Speaker: Olivia Angé - Université libre de Bruxelles
Date: 4 July 2023
Venue: Université de Liège - Belgium
Link: meam.uliege.be

Potato Verses as Interspecies Respect in the Potato Park of the Peruvian Highlands

Abstract

A dear crop to many humans, potato inspired as famous artists as Van Gogh or Neruda. In its center of domestication, this tuber also is a muse to anonymous poets. Yet the verses performed by Andean growers are unique in being firstly addressed to tubers themselves. This presentation introduces agricultural poetry as relations of respect enabling tubers to respond back in interactions. In the context of the Potato Park, a biodiversity conservation initiative in the Cuzco highlands, they are enacted as cosmopolitical verses reclaiming growers’ kinship to their tuberous companions.