Stories Hold the Cure
SPEAKER: Putsata Reang
Stories Hold the Cure
SPEAKER: Putsata Reang
We all have wounds that resist healing…
…injuries incurred in moments when we are misunderstood, unseen, unheard and worse, harmed. These wounds are what former U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Tretheway calls the “existential wounds”—the ones that don’t seem to ever heal—and they can trap us into a single narrative of being unworthy, unlovable, irredeemable. We spend so much of our lives tending to the wounds of others, but what if we found the courage to turn inward and look at the places inside of us that throb? What if we summoned the vulnerability to tell not only our doctors where it hurts, but also our friends and family, our co-workers, and our community? What if we started to tell the stories of our scars and author a different narrative of our lives? We all have scars that start as wounds. Stories hold the cure.
Join us as Putsana Reang discusses her award-winning memoir, the impact of “existential wounds,” and the remedy of stories. “Ma and Me” is a powerful story about growing up in an immigrant family and coming to terms with one’s identity as a lesbian. The book has received critical acclaim. It won the Pacific Northwest Book Award and was shortlisted for the Washington State Book Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.
Due to limited room capacity, please register to attend here. Members receive discounts on all BCHS programming! Members, please monitor your email for promo codes and check your spam folder.
This lecture will be presented at the Corvallis Museum. Please email education@bentoncountymuseums.org to reserve an assistive listening device.
Did you miss your chance to grab a ticket? We often get last-minute no-shows. Feel free to call our front desk at 541-929-6230 to see if we have room at this event. In the meantime, we are working on setting up a waitlist system for our registration. Thank you for understanding!
Putsata Reang
Putsata is an author and a journalist whose writings have appeared in The New York Times, Politico, The Guardian, Ms, and The Seattle Times, among other publications. Born in Cambodia and raised in rural Oregon, Reang has lived and worked in more than a dozen countries. She is an alum of several prestigious fellowships and residencies, and teaches memoir writing at the University of Washington's School of Professional & Continuing Education.
Her latest book, Ma and Me, explores the long legacy of inherited trauma and the crushing weight of cultural and filial duty, in the context of her journey to come out to her family and claim her identity. The book has won the Pacific Northwest Book Award and was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.
