The Bruce & Judy McGrath Family Concert

for the National Book Award.

Much of Felix’s work wrestles with feelings of “otherness,” not exclusive to race, gender or sexuality, but also delving into life with trauma and unanswered questions. In a 2022 essay for The Cut, Felix discusses the impact of representation on those who are othered.

“I can admit that I was still moved by the poetics of what representation could mean, by the endless metaphors it offered up about Blackness’ survivability and resistance,” she wrote. “But what I discovered is that representation is, fundamentally, a metaphor.”

Shelley Wong’s work also deals with being outside the mainstream. She uses atypical formatting and sensory experiences to illustrate her experiences as a fourth-generation Chinese-American artist.

Wong has taught creative writing at Ohio State University and her first full-length book of poetry—As She Appears (YesYes Books)—was released in 2022. It too was longlisted for the National Book Award.

In the decade she spent writing As She Appears, Wong was navigating the poetry world in addition to her mixed identity.

“[Y]ou’re up against the larger culture, the larger society of systemic oppressions of women, LGBTQ folks, and Asians—especially now, we’re seeing it more visibly, but it was always there,” said Wong in an interview with Ploughshares. “So I think for me, I wanted to kind of convey these different histories and distortions and erasures and speak to how that can affect the psyche and self-consciousness.”

This literary side of this year’s Mission Creek Festival also includes performances by Michael Torres, Zoë Bossiere, Joe Wilkins and Lauren Haldemann, and a book fair including dozens of independent presses. The festival’s mission of championing “independent-minded musicians and writers” and promoting “voices across ethnicities, cultures, and experiences” appears to be alive and reflected in its artists.

Sarah Elgatian is a writer, activist and educator living in Iowa. She likes dark coffee, bright colors and long sentences. She dislikes meanness.

March 30–April 1, 2023

Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Cinema & the Black Diaspora

2022–23 Obermann Humanities Symposium obermann.uiowa.edu/frequencias

Film screenings, lectures, multimedia performances at FilmScene & the UI Stanley Museum of Art.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact Erin Hackathorn in advance at 319-335-4034.