Chapter 16: Poet-in-Residence and Productive Frictions

This research critically analyzes the current literature pertaining to artist and poet residencies hosted by civic institutions and within library settings. A secondary objective of this research is to define relevant terms within the literature clearly and to examine closely the productive frictions that are at the crux of artist and poet residencies in terms of value. The literature review will scrutinize productive frictions in the context of artist and poet residencies and parse out the different values in relation to artists–poets, host institutions, and community, respectively. The interrogation will then examine the obstacles to productive friction within artist–poet residencies for the troika of artists, host institutions, and community, and the overlap and differences in terms of challenges. Ultimately, the literature review will investigate what the overall literature is advancing regarding productive frictions and artist–poet residencies and introduce a new research question to further the discourse. The question that underpins the study: What are the shared characteristics that impede productive frictions for each stakeholder group? Employing a discourse analysis methodology, I confirm that miscommunication, unrealistic expectations, and shortcomings in institutional support characterize unproductive frictions. This throughline of reasoning will also be supported by a case study of my experiences as a poet-librarian developing poetry-centric programming for the community in Southern California.