ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the poetic and theoretical output of a constellation of contemporary St Petersburg and Moscow poets orbiting around the journal Translit, the Kraft chapbook series, and a number of poetry festivals. It looks at neo-avant-garde poetic practices that link experimental form with progressive politics, finding continuity with the historical avant-gardes of the 1910s and 1920s, with unofficial poetry throughout the Soviet period and with international language poetry. The chapter focuses on the work of Roman Osminkin, co-founder of Translit. The inimitably charismatic Osminkin draws on the work of Dmitrii Prigov but takes the performance of his poetry to new sites, through the musical performances of Tekhnopoeziia and his many musical groups, parodic YouTube videos, and sheer graphomaniacal output on Facebook and other online platforms. For Osminkin as for Medvedev, there is an interesting and productive tension between poetry and the musical performances.
