
"Writing, Teaching, History & Cooking" Tadeh Kennedy to Feature at the January Last Supper Party Sat. 4 Jan, 6:00pm, Temo's Cafe
Recently, the Festival interviewed writer Tadeh Kennedy, performing at the January 4th Last Supper Party. Kennedy is a musician, writer, and educator. He edits the literary magazine, Transfer, and teaches a writing course at San Francisco State.
Kennedy had the following to share with Festival Newsletter readers:
(SFIAF) Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?
(TK) I always wrote stories, along with learning music. I always wanted to write, but I didn't know what it meant to be a writer. I think it involves curiosity and wanting to learn about the world. It's also about stillness, working with words, relaxing and thinking.
(SFIAF) What things interest you outside of the arts?
(TK) In the last six years, things have changed. I still love making music, I am interested in making comics. I’ve been doing that for a while. I love cooking. Recently, I have been reconnecting to things that I didn’t quite tie the knot on, exploring things that I didn't learn, now that I know about how I learn.
I spoke Armenian primarily until I was 3 years old; once I went to school in English, my Armenian was kinda lost. Now I am getting back to learning it again. It was difficult when my grandparents passed, and I could not communicate with them. As I learn it, I am recommitting with something we lost. I am also obsessed with Armenian history, which is part of the cycle of reconnecting with that.
(SFIAF) What is your favorite type of writing?
(TK) I'm obsessed with anything that blends history with not history. The mashing of the historical or the unreal, by putting unrealistic elements next to historical elements. I like reading horror; body horror in certain doses. For words to make me squirm is a magical thing. To have to put a book down because of a physical feeling … Being able to draw that out in a reader is fascinating.
(SFIAF) What drew you to education?
(TK) I love talking about this. Teaching is totally unexpected in my life. I don’t have a diploma; I flunked out of high school writing stories. I fell in love with writing, I am committed to it, all in.
Everything with my teaching has been like that - I kind of fell into teaching but I was also trying to avoid it, too, for a lot of years. I’ve had a really hard time as a student. English teachers have always been my favorites, and I have been able to have conversations with those teachers. I love that English can connect with other disciplines. Seeing what stories can do really makes me want to teach.
My students are active participants in the making of our learning. We are all adapting to it all the time. We are creating it together. What I struggled with as a student - no one contextualized things for me. One of the top priorities for me is making that context, where learning fits today, because that wasn’t made clear to me. [Politically] I think it's time to double down on education; we are on the precipice of a seismic shift, it's not the time to abandon it.
MORE DETAILS AND RSVP FOR THE LAST SUPPER PARTY HERE
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