Tashina Emery

How do you currently describe your practice? 

TE: My current life is working from home, teaching from home, making my art /running a small business from home, attending a Creative Writing program from home and living at home. Which is insane, and hard to create separation, between the work and living. I count my blessings though, because I have a beautiful home, plant, kitties and we’re all healthy. 

What led you to the M.A. in Arts Politics?

TE: First, it was being in New York City. I wanted a purposeful reason to live and work in New York. I was looking into Master's programs and NYU Tisch was always in the back of my mind since my undergrad studio practice. The timing made sense, as I was transitioning in careers. I was needing a spark again to fuel new work. I applied to three programs (one was more studio-based and the other business-focused) and as I got closer to the decision I knew I needed the M.A. in Arts Politics because it blended the social work, education, Indian Country advocacy, and art I am doing. I was able to intertwine all my passions, an entanglement of "suffering". Passion comes from the word to suffer. I tirelessly hustled and through exhaustion built a practice for the writing and art I am doing now. 

Do you have a memory that stands out from your time in APP?

TE: There are so many! I loved my cohort, we have the best times in class and out of the class. We struggled and played together. Challenge each other, meanwhile I felt so supported. I always like to reflect on a more subtle memory, when a colleague from my cohort and I both decided to take a writing course together outside of Tisch second semester to explore more of the broader NYU school’s offering (which I highly suggest, I even utilized the entrepreneurial lab many times, if you can attend the women's founder lectures, do!). We were in critique and I have never really participated in a writing workshop before and I never explored writing beyond academic research or papers. This was the first time I was writing for myself. I am a confident, extroverted person in my art but writing is different. I remember shaking, barely able to read aloud. There so much intensity when I shared my words. But the feedback, one comment in particular from my cohort member and now life long friend stuck with me to this day. She told the room my stories had a “Beloved-by-the-great-Toni-Morrison-quality” and “my work is without walls.” I didn’t read books then and hadn’t known the incredible works of Toni Morrison yet, I didn’t have exposure to Authors or even Artists of Color on my very rural reservation. But I understood walls, we were at height of Trump’s scary walls, shattering walls and glass ceilings, and other silo metaphors for concealing, hiding and excluding and I was without walls. Both compliments are why I am in my current MFA in Creative Writing working in Fiction. That course was also the first time I was ever published!

https://confluence.gallatin.nyu.edu/sections/creative-nonfiction/firefighters-never-hesitate

What was most impactful to you during your time in the M.A. in Arts Politics?

TE: I had TWO simultaneous exhibitions of my work! While in school a few of my pieces made it into galleries: one at the Mujeres de Maiz Annual Visual Art Exhibition in Los Angeles and the other Voices: Indigenous Storytelling in New York City. Then, on top of it, I got to attend both openings! 

But more importantly was the impact of the community, I remember the first day vividly in my head and the joy of meeting friends I didn’t know were going to change my life. Then, getting to graduate with them was even more magical, I loved every moment. My cohort, advisors and professor gave me all the tools to succeed, I’m still reaping the benefits of my NYU Tisch Art Politics experience, and it’s already almost been two years since I’ve graduated. 

Shout out to the Class of 2019! Aye!

What was most challenging during your time in the M.A. in Arts Politics?

TE: Of course, writing for Professor Hentyle Yapp’s Issues in Arts Politics was the most intense class I’ve ever taken, but I’m so thankful for the rigor and push. I feel like however, challenges came in the form of growth. I grew so much and learned how to fight. I was able to witness Angela Davis speak!! I mean come on, I had so much agency to fight. I was able to get into Poetics of Violence with Fred Moten, I was unfolding and unraveling. I still can’t believe I was able to sit in rooms with real-life heroes. 

What advice would you give to current students?

TE: My advice for current students, soak it all in and appreciate the moments. There is purpose in the chaos. Cherish the community. Explore in every way. I can hear Kathy Engel’s soft tone say, “Stay with what calls you.” Actually that is my advice, listen to Kathy, talk with Kathy!

What are you working on now? 

TE: Super secret, but not really. Under wraps, maybe heavy blankets. I don’t really share much about my writing, where if you follow me on social media I boast hard about my art, but the apprehension is real with my words. Only because I still feel novice and shy when it comes to my writing. However, my experience with AP has always shared courage with me, and made me the risk taker I am today. My current work is still “Untitled” and illustrates a contemporary first-person fiction novel diving deep into love and issues of blood quantum. Without explicating stating the bold Tribal policy issues. I am rather focusing more on reservation life and humanity, which I challenge should be the case. There is so much urgency to contribute more than ever. What would AOC do? What would Angela Davis do? What would Toni Morrison do? What would Gerald Vizenor do, he fought the exact policies of blood quantum I want to. I write for the investigation of systems of erasure that hopefully will be discussed in future classrooms. The first book we had to read when I was little, in our border town public school of Natives and primarily white students was The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which I thought was funny, but my teachers used it as a way to help with segregation in our rural town. I am thankful looking back, but the access to Voices of Color was too narrow. A conservative community that made a small effort to teach Tribal history in our school, hence the belief from my outside nonnative community that racism still does not exist today, which is incredibly scary. However, now, I get to be the one assisting in those decisions, writing those stories, creating space, expanding the narrative, sharing what we read in my classroom. I am teaching as an Adjunct Professor at my local Tribal Community College, I get to help students find their agency now. This coming fall I will be teaching full time, making art, writing, running a small business.

Read Tashina's Alumni Profile