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national patriotism month
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“That Lunchkit Is A Time Machine!”, or; A Simply Speculative School Tour

One of the simple joys of my career is that, because I work with other freelance literary creators, we get to be novel in the ways we approach the same projects we’ve been engaged in for most of our work. As a teaching artist with The 2 Cents Movement, that means that our yearly nationwide secondary school tours get to be wildly varied projects, from the comical and narratively disjointed to the tragic and emotionally intense. 

Pictured: a wild Brandon, checking his Instagram after the set.

It also means that, even when someone’s come to us to say, “We’d like you to solve this problem for us,” we’re trusted to find those solutions in our own ways. So when the Ministry of Community Development, Culture, and The Arts came to 2 Cents asking for us to continue our work on the National Patriotism Month tour they’ve usually performed, we were more than eager to take them up on the project, but were even more eager to try something new.

National Patriotism Month is a fairly recent observance in Trinidad and Tobago, but to me it serves a radically necessary social purpose. Between the dates of Independence Day and Republic Day, the Ministry aims to promote national cultural and heritage milestones to the public in the hope of raising national morale and reinforcing a national commitment to our twin-island home. Its festivities most often include using the performing arts to remind us of our greatest historical moments and their importance, and how they not only formed the definition of our national identity but, in more ways than many of us know, shaped international history or served as some of its most radical unsung moments.

The assumptions people typically make of the past are really stiff and unappetizing. No matter what radical things you may know about in your national history, the act of revisiting it is often done dully and without much engagement. Imagine someone performing a poem about the fact that an old man you don’t know who has long since been dead did a cool thing that doesn’t immediately impact your life. Imagine being asked, being begged, to care about this thing so external to your experience that you can barely be inspired to connect long enough to remember the person’s name at all.

The team lead for this year’s patriotism tour, Arielle John, shared this feeling about that quandary. So did 2 Cents Artistic Director Derron Sandy, who has been doing the same tour as far back as 2016, and hoped for a way to help students attach even more eagerly to our historical narratives. How could we bridge both gaps—how to deliver this year’s theme of ‘Legacy Is Me’ in a way that inspires young people to value their own commitment to nation-building, and make these histories more engaging for young people—in one short, concise tour?

Being the one speculative poet on the team, I pitched the first thing that  immediately came to mind: 

what if… time travel? 

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About me

Hello there! I’m Brandon O’Brien. I am a performance poet, science fiction writer and teaching artist living and working in Trinidad. This is my blog, where I share work, talk about my process, and generally geek out. Never miss out on new stuff.

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Arisia assault Black Panther ConFusion 2020 COVID-19 fandom Hugo Awards intimate partner violence LGBTQ National Patriotism Month Performance Poetry revolution SFF Awards Season socialism Speculative Fiction Speculative Poetry The 2 Cents Movement Voltron: Legendary Defender

therisingtithes

Poet, writer, tabletop game designer, nerd. Trying to make something of himself. Preferably in pen.

therisingtithes
I did a panel at #PAXOnline2020 earlier this year I did a panel at #PAXOnline2020 earlier this year and it was really rad, so you know your resident pin-obsessed nerd had to get some swag. Including some new locking backs, and some dope pronoun hexes so I can try on ‘they’ more often in public!
Behold, my @fiyahlitmag #IgnyteAwards Finalist med Behold, my @fiyahlitmag #IgnyteAwards Finalist medallion has arrived! Still beyond blessed for all of it: for my poem simply being nominated, for FiyahCon—the very best con of this year—& for FIYAH in general, the best damn outlet in this whole damn genre. 🔥 🔥 🔥
Portrait of An Election Stain, 2020. Portrait of An Election Stain, 2020.
A book I cannot wait to eagerly consume. QUEEN OF A book I cannot wait to eagerly consume. QUEEN OF THE CONQUERED is finally in hand, and the sequel done preorder.
Guess what finally came in the mail! My copy of So Guess what finally came in the mail! My copy of Sovereigns of the Blue Rose! ‘Like Ice And Then Like Fire’ is a little ache of a story about how we mourn, and how we judge mourning. It’s surrounded by so many fabulous tales of the decades of the chosen sovereigns of the Kingdom of Aldis. The book looks amazing, inside and out.
Ordered a #Heckadeck to tinker with, but as soon a Ordered a #Heckadeck to tinker with, but as soon as I opened it, I was supernaturally compelled to #DestroyThisCard in particular. Don’t know what came over me.
One for each generation. ———— These @bozor One for each generation. ————
These @bozorobo pins are my absolute favourites. I just got the Kamen Rider Ichigo one on top, which completes the set. 
Kamen Rider, starting with Ichigo, seems to consistently argue that even when your power comes from a potentially dark place or has cruel origins, dedicating its use to destroying the forces of evil is what slowly turns that power into justice. Fascism denies you your own body? Reclaim it for the sole purpose of destroying fascism, and it becomes justice. Your space suit was made possible by revelations that led to the murder of your best friend’s father? Avenge him by thwarting evil’s plans while always smiling and sowing joy. Have you survived the trauma of unending hopelessness? Spare innocents that same pain by sharing hope wherever you go. Have you become a tyrant, forgetting to do good as power corrupts you? Then justice is the act of *literally* confronting yourself. Is time itself a record of the cruelties and selfishnesses of man? Then even break time against your heel.

I mean… it’s also not shy at all about how several antagonists are just mutant fascism, incapable of argument or compassion, only performing reason to keep their violence undetected, seeking power through force. Resistance, then, is in wielding the parts of you that are on the verge of collapse or corruption, and throwing them against the gears. Forge those dark portions in the fire of your own rage, tie them to your heel, and drop-kick all evil. 
I’m thinking about this as I work. What are the cruelties in my space that my body is unduly bonded to? And what parts of me do I wield in contrast to that cruelty? How do I transform myself, Darkness and all, into justice, resolve, compassion, and solidarity?

#kamenrider #enamelpins #resistance
#ConFusionSF was amazing. I got to give my mother #ConFusionSF was amazing. I got to give my mother the early birthday gift of her first trip to the States, her first live sight of snow, and her first con experience. I got to see snow for the first time, too, and even make a snowball (I’m good on that now, thanks). I got to link up with old friends, meet digital friends in person for the first time, and make brand new ones. I attended panels that actually made me think more deeply about what I make. I got to cohost a Speculative Open Mic, to talk about speculative verse, to ask deeper questions about how we write men with power or men with pain or both. @bogiperson even took us to this really neat black-owned bookstore in the area afterwards, and then @edebellauthor and Chris took my mother and I out for pizza after that! I adored the entire weekend. 
I’m particularly grateful that @miconfusionsf made me their Creative Guest of Honor this year. I tend to feel like I haven’t done enough, haven’t ‘made it’, but just knowing that I’m welcome in a fandom space seems to allay those fears. I’m grateful for those spaces. If ConFusion would have me back, I’d work my hardest to be there, any time.
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