I don’t want my work to be seen as merch. I am not a brand.
– Yazmin Bradley
Sticky Teeth’s micro-interviews have less to chew off.
Ft. words from creative professionals at the intersection of the arts and writing.
In this edition, writer Yazmin Bradley speaks on the icky privatisation and forced consumerism of the creative process, and the humbling experience of getting intimate with beloved genres in community settings.
xx Tahney
Yazmin Bradley is a writer from unceded Dharug Land, Western Sydney.
Tahney: What’s been on your mind?
Fav creatives working with writing/language?
A quote from one of them?
You will want to hear that Anne takes solace in these precarious days, so let’s say that’s true: She takes that trip she always meant to, an ethereal island resort where every day the indigo waters whisper Get out, get out while you still can and the jacarandas whistle a jaunty tune of existential dread. She cashes in her many retirement portfolios, she doesn’t so much throw parties as fling them, handfuls of bacchanalia into those feverishly starlit nights.
What have you been working on lately?
I’ve been helping my grandmother write her memoir, and it’s forced me to engage a lot more with the genre as a whole and interrogate its conventions (it’s my favourite book genre). I was working at Parramatta Library when we first started her project, and it was one of those strange moments where timelines converge; my job was less rigorously bookish than it was community care and holding space for people’s stories, and here I was holding space for my grandmother too.
So, I set up a workshop at the library to teach folks how to write their memoir. Some had dabbled in writing before, others had never tried. The workshop had started in silence, but by the end, I was able to step away from the table to fill up the tea and coffee stations. People were swapping stories without my help. The humbling fact was that I was no longer needed.
IWhat else we should be reading in/on the arts?
The most recent thing I’ve released was Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Substack for The Suburban Review, which was their creative nonfiction piece for #32 Subscribe. It’s mostly a continuation of my answer to questions 1 and 3, except it’s funnier (I think). I even write about doing a striptease and flaying my skin in it. Sexy stuff. There’s a little interview about it here.
Anything that talks about Moon Wrasse.
Haneen Mahmood Martin talks about shared accountability and diverse perspectives in the arts industry, matching words with actions—i.e., more POC in leadership positions—and the use of clear, accessible, but impactful language.
Liv Collins has an infectious energy rare in an industry of pretension. I’m really excited to feature her in this sticky teeth micro-interview for her truths about writing education at art school and some hot insider arts reading suggestions.
Anna Kate Blair speaks on the intersection of art, writing, and time. She explains her major concerns for lack of enough resources for the writing process itself, and also touches on history, capitalism and imagining alternative futures for creativity.
Brussels-based journalist Sarah Schug discusses the challenges of language in the art world, the need for accessibility, the diminishing value of art writing and her proud accomplishment—a self-published book on Iceland’s contemporary art scene.
Writer and editor Erin McFayden reflects on framing artistic activities as labour and advocating exploring the good it creates rather than its economic value – as well as her reccs for some artistic endeavours.
Writer Yazmin Bradley touches on the pressure on authors under the commercialisation of Bookstagram – how can we reclaim the creative process from capitalism? She also explores working with her grandmother on her memoir and the possibilities of Substack for creativity.
Writer Suzanne Claridge talks about ephemeral approaches to working with language and their belief that good arts writing should not lose sight of its purpose: the reader and experiencing art.
Plurality is borne in Kollektiv Collective Pia Zeitzen and Sasha Shevchenko’s shows and texts via losses in translation. Here’s their thoughts on writing within (and outside) the constraints of language dualities.
Sammi Gale’s thoughts on collective action among writers, artists, and creatives, and the essentials of empathy and meaningful encounters within creative endeavours.
Universal basic income would assist in allowing us all to dream, think, read, write and participate more. Art writers need to be paid more and on time.