Quick Overview:
My parents never talked much about their past. They are gone now, and I’m finally reading the hundreds of post-WWII letters that they left me. I’m writing about them and researching historical contexts in order to understand the forces that shaped our family life and my creative impulses.
The Letter Project—and my curiosity about intersections of history, culture, and the arts—is changing me in unexpected ways, reshaping my perspectives on art, writing, history, and my ancestors. Colonialism, war, nuclear testing, and migration have been decisive factors, along with dogged persistence, creativity, and love. I hope you’ll join me on this journey.
Why “Eulipion Outpost”?
Eulipo comes from Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s jazz piece, “Theme for the Eulipions.” The word also sounds like oulipo,1 game-like rules and rituals to make art. Poet Harryette Mullen writes about oulipo as Eulipean:
“. . . when I first heard of Oulipo and Oulipeans I thought of them in relation to the Eulipeans in Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s jazz classic, ‘Theme for the Eulipeans,’ the ones he calls ‘the artists, the actors, the journeymen’ who come from a planet in another galaxy, Eulipea. I’m not an Oulipean but I can call myself an Eulipean . . .2
When I first named this newsletter, I imagined an “outpost,” like a temporary retreat from the world. Then I realized (thanks to Rahsaan Roland Kirk), that the outpost was just a stop along our journey taking us through grief, discovery, understanding, and perhaps transforming us.
Questions
Questions tend to drive this newsletter, many of them come up while I read my parents’ letters. How do you survive and thrive as an artist during an era of great exponential change and instability? What ideas and processes help us to stay curious, strong, and playful?
P.S. Last name pronounced: Ven-gwah, i.e., ven as in “venom,“ “gwah“ as in “guava.” In Mindanao (Philippines), where my father was from, it’s written (and pronounced) as Bengua. It’s an unusual surname in the Philippines, and could have either sephardic or Chinese roots. In the latter, it could very well refer to “a fool” (imagine “the Fool” in your favorite tarot deck).
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For me, Oulipo and Oupeinpo (the visual art version) are a form of creative play that can stimulate fun and surprising results.
Mullen also wrote: The most liberating aspect of Oulipo for me was their demystification of ‘inspiration’ in favor of ‘potential literature.’ This puts less stress on writing as a product and more emphasis on writing as a process . . .”
