We recently connected with Kevin Clement and have shared our conversation below.

Kevin, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

A meaningful recent project for me was creating Superpresent, a magazine of art and literature.

Kevin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have been an ESL teacher and administrator of ESL programs for most of my adult life. I am also the founding editor of Superpresent, which is an arts and literature magazine. I really got into both positions by chance and with very little planning on my part. I guess I have had a kind haphazard approach to life. When I was a child, I decided that I wanted to become either a diplomat or an artist. Although I never became either, these two ideas of career paths influenced my interest and what I pursued in my education. When at the age of 12 I told my father I wanted to become a diplomat, he went into the other room and came back with a book of poetry, I believe it was Robert Frost’s poems and a collection of Beethoven’s nine symphonies and told me that these were a good place to start. He then proceeded to tell me that in addition to understanding politics, history, and economics, diplomats need to know and appreciate all forms of art. He also told me that should I ever take the State Department examination, I would be tested on these things.

I was fortunate to have gone to a high school that had a good art program. I learned a lot, but it was also at this time that I realized I was probably not good enough to pursue a career in art. In university, I ended up double majoring in East Asian Studies and Political Science with an emphasis on international relations. I chose East Asian Studies because I had learned a lot of American and western history when I was a kid and I wanted to learn more about Asia. It was really fascinating for me since the major was a self-designed major with. It included the study of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean history, culture, and politics as well as the study of Mandarin Chinese. During university, I got a chance to spend the summer of 1982 studying Chinese at Nankai University in Tianjin, China. This was a real-life changing experience as it was my first time traveling outside of North America. After graduating from university, I took the State Department examination, it turned out my father was right. The test included history, economics, politics as well as visual art, architecture, and music. I did very well on the test and passed every section but one. It was at this point I kind of had a crisis about what I wanted to do. I really was not sure if I wanted to take the test again in a year or if I wanted to do something else. I started graduate school in political science, but despite having good grades, I dropped out. It was shortly after this that I got an offer to teach English in China. I thought to myself that this might be fun, it would take me back to China. I also thought that even if it was not a good experience, it would be only for a year. I ended up staying in Beijing for 3 and a half years. I was there from late 1986 to early 1990. China was really a great experience for much of my time there. I mostly had contact with only Chinese. It allowed me to improve my spoken Chinese and learn the culture. China was a great opportunity, in my mid-20s, I was given a lot of opportunities. I set up an English language program for students studying public health and I was also asked to write the textbook for a 30-part video series on English for Public Health that was sponsored by the WHO and the Chinese Ministry of Health. This experience allowed me to develop my teaching and leadership skills.

I had not practiced art much during my time in university, but in China my interest in art was rekindled. I spent a lot of my spare time visiting galleries and learning about Chinese art. I tried my hand at shanshui painting and even learned how to carve chops. I also got married while I was living in China. I was in Beijing at the time of the student movement in 1989. Because I had recently married, I did not evacuate with other foreigners when the government crackdown came. I am not sure if it is true, but I was told that I was the only American English teacher to remain in Beijing at that time.

My experience teaching English and putting together an English program gave me a career. I have been teaching ESL now for close to 40 years. Sorry if this is a rather long-winded explanation, but it does lead to where I am today. Another important step for me was when I moved to Houston. I found an ESL teaching job and eventually was hired full time. Shortly after joining the college, the departments were reorganized, and ESL became part of the Arts and Languages Department. I loved the idea of being part of a department that had art in it. After a few years, I was elected chair of the department. This was a fantastic opportunity as many of my interests came together as part of my job. For the first time in many years, I started making art, but more importantly I was able to have some influence on art in Houston. We started an Artist in Residence program, a rare thing at a community college, I started a music program at the school, the World Languages in my department had only been Spanish. Under my leadership we added French and Chinese. It was really a wonderful creative period for me and for others in the department. Sadly, in the sixth year of being chair, the college went through another reorganization and the departments were reorganized around single disciplines. I was elected chair of the newly formed ESL/Intensive English Department. I chaired the department for six years and am now the associate chair. This has been a good experience in many ways and has allowed me to use my leadership skills to grow the department and then lead it through the tough times of the pandemic.

It was during the pandemic when we were all working at home for the better part of two years that the next phase of my life so to speak began. The first few months were hard. Working at home blurred the lines between work and home life. It was not uncommon to work 12–14-hour days. As a way of reducing stress, I started drawing and painting. I probably created over 100 pieces in a period of three months. It was also during this period I thought about creating a magazine that would put equal emphasis on art and literature. I would periodically text an artist friend of mine and tell him about my idea for a magazine. He liked it and said that I needed a good name. One day in early October 2020, I was sitting at my computer looking at some surrealist art. I wondered how you say surreal in Chinese. I didn’t know, so I looked it up and saw that it had three characters which translate to English as super present reality. I thought to myself if I drop the reality and keep super present that might be a cool name for a magazine. I then texted my friend with the name, and he said make it one word. That is when Superpresent was born. At that point, I realized I had no idea how to make a magazine. I thought what the hell, I will ask some writer friends and artist friends to contribute, and this will probably be a one-off magazine. Something that I could say I did and be done with. I decided I wanted it to be both online and printed so I set up a website and sent out a call. To my surprise a few people from other parts of the US submitted and one submission came from Japan and one from the UK. The first issue was only 36 pages. Again, to my great surprise people from around the world started downloading the magazine. At that point, I decided to make the magazine a quarterly and see if I can put out a year’s worth of issues. Over the last few years, I learned a lot about how to format, market and distribute magazines although I have yet to figure out how to make enough money to fully support the magazine. This is in large part because we make it free online (www.superpresent.org) and because the print copies are sold at a slightly above cost of production. Superpresent now has an editor, arts editor, literary editor, and film/music editor. We have published twelve issues with well over a thousand pages of art, poetry, prose, and video. We have started our fourth year of publication. Although we only print a small quantity, we have over 1000 monthly readers across the globe and the number is growing.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I think what has always driven me is curiosity and the desire to have a challenge. I love figuring out a puzzle.  How something works.  The overall goal for Superpresent is to publish all forms of interesting art that challenges people to think and see things in a different way. Additionally, we want people to have an outlet for their art and writing. Art and writing that might be overlooked by other magazines. I also want to make a magazine that I am proud of. A magazine that is unique and innovative in what it presents, and the print version is as good as or better than any art or literature magazine you might find in a bookstore. I think an important aspect of Superpresent is that we put equal emphasis on visual art and the printed word.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Using social media has really been a key to building our worldwide readership and getting our contributors. This was not an easy task for me as I really did not know much about social media. Like most people my age (I am in my early 60s), I have a Facebook account. When I started the magazine, I set up a Facebook page and Twitter account. I started out by looking at other magazines’ social media and copying here and there. I also read a lot about social media. Finally, I had some conversations with my daughter who is in her mid-twenties and has a far greater understanding of social media. Eventually, I started an Instagram account a little over a year ago, this has actually grown to be one of our biggest venues for advertising the magazine. I am still learning a lot. I think my advice would be to read, talk to people, and try different things. Look at what other people do and see what works

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.superpresent.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/superpresent_magazine/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063724445072