Credit, Where Due

Today I posted a “humble brag” on Facebook about finishing our taxes (or more accurately the accountant finishing our taxes; we simply signed). Facebook is the most fun when it is the space of humble brags. I love the celebrations of events small and large on Facebook, and, with the exception of the past few months, love posting about the good things in life on the book. Yet, I am more comfortable with the quotidian, the completion of taxes, the delicious dinner the beloved cooked for Valentine’s Day, Vita’s transition from kitten food to cat food, than with humble brags about work.

Barbara Krumsiek, the former head of The Calvert Group, talks about how women need to speak about their experience and qualifications–to project their resume to others–so that they are not minimized and dismissed. I understand the gendered dynamics of this issue, but I hate the assertions of expertise and achievements.

Fundamentally, I believe that people need to do the work in front of them, the work that presents itself, and the work that people imagine to transforms the world. People need to do their work with purpose and determination and when it is completed, they need to move on to the next bit of work that presents itself, not spend time basking in previous achievements, accepting accolades, or telling everyone about what was done. Because after all, it is done and over. Time to move on to the next thing.

I also believe that it is incumbent upon people to attend to the achievements of people, to research and understand the skills and expertise of others. This impulse is the autodidact in me. When I read a book that I love, I often read everything else by that author. For me, developing a deep base of knowledge about someone and about various topics and issues is my responsibility. I do not expect others to tell me what to read, what to think, what to know.

I recognize though that my reticence to follow the advice of Krumsiek, to project my own qualifications and accomplishments invites people to dismiss me and overlook my work.

Yet, some of the work I most enjoy doing is work that is behind the scenes. Editorial work by its very nature is about selecting then amplifying the voices of others. Building networks, connections and communities is work that is often invisible, yet it is work that is crucial to creating and imagining transformation.

All of this is a long preamble to writing this: in the fall, I worked with the heirs of Pat Parker to place her papers in an archive. Ultimately, the family selected the Schlesinger Library. Parker’s papers are there now, open to researchers, scholars, students, and the public. I volunteered to help the family with this project. It was a complete honor to work on this project. Parker’s heirs are wonderful and committed to continued engagement with her work. Preserving these papers at such an august institution makes a statement about the importance of Parker’s work and the significance of lesbian-feminist cultural and literary production more broadly. I am proud to have worked on this project. This is my small crow.

Now, back to the next project, to the next piece of work that I imagine, the new work that the world presents.