Transcript
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Luis Hernandez: What attracted you to LitArts RI?
Christina Bevilacqua: Well, many years ago, my undergraduate degree was in creative writing. I have not followed a writing practice for the rest of my career, but reading and writing are two extremely dear and important things to me, and reading, certainly, formed the way I think and who I am. And I believe that we are in a moment where the ability to express thoughts clearly and express complicated, nuanced thoughts clearly is very important. We don’t have enough of that. I think we have a lot of reactive, fast response to things. But really, the idea of being at an organization that is supporting people who are interested in expressing not just intellectual thoughts, but emotions and feelings and imagination was very appealing to me.
I also think that we’re at a time when many of us are feeling like we don’t read the way we used to. We don’t have the attention span we used to. And so, to be at an organization that is creating opportunities for writing and readers, that felt very important to me. I think that people read for so many different reasons. They read to learn about things they don’t know about. They read to understand other people’s experience in the world. They read for distraction. They read for comfort. They read for leisure. I think during COVID, many of us realized we couldn’t leave our houses, but reading was a great way to travel in all different kinds of ways.
Hernandez: What’s your vision for the organization? What are some of the goals you have?
Bevilacqua: Well, I think one of the big things we need to do is, get more people to know that we exist and that we deserve support. My big job is going to be to really help people understand what a central place this organization is serving. We have a very big membership. We have wonderful turnout at our events. Our space is active and in great use. I would like to see us have a wider profile outside of those in the literary community.
One of the things, I mean – I’ve been working with creatives in Providence for 20 years. This is such an incredibly creative city. I love living here and love the breadth of the creative projects here. Writers are a different breed. They are quiet, for the most part. They are often working by themselves. And so they don’t have the natural, they don’t get attention in the way that visual artists do or that theater performers do or that musicians do because performing isn’t top on the list of their job description. So I think having an organization that gives them a place to work in the way that they work, but then does a lot of the work of promoting their creative expression is very important.
Hernandez: You’ve had the chance to live in New York, Chicago, and also in Massachusetts. I wondered if you could try to tell me a little bit more about that writing scene. What is the writing scene here in Providence, in Rhode Island? What are some of the things that are unique to us?
Bevilacqua: Well, I think, you know, again, if you think the fact that there are 20,000 creative writers in the smallest state, that’s a pretty amazing number. The first week that I was at LitArts, it just happened that it was scheduled that way, our quarterly member mingle, which is an opportunity for a couple of hours on a Saturday, and any members can stop by. It’s often new members who will come because it’s the first public thing for them. There were about 35 people. It was very cold, snowing all day, but 35 people showed up that morning and we went around the room and talked about their projects and their writing practice, kind of what they were doing, and I could not believe, again, the breadth of the genres that were represented, the ages that were represented. There were people who had just this month published a book with a major publisher. There were also people who had raised families and retired and were ready to really rev their writing practice that they had always kind of had going on the side or really wanted to devote themselves to. And truly everything in between. There’s just such a variety, and whatever you like to read, someone in Rhode Island is writing that. And whatever you like to write, someone else in Rhode Island would love to talk to you about it.
Hernanez: Do you have any events, special events or anything that’s coming up that you want to share?
Bevilacqua: Do we ever.
Hernandez: Go for it.
Bevilacqua: So, the first thing coming up is Saturday, Feb. 8. We have what’s called a Writer’s Block party, and that is a pun. So if you are at the beginning of the new year and you have writer’s block, this is a great event to come to. It’s from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 8. And there are mini workshops. You can come to one, you can come to the whole day that will just help to get your creative juices going with different prompts.
The other thing we have coming up that I’m very excited about is our Rhody Readathon, which will run from March 1 to March 29. And that is an opportunity to rev your reading juices. And so this is a fundraiser where you come up with the books that you would like to read in the space of a month. And you commit to that, and then you get your friends to pledge money, depending on how many books you’re going to read. So they pledge per book. So for instance, for me, as somebody who, I stopped counting at about 23, I bought many new books in 2024. I have read very few of them. So I am using the Rhody Readathon as my spur to read at least one a week, and I will be asking my friends and loved ones to support me in my journey as a reformed back to reading reader. So, I think that will be an opportunity for people who are readers and lovers of readers to engage with the organization.
Hernandez: I think I gave up a long time ago trying to fit, you know, setting goals on how many books to read. I’m just trying to get to read more.
Bevilacqua: But that’s the nice thing about doing it in a month, because it’s not saying, I’m going to read more for the rest of my life. It’s just giving you, you know, an easy bite.
