Mixing Stories as we Pause
When I decided to teach myself to be a writer, a friend—who was a published author of Taiwanese origin—recommended I join a writer’s group to get feedback from Americans about my writing. I was writing stories from my childhood in India for my American children, so that made sense to me. When I looked online, a new group was meeting the next day, right here in Arlington, and so I registered. The next day I met the group, a handful of writers of all kinds.
We co-created The Arlington Writers Group over the next few months and started to eventually meet every Wednesday, as we all needed it. The group and its members would become a huge part of my life as a stay-at-home-mom who was learning to be a writer and book artist and was planning to start her own business once her younger child was in kindergarten. That was when my daughter was a toddler. In June 2024, she will graduate from high school.
The AWG was the place where I watched my stories mix with those of others. I looked for my own discomfort as an Indian writer amongst American writers. I noticed the discomfort and confusion my stories brought the others. I learned there what I would change about my writing and what I would keep. That’s where I learned about structure, flow, and what was unique about my stories. That’s where I found my voice. I stayed with the group as co-organizer till 2013 when I opened Studio PAUSE in September 2013.
PAUSEr Kori Johnson reads her poem, We Are Here, at the new Studio location opening, Oct 7, 2023. Back wall, left, AWG members Jennifer (seated), Michael (standing), and David (standing, wearing baseball cap) joined us.
Selfie with Michael (center) and David.
An Old Group
In 2023, when we had our grand opening for the new Studio, I invited the AWG members to join us. I was so thrilled to see Colleen, Michael, David, and Jennifer there, mixing my old group with the new people at the new Studio. The Arlington Writer’s Group had not met in person since the pandemic started and after everything re-opened, they had not returned to Washington Liberty High School where they met before. So they asked me if they could meet at the new Studio. They met Wednesday evenings and we would be closed, but that seemed like an easy exception to make. So they started meeting in-person again, occasionally, at Studio PAUSE. They had a kick-off party for in-person meetings, and another time they celebrated the publication of a book At The River by Kendra Elliot, and invited the families of two of our members who had passed on. It was a wonderful reunion.
A New Project
In 2024, I created the project “Me, Here, (at NOVA), and Elsewhere” an installation of artist’s books by the AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) Center of Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale Campus, inspired by the two inaugural “Me, Here” exhibits at the Studio’s new Columbia Pike location. I had created these “Me, Here” exhibits as part of my Arlington Arts grant project Curating 4 Community Art Exhibits. Mixing the “Me, here” idea with my older and ongoing project City of Stories, I worked with the students inviting them to create and share their own “Me, Here” stories through 3D, house-shaped artist’s books. Filled with their art and stories the books were displayed to look like a “city” of stories.
When I planned to bring the installation to be displayed at the Columbia Pike Studio, I decided to invite the AWG to come in and respond to their artists books. I discussed the idea with Colleen Moore of AWG and we came up with a plan.
Meanwhile, Katy Clune, director of Virginia Folklife reached out about having an event at the Studio where people could listen to United We Stand – three episodes of stories from the With Good Reason podcast from Virginia Folklife, that explore the power and impact of American immigrant writers, including works from a Dream Project writing workshop with college students and emerging authors. The Dream Project empowers Virginia students whose immigration status creates barriers to higher education through access to scholarships, resources & mentors.
So I decided to add the stories of the Dreamers to the NOVA students, two groups of storytellers whose work is displayed in an installation, mixing stories, and creating an installation called Me, Here: Stories of People & Place as told by College Students, and bring the stories of these college students to Arlington. Mixing our stories has been a major part of the Studio’s work since it opened in 2013. As we complete 11 years of the Studio, we find new ways to mix stories.
The exhibit will stay up till August 2024.
Mixing Our Stories
The exhibits I curated this year at the new Studio were all on one theme: Me, Here. As I had put up the exhibits, I had shared stories told through poetry and photography, weaving and painting, costumes and embroidery, videos and interviews. The NOVA project brought us stories shared through book arts and languages. The United We Stand exhibit brought us audio from podcasts, via a QR code. How amazing to get the opportunity to put this out here—by professionals and students—and let it all mix!
One response by a writer really got me. He wrote something like: She sounds like me! So how can it be that she goes to bed each night not knowing if she will be deported tomorrow?? It struck me how so many of us immigrants are visibly immigrants but how so many of our children have American voices. And only a podcast could do this!
Check out the photos below. You can even scan the QR code in the photo of the United We Stand display and listen. I invited Colleen Moore, a co-organizer at AWG to write her memories as well.
From Colleen Moore, co-organizer at AWG
When Sush suggested that the Arlington Writer's Group partner with Studio Pause to review the work of the AAPI Participants and the United We Stand Project through Virginia Humanities, I was excited. As writers, we are always on the lookout for different ways to tell stories, find a new perspective, and create a compelling narrative. Whether we write fiction, poetry, or memoirs, understanding other people is where we find our inspiration.
At the Me, Here, event, we examined the work of the AAPI community and excerpts from the United We Stand Podcasts. The AWG members and other attendees then had two 10-minute writing sessions inspired by their work. The Me, Here, and Elsewhere concept spoke to me because of the dual aspect of the lives members of the AAPI community felt. They have their lives at home, or where they are from, and they have their lives in America, or at school. The two worlds can be very different, and they may have trouble fitting into one or the other or both. What I found in their written words and their artwork was the inner conflict of being different people in different circumstances.
As a writer, I can identify with that duality. I don't make my living as a writer, I make my living at my day job. And yet, I write. I am a
travel agent by trade, but in the deepest part of me, I am a writer. Through my writing, I take the mundane and create worlds that only exist in my mind. I write about everyday events to examine relationships, characters, or ideas. Hopefully, I entertain and
inspire.
One of the stories from the United We Stand Project stood out to me. The speaker talked about how she had lost most of her memories of how she came to the US with her family. Memory is important to me. As the oldest in my family, I remember
everything. My siblings rely on me to be the memory keeper. I remember all major events, when they happened, and in what order. I remember who was there, what was said, and how people felt. The ability to remember also helps my writing. I can take events that I have strong feelings about and explore those feelings and ideas in various ways.
Writing gives me a new way to examine life I'm not just reliving events as they happened, I'm taking those events and creating new
narratives with them. Exploring new ideas and new worlds. I am me, here, and elsewhere in my mind. In the movie, "The Hours," Vanessa Bell said of Virginia Woolf to her daughter, "Your Aunt is a very lucky woman, Angelica. She has two lives. The life she is living, and the book she is writing." I think that perfectly describes the life of a writer and the different worlds we inhabit. I welcome new ideas and perspectives to add depth and color to those worlds.
Find Colleen on social media @colleenlmoore1 on twitter and @riotgrrrlzgaming on threads
