| Summary: | This article documents the methods of defamiliarisation that Lemn Sissay uses to prove, test, destabilise, amplify, write and re-write his presence on stage. It suggests the term ‘performed palimpsest’ to describe the introductions, interruptions and splicing together of observation, aside, commentary and self-critique that play a prominent role in Sissay’s poetic practice. Viewing Sissay’s (a)live writing in relation to Bertolt Brecht’s verfremdungseffekt offers revealing parallels and prompts a discussion around how and why Sissay defamiliarises himself/the moment of performance through performed palimpsests, vocal techniques, self-estrangement of gesture, and failure as a generative tool.
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