Their stories matter

The Rhode Island Foundation has awarded three Rhode Island writers $25,000 each through the annual MacColl Johnson Fellowship.

The fellowship is named after Robert and Margaret MacColl Johnson, two Rhode Islanders who dedicated their lives to the arts. Robert MacColl Johnson began discussions with the Rhode Island Foundation about creating the fellowship before he died in 1999. This year, for the first time, all three recipients of the fellowship are women of color.

Mary-Kim Arnold

Adopted as a young child from South Korea, Arnold grew up in Bronxville, New York, with her mother, the daughter of Portuguese immigrants, and her father, the son of Italian immigrants.

"I had a very sort of strange relationship to cultural identity," said Arnold, 47, who now lives in Pawtucket. She's a graduate of Brown University, where she's now a visiting lecturer in English.

That "strange relationship" has informed much of her writing, especially her memoir, "Litany for the Long Moment," which is based on a questionnaire she filled out when she started to search for information about her birth parents. The questionnaire was part of an application to appear on a Korean television show that attempts to reunite separated family members. The questions, she found, were difficult to answer.

Questions such as, "If you've ever had any difficulties in your life, please explain," she said. "They ended up being sort of creative prompts."

Arnold is currently working on a novel called "Nine Men's Misery." The working title was inspired by a historic site in Cumberland where nine Colonial men were tortured and killed by members of the Narragansett tribe during King Philip's War.

The book is about a woman living in New York who travels to Rhode Island to learn more about her estranged father, who lives here and is involved in a group of war reenactors. Arnold said she hopes to use the book to explore themes such as the effects of war and how trauma is passed down through generations.

She'll use her fellowship money to, first of all, buy a printer, she said. The money will also allow her to take a break from teaching part time and freelancing, so she can finish a draft of her book by the end of this year. In addition, she hopes to take her memoir on a tour of the West Coast, where there are many Asian-American and adoptee communities, she said.

To Arnold, the fact that this year's fellowship recipients are all women of color shows that the literary world is expanding to include spaces for people who look like her.

"It's been hard historically to see yourself reflected in a lot of the major publications," she said. "I think that can be really discouraging and dampening."

It's exciting, she said, to see more diverse writers in the field. 

"There are different stories that can be told that are more, maybe, complicated, different perspectives on the American experience that really need to be told and need to be validated in some way," she said.

Luisa Murillo

As a little girl, Luisa Murillo frequently found herself checking out "Little Women" at the library.

She was drawn by the first name of the author — Louisa May Alcott. It was spelled a little differently, but close enough to her own. 

It wasn't until college that she discovered writers who were Latina, like herself — writers such as Sandra Cisneros and Gloria Anzaldúa. It was then that Murillo, who had moved to the United States from Bolivia as a child, decided to explore her immigrant roots through poetry.

"That experience made me realize that it was possible for a Latina woman, an immigrant woman, to be a writer," she said. "To have an opportunity to share those experiences, in particular at a time where we have so much suffering amongst immigrants in this country, is very important."

Murillo, 47, of Providence, said she plans to use her fellowship money to help her carve out time to concentrate on completing her first book of poetry. She also hopes to travel to Bolivia for inspiration.

Once finished, she plans to publish the book in three languages — English, Spanish and Quechua, an indigenous language spoken in parts of South America, including Bolivia.

Murillo, who is the director of social programs for Progreso Latino, a Central Falls nonprofit that helps the Latino and immigrant communities, said racial disparities in literature are prevalent. But, she said, the Rhode Island Foundation's choice of fellowship recipients this year will hopefully inspire future generations of writers of color.

"The Rhode Island Foundation's awarding of the MacColl Johnson Fellowship is historical and strategic for women, in particular women of color," she said. "For children to see writers of color publish and pursue such a dream just makes it even more possible for them to say, 'I am a writer' and believe in that dream."

Chrysanthemum Tran

When Chrysanthemum Tran performs her poetry on tour or at the Providence Poetry Slam, where she works, she makes her voice heard.

But she also aims to be seen — really seen — by her audience. 

"Most people who see me perform poetry or attend poetry slams can't envision a Vietnamese-American transgender woman reading poems," she said.

So, Tran said, it's her job to show them. 

"Through my poetry, I have to prove to the judges and the audience that my life matters, that my stories matter, that what I have to say is valuable and important," she said. "And it means that I hope that regardless of the score that I get in a poetry slam, that there is at least one person in the audience who learns something new about themself, about how they relate to people different than them." 

Tran, 23, of South Kingstown, said that through her art, she wants to help people form new perspectives on those who are different from them. Earlier this month, she debuted a two-woman show with Justice Ameer Gaines, another transgender poet from Providence, at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The show, called "Anthem," was "An ode and celebration to living in a world that says you shouldn't," she said. The pair hopes to present the show in Providence at a future date.

With her fellowship money, Tran said she wants to support the Providence Poetry Slam, which hosts bimonthly shows at AS220, and lift up other poets. Some ideas she has are to host events where artists can perform their art and be paid, organize writers' retreats on the South Kingstown farm where she lives, and facilitate writing workshops for youth.

"I have had the privilege to be able to embark on this career," she said. "I have the privilege of the fellowship, and with that I believe it's my duty and my responsibility to be able to encourage others to add to this choir of writing and multiplicity of voices.

"I never want to be the only trans writer or only Asian-American writer in the room."