Sunday, September 22, 2019
Chinese-American poet Paisley Rekdal was interviewed by David Winter in the 2019 May-Summer issue of The Writer’s Chronicle. The topic moved to the writing of her 2017 nonfiction book, The Broken Country: On Trauma, A Crime, and the Continuing Legacy of Vietnam. Because of the influx of hate and ignorance in our country’s zeitgeist, two main points became my focus in this interview:
- Rekdal wrote: You know, the story of refugees is not really one of trauma, it’s one of resilience…there are more people that come out of that experience who thrive, and do well; you see that time and time again…so you can’t just say war will make it’s refugees violent criminals. That’s just not what happens.
- Paisley: I want to make certain facts very clear: that violent crimes committed by immigrants are extremely rare, that we report them because they are rare, that we are fascinated by them because they are rare, but it creates the impression that somehow this is the norm…it does make me nervous that a bad (ignorant/racist) reader could look at this book (The Broken Country), and say, ‘This is why we need to close the borders’.
This poetry class, for beginning or seasoned poets,explores the poetry of immigrants and refugees with an eye for the resilient and nonviolent. In so doing participants who write from the heart can find an internal resilient, nonviolent landscape that Machado talked of, that Snyder documented, that Neruda alluded to, that Angelou found, that Asian, Latino, African, & Middle Eastern, (especially Muslim or Jewish) immigrants and refugees lived (as the Rekdal research uncovered in talking to hundreds of post-1975 refugees from Southeast Asia).
The inclusive, tolerant nature of this poetry workshop asks us to remember that this is not a critique workshop. Part of the Mission Statement at San Diego Writers, Ink moves our teaching artists to educate from a nurturing, encouraging place, to elevate writing from your heart in a Container of respect, safety, & reprieve. The purpose of this workshop is to find the resilience of another culture that can transform the ignorance in another. It is the opposite of racism. It is my way to continue to search for my America. The America with a heart for inclusion, tolerance, and community.