The Strange Case of CanLit’s Disappeared Black Poet

“The only mention of Philip I have been able to find in relation to Hamadeh’s work is a Visitor’s Guide to the museum where the installation was being held, which makes passing reference to Philip and to the historical Zong massacre but not in reference to each other. But out of the many interviews Hamadeh has done, none link her work with Philip or speak of the exhaustive archival research Philip has done to bring the legal case of the Zong massacre back into our contemporary imaginary. This is not only a glaring critical blindness—it is unbelievable, given how much Zong! is studied, critiqued, and written about, that anyone speaking critically about this work would not bring up Philip’s name or her work—it also indicates a greater act of erasure and appropriation.”

 

Kate Siklosi – The Puritan – August 2018

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