Lantern Review: Issue 5

A Conversation with Takeo Rivera

Conversely, his brother who moves through the world believing that racism is over and that he could never be racialized, also needs a gigantic dose of reality and historical education. Thus, I think we need to radically confront and overturn the very assumptions that have been the bases of constructing the “Asian American” narrative. As far as new Asian American myth-building, I think that’s the role of Asian American artists such as ourselves, but never before have I agonized so much over how to pen and retell such narratives.

LR: What are you working on now? What's next, both for Prometheus Nguyen, and for you?

TR: I'm currently developing a full-length play called The Will to Knowledge, which is a pretty intense piece about queerness, race, desire, and the theft of narrative focusing around a gay Filipino American ghostwriter. I've just finished a staged reading of the first act at Berkeley, and Poetic Theater Productions put on a staged reading in New York City, as well. We'll see what happens after I've finished writing the whole thing! And of course I'm also working on lots of academic work, and some of my work should be appearing in an academic journal fairly soon.

Thank you very much for this amazing interview. It’s been an honor.

LR: Thank you. The honor is all ours.