Chasing Hope- Dorothy Allison visits MHCC

She came to the podium slowly. She looked tired, an aging woman who carried far too heavy a burden for far too long, with a slight limp acquired after a life hard-lived and a recent illness that almost robbed her of life. Then she opened her mouth. The sweet drawl of the Southern, honey-coated language that in her own words, “can take the shine off your teeth,”  poured forth into the room.

If the 150-plus people in the audience on Wednesday doubted that great things come in small packages, Dorothy Allison gladly jacked their worldview. The very human figure of the great writer is amplified in her gritty, down-in-the-dirt style. She pulls no punches, and makes very clear that she has been the punching bag more than her fair share of times.

The critically acclaimed author of “Bastard out of Carolina,” Allison read from an as-yet unpublished story in which she, in her own authentic Southern style, again emphasizes to us that humanity is the one thing which can bring all people together, regardless of socio-economic class, creed, sexuality, or any other kind of diversity.  “I am a story. I am an animal.  Story is everything!” she said, urging the audience members not to underestimate their own stories.

For the myriad of what Allison endearingly calls “baby writers,” the words of advice she gives are simple and salty.

“Politicians and ‘They’ hate those of us on the margins. They are scared of us…but you know what? They aren’t scared enough,” she told the crowd. “Your job is to make them more scared. Your job is to scare them bad enough to remember that they cannot divide us into the Useful and the Disposable. NO ONE IS DISPOSABLE!”

When an audience member asked what her greatest inspiration was, Allison replied, “I taught baby writers to chase fear… I told them to go where the fear is, because that is where you grow. I am afraid that I might have f*cked them up. I once thought that fear was where you go to write. It was my greatest inspiration. I learned that hope is greater. Hope will take you places that fear cannot ever go.”

When interviewed after the reading, Allison said that one of our culture’s greatest needs is for burgeoning writers to tackle the difficult stories.

“We need writers to tell the stories that nobody else will. Only by challenging ourselves to tell those stories will we ever be able to advance past the challenges that spawned them,” she said.

Ultimately, the experience was one of the most evocative that Mt. Hood has provided in the Mouths of Others Speaker series, staged in the Visual Arts Theatre.

Jimmy Santiago Baca, a former convict and award-winning poet, along with Deborah Jiang-Stein, author of “Prison Baby: a Memoir,” are next scheduled to appear together as the series continues on May 8.