Write Like a Cultural Warrior: An essay by Dr. Irene Blea

Irene Isabel Blea, sociologist and writer, is a native of New Mexico. Blea attended college in Colorado, and become active in the Chicano Movement. She earned several degrees including an A.A. from the University of Southern Colorado in the field of mental health, and a B.A. in Sociology. Her studies carried her to the University of Colorado, Boulder, were she earned her Ph.D. She has held many positions including Director of Chicano Studies at Metropolitan State College and the University of New Mexico, as well as Director of the Mexican Institute in Oaxaca and Vera Cruz, Mexico. Her most recent academic appointment was at California State University in Los Angeles.

Irene Blea is also a renowned author and poet. Through her writings and poetry, she has advocated for minority rights, feminist ideas, and equality. Her poetry and writings strive to give hope to the oppressed and a voice to the powerless. As an advocate for minority rights, Blea works through professional organizations such as the National Association for Chicano Studies and the Western Social Science Association. Additionally, she is a consultant on issues of multiculturalism, education, and discrimination based on race and gender.

Irene Blea currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico in her "dream adobe, "Santa Fe" style house with great plants, lizards, road runners, a few coyotes and air conditioning."

I am thrilled to share this essay on writing and advice to writers which Dr. Blea first shared at the Gathering of Nations, the largest Pow Wow in the world. 

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Write Like a Cultural Warrior by Irene Blea

Indigenous people, Chicanos, and other “minority” people have had their story told by others in ways that have resulted in misrepresentation and misinterpretation. Therefore, it is important that we write our own story. The problem is that not enough people value their experience enough to write and publish their story. The few that do; have done a fine job; yet, there is more to be done for the sake of generations to come. Believe it: your story has value and is important. What is happening right now, good or bad, is tomorrow’s history, and your experience may help someone else.


There is no need to suffer as a writer. Authors are cultural warriors. It takes courage to share one’s world and one’s work. It takes courage to write about the truth; but there should be no fear, or guilt, or feelings of illegitimacy. Especially when writing skills are being developed; no one is born a writer. It is something we learn.


One thing some of my sisters and brothers suffer from is having been down-graded in school for lack of writing skills. This has traumatized and stalemated our communities; robbed it of its creative human capital. If down-grading has been your experience and you have been based in shame that has not been resolved, turn your story into a fictional piece of work; but know that telling it as non-fiction, true, can be therapeutic.


No one is born a good writer. This takes practice. The trick is to get it down as quickly as you can. Know that there is a time to talk about your writing and this is encouraged, but write first. Join writing circles by finding other writers in critique groups, or gather up a few writers, make copies of your work for the group, read one another’s work, and discuss how to make it better.


After talking it is a time to rewrite and write more. Keep it simple. Make time to write. There is no good time, only your time. I write for four to seven hours at a time: 6:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Some writers write in bits and pieces. It is best to set aside a time to write. Do not believe you are to busy or you can begin next week. Begin now for only five, ten, or fifteen minutes.


Some authors need outlines; others just write. Write what you want. When beginning, never mind the spelling or finding the best words. Get the idea down and clean it up later. You may find that what you thought you wanted to write changes. If it takes you too far from your idea and you like what has happened, save what you need to take out and use it in some other story.


Here are some things to consider. Concentrate on developing your craft by simply following these suggestions.


1.  Say out loud, “I am a writer.” “There is something I want or need to express.” No one needs to know you have whispered these words to yourself, by yourself.


2.  After claiming the title of writer, claim it to others. Introduce yourself as a writer, “I am a writer,” or “I am an author.” The first time may be awkward, because what one writes may not be clearly defined. Answer the question, “Have I read some of your work?” by saying I am working on a story about…”

3. When asked, “What have you published?” Keep it simple, “I am writing a story about …”

4. Outside your writing circle, do not tell about your struggle with writing, your entire writing history, or too much about what you are writing if you are not clear about where you are in the process.

5. Do not be embarrassed and do not stumble or stammer. This places doubt about your ability to write in your own mind. Practice your answers. You need not doubt yourself for more than two seconds.

6. Practice some quick answers. “Try this, I have a work in progress,” and “Excuse me, I need to get to the other side of the room.”

There are many exhausting dilemmas for a writer. The worst emotional trap takes place within the writer. Defending your right to write should not be one of them. Spending time with those who do not care, or cannot help promote your intentions, takes time away from writing.

When you are accused of being selfish, taking too much time at the computer, when your loved one thinks your writing is a hobby, and therefore not a serious endeavor, claim your right to write. Married women and those with children especially have difficulty giving themselves permission to write. Significant others do not like to do their own housekeeping, making their own dinner, washing and folding and storing their own clothes. They may try to sabotage your writing, but write about it and try to get it published. I’ll tell you more about publishing some other time; for now write.

Being a writer may lead to frustration. Frustration can lead to anger and one day you may explode. Do it on paper, or on the computer. Write a frustration poem. Simply claim your right to write. Here is mine:

                        I have a right to write.

                        I want to write.

                        I have something to write about.

                       

                        I claim my time to write.

                        I have a physical space where I write;

                        no one else can use it.

                        I am announcing that I am a writer.

                        I do not feel guilty.

                        I do not feel illegitimate, 
                        nor do I apologize;

                                    and if you keep bothering me,

                                    I will write about you.

 

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A warm thanks to Dr. Irene Blea for sharing this essay and words of advice with Musings' readers.  You can find Irene Blea on facebook and myspace.

Take some time out to draft up your own frustration poem, or print out Irene's fabulous poem from above and display it prominently it at your writing space for added encouragement!

Learning the Art and Craft of Poetry (Part One): Essay by Poet Linda Rodriguez

As National Poetry Month winds down, I have a very special essay from poet Linda Rodriguez about learning the art and craft of poetry.  

Linda Rodriguez has published two books of poetry, Heart's Migration (Tia Chucha Press, 2009) and Skin Hunger (Scapegoat Press 2007).  She has received several awards including the Elvira Cordero Cisneros Award from the Macondo Foundation and the Midwest Voices and Visions Award from the Alliance of Artists Communities and the Joyce Foundation.  She has recently completed her third book of poetry, Dark Sister.

Linda has also published several non-fiction works such as The "I Don't Know How To Cook" Book: Mexican (Adams Media, 2008) and several articles for general and scholarly publications including three articles on Rudolfo Anaya's work in the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Hispanic Literature.

She is also the Vice President of the Latino Writers Collective. 

 

Learning the Art and Craft of Poetry (Part One) by Linda Rodriguez

As a first step, I’ve compiled a list of poets. This is not an exhaustive list of all the poets I like or turn to for inspiration or education. This is not a ranking of the “best” poets. I’m not much on the Majah, Minah, Mediocah hierarchy game. These are wonderful, gifted poets who I do turn to for inspiration, education, and pure pleasure and whose names came to me as I was thinking of this list. There are other poets who have been and are important to me who didn’t necessarily rise to the top as I was pondering this list, such as Sappho, Shakespeare, Donne, Whitman, Dickinson. And that’s okay. This list is simply a place to start.

This is what I always tell my students when I teach writing poetry. A serious poet should be reading poetry all the time. My husband is a publisher, and I have worked as an editor. We are always surprised by all the poets who want to publish so that others will read their work, but they don’t buy or read anyone else’s work. They will spend a fortune on workshops, conferences, contests, and reading fees, but they buy hardly any books by other poets. If you’re on a tight budget, forget the classes and conferences for a while and buy the work of fine, contemporary poets or those in the generation just past—and the wonderful classic geniuses of the distant past. Buy them so you can reread and mark them up, figuring out how they do the incredible things they do and how they made the mistakes they made that you want to avoid. Do this first of all, before the classes, workshops, conferences, etc.--all of which are good things but not as critical as this. Any kind of serious writer must be a serious reader first.

This little list is a relatively random list of some people whose work speaks to me, in no particular order. When I read their work, I think about some part of it or all of it, “Wow! I wish I could do that! How do they do it?” A good poet doesn’t steal the work of another poet, but we all steal techniques and make them work for our own idiosyncratic voices. None of these poets writes the way I do, but I have learned some craft element or technique from all of them (as well as from many others). If you read these poets carefully, looking at how they achieve their effects, I guarantee you’ll find something that will advance your own poetry. Then you can branch out to the many other fine poets who can serve as models and teachers.

Poets to Read with Care and Serious Attention

Mary Oliver

Linda Hogan

Lucille Clifton

Denise Levertov

Diane Glancy

Adrienne Rich

Deborah Miranda

Pablo Neruda

Simon Ortiz

William Carlos Williams

Gwendolyn Brooks

Elizabeth Bishop

Richard Blanco

Sandra Cisneros

Marjorie Agosín

Trish Reeves

Brenda Cárdenas

Lisa Alvarado

Craig Santos Perez

Kristin Naca

H.D.

Alice Friman

Marilyn Kallet

Robert Duncan

Marianne Moore

So, Step One is to get thee to a bookstore (new or used or online) and buy some of these poets’ works as well as others you want to learn from.

Step Two is the act of reading the poems like a writer reads. First, of course, you’ll read them for the pleasure of reading them, but even in this first reading, you’ll pay attention to what gives the most pleasure. Mark it as you read. Just as importantly, mark the places where the poet loses you, where your interest or involvement wanders, where you find yourself confused. These can be as important to your own writing. Your later reading of this poet and book will involve attempts to figure out how this poet does the marvelous stuff—what makes this part so-o-o-o good—and how this poet weakened her/his own work—why this part isn’t as good as the rest.

If you’re like me and a lot of other poets I’ve known, just the act of this first reading with that kind of attention will set you writing. That’s one of the joys of reading for a poet. If you feel you suffer from writer's block, start reading poetry with deep, close attention to what the poet is doing right and wrong. You will almost always find yourself writing your own poems in response or as a variation or just somehow inspired. This is always good, but it’s not nearly the end.

Go through that poet’s book again, looking for those marked areas and rereading them carefully, trying to figure what exactly this poet did to make it so good—was it his diction, her use of alliteration and assonance, their line breaks/internal rhyme/connecting images?—and why this poet didn’t quite make it at this point—was it his use of abstract language, her lack of attention to the line’s rhythm?—and mark it in the book and write about it in more detail in your journal. This poet is your teacher. Learn everything you can from her or him. Then go practice some of those good techniques in your own poetry. What works with your own voice and vision and what doesn’t? Also, pick up some of your old poetry and look for those mistakes you identified in the poet’s book in your own work. Can you see them where you didn’t notice them before? Can you rewrite and make those points stronger, more vivid?

Follow this regimen with the other books you bought. These first two steps give you a foundation that nothing else can. And the plus side of this course for women with small children, large families, demanding jobs/husbands, is that you can do it quietly in bits and pieces of time without having to go away to some conference or university program.

In Part Two, we’ll move on from these steps, but most really good poets return to them all the time, no matter how many books and awards they have. These are the poet’s version of the pianist’s scales or the dancer’s daily practice.

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I'm really looking forward to receiving more of Linda's valuable insight in Part Two.  A note on the links to poets above.  Linda provided the names, I linked the names of the poets to sites that I found had the most information about the poet in one place.  There's not much rhyme or reason to the links except I tried to find the poet's website first.  If I haven't provided the best links to these wonderful poets, please let me know in the comments and I will update the links to feature the best information for the poets online.

Are you already familiar with some of these poets?  I'd love to hear your thoughts on specific poems, or what you enjoy most about the poet's style.

Many thanks to Linda Rodriguez for this fabulous introduction to Learning the Art and Craft of Poetry!