Tag: english

Meet Our New Intern: Joan Alft

Disclaimer: if at any point this post starts sounding a little too much like it was written by a pretentious middle-aged man, you have permission to steal everything I own. All 106 records, 70 cassettes, 22 VHS tapes, 109 CDs, and 79 DVDs—I mostly collect from various vintage and secondhand stores and, of course, the few local record stores around Knoxville. Just the other day, my 12 year old sister came up to me and asked if I could bring her somewhere to get a record for her friend’s birthday party. She (the friend) had just gotten a record player, and I’m pretty much the only person my sister knows who collects that sort of thing. Of course I took her to Lost and Found and it was a fun trip, but we had limited info on what kind of music her friend listens to and didn’t end up getting anything. Never fear—I made her friend a little zine on how to take care of her records instead, which was an overall much cheaper option and one that allowed my sister to pick out something else for her friend instead.

Still, it made me think about my own philosophy (if you will) about collecting physical media and enjoying art. I excluded books in the little list above because I genuinely have too many to reasonably count, but I promise they are relevant here as well. But back to my records and tapes: yes, I like them because I can hold them in my hands. Yes, I like them for their tangibility (sleeve out of the jacket, record out of the sleeve, record onto the platter). Yes, I like knowing that I truly own these pieces of art and no corporation can censor them or remove my access to them at will.

A white person with wavy dark brown hair sits on an orange chair and smiles in the direction of the camera. Her eyes are closed and she wears a bejeweled blue cowboy hat. She is wearing a striped orange top and is holding a knife and a loaf of chocolate babka.

More than that, though, I love that I can’t skip a song without going through a lot of trouble. If I want to skip ahead while playing a record, I have to lift the needle, move it, and drop it into the precise groove where the next song starts. If I want to skip ahead on a cassette or VHS, I have to push a button and let the tape wind itself up and hope I stop it at just the right moment (which almost never happens). Everything takes effort and none of the effort will every produce perfection.

On one hand, this system has allowed me to develop the tiniest percent more patience, which is always a helpful thing. On the other hand, not being able to skip around on the “highlights” of an album has encouraged me to look at albums in their entirety with a much greater level of respect. Of course, I still listen to music digitally when I want to make a playlist or listen to a specific song—not every album is perfect or anywhere near it, and I don’t have the space or money to own half as many albums as I’d actually listen to. But since I started collecting media that forces me to slow down, I have slowed down.

If an artist puts ten songs on an album in a specific order, that order is intentional. The important part is that intentionality does not equal perfection. In my own writing habits, I try to apply this value to all drafts, but especially earlier ones. And with generative AI as a threat in lots of circles, prioritizing being intentional over being perfect feels like a step in the right direction both creatively and generally. While I’m hoping my sister’s friend gets as much fun out of her new hobby as she possibly can, I’m also hoping that through it, she might value art more intentionally.

A white person with choppy bangs, black hair, and a black top sits at a table and smiles at the camera. She is wearing several necklaces and large dark red glasses. 

Joan Alft (she/any) is an undergraduate student at the University of Tennessee studying publishing and creative writing. Her short story “Pilgrim” is forthcoming in the Phoenix Literary Arts Magazine where she works as an Assistant Prose/Fiction Editor. Gothic themes and relationships, the dichotomy between the familiar and unfamiliar, and confusingly intense devotion in places where it shouldn’t be are a few things she enjoys seeing in others’ art and tries integrating in her own projects. In her free time, Joan collects physical media (records, cassettes, DVDs, CDs, and VHS tapes, oh my!), hangs out at local coffeeshops, and sews on occasion.

Meet Our New Editorial Intern, Alexandra Chiasson!

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As an English major at the University of Tennessee and an intermittent reader of The Metro Pulse, I have been vaguely aware of Sundress Academy for the Arts since I moved to Knoxville in 2011.

It wasn’t until this summer at Knoxville PrideFest, however, that I spoke to a Sundress Academy staff member who persuaded me to attend my first SAFTA event—the 2014 OUTSpoken staged reading. The reading sounded unique and fresh, particularly for East Tennessee, so I rounded up a group of friends to accompany me. When I arrived, I was delighted to see that I knew one of the performers and several members of the audience.

The performers were excellent and the material genuine. One piece, a series of open letters written by a close friend, moved me to tears. Unfortunately, I only got to see the first 20 minutes or so of the OUTSpoken reading. About a third of the way through, I felt a feeling in my stomach that I at first mistook for some physical manifestation of the emotions I was experiencing. It soon became apparent that it was more likely the unfriendly mingling of the coffee and salsa I had ingested earlier that day, and I ran to the restroom where I promptly vomited.

I tell this story not to make some strange point about the poignancy of spoken word or to share a cautionary tale of which acidic foods are most incompatible. I tell this story to share this remarkable coincidence and how I overcame some fairly negative associations when this internship position fell into my lap this fall and I delightedly snatched it up.

I am currently a reluctant and unseasoned writer, and I hope that my impending work with Sundress Publications as the Editorial Intern will assist me in quelling uncertainties—which sometimes cause me to feel like I did the night of the OUTSpoken reading—regarding sharing my writing with others. I cannot think of a better community of artists to mingle and network with, and I look forward to attending many more (hopefully sans vomit) SAFTA events.

 

 

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Alexandra Chiasson is majoring in English (Literature and Technical Communication) at the University of Tennessee, where she also writes a weekly humor column called “Stained and Confused” for the student-led newspaper. Her ongoing research project explores ecofeminist perspectives on Appalachian literature, with a focus on the writing of Amy Greene and Ron Rash. Her hobbies include serving on the Sex Week UT planning board, sampling different types of pretzels, and bragging about bargains.