“We’re here and we love company”
Inland Empire’s Inlandia Institute wants to feed your hunger for creative connection
With Los Angeles looming large as its next door neighbor, one may think it could be easy to overlook the Inland Empire. The arts and entertainment monolith and home to Hollywood casts a long creative shadow. But with a land area the size of 10 Eastern seaboard states combined and the fastest growing population in all of California—it would be a mistake not to consider the artistic and cultural abundance of the Inland Empire.
Riverside County’s Inlandia Institute has a mission to shine a bright light on those rich artistic assets, specifically the literary arts in the area. The organization works to bolster literary forms through publication and sponsorship of programs that help to deepen people’s awareness, understanding, and appreciation of the unique, complex and creatively vibrant region. Programs support the artistic development of local authors, from beginners to professionals. Artists share their expertise through workshops, professional development activities, and outreach and engagement, including an award-winning publications program.
As a California Arts Council grantee, the Institute has partnered with Glocally Connected to expand its existing arts programs for incoming refugee families, specifically women and children, working to achieve English language proficiency and to support their introduction into the Inland Empire community, in addition to focused efforts on participants’ mental health and well-being. As part of its Inlandia at Home online series, developed as a means to continue workshops and events during COVID-19, the organization traded an in-person launch for a virtual reading of the collection of works sourced from this project, titled The Stranger Is My Friend.
Inlandia Institute’s Executive Director Cati Porter shared with us Inlandia’s path and process, from its humble beginnings as a book, to a brick-and-mortar organization, to its launch into virtual waters amid the pandemic — with unexpected benefits along the journey.
What makes Inlandia Institute unique?
It’s been an organic process, stemming from Heyday’s publication of our flagship anthology, Inlandia: A Literary Journey through California’s Inland Empire. To make that happen, one person reached out to another, and they to another, and pretty soon Inlandia the book grew into Inlandia the organization, and here we are, 13 years later.
My own experience with Inlandia was first as a presenter, then a volunteer, and then I joined the staff; now I run the place. That’s a snapshot of how things tend to happen.
People who love story, love community — they find their way to Inlandia via one of our programs, and pretty soon they’re running them.
Tell us a bit about the Inlandia at Home series and how it was conceived. What has the reception been in your community?
At the beginning of the pandemic, way back in March — which feels like a lifetime ago! — we were faced with a choice: Cancel everything, or adapt.
As an events organizer, Inlandia is a nomad. We have office space but not venue space, so we partner with other organizations in order to host our programs. With all of the traditional venue options off the table, we had to find a socially distant way to stay connected. Virtual programs were the only logical solution.
It’s hard to recall the chronology exactly, because there was a time leading up to the shutdown where things were less certain, but what I can say for sure is that on the same day that Governor Newsom ordered everyone to stay home — March 19 — I have a calendar entry that says, “Testing, testing, is this mic on?” That was my first official dry run of using Zoom as a virtual events platform. Prior to March, I’d never heard of it, but now it seemed a lifesaver.
Everything we could, we rescheduled online. Inlandia at Home is a nod to our usual method for branding events series: Inlandia at Arts Walk, Conversations at the Culver, etc.
Collaborative and cooperative programming has become all the more crucial right now as our partners have not just closed their doors but have had to lay off large numbers of their staff, which complicates any effort of their own to host virtual events. Through these mutually beneficial programs, we have been able to keep our individual constituencies engaged even when the doors are closed. And, bonus, we’ve had better than average turnout to our virtual events and more opportunities for extended engagement through YouTube and live streaming.
How have the adjustments you’ve made out of necessity amid the pandemic changed your organization’s culture for the better? Have there been any unexpected benefits?
We’ve held everything from board meetings to an advisory council convening to a workshop leaders meetup to our new Black authors and speakers steering committee, all through Zoom. Our monthly standing committees have also moved to Zoom. There was simply no other way.
At first, some were hesitant — they distrusted Zoom, or wanted to wait until we could resume in-person events. But it wasn’t long before minds began changing as it became increasingly clear that in-person events were not in the cards for the foreseeable future.
During the virtual launch, one teen contributor Zoomed in from the U.K. and another from Shanghai, at opposite ends of the clock. An in-person event could never have done that.
All of our writing workshops, from young teens to senior citizens in their eighth and ninth decades, successfully transitioned online. During the spring, we opted to waive all fees for our usual Boot Camp for Writers workshops, in recognition of the economic hardships some participants were facing. The result? We had double the usual enrollment. Recently, we began a new targeted writing workshop in partnership with the Riverside Public Library, Adventures in Chronologyland with Dr. Carlos Cortes; it had 70 people signed up! Everyone has been hungry for connection.
A book launch for a local author drew viewers from as far as India. But maybe a more striking example is this: Our spring issue of the online literary journal is guest-edited and exclusively features the work of teens. The call for submissions had gone out through our usual channels, which drew submissions from across the globe.
During the virtual launch, one teen contributor Zoomed in from the U.K. and another from Shanghai, at opposite ends of the clock. An in-person event could never have done that.
You recently held a virtual reading and celebration for your new publication, ‘The Stranger Is My Friend’, a collection of works from Riverside’s Afghan refugee community. How do you feel its themes of “home” and “connection” resonated more deeply for your organization, the contributors, or the attendees, in this time of social distancing?
The Stranger Is My Friend was the culmination of a two-year partnership with Glocally Connected. It began with writing workshops which went through three layers of translation for every prompt — English, Dari, and Pashto, because there was not one language was common and fluent for all involved.
Throughout, everyone was kind, generous, and quick to laughter, so it’s easy to forget that the earliest days of their time in the United States was marked by tears and missing family back home. Before the shutdown, some of the women were learning how to drive. For many, just a trip to the grocery store was special. So, when the pandemic hit, suddenly they were isolated. We’d been planning for an in-person launch event; now that was off the table. Would participants even be interested in a virtual event? The women are very private and some did not want their faces shown.
The day of the event some of the women were having trouble logging in, but text messages flew back and forth, and one by one, each participant arrived. Mothers read their poems in English, then in Dari or Pashto. Children crowded in and read their poems too, un-self-conscious in front of the camera. In that moment, we were all together again.
Mothers read their poems in English, then in Dari or Pashto. Children crowded in and read their poems too, un-self-conscious in front of the camera. In that moment, we were all together again.
I believe “home” has a slightly different connotation for the women who participated, is more nuanced, and that’s shaped how the rest of us think. Home has taken on a broader meaning. They miss their country, their family that they left behind, but here they have each other, and a welcoming community. This is now their home. My favorite line in the book speaks to this: “Home is a place you hang your heart.”
What does California creativity mean to you?
As a lifelong Californian, born and raised, to me, California creativity means innovation and collaboration; always being on the cusp of the new, with something else already coming up behind to take its place.
It’s my favorite state, but I might be biased.
Bonus question: What is one thing you would like for all Californians, and the world, to know about the Inland Empire’s arts and culture community?
We’re here, and we love company.
Inlandia Institute Executive Director Cati Porter is the author of eight poetry books and chapbooks, most recently, The Body at a Loss (CavanKerry Press). Her poetry and essays have appeared in Verse Daily, Literary Mama, Salon, The Manifest-Station, Shark Reef, and elsewhere.
Follow Inlandia Institute on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Creative Uplift is a California Arts Council series celebrating California’s arts and culture community. We invite you to follow along on social media as we share the inspirational work of our creative communities far and wide, using the hashtag #CreativeUplift. And we welcome each of you to share your own experiences of art as a source of change, compassion, comfort, healing, and unity in your own communities using the same hashtag.
Follow the California Arts Council on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Related Stories
