Writer & Director David Kennedy Polanco Diez Cu Interview
David Kennedy Polanco is a playwright, novelist, screenwriter, and director who has mined and made his own that complex and complicated space where Latino, gay, and American identities converge. He's also Siouxsie and the Banshees' Number 1 Fan. We discuss all this and more in this exclusive Diez Cu Interview. Check it!
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LAA: How do you self-identify?
DKP: An advocate for animals. A writer. A proud American of Mexican ancestry. A Christian-Jew. Gay.
LAA: Siouxsie and the Banshees. Go!
DKP: I was sixteen years old and hanging out with my college-age friends. We entered an eighteen-and-over club, flanked by two of these friends, I managed to enter the nightspot. We all sat acting and looking very smug. We, dressed to perfection, yet pretending it was no effort, sat on the stage, while most of the club goers were dancing. Suddenly, the better-than-you group, I was part of, leapt to their feet and began to dance. It was like the resurrection as, they, almost in unison, rose.
My friends began frowning down at me as if I should be more respectful and rise for this anthem they danced to. The song was Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Christine." Naturally, the next day I rushed out to buy, with my limited funds, the record. I came upon A Kiss in the Dreamhouse. It had been released months earlier and does not feature "Christine." Oh! What an experience; what an awakening this album was!
The size of make-believe is one lyric from the great band, just think about that one phrase for one moment. Writers have superpowers: Siouxsie [Sioux] and Steve Severin [Siouxsie and the Banshees co-founder and band member] are superb writers. Using the cartography of words an author sets the characters and the reader on the writer's journey. A great lyric writer, like Siouxsie and Severin, has this "power." So often they [Siouxsie and Severin] are able to achieve this; it is mind boggling.
In 2008, by good chance, I happened upon Siouxsie at a New York City cafe. She could not have been more charming or generous with her time. I, an adult restraining myself from acting like an adolescent fan, had no right to invade her time. We had a brief conversation. Though I did not want to leave, I felt I had to excuse myself. I was concerned I was pushing it.
But, before leaving, I stood, took a deep breath, and said to the great Siouxsie, "In the pantheon of the rock gods, in the center and highest stands the Beatles and to their right are Siouxsie and the Banshees. Only the Beatles can be spoken of in the same breath as Siouxsie and the Banshees."
In a BBC spotlight on Siouxsie and the Banshees, a few years after my magical encounter with spectacular Siouxsie, the host of the show compared the Banshees' five first albums to the greatness of the Beatles' first albums; I could not help but nod in agreement. Sweat carves a screenplay of discipline and devotion Severin wrote and Siouxsie sang. The song is "Melt!" The cerebral cinema these words inspire, even decades after I first heard them on a record player, dismisses any negativity I might wrestle with and inspires me.
LAA: Talk about your upcoming book series. What is the series about?
DKP: Currently, I am in a very creative, what I call my "Industrial Revolution" mode, meaning typing away. I am completing a series of books -- five to be exact. The books are currently being edited by the talented Mr. Joel Palmer. The book series does not necessary connect, as say, a soap opera, though, my characters can be over-the-top in their behavior.
April in New York. This story lifts the veil on a fifty-one-year-old New York City divorcee. Social climbing April was once married to an Egyptian millionaire. After their divorce, April is left with a skimpy sum of cash and no permanent home. Now unmarried, out of money, and fearful of her future, she latches on to Edward, a man of considerable less status and wealth than her former husband. However, April feels being with Edward is better than being alone and thinks, "Besides, how else can I afford to live like I want to?"
April confides with all sincerity to her dear friend William. She also confesses her desperation to be married to Edward. What she does not tell William is that April is desperate to conceal her secrets from dignified Edward -- extramarital affairs, an abortion to keep a former, opportunistic lover, and the neglect of her only son.
Possibly, April's worst secrets are her conversations with William and her relentlessly unfavorable comparisons of Edward's wealth to her former husband's wealth. "He could buy and sell Edward and his son five times over," April says proudly. When she measures Edward's lackluster sexual aptitude to her former lover's dynamic sexual prowess by saying, "Edward doesn't realize my ex could give it to me for hours, a few times a day…" April's improper rant is embarrassing to even her best friend.
As April's relationship with Edward strengthens, in her shrewd strategy, April cuts out of her life, her one true ally, and keeper of her many shameful secrets -- William. In the end, April loses both the new lover, Edward, and her friend. This sardonic look at a pathetic immature woman is entertaining on many levels.
Meeting Chance. Two years removed from their college experience, lifelong friends, Beth and Sabrina take their first long distance vacation together to Buenos Aires. During their last vacation day, Sabrina has had enough with Beth's racist remarks, whining, and sour moods. Sabrina declares she will travel home without Beth. "A different flight, a different airline, and if I can find one, a different airport all together!" Extending her stay for one more day, Sabrina meets charming, handsome, rich -- Chance Cornwall. This story is a romantic comedy with a touch of lessons in friendship.
The Stranger Inside. A murder mystery set in a dilapidated theater. Based on my 2008 play by the same name.
For fans of Harvard, I am unquestionably his biggest fan, he makes his appearances in stories inspired by my plays: Our Finest Season and Along the Lattice.
LAA: Talk about your upcoming play, currently in production, Far, Far Away. What is the play about?
DKP: Brohm was seventeen when he set out alone from rural Indiana to explore the rest of the country. On the surface, Brohm's long journey was to satisfy his wanderlust; however, without admitting it, even to himself, he was on a quest to locate his absent father. This becomes obvious when he detours to Hollywood, where his father was long rumored to live. The young Midwesterner's travels eventually led him east of glamorous Hollywood to not-so-dazzling East Los Angeles. Brohm developed a fascination for the gang subculture; the fair-skinned blond begins to assimilate into a local Latino gang.
During a drunken free-for-all with his homeboys, Brohm is pulled out of the maelstrom of violence by a passerby, a life-long East L.A. resident, Anthonio. At Anthonio's home where he lived with his wife and their son, the former semi-pro boxer had built by hand a boxing gym in the garage. It was in this gym that Anthonio plopped Brohm's corn-fed, strong, inebriated body.
The following morning, Anthonio's son, Harvard, happened upon a passed-out, snoring Brohm entangled in the ropes of the boxing ring. Harvard, directed by one of life's detours, had returned to California two months earlier, his education interrupted, at the start of his college sophomore year. Harvard's only sibling, his older brother, had died.
It was shortly after this tragic event Brohm and Harvard met, and beyond all odds, fell in love. After three years, Brohm and Harvard remained a couple and gradually had become disgusted with their station in life. Can these two men continue as a couple or will one be the ruin of the other?
The production companies, the March Bros. and Pie in the Face Films, are negotiating celebrity talent to attach to the show. Opening night was last Saturday. Also, two of the producers have roots in Boston and Chicago, so we are working to find the proper venue for the show [in those places]. Ultimately, this will be a film.
LAA: What would you say is the overall through-line of your work?
DKP: A friend of mine, he has a Master's of Family Counseling Degree, observed of my writing: The dynamics of power in romantic relationships is a reoccurring theme in my stories. The quest for personal greatness is another. Both of these, ultimately, are about power. I am comfortable with this assessment.
LAA: What message are you trying to convey with your work?
DKP: When I began writing, seriously putting my first story in a constructed manner to paper, in my version of what I called a screenplay, I was just about to exit my teen years. These were all stories I enjoyed telling and I wanted to see on the screen. It's all very self-indulgent not thinking of any audience while I'm writing. As I began to write more and then have a second look at my stories –- in that haughty space of myself -- I realized I was creating a character like none other.
Decades have passed and to my credit, there is still no one on stage or screen like my Harvard. I did not set out purposely to create a landmark, the word use by one theater critic, character, but I am proud that I did.
To be pigeonholed, for me, would be dreadful; so, I hesitate, whenever I am asked my "message." Even so, it is a reasonable question. I would be proud if some young, perhaps, isolated person takes from my stories, this message: Live your life beyond your circumstances. You are more than your family name, place of origin, and, yes, even more than your education.
Joe Franklin of Bloomberg Radio, who had hosted opening night for five of my plays, gave me the compliment, "You have a way of presenting characters no one else sees and two underrepresented groups. You make the audience laugh. Your writing is poetic, but your writing is not preachy."
OUT-Radio said of my writing that the art of crafting diverse characters within their own cultures and subcultures, that are more often than not stereotyped, is one of [my] gifts.
LAA: Talk about that precarious space between being Latino, American, and gay and how you negotiate it and feel about it in relation to yourself and how others, on a society and individual level, perceive and interact with you.
DKP: I grew up in a neighborhood of Los Angeles, which was mostly Latino populated. After I came out, at the end of my eighth grade, I had to literally fight, fist fight one, sometimes five guys, on my way to school. The verbal insults, by people in passing cars, or rushing past on their bikes, were nothing to me after the first week of school.
My first lover was a soccer player born in Colombia. I can't help but think of the row we had after leaving my mother's home one Sunday evening. I had offered to help my mother with the dishes. You have to understand my mother was a nurse and worked beyond the forty hours a week while still creating a warm home for our family. And, my mother brushed me aside. [This shows] She was such a care-giver [because she continued to do the dishes herself].
My lover said, "The reason I like you is you're a man! You act like a man, you talk like a man! It makes me sick, disgusts me to see you trying to do dishes! Let your mother and sisters take care of that!" Despite that exchange in the car drive home, we remained a couple until his death in 1989.
I must make mention that I have six older brothers and, all but one, has never harassed me for being me. But, then, that brother never treated our own mother honorably, so this alone is telling. My father treats my husband like one of his own sons.
The talented barbers in my Upper West Side neighborhood speak mostly Spanish. I feel uncomfortable when I have to say, "Sorry, I don't speak Spanish." After all, a bad haircut can put one in a foul mood. Some days I get the impression that they don't believe me and that I am trying to put on airs or even that I'm ashamed of my beautiful heritage. Other times I am given a reproachful look as if to convey you should learn, shame on you.
Frankly, I have to whine a bit here and mention my frustration with the homophobia in the Latino community and their lack of support for LGBT artists.
My adolescent experiences, growing up in a mostly Mexican-American neighborhood, are the genesis of:
"From his choice of language and wardrobe, Harvard was criticized by the hoodlums in his neighborhood for "trying to act white," sometimes even more than for his sexuality. At the same time, the Latinos snickered at his limited Spanish vocabulary...Just the same, Harvard carried in equal measure his American patriotism and love for his Mexican heritage." [a sample from DKP's novella]
LAA: Do you want to learn Spanish?
DKP: My life seems to be a foreign language lesson. Especially living in New York City combined with my circle of friends who are Israeli to Irish, Spanish to Greek to... I'm frequently learning words and sentences. Regrettably, Spanish was not spoken in our family home. [My] Father alone was bilingual. My mother did learn, from our neighbors, a good deal of Spanish when she was about twenty-one. I am still learning Spanish and would love to be fluent. And, wouldn't it be great to translate my works to Spanish? What a joy!
Along these lines, I had wonderful conversations with Eliot Weinberger, Octavio Paz's editor. At the time, I was working on a film about the life of Octavio Paz and felt Mr. Weinberger would be a great first-hand resource. I remember him asking if I read Spanish. He explained that most of Paz's writings were in Spanish and closely guarded. Rightfully so, by the widow of Paz.
My husband, a Yankee from New Hampshire, who learned Spanish years before we met; from time to time, will translate an advertisement on the subway or someplace [for me]. My godson, Robert, an honor student at his college, has beautifully mastered the Spanish language. I plan on doing the same.
LAA: Career-wise, what would you like to do that you haven’t done already?
DKP: To have one of my films produced, with me as the director, and the soundtrack by, can you guess? Siouxsie and the Banshees! I would [also] love to be invited to lecture in an academic setting.
LAA: Free Question. Answer whatever you want for this question. Ask a question, make a comment, elaborate on something, vent, complain, praise, or rejoice. It's your personal soapbox to talk about whatever you want to talk about.
DKP: Overused phrases irk me –- at the end of the day, in this day and age is, taking it to the next level. That being said, I will indulge: in this day and age it is annoying, heartbreaking, infuriating, but, not surprising, that we treat animals the way we do -- for entertainment, fashion, sport. In our country, there is still inequality of women's pay. Then, there is the disgraceful neglect of our veterans. My maternal grandfather was a five-time decorated World War II veteran. I am quick to sound off on these causes.
Getting back to art, in this day and age, filmmaker after filmmaker still lazily resorts to the most offensive caricatures of Latinos, feel free to insert other people. To get on a high-horse about the prurient story lines in gay film by gay men, I'd rather not have that endless conversation. Besides, that has been covered many times.
There is a film from the 1980s that usually makes the top-ten list of must-see gay films; in this film the only Latino character is a lazy heroin addict. I suppose we, Latinos, should be grateful, clenching hands to our hearts, doe-eyed, to even be represented –- in any form. That last line was meant to be taken with a sardonic grin.
A more recent gay-themed cable-TV show left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Though I rarely watch television, I was looking forward to viewing this series. Firstly, for the location, but also I had read the show would feature a Latino and White couple.
Alas, the letdown, when I see the Latino character is dependent on the counsel of a woman who reads eggs to guide his life. In the final episode, the Mexican [character], ending the relationship and speaking through tears, gives his overwhelming reason for breaking up and says to his lover something along the lines of, "I know where I come from." Just exactly where is this place he comes from? A loving home with hard-working parents with a Mexican bloodline? Does his family disgracefully, savagely watch cock-fights or, perhaps, is his family part of a drug cartel? Any learned person knows, one, namely, [being] Latino, is not indicative of the other, self-loathing.
I suppose the teenager inside of me is still idealistic and needs to be scolded with the following quote: "You can't trust art to not fail you. Don't believe just because art is thrust into one genre, it equates quality."
In fairness to the director and writer of the script, perhaps, their interaction with people of Spanish ancestry, even in one of the largest cities in the U.S., has been very limited. Both stories I reference are not documentaries, but entertainment. These are the stories the creators chose to create and they have every right. However, I am [a member of] the audience and I am exhausted by reductive characters. I guess it is best I choose to continue watching less and less television while continuing my snobbishness toward productions on top-ten lists.
Interestingly, after this series aired, a renewed interest and praise for my work occurred, and very often with disdainful mention of this cable show that so disappointed me. Hoorah for diversity!
Check out David Kennedy Polanco's official site and Facebook Page.
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