This Weekend: 12/06/09 Community & Academic Writing Programs: A Panel for Emerging Writers

Since I’ve been blogging a bit about bridging and community work, it’s worth mentioning that I’ll be hosting this weekend’s emerging writers’ panel at SFPL. I can’t gauge how much interest there is in this panel, as I’ve been too close to it to see what other people outside my immediate circle think. I do remember this panel’s origins as being some of the MFA Industrial Complex discussion about paying for consulting services for assistance in the MFA application process, who accesses these services, who benefits from these services.

To restate some of what I’ve previously blogged: I still believe no one absolutely needs the MFA degree in order to write or become a writer or author. I do not believe in the MFA as the thing that validates a writer to call herself a writer. I do not believe the MFA degree gives you the keys to any kingdom.

I do believe in the MFA program as one of many strategies a writer can use to hone her craft, to read and write beyond her current frame of reference, to develop critical language, to find critical readers of her work in progress. I also believe these can be found elsewhere — in writing circles, in community arts workshops, in community college writing courses. I believe that as writers we must try to do everything we can to fight off stagnation, to thrive and grow. I believe in surrounding ourselves with those critical readers instead of enablers and people with soft expectations for our work.

That said, below is the info for this weekend’s panel. I hope to see some of you there.

Literature and San Francisco: More Thoughts on Being Filipino Here and not There

… where ever “there” may be (and here, I don’t mean Oakland, which because of Gertrude Stein, is known as “there.”). For the purposes of this here blog post, “there” means not the West Coast.

When Luis Francia came to town last month, one thing he marveled about was the deep sense of history our local Filipino American community not only honors, but also carries in our collective memories/consciousness and our bodies. Certainly, our community’s ancestors brought with them here that connection to the land as rural folk and farmers who’ve poured so much of themselves into this earth, and who’ve formed kinships and communities for material and spiritual survival. Hence, a deep connection to this place. Don’t you feel it, when you are driving through the state? Not only the Steinbeck Monterey, Salinas, and Watsonville, but the Bulosan, the Philip Vera Cruz Monterey and Salinas, the Jeff Tagami Watsonville. Not only the Jack London Oakland, the Gertrude Stein Oakland, but the Vangie Buell Oakland (and hell yeah, Black Panther Oakland). Not only the Beat Poetry San Francisco, but the Al Robles San Francisco, the Jessica Hagedorn San Francisco.

11/10/09 Panel at the Urban Center (SF)

I need to prepare a presentation for tomorrow evening’s Young Urbanists [Literature] panel. Some guiding questions, as per our moderator, Matthew Zapruder:

• In the introduction to his anthology Writing Los Angeles, editor David Ulin writes “The story of Los Angeles has always been, on the most basic level, the story of the interaction between civilization and nature … an idiosyncratic hybrid of the urban and the elemental.” He then goes on to discuss how the “literature of Los Angeles” reflects that story. Do you think there is a literature of San Francisco? If so, how would you characterize it, and its relationship to both the natural landscape and the built environment?

• In what ways does being a resident of San Francisco in particular (as opposed to some other place) affect your creative work, as well as your life as a writer?