Tag Archives: Internet assignment

Kiese Laymon on Heavy

In a reading done by Politics and Prose, Kiese Laymon reads an excerpt from his book Heavy. Kiese Laymon himself read excerpts from his books and answer questions from the audience at his reading. In the reading, he read an excerpt about his experience dating a white girl when he was a senior in high school. He is honest when recounting how his mother, being deeply disapproved, berates and beats him for being in such a relationship. When asked by the audience if Laymon likes his mother, he responds, “… I do not like the fact that sometimes my mom beat and abuse me under the auspice of trying to stop me from getting beaten and abused by white people… I do like my mom but like every child in this nation, some days I don’t like some of the things my mama has done to herself or to me.” Laymon also does not shy away from the fact that he was also guilty of following his mother’s footsteps in his romantic relationship, even though he abused in a different way. I really appreciated that Laymon was extremely honest in his memoir. He recognizes and vocalizes the flaws of people he loved and himself. Yet, he still loves them and works to reconcile those flaws. 

Laymon, K. [Politics and Prose]. (2018, December 18). Kiese Laymon, “Heavy: An American Memoir” [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw2k_60xb-c&t=253s

A glimpse into Heavy

The youtube video “kiese Laymon,’Heavy: an American memoir’’’ is a video documentation of a book meet up. In this meet up Laymon reads the chapter of his book titled contractions. This chapter discusses topics such as how race affected a relationship and family dynamic, abuse as a copping mechanism because of racial abuse.Once the out loud read is finished the audience proceeds to ask Laymon various questions. These questions led Laymon to respond to matters such as vulnerability, practices, and the difference between presence and love. This source helps me understand why the memoir is titled heavy. Based on one of the questions Laymons states that the title heavy js because wants to feel heavier with hard conversations he is having. I know this source is reliable because of authority, all the video was not published by Laymon, the video is a documentation of an interview of Laymon about his memoir Heavy.

Laymon, K. (2018, December 19). Kiese Laymon, “HEAVY: An American MEMOIR”. YouTube. Retrieved September 14, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw2k_60xb-c&t=253s.

Meredith Talusan’s Transitions

In an online magazine, published by a Slate assistant producer for podcasts named Madeline Ducharme, she interviewed Meredith Talusan about her book “Fairest.” Tausan speaks out that being known as this ‘freak’ as a kid for not looking Filipino, has been an advantage to her but has also damaged her. Since she was judged by the way she looked, it gave her courage to embrace herself and accept who she really was to show everyone she didn’t care, though it was a painful journey at the same time. As she mentions, in her memoir she felt pressure by thinking that she needed her book to be trans-related because that’s what people were more interested in. However, she ended up not falling for it and wrote about most of the transitions she went through in her life, not just about becoming trans. For example, her transition from being a rural to an urban person, or from being poor to being in a relationship with someone rich.This interview really opened my eyes further about Talusan’s book because it talks about her experience in general and the different struggles she went through. Using the CRAAP test, I was able to find this source reliable since it was posted a year ago, and the information said in this magazine was edited in order for readers to truly understand Talusan’s responses.

Ducharme, M. (2020, May 26). Do queer memoirs have to be political? Slate Magazine. Retrieved September 13, 2021, from https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/05/meredith-talusan-fairest-memoir-interview.html.

Understanding Jaquira Diaz

“I Avoided Facing My Mental Illness for Decades. The Pandemic Changed That” by Jaquira Diaz is the article I found that helped me expand my understanding of who she is. This article is a narrative autobiography about Diaz’s mental health and how she was confronted with it due to being quarantined. In this piece Diaz talks about her first episode of substance-induced psychosis. It was during her mid-20’s when her father and her stepmother found her experiencing paranoid delusions, she believed that someone tried to poison her and that they were after her. After being taken to the doctors, Diaz went through more hallucinations and had to be sedated. She started writing Ordinary Girls soon after this episode, due to her getting the treatment that she needed. Writing about her previous obstacles in the memoir actually contributed to Diaz finding herself again. Throughout reading this article, I got to grasp the significance of the mental experiences Diaz has been through and how it’s what builds her writing. Her ability to write is what truly helps Diaz find herself and meaning to keep living. I believe this is a reliable source because it is written directly by Jaquira Diaz and was published recently in March of this year. 

Díaz, J. (2021, March 3). I Avoided Facing My Mental Illness for Decades. The Pandemic Changed That. Time. from https://time.com/5942112/mental-illness-covid-19-jaquira-diaz/.

Kiese Laymon’s Heavy

Throughout the video Kiese Laymon | Heavy: An American Memoir, Laymon reads a chapter from his book Heavy. He describes the chapter as being a very emotional one, and what he reads delves into the relationship with his mother and other things, such as self image. During questioning he explains why he wrote the book as a letter to his mother and also the purpose of Heavy as a means of talking about love. Through watching this video, I came to understand why he titled his memoir heavy. It speaks about difficult subjects, but he also mentioned how he wanted to feel “heavier” which I took to mean that he wanted to feel substantive by writing to his mom and speaking to the audience with his writing. It served as motivation for him. I think that this source is reliable because it is a video of Laymon himself reading and speaking about Heavy. It serves as an informative source for people who have read or are planning to read the memoir, and it allows people to hear from the author himself.

Strand Book Store. (2018, October 31). Kiese Laymon | Heavy: An American Memoir [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/_w7xkpQnr24

Interview of Meredith Talusan

by Kevin Guaman

Meredith Talusan, author of the memoir Fairest, participated in an interview conducted by CNN Philippines. The interview is a YouTube video titled, “Fil-Am author Meredith Talusan talks about her memoir ‘Fairest’| New Day”. The interview focused on asking Talusan her inspiration for writing the memoir, how it felt to write her book, and her experience being part of the LQBTQ+ population. She responded that she believed her experiences with albinism, transitioning, and being a first-generation immigrant inspired her to write about it in her book to share with the world. Writing the book brought an end to the chapter of her life discussed in her memoir as she moves forward with her life and her writing as she moves toward fiction writing. Her experience transitioning from a male to a female brought different experiences to her life since there are those who don’t accept them, so the issues are not going to be over anytime soon. This source involved the work “migrate” many times. This word helped me understand the book better because since the book is focused on being transgender and her albinism, you tend to forget that she had to leave everything behind to immigrate from her home to the United States. It is another layer to her story that many can relate to. Finally, I determined the source is reliable using the CRAAP test. The source is very recent, it focuses on the author and her book, the source is a well known news station, the information comes from the author herself from the interview, and the purpose is to help everyone understand the author’s experience and her story written in the book.

CNN Philippines. (2021, July 12). Fil-Am author Meredith Talusan talks about her memoir “Fairest” | New Day [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTBPKGQVJx0&t=11s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTBPKGQVJx0&t=11s