Joseph O. Legaspi was interviewed by Ada Yee at the Lantern Review blog. Here is an excerpt:
Just persist on writing. I know so many talented writers across cultural lines who just stop writing. In a way, it becomes an endurance game. So just continue writing our stories.
Support other Asian American writers. Buy their books, go to their readings, teach Asian American literature. Be community leaders, be in academia, be community activists. The more of us out there, the better.
But definitely, the root of it is, just keep writing. Sit down at that desk, and tackle that blank page.
I am very glad to have read this. I needed to read this. To be a community activist in literature and arts; apparently this is what I have become, or thought by others to have become. Joseph refers above to Asian American writers and Asian American literature, and certainly this is appropriate for the publication (Lantern Review is an awesome new “virtual space in which to promote and discuss the work of contemporary Asian American poets and artists”) and as he discusses his work with Kundiman.
I do know our work as community activists in literature and arts entails bridging between our communities, starting at our respective individual and community centers and always radiating outward, enlarging our spaces.
I think about the possibility of having many centers, and prioritizing how to work with many centers, how we choose who to promote, whose work to forward.
On the Harriet blog, I wanted to have more energy to write more book reviews, to collect more testimony from more indie publishers. As a reviewer for Latino Poetry Review, I have to decide whose books to review, how many reviews I have the energy to write. As a guest editor for two e-journals’ upcoming issues, I have to decide which writers’ works to include. For PAWA, we have to decide which artists to include in our events, which orgs to partner with, who are our target audiences. As adjunct faculty in Philippine Studies, I have to decide which artists’ works to assign and teach.
I have a day job.
I have a home life.
(I am not even taking into account here the time and energy I need for my own writing/literary work, which Joseph describes above as “the root of it.”)
Bottom line: there are those artists/writers, works, and orgs I select, and then there are those I do not. People hella take this personally, act psycho, name call, belittle, and insult me. So that’s that, just prioritizing and having to be shrewd about it, figuring out those centers and places where bridging is possible, and when having much needed critical discussions — even very pointed ones — remaining professional, remembering how Jay, my department head in Philippine Studies at USF, always calmly tells us all to stay focused.
Thank you so much for the shoutout to LR! Our team was really inspired by Joseph’s insights, as well. In the midst of supporting and promoting community, it can be tempting to forget about the art itself, or push it to the wayside. Definitely something I need to remind myself of on a daily basis. It’s a constant process of shifting, recentering, focusing. Some days are magazine days, other days are schoolwork days, some are writing/revising days. I need to plan in more of the latter. My soul needs it as much as I need the rest of it.
I really like your idea of becoming a ‘community activist in literature and arts’. I’ve come to think of myself as something similar, as facilitating the work of others becomes more important than my own. It helps that I think of this as my work as much as my actual work – ya know?