Kimm Brockett Stammen
Oyster River Pages: What do you hope readers or viewers of your piece take from it?
Kimm Brockett Stammen: A reminder that young people are much smarter than adults think! I've been a teacher, in one way or another, for most of my life, and I am continually surprised (and buoyed) by the stark honesty and integrity of young people.
ORP: How is your art or writing informed by current social and/or political issues?
KBS: Before the pandemic, I was in the middle of a story about a guy building a model of a skyscraper in his dining room. Sooner or later in the story along came a connection to an airport, and then a confused and angry wind, and I realized that, for the first time since it happened, I was writing about 9/11. In other words, I think I have a very, very slow brain, and there's a long gestation period before what has happened to or around me dribbles out onto the page. So expect a Covid-19 story from me in oh, about 2040.
ORP: How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed your relationship to art and writing, either in the creation of it or the consumption of it?
KBS: It's dumb, and makes little sense, but I (and every writer I know) is finding this time a hard slog. Dumb, because there's more actual time and quiet to write (and finding enough of those things is usually a writer's main complaint.) But first there was shock, and then there was compulsive news reading, and then there was worry and inability to concentrate and George Floyd and armchair activism and fury, and then, for me anyway—because as I say I tend not to write about current events while they are current—there was and is a serious questioning of the relevancy of anything I write. Like when you watch a TV show now and are shocked when the characters shake hands. And you think, "Oh, that happened Before the Pandemic, in a different age."
ORP: If you could choose one writer or artist, living or dead, as a best friend or mentor, who would it be? Why?
KBS: Lewis Carroll, although I suspect he'd be a rotten mentor. He'd never show up on time, he'd forget my name, I'd ask a question and he'd talk in circles and tell me a whole lot of nonsense.
ORP: Are there any artists, writers, or works of art (including music, film, literature, etc.) that you believe are fundamentally misunderstood? In a sentence, how would you rectify the misunderstanding?
KBS: Ummm. I was a concert saxophonist for a lot of years, so I'm going to say that. Saxophone is a lovely instrument for jazz, but it also belongs in the concert hall and in the symphony orchestra!!!! Tell all the conductors and concert organizers you know!!
