no history, no self.

​SELF PORTRAIT AS POTENTIAL ANSWER
  • ​Based off Chen Chen's "Self-Portrait as So Much Potential".
  • Chose this poet - the only non-Filipinx or non-Native voice - because he is a personal favorite of mine; not only is he Chinese, as I am (25%), but he confronts issues of race, family, and intersectionality, using poetry to cut through his various worlds, which is something all poets -- especially Native voices -- aim to accomplish. 

ELEMENTARY ARITHMETIC
  • Derived in part from Allison Hedge-Coke's style.
  • Takes lines from Elizabeth Ruth Deyro's "Try to Recall the Right Way to Pray".
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REDEFINITION
  • Sestina with end words taken from Luci Tapahonso's "the holy twins", albeit in reversed order.
  • saba: similar to a plantain/banana, a commonly found fruit in the philippines & in filipinx supermarkets
  • "Luis / Steve": references Luis Manzano and Steve Harvey, both of whom are Family Feud hosts for the Philippines and US, respectively

THIS LAND IS/N'T
  • Permutation of the popular Woody Guthrie song "This Land is My Land".
  • I-Hotel: In the 1970s, it was a residential community for many Filipinx & Chinese seniors located in San Francisco's now-defunct Manilatown; the city, despite raging protests from numerous community and University of San Francisco students, decided to tear it down to build a parking lot. Many of the residents could not move out of the space, but policemen pushed them out using force and aggression.
  • Pomos/Bloody Island: The Pomos were a Native American tribe living in the Sierra Nevada area. In the wake of the 1849 gold rush, many settlers enslaved Native Americans, and when a few Pomos killed two slavers, an entire white community responded by setting fire to a Pomo village at Clear Lake, killing around 800 Pomos by way of fire. The site became known as Bloody Island.
  • Watsonville: In the 1930s, home to a large population of Filipinx migrant workers; there was a dance hall rented by a Pinxy club, and when Filipinx danced with white women, it angered the already irritated white populations who felt the immigrants were "taking" jobs. As such, on January 20, 1930, there was a massive racial riot during which the dance hall was raided,  with Filipinx were beat harshly, with one dying as a result. 
  • Nisenans/California Blades: The California Blades were a vigilante gang active in the 1850s that attacked Nisenans, pinning the stealing of mules to the Native peoples.

EPITAPH / ELEGY TO HEALTH:
  • Takes lines from RayVi Sunico's "Why This Isn't a Haiku", Elizabeth Ruth Dayro's "To be a woman of color" & "Trying to Recall the Right Way to Pray", and Sherwin Bitsui's "From 'Dissolve'".

HOLES / LIGHT:
  • Completely comprised of lines from Joy Harjo's "Suicide Watch" and Jon Pineda's "Translation".
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