S130.
Babaylans, Griots, and Culture Keepers: Memoir as Collective Storytelling
Saturday, March 11, 2023
9:00 am to 10:15 am
Memoir is usually thought of as a slice of an individual’s life: a coming-of-age story or an arc of one protagonist’s hero’s journey—but there are also memoirs that explore collective stories. In this panel discussion, five writers will share approaches to using personal narrative and personal poetics as vehicles for family histories, community truths, generational secrets, and ancestral stories, as well as highlight the rewards and pitfalls of connecting the “me" in memoir to a larger we.
Participants
Jen Soriano
Sasha LaPointe is a Coast Salish writer from the Upper Skagit and Nooksack Indian tribes with a focus on creative nonfiction and poetry. She is the author of the upcoming memoir Red Paint: An Ancestral Autobiography and teaches creative writing at the University of Washington's Tacoma campus.
Anastacia-Renee (she/they) is a writer, educator, interdisciplinary artist, TEDx Speaker, and podcaster. Renee’ is the author of (v.) (Black Ocean) and Forget It (Black Radish). Side Notes from the Archivist is forthcoming from Amistad (an imprint of HarperCollins) in March 2023.
D.A. Navoti is a member of the Gila River Indian Community and a multidisciplinary storyteller, writer, and composer. He is a 2022 Artist Trust Fellowship awardee and a 2022 Artist Support Program resident with Jackstraw Cultural Center. Learn more at www.danavoti.com
Joyce Chen is the executive director of The Seventh Wave, a literary arts nonprofit that champions art in the space of social issues through publishing, events, residencies, and more. She's been published in Rolling Stone, Poets & Writers, People, Paste, LitHub, Narratively, and beyond.
