Mini-interview with Valen Arcelo
HFR: Can you share a moment that has shaped you as a writer (or continues to)?
VA: One of the turning points that has shaped me as a writer was discovering the novel House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski and the poem “r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r” by E. E. Cummings. Honestly, the first time I saw these two works, it just made me feel so limitless to explore language in all of its possibilities. It kind of made me feel less afraid of pushing myself to just fully experiment within my work while still feeling like I could take up space in this world while doing so.
HFR: What are you reading?
VA: I’ve been reading Doveglion: Collected Poems by Jose Garcia Villa as well as interviews from some of my favorite artists online. Specifically, Salvia, Arca, and Kristin Hayter as I am deeply fascinated and inspired by the works that they are putting out.
HFR: Can you tell us what prompted “Test”?
VA: This work was inspired by my readings on fascism and bigotry. Some of the other titles that I was considering for this piece were “Fascist Weapon” and “A Metaphor on Fascism” as I wanted to showcase the darkly absurd, comical, elastic, and “unthinkable” nature of how fascism tends to operate.
In many ways, I wanted to sort of display themes of state surveillance, the psychic fear induced by totalitarian governments, and the acts of deception used by fascists and their supporters that are both equally obvious yet concealed in many ways.
Some of the works/pieces of media that I was looking into before creating this work include Gabrielle Mérite’s piece Describing (De)Radicalization, The Act of Killing by Joshua Oppenheimer, Natalie Wynn’s (Contrapoints) video essay on J. K. Rowling, January 6 United States Capitol Insurrection and the 2022 Philippine Presidential Elections coverage, and most importantly, the horrific State of Louisiana Literacy Test concocted by Jim Crow.
HFR: What’s next? What are you working on?
VA: I am currently working on multiple pieces of visual poetry (including some asemic writing) that examine my experiences with gender and sexuality as well as religion.
HFR: Take the floor. Be political. Be fanatical. Be anything. What do you want to share?
VA: I believe that fighting poverty, providing easier access to mental healthcare services, keeping communities alive, purposeful, and diverse, and allowing people to have a better understanding of overt and covert abuse in the family and educational system can be extraordinarily useful in fighting against the rise of fascism. I wish I could talk more about this topic at length but I think I may have spoken too much already. As such, I’m deciding to just leave it here on that note.
Valen Arcelo (he/him) is an emerging Filipino-American writer currently residing in Angeles City, Pampanga. His first set of visual poetry has appeared in Overground Underground and he has work forthcoming in Cutbow Quarterly.
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Heavy Feather Review 