‘Avert the ICY Feeling’: Bhanu Kapil and Performing the Life of a Poet in White Spaces

Beginning with the conclusion of Alan Davies' 2013 essay ‘Notes on Conceptualism', this article analyses the written works and performances of British-Indian poet Bhanu Kapil to ask what it takes to make ‘habitable space' for a poet or a poem, and what it means to live the ‘life of a poet' - particularly in the presumed white spaces of contemporary US and UK poetry scenes. I argue that Kapil activates performance to gain temporary access to the privileged spaces where the ‘life of a poet' is imagined to be lived, as well as the wages that poetry might pay. At the same time, her performances - which, I argue, operate as gimmicks - draw attention to the otherwise hidden structures that make ‘habitable' spaces for poets and poems. I conclude that Kapil’s work is especially suited to revealing that the role of a poet, instead of being neutral, is a position implicitly identified with whiteness, especially in the poetry cultures of the United States and UK.