First of all, I’m fortunate enough to have librarian colleagues and friends who are creative types. I feel that if I went the lawyer route, like a lot of English majors, that dynamic would not be the same. I’d be overworked and focused on that. Libraries encourage lifelong learning and creativity. So I’m going to do this with multiple friends who are part of the New Wei collective and see how it goes. Who better to start with than Vijay, who always has a creative project going on and backup projects on the burners.
He has self-published a few poetry collections, and Poets of Queens published Breakdown Dancer. As we stated in the interview, his work has a unique blend of Buddhism, celebrities, humor, and psychology. In the Fall of 2023, he did his first one-person show to an audience of forty people. There, he honed his personal stories into a cohesive four-part narrative. In late March, he’s going to do his second one-man show. I got my ticket, and I hope people in the NYC area will consider going. There should be more of this, people on their own, taking a risk to make something out of their storytelling.
Vijay also hosted The Truth to Power show on Radio Free Brooklyn for five years, and now it’s back. I was lucky enough to co-host 10 episodes under the name Colt Mallison. It was a lot of fun, and I saw Vijay’s network expand so much because of that show. It’s at 7 am on Sundays but gets archived quickly.
In late summer, Vijay and I even agreed to collaborate on screenplays. I took a virtual screenplay class in the fall, and realized it was not for me. But what I learned from that class has been invaluable for my novel rewrite. Now Vijay is taking a class and is working on a screenplay as well.
Maybe someday I’ll interview Vijay for a longer time; we have a lot of stories about travels and a connection we didn’t explore. I value his friendship, and I wish him success.
The New Wei is a collection started by Tejas Desai. They meet monthly to discuss, socialize, and promote each other’s work. If you are in the NYC area, contact him to join. They are fun meetings.
