To explore the non-native experience of growing up in rural Alaska, Coffee & Quaq interviews Tiffany Rosamond Creed (Part 1) and Dr. E.J. Ramos David (Part 2).
"It’s okay to have hurts, but they don’t belong in a conversation about racial equity. You can talk to friend or a therapist about it, but you don’t need to bring it up when Alaska Native people or Indigenous people are having a conversation about their identity or reconnection or reclaiming.
Marginalization is not just like feeling bad about yourself -- it’s not just hurt feelings. It’s much more than that. So I try to feel my hurts because then I can move past them, but never think that my hurts are somehow reverse racism or something. Because I don’t believe in that concept. I don’t even want to give any energy it because it’s so ridiculous to think that."
Tiffany Rosamond Creed earned a Bachelor of Arts in Film Studies from Portland State University (’13) and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Literary Arts from the University of Alaska Anchorage (’18). Her creative work has been published in The Qargi Zine, Alaska Women Speak, Into the Void, Cathexis NW, Cirque and The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. In 2018, she was a featured poet with Poetry Parley of Anchorage, Alaska and an exhibitor at the Anchorage Museum during Anchorage Design Week. In 2019, she received the honor of First Place in the Adult Division of the Fairbanks Arts Association 24th Annual Statewide Poetry Contest. She enjoys drinking coffee, discovering new music, and watching the sun come back a couple minutes at a time each day. She lives in Kotzebue, Alaska.
Part 2 with Dr. E.J. Ramos David coming soon!
