“An Evening with Tashia”: Discussion series seeks to broaden horizons from home

by ELINOR EPPERSON
Contributor

A monthly discussion series hosted by the Bailey Library is giving the WCC community a chance to explore the campus and beyond, even in quarantine.

“Immigrant Voices in America” invites members of the college community to ask “who can tell whose stories?” and learn more about what the library has to offer.

Tashia Miller, a part-time reference librarian at WCC since summer 2019, started the discussion series in Nov. 2020 as part of the library’s outreach programming. She hosts a Zoom meeting every third Tuesday of the month to discuss a different series of articles, work of fiction, or a documentary film made by and about immigrants.

“It’s a good topic to bring attention to,” Miller says, as WCC is a diverse institution whose community includes immigrants from several different countries. “I hope [participants] can see a story or perspective they hadn’t considered.”

One of Miller’s favorite resources is an Al Jazeera documentary series called “The Untold Story Of America’s Southern Chinese.” One segment follows descendants of Chinese immigrants living in the Mississippi Delta. This juxtaposition of culture and experience was eye-opening for Miller, who describes the tandem struggles of Americans who are part of the Southern tradition but still “feel othered” by fellow Southerners because of their ancestry and appearance.

Although Miller strongly encourages attendees to check out the content she chooses, it’s not required. Meetings are “free and open,” she says. Anyone who is interested can jump in at any time, even if they haven’t done the reading. The resources are great conversation starters, but the Zoom meetings themselves are just as informative. Miller emphasizes that discussions are collaborative.

“It should be a community discussion because I don’t know everything,” she says. She schedules the meetings to run for about an hour, but if the discussion is going well, they can easily go over.

Recent meetings have revolved around the Twitter hashtag #OwnVoices. Users include the hashtag to recommend books by authors who “share a marginalized identity” with their protagonist, says the FAQ page of the hashtag’s originator, Corinne Duyvis.

The movement behind #OwnVoices seeks to highlight authors who write about their own identities or experiences. It dovetails nicely with Miller’s discussion series theme on immigrant voices. And it gained traction in early 2020 with the release of American Dirt, a novel written by an American woman about Mexican migrants fleeing cartel violence.

Miller’s first introduction to the book came from a blog post titled, “Pendeja, You Ain’t Steinbeck,” by Myriam Gurba. Publishers and libraries alike were “all over” the book before it was even released, says Miller. American Dirt received praise from the likes of The New York Times and Oprah, but the “Pendeja” article (as Miller calls it) offered a different perspective.

“Not only was it hilarious,” Miller says, referencing Gurba’s blistering critique of American Dirt, “but it also showed the frustration” that experienced immigrant writers felt reading non-immigrant depictions of their lives. For Miller, the national discussion surrounding American Dirt highlighted how people with “genuine” experiences as immigrants are often “sidelined” by the publishing industry and libraries.

Miller believes discussions about immigrants “should include stories from people directly affected,” so she included the “Pendeja” article in the Immigrant Voices resources. It sits comfortably next to articles from The New York Times, NPR, Vulture, and Publisher’s Weekly, all offering a different gradient through which to view American Dirt and #OwnVoices.

The discussion series also serves as a stepping stone into the library’s catalog. Miller’s resources also include “Waking Dream” a documentary film about young undocumented immigrants left in limbo by the Trump administration’s termination of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) in 2017. The film is available to all WCC students through Kanopy, an online documentary film database. Miller says resources like this are underutilized.

“As a librarian, I hope [discussion participants] get comfortable with the library process,” Miller says. The library offers a broad range of resources for students and faculty, but the variety itself can be a barrier. New library users may find the sheer volume “overwhelming” and difficult to engage with. The discussion series offers a glimpse into the library’s shelves (real and digital) at no extra cost.

The series will continue every third Tuesday of the month through the rest of 2021. Miller is still choosing resources for the new few meetings, but has a feeling her next theme will revolve around food. She greatly enjoys hand-picking content to share with potential participants and feels that food is a “personal and intimate” doorway into new cultures and perspectives. Look for content about fusion cuisine created through “cultural appreciation” on the horizon.

For more information, visit Miller’s book discussion page.

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