On Thursday, April 3, Willie Edward Taylor Carver, Jr. visited the PennWest California campus for a series of activities, ending the day with a reading from his poetry. Before reading from his famed poetry collection “Gay Poems for Red States”, Carver joined Dr. Fisanick’s class for a workshop on creative writing and being mindful of regional dialects and different cultural identities whether writing or editing for a writer.
Carver shared an important memory that occurred before writing his poetry collection. When he began the writing process for the collection, he noticed that regional language was often neglected and not made central to the work. “I do have to say there’s lots of talk about the fact that regional varieties of language, African American vernacular, Appalachia English, that any number of English should be treated with respect, but often, when I’m reading books that at least in the dialogue have Appalachian English, you still have the standard narrator,” (Willie Carver Workshop).
Carver further expressed his issues with narration, which often uses a strictly standard form of English. “‘And the narrator is in a lot of ways, if you have the third person narrator, omniscient. I mean, sort of the voice of the God of that world. I’m like, why should my Appalachians have a standard ‘God’? When we see that third person narrators have a regional variety, it’s as if there’s a character, right?’” (Willie Carver Workshop).
The rest of the workshop then, from that moment, discussed the autonomy that writers should have in choosing to have an identifiable omniscience/deity in their work.
After the workshop, Pen Club and Rainbow Alliance hosted a reception in the Natali Airport Lounge, where students had the opportunity to ask Carver about his life and his advocacy work for LGBTQ+ youth.
When asked about what inspired some of the poems in his collection, Carver briefly described his experiences with a homophobic and transphobic school board.
“I’m trying to protect black kids. Black kids, brown kids, queer kids are never going to be legislative priority and that’s fine. If you all wanna focus on retirement and money, then do that. I’m gonna be doing this…” (Willie Carver Reception).
Students learned additional details, mainly how he met his current husband in college and his experience living childhood in rural, impoverished Kentucky.
Ending the day, Carver read from his poetry collection “Gay Poems or Red States”. Carver’s visit allowed students to make connections with their peers on social issues, learn more about the struggles of an LGBTQ+ writer, and gain valuable resources for grants and sponsorships to pursue their ideas for helping marginalized communities.
