We recently connected with Kianny Antigua and have shared our conversation below.

Kianny , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

When I took a Spanish class (while pursuing an Associate’s Degree in Business Administration at LaGuardia Community College) and after reading the most amazing short stories I had ever read by writers from the BOOM–Gabriel García Márquez, Elena Poniatowska, Rosario Castellanos, Alfredo Bryce Echenique, Julio Cortázar, etc.–we read what I considered a terrible story, compared to what we had “experienced.” I expressed my disappointment and disillution to the professor and her reply was, “If you don’t like it, write your own.” And so I did, and showed it to her. My professor, my dear-dear Prof. Ana María Hernández, repositioned her glasses on her nose and told me, “There is something here, it needs editing, but there is something here…” And today, 20 plus years after, I’m still searching for that something.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I came to this country from the Dominican Republic when I was 17 years old. Started working at a supermarket (while renting a room nearby), but the hours were long, some days I had to stand in front of the cash register for 12 hours, and, some weeks, for more than 75. So, my decision to pursue a different path was not impulsed nor motivated by my intellectual being, but my lazy one. Yes, I remember telling myself, “Kianny, you are too lazy to do this kind of work for the rest of your life. You have to find a way to work less hours and make more money: Go to college!” To make a long story short, when I applied to LaGuardia C.C. I didn’t know how to write “college” and I didn’t know there were at least 20 colleges closer to my house. I just remember a friend saying that he had gone there and he liked it. Don’t take me wrong, I liked it too, and I wouldn’t changed my life experiences (and what I have learned from them) with anyone else’s; but I would’ve like to have more time to sleep in the mornings, before having to take the train for an hour and a half, to another borough. Uff! Ignorance, my beautiful people, is expensive, and painful.
But, as you already know, at that institution, while taking a Spanish class just for the credits, is where I found my path, my true passion; the reason why I am writing theses words today. I found literature, I found that through writing it was easier for me to understand, not only other people, but myself. I found oxygen. While in college, there and later at The City College of New York (yes, that was way closer to my place) I began writing short stories for adults, then poetry, then a novel, and later on children’s literature. And, after thinking that I had realized my dreams, I found translation: a way to combine my passion and curiosity for language, creative writing and scholarly; another pathway to understanding the people of the world, their many cultures; another way of seen. Spanish language, writing it, teaching it, reading it, translating into it, has become it.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Yes, however, there is not one, but two: 1) I want to write books that I would’ve loved to read myself when I was younger, on one hand, and in both, books that I can identify with, where this Dominican, Afro-Caribeña, immigrant, greñuda, can say “I understand this character.” “I see you.” “You are important.”
2) Something else that is driving my creative journey is my egotistical being: Writing makes me happy, so I do it, and if by sharing my work with others, it makes them happy as well, or angry or sad or even upset, if it makes them question the world that surrounds them, there privileges, then it makes me doblemente feliz.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

We will never call a plumber and ask them to do their job for free, but we do sometimes expect artists to give out their work, AND THEIR TIME for no remuneration. We have little respect for the sacrifices an individual has to go through and the hoops they must jump and overcome in order to present you with their creation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kiannyantigua.com
• Instagram: kianny.antigua
• Facebook: Kianny Antigua
• Twitter: KiannyNAntigua
• Other: https://linktr.ee/kiannyantigua

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