The Icardo center filled with a hum of excited chatter, as hundreds of students and community members gathered in the bleachers, awaiting a night to be remembered.
The attendees were seated. The basketball court was set, and everything was ready.
Out came a middle-aged native woman who sported leopard print glasses and black block-heeled ankle boots, who was met with a storm of hands coming together in applause.
The attendees in the stands were not there for a sporting event. Rather, they were there to hear author Deborah Jackson Taffa speak about her recently released memoir, “Whiskey Tender.”
“I told stories in this book that I never thought I’d share with anybody,” said Taffa.
Taffa’s words are hardly hyperbole, as her memoir reveals a deep sense of vulnerability, making her appear as a familiar stranger to those in attendance who had read her book.
Taffa was brought to speak at Cal State Bakersfield for the nineteenth installment of the One Book Project, which was founded in 2002 and has focused on selecting an individual book to read as a community and then bringing its author to speak on campus.
“Like many CSUB students, Deborah Jackson Taffa was a first-generation college student. Despite coming from a disadvantaged background that might have prevented her from achieving her goals, through hard work and dedication she overcame all obstacles to become an accomplished writer and academic,” said Dr. Emerson Case.
Taffa echoed the importance of literature, and additionally, sharing one’s struggles and learning about one’s histories.
“For too long, non-colonial histories or what we might call the histories of the little people have been left to [the] realm of myth and folktale,” said Taffa. “With the more vulnerability we put into our work and our creations, the more we connect with our ancestors through our moral practices, the more we can reclaim our lineage to beauty, the more we burden share in the community, the healthier we become…I believe that our vulnerabilities are our superpower.”
Taffa sees the importance in telling vulnerable stories, especially those about marginalized and underrepresented populations.
Following Taffa’s speech, audience members were allowed the opportunity to ask her a question during a live question-and-answer session.
This is when she discussed the process of writing a memoir and the responsibility that she felt.
“When you write, you lean into the idea of magic, that your words can reach somebody when you die. The book was written for my ancestors… I feel very much like it is my job to overwrite the mainstream narrative and to honor the people that I come from,” said Taffa.
Taffa concluded the questions by thanking those in attendance for reading her book.
Several audience members expressed how Taffa’s memoir and speech touched them.
“I am actually happy that she [Taffa] came by and gave a talk about her book and what she experienced and what it brought out to her, and it made me see more about learning about my tribe too,” said first–year student Johnny Azevedo.
Taft College freshman Rupinderjit Sidhu shared that she was inspired by Taffa’s advice that anyone in the crowd could achieve their dreams, regardless of their circumstances, as long as they stayed committed to it.
Along with her message of inspiration, Taffa further called for a greater sense of unity in society.
“…We have much more in common than we do anything in terms of our differences. We have so much in common as people,” said Taffa. “I don’t want us to start being afraid of each other because we have things that we don’t see eye-to-eye about. It’s OK to have differences; what’s important is for us to meet and to converse and deal with struggles as a community.”
Taffa ended the night by signing hundreds of copies of “Whiskey Tender” and taking the time to pose for pictures with attendees.
Although this event did not end with a trophy being raised to the sky after a final whistle, it was nonetheless a historic night for CSUB, as another One Book Project author was provided the opportunity to share their story with the Kern County community.
