U.S. Poet, VMU Lecturer Dr. Malachi Black: Liberal Arts Equip Us to Inhabit Our Humanity

“Political strategist James Carville coined something of a mantra for Bill Clinton: “It’s the economy, stupid”. I believe that when many Americans experience themselves as players in a game such as Monopoly, issues of the availability and affordability of resources can take a level of centrality that prohibits a longer-term vision. The outcome of the presidential election is perhaps foremost an indication of what happens in the absence of a widespread assimilation of the liberal arts. I think the U.S. will learn more deeply what it has chosen in the months and years to come”, deliberates Lithuanian-origin U.S. poet, University of San Diego Associate Professor of English Dr. Malachi Black, who is currently teaching at Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) as part of the Fulbright Program.

According to him, through presidential elections, it may be possible to see new expressions of what is a constantly moving sense of identity. In the lectures of American Civilization for the students of English Philology at VMU, Dr. Black emphasizes American self-conception: how it is understood through elements of narrative as well as through political structures and even games such as Monopoly, which can be seen as reflecting American civilization and culture.

The lecturer claims that he is a big proponent of liberal arts – i.e. a study system which encompasses various disciplines ranging from natural sciences to philosophy and encourages broad and deep thinking. He cites literary critic Kenneth Burke, whose description of literature as “equipment for living” quite readily applies to the liberal arts. It is no coincidence that currently Dr. Black is teaching at VMU – a university which was the first one in Lithuania to implement the concept of liberal arts in its studies.

“The liberal arts provide a discrete set of capacities that occasion and sustain our freedom. They enable us to be free from the captivity of our ignorance, and they also serve as the contour of free inquiry, which remains the foundation of any free society. I think the liberal arts also equip us to inhabit our humanity, which is of increasing relevance in our encounters with accelerating technologies. As the 21st century continues, we will see that the liberal arts are, in fact, the primary mechanism for retaining a sense of a clarity of value systems and a sense of purpose”, predicts Dr. Black.

In an era of limited attention, no art is as available as poetry

The poet, who has earned numerous awards, claims that poetry today is one of the most underrated arts. Poetry, much like the liberal arts and literature, provides depth to life and one’s understanding of the world. Dr. Black cites a character from James Joyce’s Ulysses who described this depth succinctly: “The supreme question about a work of art is out of how deep a life does it spring?”.

“That depth of experience is something that poetry, when it's encountered in all of its strangeness and all of its tentativeness and all of its profundity, can deliver to any reader. More regular encounters with the substance of the human that lies at the center of the poetic would alleviate us of a great number of challenges. In an era of limited attention, there could be no more available art than poetry, and yet I'm not sure how many people know it continues to exist”, the writer explains.

Constant interweaving of history and futurity in Lithuania

Dr. Malachi Black has Lithuanian roots, as his great-grandparents from his father’s side hailed from Lithuania: great-grandfather Morris Black came from the Truskava town in Kėdainiai District, while great-grandmother Rebecca Black came from Šeduva in Radviliškis District. The lecturer reveals that he has visited those places, even though there is not much known about his great-grandparents, as they emigrated to the U.S. in 1904–1905.

“When they left, Lithuania was still under Tsarist control, and their traces are very, very limited. Šeduva is unusual in many ways. It’s the site now of a major museum project called The Lost Shtetl, which is financed by donations from primarily, I think, South African benefactors. So it is its own space of international intersection. I think there’s a deep power in placing my feet on the dirt streets of Truskava or Šeduva, the same dirt, I assume, that was caught in the boots of my ancestors”, the poet states, adding that he finds Lithuania’s people, culture and nature inspiring.

“What Lithuania has accomplished in less than 35 full years of independence is tremendous. Among the things that I find deeply resonant about my experience here on a daily basis is something that I also find characteristic of my most enthusiastic encounters with philosophy and literature, the Arts in general, and indeed the liberal arts, and that is the mutually illuminating encounter of the past with the future. I think that in Lithuania—on material, architectural as well as spiritual or civilizational levels—we see this constant mutual interweaving of a kind of history with a kind of futurity”, Dr. Black argues.

The American is also no stranger to the climate typical to Lithuania, as he grew up not far from New York City, where seasonal change is also common. “I think there is probably a multitude of Lithuanias, depending on the person one meets, the generation from which that person springs, and that may be true of all countries. But for me, as an outsider, who's paying a kind of anthropological attention, I understand that, as in maybe the most advanced forms of physics, I'm a particle whose observation influences where I am and what I see”, he deliberates.

Impressed by VMU students’ faith in the genuine

While sharing thoughts on students in the U.S. and at VMU, the lecturer notes that today the main passport “carried” by youths around the world is their social media account. To young people, the internet is not just something virtual: they perceive both the real world and the internet as equally real. According to Dr. Black, this possibly influences something in the nature of their attention.

“But I have found that the students at VMU are wonderfully responsive to genuineness, to the expression of sincere concern. They have a refreshing faith in the power of the genuine as a source of guidance and as an indication of meaningfulness. I appreciate that very much”, says Dr. Black, who is currently teaching VMU Dept. of English Philology. Next semester, he will teach subjects of Literature and Media as well as Ethnic Literatures.

When asked about memorable poems he has read recently, Dr. Malachi Black reveals that he was very moved by ‘Overheard at a Reading’ by Matthew Buckley Smith, which was published in the literary journal 32 Poems. The poet himself is currently working on new poems: according to him, his latest work is based on experiences in Lithuania: the everyday life and the intersections between the past, the present, and the future.

Discussing inspiration, Dr. Malachi Black argues that for him it comes from consciousness itself. He sees language as an interesting membrane which constitutes the intersection between interior and exterior worlds and enables people to better understand themselves, their emotions, and experience of the world. The most difficult work of the writer, he says, is to distinguish between the true and the false, and between the expressions that are gratuitous and unnecessary and those that are necessary.

“The things that are necessary come on their own time frame and on their own terms. It's our task, much as in the case of athletics, like an Olympian who is training all the time, to be ready for the critical event when it occurs. And so most writing is bad, my own and everyone's, and we have to learn to understand where the truth is in what we have to say and learn how to cultivate that”, Dr. Black concludes.

Dr. Malachi Black is teaching at the Dept. of English Philology of Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) as part of the Fulbright Program.