What's up, my friends. May I have your attention, because it's time to meet the latest Angry Reader of the Week, spotlighting you, the very special readers of this website. Over the years, I've been able to connect with a lot of cool folks, and this is a way of showing some appreciation and attention to the people who help make this blog what it is. This week's Angry Reader is Hollis Wong-Wear.
Who are you?
I am Hollis Wong-Wear! An angry hapa lady.
What are you?
A writer, an enthusiast, a doer, an educator and teaching artist, a performer, an over-thinker, a first-born daughter, a bossy older sister, a fervent copyeditor, a Seattle resident, a song-maker-uper, a tweeter (@wongweezy), a dabbler AND a delver, and a lush for adventure.
Where are you?
I'm at this cocktail bar called Liberty on Capitol Hill in Seattle. The bartender made me this fucking awesome drink with rye whiskey and chamomile liquor. A bunch of bros just rolled in and one of them just wandered over here all like "are you really doing actually work on your computer" and I was like "yes" and he was like "oh REALLY" and i was like "uh-huuuh" and he said, "like what are you doing? what do you do?" and I was like "HAVEN'T GOTTEN TO THAT PART OF THE INTERVIEW YET BAI!"
Where are you from?
I'm from Petaluma, California, a modest former farming town now better known for suburban sprawl, forty-five minutes north of San Francisco. 707. Bay Area, all day.
What do you do?
Ok, conversationally entitled random guy, you can come back now! JK. He's uninvited.
Some things I currently do include:
+ perform in and manage my band The Flavr Blue, an independent electronic r&b/pop/??? band (you can check out our newest EP for free at theflavrblue.com and see us live soon in the Seattle area and NYC!). I am very proud of my band!
+ act as Operations Director for Blue Scholars, one of my very favorite hip-hop groups and also two of my super good homies from Seattle who inspired me to make music, and whom I have learned so much from.
+ teach poetry and mentor young people in the organization Arts Corps and the program Youth Speaks Seattle. I got my start as a spoken word poet and it's important for me to stay connected to my roots. Plus these kids will knock you on your ass. Lyrically. They could also do so physically but they won't because poetry is power, y'all.
+ produce music videos. The most famous music video I have produced is "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, but I've produced/stumbled through about 10 other ones. I love the nebulous challenge of doing everything BUT shooting and editing a video. It is deeply rewarding.
+ tutor philosophy, SAT and ACT test prep. Because rent. And art.
I do what excites me and challenges me and freaks me out, under the auspices that it will make me grow and a better person and someone who contributes good to the world. Fingers crossed.
What are you all about?
Figuring it out each day, but I am definitely all about creating safe and simultaneously electric spaces for people to connect and create and shift the status quo and weave narrative. Amplifying the unheard, disrupting the static. Cultural revitalization against gentrification. Owning our own spaces, learning how to share space. Reclamation of history. Critical dialogue & honest feedback.
I am also all about having fun. Karaoke. Laughter. Revelry. DANCING. Love in surprising forms.
Stay being all about making my mom proud.
But maybe more than anything I am a-l-l about noodles. Just, noodles. God, I love noodles.
What makes you angry?
BAD RAMEN. BAD RAMEN MAKES ME SO ANGRY. There is no good ramen in Seattle, it is horrible. I can do magical things with a package of Sapporo Ichiban, but it's a damn shame I can't go one place for a spectacular bowl. WTF.
Hubris and defiant ignorance and prideful entitlement make me angry. Duh, right. Drones and rape jokes. American textbooks and politicking at our life-and-death expense.
Fruit flies. Time wastin'. And finally, anything negative that occurs when I am hungry. Hanger is strong within me.