Writing and the Language of Silence w/ Poet, Memoirist VICTORIA CHANG - Highlights

When the poet Victoria Chang’s father had a stroke and lost his language and shortly thereafter her mother passed away, she realized the history of her immigrant parents was disappearing into silence. Since then, her work, including the acclaimed collection Obit and her collage memoir, Dear Memory, has been an attempt to fill those generational gaps through art. In our interview today, we’ll focus on how she uses the natural world and the visions of artists like Hilma af Klint to map the invisible landscapes of grief in her latest book, Tree of Knowledge. We’ll also talk about the felling of a eucalyptus tree outside her window, how she learned to read silences, and how poetry has helped her speak with the ancestors she never truly knew.

Episode Website

www.creativeprocess.info/pod

Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

(0:00) The Mystery of Poetry

(4:25) The Language of Silence

(5:55) Dear Memory - A Reading

(11:47) Releasing the Burden of History

(14:25) Performing Identity and Agency

(16:03) The Immigrant Experience and Gratitude

(26:10) Misogyny and the Visual Arts

(29:24) Grief and Shared Existence

(31:53) Radical Attentiveness