I think a big challenge for many writers considering an MFA or a PhD is trying to figure out where to go and who to study with. Often a young writer of color does not have easy access to information about programs or faculty who might be a good fit. Given the sheer number of possible programs, finding potential faculty mentors of color can be exhausting and discouraging. In an effort to remedy this in some small way, I've spent the last few weeks researching graduate creative writing programs, trying to build a snapshot of who is teaching where, and what genres are being covered in different programs.
Read MoreDe-Canon @ UNA Gallery - Three Poets In Conversation (LIVING CANON 2) : An Exhibit & "Library" Preview
June 1, 2017 @ UNA Gallery --- We were so pleased to debut a mini-preview of our De-Canon project as part of First Thursday's Art Walk.
We had three poets in conversation in exhibit-format in the upstairs part of the gallery: Stephanie Adams-Santos, Christopher Rose, and Trevino Brings Plenty displayed poems as text slides, audio readings, and video projection. Downstairs, we had one set of shelves displaying a small selection of quintessential texts by writers of color, contemporary works, and by writers no longer living.
This was just a sampling of the "pop-up library" installation that will be on exhibit at UNA for the month of August - and which will include a larger number of books and shelves, and more "exhibits" of poetry by local artists and writers.
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POC Mentorship & Community- On Seeking and Not Finding
The desire to seek out a mentor is an old one. One of the classic tropes in Tang dynasty poetry is the scholar-official's unsuccessful attempt to visit a recluse, often with the intent to discuss poetry and/or enlightenment. In most of these cases, the seeker's encounter with absence becomes the occasion for relaying a conversation that never takes place. Rather than viewing such missed encounters with disappointment, the tone of these poems tends toward a strange peaceful reverie in the poet's momentary brush with enlightenment (see Paula S. Varsano's excellent critical piece on this tradition). Somehow in not finding the hermit, the seeker finds something else awakened and revealed in the awaiting silence.
For most of us, the failure to find the mentor we are seeking rarely translates into an epiphany about what we are trying to do or become as writers. Instead, silence sometimes begets more silence. Absence, further absence. The missing mentor leaves a void that cannot be adequately or satisfactorily filled with the surrounding white noise of the world.
Read MoreOn Erasure: Quotes from Robin Coste Lewis's Lecture 'The Race Within Erasure'
"It's not that I'm trying to dis these historians ... [but] even sillier than thinking of erasure as an arts and craft exercise, is the avant-garde desire to locate erasures beginning in the 1960s, or to suggest that language poets were the originators of the post-modern (read: post-colonial--when you hear 'post-modern', read 'post-colonial'...) shift in western literature. It's not only a historically silly idea, but it misses much of the exquisite point of the vastness of erasure's reach, and, even more importantly, the vastness of literatures by people of color.
Read MoreWriters of Color Discussing Craft - An Invisible Archive
“I often wonder what I’d do if there weren’t any books in the world.”
― James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room
A few weeks ago I was thinking about how Junot Diaz often comments on the fact he’s almost never asked to speak about craft, and instead always is asked to talk about race, identity, and the immigrant experience. And it’s true — when I think about all the books on writing craft I’ve read or heard about over the years I’m struck by how few POC-authored books on writing I’ve seen. Are they really that rare? Or are the books and essays out there, but we don’t know where to find them?
Read MoreFirst Book Donations to De-Canon Popup Library
We are beginning to gather books for the popup library installation project. The first two books in the De-Canon collection are courtesy of Stephanie Adams-Santos: her most recent poetry collection Swarm Queen's Crown, and one earlier collection, Total Memory. Thank you, Steph, for these gifts to the library!
Our "popup library" will debut in August 2017 at UNA Gallery. A preview event and reading will take place, also at UNA, on June 1st.
Read MoreLiving Canon Talk 1: Samiya Bashir & Neil Aitken, with moderator Zahir Janmohamed
On March 11, we held our very first Living Canon Talk at the High and Low Gallery in Portland, Oregon. Panelists were poets Samiya Bashir and Neil Aitken. Our moderator was Zahir Janmohamed (host of Racist Sandwich podcast). With these "living canon" talks, De-Canon seeks to challenge the notion of literary canons as fixed or established, instead presenting conversations that are dynamic, ever-evolving, and of the moment.
The etymology of the word “canon” goes back to Latin and Greek phrases for: “church law” and "measuring line" and "any straight rod or bar; rule; standard of excellence”; possibly derived from kanna, which was the Greek word for “reed” or “cane”.
Read MoreDao Strom Discusses De-Canon with The Portland Mercury
Back in February, Kjerstin Johnson of The Portland Mercury interviewed Dao Strom to learn more about the De-Canon project.
“It’s definitely a time in this country when it’s important to give visibility to marginalized voices. And then for us, as artists of color, to come together and form a community,” says Portland writer Dao Strom.
De-Canon, a visibility project, aims to do just that—build community online and off—while showcasing literary work by writers of color that, according to the project’s website, is “inclusive, diverse, and multi-storied in their approach to representation.”
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