Just a quick post to share some thoughts and pics after last night’s reading. I had a great time sharing the stage with Jason Prokowiew, Maxine West, Leticia Priebe Rocha, and Thuy Phan. Thank you to everyone at Tell-All Boston and Porter Square Bookstore who made last night’s reading possible! Special thanks to everyone who attended in person and virtually!
Below as well is the introduction that I wrote for the event. In this intro, I spend some time musing on the theme of last night’s reading, “Life on the Margins” as well as setting up some context before reading from Ruin & Want.
Consider it like DVD extras (‘member those, haha). Enjoy!
I’d like to now say a few words about tonight’s theme of “Life on the Margins” as well as set up the excerpts from my memoir I’ll be reading.
When I discuss marginalization with my students, I often hold up the clipboard I have in my hand while lecturing. I hold it up and point to the margins on the page, how the mainstream is what’s centered, is what and who’s allowed space in the world. I tell them that the margins are what is not centered, and thus are forced to a space that is literally uncomfortable to write in.
Seriously: If you’ve ever had to make use of a page’s margins, then you’re familiar with the squeezing in of as many words as you can because you must, your hand cramped around a fleeting expression, an expression that takes you away from the center, an expression that cannot happen there, an expression that can only happen in this other space. And this other space is shrinking. Each year there are less and less safe spaces to write and be a writer in.
Now, the fragmentary journey that is my memoir, Ruin & Want, is a challenge but one I hope people will take on. Which is to say: if I could have written this in a straight line, I would have, but please know care and heart went into this just like anything else I create.
Some content notices and context: I would like to make note that the subjects of sexual content, sexual assault, and eating disorders are brought up in what I’m reading.
Back to the word fragmentary: what does it mean for us tonight? Tonight, it means y’all just need to sit back and cruise with me. Know that the core of the memoir centers on what it was like to be a high school student from Matamoros MX preyed upon by their high school English teacher in Corpus Christi, TX. Know that there will be references to works by James Joyce but don’t worry, you won’t be quizzed on them. Know that, toward the end of the excerpt, I engage with the e.e. cummings poem “May I feel said he.” Know we’ll be dipping in and out of memory and different times in my life as well as speaking across moments with a sense of urgency, intimacy, and human pulse. This is the kind of prose I dreamt of for this manuscript.
I remember describing the project early on as a book where each page creaked like loose floorboards late at night when you’re simultaneously hoping to not be heard while also hearing everything around you acutely.
Come walk with me.
Abrazos,
= José =
The Influence 