De-Canon: A Celebration of Our Summer Events & A Look Forward

Our stay at Mile Post 5 has been a phenomenal experience. We have enjoyed having a large space to ourselves in which we’ve been able to not only exhibit the entire (and continually expanding) collection of books, but create a space where we’ve hosted readings, offered writing workshops, provided room for meetings, and enabled writers and artists of color to interact with each other, as well as the local community.

I’ve loved every moment of our stay — and have particularly enjoyed the conversations that have happened in the space, whether in the form of post reading panels or as informal discussions with visitors to the space curious about the exhibit. There’s something deeply satisfying about having these conversations in a room filled with books by writers of color. And, I’ll admit as a librarian’s son, I do enjoy recommending books and authors, and learning about other titles and writers we should have on radar. I’m always learning in this space.

As we reflect on all the events we’ve been able to host and participate in this summer as De-Canon, we thought it’d be good to list them out as part of our acknowledgment that we really couldn’t do this alone. So much of what we do depends on the creativity and generosity of others.

Workshops

We were able to host 4 writing workshops over the summer, all of which were offered for free or at a very reduced rate.

Spatial Poetics: Writing Place & Displacement (De-Canon) | Neil Aitken
Healing Words: Writing the Mosaic Self (APANO AMP / Mic Check) | Neil Aitken & Jake Vermaas
How to Get Your Book Published | Michelle Ruiz Keil
Journey into the Interior: A Generative Writing Workshop (De-Canon) | Neil Aitken

Readings

We hosted a number of literary readings, many in partnership with Whitenoise Project, and one with Portland Art Museum. All told we featured 22 writers and 1 live drawing artist.

Displacement Poetry @ Portland Art Museum (De-Canon)
- Stephanie Adams-Santos, Neil Aitken, Samiya Bashir, Alyssa Ogi, Dao Strom
Whitenoise Project Reading
- Anna Vo, Ami Patel, Lilian Dirrebes, Roseminda Nahabet, Ken Yoshikawa, with Alex Chiu (live art)
Whitenoise Project Reading
- Hari Alluri, Do Mai Nguyen, Sokunthary Svay, Armin Tolentino
De-Canon Reading
- F. Douglas Brown, Jamila Osman, & Neil Aitken
Whitenoise Project Reading
- Trevino Brings Plenty, Melissa Bennett, Natasha Moni, Skyler Reed, Bella Hall, manuel arturo abreu

Offsite Satellite Exhibits

We also have been fortunate to be invited to showcase portions of the collection at a number of venues and festivals in the Portland area. We are currently exploring additional opportunities with community centers, high schools, and local libraries, which we hope will help introduce De-Canon to an even larger audience.

Portland Children’s Museum
Japanese American Literature Display @ GamanFest
Jade District Night Market @ PCC Southeast

So What’s Next?

Our original plan was to wrap up the exhibit at the end of July, but thanks to the generosity of Artists’ Milepost and Carlee Smith, we were granted an extension into August and had expected to move out at the end of last month.

Well, things have changed. Although there are still some moving parts in play, we are pleased to announce that we have negotiated a further extension of the installation until the end of October and will continue to offer open reading hours, at least one workshop a month, and more readings. (Thank you Carlee, Julia, and Adolfo for making this possible!). We also plan on creating a few salon nights where writers and artists will be invited to mingle following a brief presentation or a short reading. And still more things are in the works.

We do have plans in the works for De-Canon beyond October, but are awaiting some final confirmations before we go public with the full details.

Open Library Hours

De-Canon holds regular reading hours from Monday to Thursday each week, with occasional events on Fridays and Saturdays.

Mon 12pm - 3pm
Tue 3pm - 6pm
Wed 3pm - 6pm
Thu 3pm - 6pm

f you’d like to stop by during a different time, contact us and we’ll try to work something out so that one of our staff will be available to open the space.

Sep 12, 2018

De-Canon: A Celebration of Our Summer Events & A Look Forward

Mar 6, 2018

Some Notes for AWP 2018

Although De-Canon does not have a formal presence at AWP this year (that is, we didn't invest in a table), we will still have a presence of sorts. If you'd like to chat about the project, discuss past or future post topics for the blog, or want to learn more about how to have your own books included in the archive, stop by Table 1136 in the bookfair to find Neil who is representing Boxcar Poetry Review & Have Book Will Travel.

Mar 2, 2018

Owning the Means of Production, Part 2: POC-Edited Literary Journals

In this post, we survey the landscape of literary journals and provide a listing of currently operating journals which are helmed by POC editors. In total, we found __ literary journals whose mastheads list a writer of color as their editor-in-chief. Many also feature additional associate editors and staff members who are also POC. Some of these journals have been around since the 70s, but many are newer online journals, having come into existence in the last 5 years.

Feb 22, 2018

Owning the Means of Production, Part 1: POC-run Presses

If we hope to truly challenge or reimagine literary canon, it is not enough to consider the academic programs where young writers are taught and trained. We must look beyond the classroom and the professoriate, past endless reams of syllabi making and remaking what constitutes canon, and consider the practical matter of how these texts enter the field in the first place. In this post, we present a list of POC-helmed presses that are currently in operation.

Feb 7, 2018

Upcoming Poetry Book Prize Contests for POC Writers

Although the field of literary publishing is still primarily populated by white editors and publishers, there are some POC-owned and directed publishers and a number of new and well-established poetry book prizes that are judged by respected POC authors and which seek to champion work of writers from particular communities of color. If you're a POC poet with a book manuscript in need of a home, here's a list of upcoming contests you might want to try

Feb 2, 2018

POC Writers and Their Libraries

Over the past week and a half, we've been gathering images of POC writers and their libraries, as well as asking readers and writers of color to contribute their thoughts on the importance of building a personal library and how books by other POC writers have impacted their lives.

This post showcases responses from and glimpses into the libraries of Kazim Ali, Francisco Aragón, Jackson Bliss, Genève Chao, Shu-Ling Chua, Oliver de la Paz, M. Evelina Galang, Nathania Gilson, Jenna Le, Gemma Mahadeo, Meera (@ashmeera101), and Brian W. Parker.

Jan 26, 2018

A Library of One's Own

It's hard to explain exactly why having a personal library is so valuable -- and why it is particularly valuable to a person of color (writer or reader) to build a library for oneself. Here are a few ways of thinking about the value and purpose of a personal library -- and what it can enable in ourselves.

"The history of English is inextricably tied to the history of war, to the history of empire; they cannot be separated. And hence our literature cannot be separated from these histories. Language is one of the most powerful weapons of war. It is also one of the war's first victims."

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