book cover photo by Tomas RodriguezStaceyann
took to the stage and admitted to being a little bewildered at the difference between performing poetry to a poetry-loving audience and reading excerpts from a book that you really hope people will buy. As she mentioned more than once during the evening, it is amazing that Barnes & Noble is celebrating a Black, Asian, lesbian, woman poet with a book reading and signing...and if you want to see more of this type of thing, you need to buy this book and show them that their support is not misplaced. After getting settled, Staceyann opened with a short poem, Haiku On Turning 30: "Look at me. Writing poems. Lobbying to make boobs sexy when they sag." She followed by reading some excerpts from her memoir. One about self discovery that ended a bit tragically and could have taken a very bad turn if not for the poet's winning sense of humor. The other a taste of the heartbreak she felt upon meeting her father for the first time in her teens. She followed with a question and answer session, fielding topics ranging from "What advice do you have for an aspiring writer?" to "What kind of women are you into?" She answered with all the deft aplomb and quick wit that one would expect from a Def Poetry Jam alumnus. After staying to sign books, shake hands, and chat briefly with her admirers, Stacey ajourned to Bar13 for the afterparty which featured some words from Vivette Miller, Gloria Bigelow, and Tiona McClodden among others, as well as Staceyann herself. With music spun by Deejay Reborn on the one's and two's, a good time was definitely had by all.
On the written page (as in her live performance), Staceyann has unique ability to be heartbreakingly, startlingly honest, deeply dramatic and serious, and then turn it all around and laugh at herself in the same sentence. Because she so often lays bare some of the most intimate details of her life on the stage, the idea that there is still enough yet unsaid to fill an entire book may be quite a surprise to some. 
But for Staceyann and countless others who have grown up with Jamaican sands beneath their feet, being gay is not only frowned upon, it is illegal. It is dangerous. Much too often, it can be deadly. And though this has informed a large part of who Staceyann Chin is as a person and as a poet, she does not let it define her. Not on stage. And not in this memoir. Just as the little girl on the book's cover stands at once defiant and hopeful, so stand the stories told between its leaves. After all, one does not start out life, in any place, as an outspoken lesbian activist and poet. There are a lot of steps that fill the space between the choices made for us in childhood and the choices that we make for ourselves as adults. Staceyann gives us leave to poke our heads through the windows to her past to see what kind of a girl she was, what kind of a life she lived, and what kind of circumstances and happenstances led her to her current vocation (poetry) and her current location (Brooklyn, New York). It may not be all holiday, but it's most definitely a trip that I recommend we all take. If you are a woman. If you are gay. 
If you were an orphaned child. If you grew up poor. You need to read this book and see a side of yourself that you don't often expose to the light, and rise up and embrace your struggles. If you are none of these things, you need to read this book and try to experience life from someone else's point of view so that you can look upon your fellow human beings as human beings and not just a collective "THEM" over there. As illustrated in the title of Staceyann Chin's memoir, there is another side to paradise...but it is still paradise! So you'll want to check it out!
"But for Staceyann and countless others who have grown up with Jamaican sands beneath their feet, being gay is not only frowned upon, it is illegal. It is dangerous. Much too often, it can be deadly."
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding me? You seriously could not have written a review of Staceyann's event without invoking this destructive and deadly stereotype about Jamaica as some kind of tropical paradise that is being wreaked by homophobic violence? Is that the best you can do?
In other words, the violence is only bad because it fucks up your idea of tropical paradise???
I am so sick of this bullshit.
No self-respecting Jamaican who does not seek to acquiesce to this tropical prison that you Americans seem intent on keeping us in would ever claim to have grown up on "jamaican sands". That's your fucking fantasy, not ours. We grew up with dirt and concrete under our feet. Sand is what YOU want us to stand on in order to legitimize the colonial and racist representations that you insist on hanging on to. Maybe you didn't realize this, but nobody builds anything that is meant to last on sand. Sand shifts and changes, it does not lie static waiting for you to come and wallow in it and reduce the whole world to it.
Do Staceyann and every other queer Jamaican a favour and get your head out of the sand, lest it blind you!
dear longbench,
ReplyDeletei actually had no idea that homosexuality was a crime in jamaica until i heard staceyann tell me so from a microphone. it did come up during the reading, and a fair amount of her memoir (in case you've not yet read it) is dedicated to her struggles with this very topic. since this was a review of the reading and the memoir, it seemed prudent to bring it up.
also, if you really feel that the violence is only a problem because it causes sweeping generalizations and stereotypes, then perhaps you could sit and reflect on what problem ever found a solution when everyone refused to talk about it. if you read the entire review, you may have also noticed that in the next sentence, it says that staceyann is not defined by this violent "stereotype". and please note, a stereotype is a sweeping generalization that presupposes a specific trait (say, homophobia) for an entire people based on little or no experience with said people. the point posited in the review was not that all jamaicans are homophobic and violent (staceyann is jamaican and gay and seems like a very nice girl, so we already know that can't be true); it only spoke to the law itself and the implications it can have for gays in jamaica.
side note: the review isn't about jamaica. it's about staceyann chin (who happens to be jamaican) and her memoir (which is set in jamaica). i'm not sure if you were present at the reading, but staceyann herself mentioned that people with two good parents to buy them shoes and an egg to feed them...these people don't write memoirs. the point being, a memoir is essentially about exploring the author's deeper self and exposing the iniquities and injustices that were/are a part of the author's life (be it on the whole or during a specific period). if you don't want to hear anything negative about jamaica, this may not be the book for you as being orphaned, bi-racial, and poor is generally a ticket to some really sad stories no matter the setting. however, if you skip out on this book because you cannot bear to have jamaica's good name defamed in any way, you'll also be missing out on some of the most beautiful stories about the triumph of the spirit and the power of love as a means to overcome adversity.
as for the "jamaican sands" on which you seem to have such an unusual fixation, i apologize if the word sand offended you in any way. when next you read this posting, please feel free to replace the word sands with "earth", "soil", "shores", "streets", or any other kind of substance found on the ground on which one might stand if in jamaica.
Stacey is perfectly right about homophobic Jamaican society. As a 60 year old Jamaican-Canadian who left Jamaica at the age of 26 years, I am ashamed to admit that I grew up with the idea that "Batty men" ( homosexuals) had no place in Jamaican society!
ReplyDelete