Hi! My name is Trish (she/her) and I’m a senior with one semester left. I am majoring in Psychology and Creative Writing (poetry track) and minoring in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. I’m a Forbes veteran so if you’re thinking hmm where do I recognize her from, it’s probably from seeing me work at Dunkin’ or Panera.
My project for the creative arts fellowship is a poetry collection, titled “Hypothesis of Hunger.” Using the scientific method format and concepts in psychology, I offer structure in my exploration of memory. I’m the eldest daughter of a Vietnamese refugee family so I’m unlearning the pursuit of perfection. In the aftermath of family estrangement, I am embracing mess, inspired by Manalanson’s The “Stuff” of Archives: Mess, Migration, and Queer Lives. My experimental approach allows an alternative archive in which disarrangement imagines possibilities outside of hegemonic structures. The focus of my art is the mundane, the ugly, and my childhood which was both mundane and ugly. I am expanding what a poetry collection could look like. While the collection will be a printed and bound physical object, I want poetry to utilize the digital. Memory can manifest as text messages, clothing/accessories, music, photos, medication, childhood toys, voicemails, checklists, translation conflicts, fill-in-the-blanks, etc. Poetry has always been a form of protest and my background in student leadership and advocacy informs my work. As the political is personal and the personal is political, I write about the things that matter. Even documentation of daily life asserts a reality. This collection tells a story of a complicated personal history, featuring themes of resistance, consumption, memory, love, and the lack of it. A significant symbol in my work is ouroboros, a creature that devours itself in a cycle of death and rebirth. That might sound scary but a haunting isn’t a failure, it’s forever, and that can be very comforting.
In exploring psychology through a holistic lens, I am working to decolonize methods of thinking. I am pursuing an interdisciplinary project because I believe that the arts and sciences are not separate fields but significant in sustaining each other. I chose professor and published poet Diana Khoi Nguyen to be my mentor for this endeavor because she understands my creative process. After meeting Diana through a Vietnamese Student Association event, she has been my mentor and friend through much of my college career. Her poetry expresses the nuances of ghosts through visual erasure and this aligns with my collection’s symbol of ouroboros. Her Silicon Valley work background provides an expansive reservoir of knowledge in which she prompted me to play with the digital.
In the future, I plan to pursue a PsyD to be a psychologist for underrepresented youth with a focus on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). I hope to publish poetry and continue to build a network of poets. Mostly, I hope to practice Mary Oliver’s outlook on joy in which joy is not made to be a crumb.
Capitalism is the biggest barrier to creativity and I’m incredibly grateful that this fellowship provides me with the financial support to dedicate time and energy into this poetry collection. The fellowship also offers the invaluable resource of community by creating a collaborative environment where my peers and I inspire each other.
