If Not Metamorphic

Brenda Iijima

 

An extended bio from the author

 

 

I grew up in the hardscrabble town of North Adams, Massachusetts—expropriated Mohican land. North Adams is a post-industrial mill town that lost much of its economic spark when the industries faded. To compound matters, the town was left with the legacy of an abundance of Superfund sites toxifying the town. My family lived on the foot of Mt. Greylock. Behind our house is a large swatch of forest that extends up the mountain range. Tributaries of the Hoosic river run behind our garden. My parents were (are) avid gardeners—a fair amount of time was spent planting and maintaining the gardens. My parents were also very committed to epic recycling efforts—so when the Urban Renewal in the 1970’s took place and much of the historical Victorian architecture was razed to make way for generic box stores like Sleepy’s—their adjacent parking lots—and generally ill-construed space for commerce, my parents organized my sister and me to haul and reclaim much of the rubble. With this material, my mom (and her conscripted help, me) beautified the town by creating community gardens, intricate slate walls, landscaped spaces etc. The way land use changes over time through human manipulation left an impact on me. Land that was shared as a commons was exploited for industry and was now imploding into craters and mounds of debris—gardening felt subversive. If I wasn’t hauling rubble or retreating to the forest I was involved in gymnastics. When I qualified for the Nationals I thought I might pursue gymnastics seriously but that didn’t happen and the life of the mind took over.

At Skidmore College I was a visual arts major but also spent a lot of time studying philosophy. I did take one class in poetry on the New York School taught by Terrance Diggory. My first job after college took me to Dongying in Shandong, China, where I taught “Themes in Western Literature” to juniors studying geology and engineering pertaining to oil refinement since the University was situated on one of the largest oil fields in China. During that year I painted a lot but also found myself compelled to write. I began questioning the material properties of painting. Once I settled in Brooklyn I got at job at Columbia University in the Sociology Department. This allowed me to audit courses for free and chat with the Sociology faculty. Painting and collage were my active focus but I was engaged with poetry also. After I left the Sociology department I ended up doing free lance floral designing and food styling until I started a part time gardening business while also activating around local matters like environmental and eminent domain issues. These days I also teach poetry at Cooper Union, run Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, and work on drawings, paintings and collages as well as poetry.