Jackie Wang and Lily Hoang: March 1, 2018

Jackie Wang remarks on Carceral Capitalism and what inspired her writing the book. She reads from the chapter "The Prison Abolitionist Imagination: A Conversation" and reads from the sections "The Prison is Our Shadow," "The Stars Seen from Prison," "The Dialectic of Dreaming," and "The Rhythm of Revolt." Wang ends by reading excerpts from "Ripples in Time," which she describes as a mediation on her life in recent years during her brother's incarceration.

Lily Hoang reads from A Bestiary: "On the Way to the Temple of Ten Thousand Skulls," "On Violence," "On Measurement," "Summer," "Fall," "Winter."

Jackie Wang and Lily Hoang are asked to respond to each other's reading. Wang notes that their writings each navigate different modes of genre, while Hoang states that they share common themes, such as incarceration and time. They discuss their personal and creative bond, with Wang calling the two of them "alien sisters." Both speak to the writing process behind Carceral Capitalism and A Bestiary, tracking how each of the books went through multiple drafts before publication. Hoang discusses switching from being a musician to being a writer and the types of media that inspire her. Wang states that she enjoys experimenting with different media such as film and expressing something without using words. They discuss the differences in creative writing in different parts of California, with Wang remarking that politics changed the artistic aesthetic in the Bay Area. When asked how to balance personal and political writing, Wang says that her goal for Carceral Capitalism was to bridge multiple traditions from theoretical, poetic, and autobiographical writing. Hoang explains why she chooses not to call herself a poet, and Wang shares a funny story about visiting the Exploratorium with her younger brother.