Who is championing Filipino American literature on a national level? Who is advocating for our writers, with respect to performance, publication, and review? Who is mentoring our emerging writers as they work their way through writing workshops and writing programs, drafting, revising, editing poems, compiling manuscripts, submitting them for publication, and is this being done with respect to the writers’ visions and voices? Is it even possible to champion and mentor without privileging one aesthetic over others? How can this be done with a deep respect for and understanding of our community’s aesthetic, geographical, linguistic, political, socioeconomic, transnational diversity? Who is producing well-written “new,” “trailblazing,” meaningful, interesting work in our community? Who is pushing it all to the center?
Some Filipino American Literature Questions
Published 7 October 2009 Filipino , poetry , work 7 Comments7 Responses to “Some Filipino American Literature Questions”
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I’m not sure of the answers to your questions but I’m suspect whoever it is, is not receiving the acknowledgement they deserve.
Thanks Paul, and yeah, isn’t it a terrible thing that you are right about not receiving acknowledgment?
All great questions that every group of artists should be continually asking and striving towards.
One question in particular resonates hard with me: Who is producing well-written “new,” “trailblazing,” meaningful, interesting work in our community?
It seems that one of the things that holds back art groups is a myopic historical point-of-view. In Fil-Am performance poetry, it seems that everyone is trying to be the “new trailblazer” but very few people acknowledge Regie Caboco as a pioneer in Slam Poetry winning the Nuyrican Grand Slam Championship in 1993 and the National Poetry Slam (as part of Team Mouth Almighty) in 1997. In hip-hop I see a similar exclusion when people try to point to who is “groundbreaking” in Fil-Am rap and almost always ignore Joe Bataan as the first solo artist in hip-hop (Granted, “Rap-O Clap-O” pales in comparison to “Young, Gifted and Brown” but the point remains).
This historical amnesia is not specific to Fil-Am arts but I cite them since you are asking a question about the current state of Fil-Am Lit. And the main reason I bring them up is because I think too many artists are more concerned with broadcasting that their art is “the one” instead of just focusing on improving the art.
And that’s my two tears in a bucket.
Yes you are definitely right about myopia and cultural and historical amnesia. This reminds me of conversations we’ve had about people claiming “spoken word” is a new thing when of course it’s been around since human communities have been talking story. So part of this is the inability to make historical connections as history is presented to us in fragmentary ways. And the other part is a fixation on who is new and bombastic and cute, as well as what we deem normal/normative within the community. Queer as Cabico is, Afro-Filipino as Joe Bataan is … you know?
These are hard questions. Ones that are important to ask, but scary when you think about the answers… Yeah, who IS championing Filipino American literature on a national level?
What Oscar said re: historical amnesia, I think it takes an artist’s sense of hunger to seek out and explore their history, their literary predecessors, in order to carve out something new. For me, this hunger came from seeing Filipino American literature nowhere in school, Kindergarten – College, then checking out all there was at the library.
As I continue writing aswang poems, I sometimes ask myself if I am entering poetry and history in a fresh way. I like the idea of retelling U.S. History and placing Filipino folks at the center. I LOVE the idea of magic, power and struggle in our history. Of course, there will be tons of didactic performance poetry, but isn’t that part of the process? I’m sure I’ve written lots of crappy poems about IDENTITY. :) There is so much, it seems, to be written about and explored, and this is exciting to me.
Thanks Rachelle, for this comment. I am glad to hear you are asking questions about how you are writing poetry and history. You are right about the didactic identity poetry as part of the process. I came from that as well, and I know many who have. Thing is, what happens when they stay there? Does that indicate the end of a process of growth?
Now, as for the scariness of the answers, I think the scariest thing for me is that “no one” comes up as a pretty valid response, which of course makes me look at my own literary activism, if indeed that is what it is, and whether I am doing enough, and whether I can do more, and how I can do more, and who will work with me.
I believe what you do IS literary activism. You do an awful lot for the Filipino American community, Barbara, online and in real life re: PAWA and connecting with Filipino artists. You’ve certainly help me as an emerging poet, in terms of keeping me in the loop, helping me feel connected to a writing community, and reading/giving feedback on my work. And for that: thank you.
I do know what you mean in questioning one’s leadership/participation in the community, and I think more artists, including myself, should do this more frequently. A question I have is: how does one strike a balance of energy and work in all of this?