots of Dadaism and the International Concrete Poetry movement of the 1950s, the film transforms text into a living, dynamic force—an interplay of words, sound, and movement that defies traditional narrative constraints.