Hugo House and Seattlest: The Lit Series Interview Series with Dr. David Nixon
Each year between fall and spring, the Richard Hugo House presents the Literary Series: four events that feature local writers, musicians, cartoonists, and other artists, who are commissioned to create new works of art. Each event features four artists, each asked to create on the same theme. The result is a diverse and fascinating look into various topics, by some of the Seattle area's most talented creators. This year, we'll be interviewing the participants in the week before the show. This week's theme is "The Haves and the Have Nots", (which is surprisingly fitting, considering the month of October has been host to epic protests) and will be presented for one night only on Friday, October 28 at the Hugo House on Capitol Hill, at 7:30 p.m.
Dr. David Nixon is a philosopher, a writer, a musician (he plays banjo in the band "Awesome"), and a jack-of-all-trades. He's also a brother who, compared to his brother, has everything. Dr. Nixon spoke with me last week about the powerful multi-media piece that he's putting together for Hugo House's Lit Series. 
Image courtesy of Dr. David Nixon, who will be playing his original animation and accompanying music this Friday night as part of Richard Hugo House's Lit Series.
What is your take on "The Haves and the Have-Nots"?
When Hugo House approached me with the theme, I always thought it would be political, and more about just growing up poor. For example, my grandfather bought me a giant sack of rice when we were young, so that no matter that happened, we would never starve.
Instead, it ended up going in a more personal direction, about my brother and I who are essentially polar opposites. He lives on government assistance, in a trailer, and has a lot of health problems. He's just had a really, really hard life, and, by comparison, I haven't. So that was where the theme came in, and it ended up being more of a personal exploration. A very, very personal exploration.
It sounds like an emotional challenge to tell such a personal story. Have you done this sort of thing before?
My day job, I'm a philosopher..a philosophy professor, so that's not about me or my life. And all the work that I've done with "Awesome", we never go into anything personal. It's abstract and it's goofy, and it's non-narrative. Anyone can take it in any direction...but never specifics about two human beings lives. So, no, I haven't.
Which of your many trades do you prefer?
Starting when I was pretty young, I had this vision of the ultimate life of being a renaissance person, and just doing everything. And I still kind of like that perspective, and it's still sort of shaped things. It's all driven by project.
When I was first asked by Brian [McGuigan, of Hugo House] to be the "music" person, I asked if I could actually do some of the animation, which I've been working on, and he said sure.
Aren't you supposed to be a musical guest? Are you writing something?
It's going to be a combination of music I've written, with some animation that I've been doing. It's going to be recorded and on DVD, so that helps with that aspect of it. But it's probably the only time I'll present it, so it will just be a moment. So far, I'm planning on this being a one-time thing.
Tell me about the story.
I grew up Buddhist, when I was a kid. I had invented this myth, and I don't know where I had invented it, or where it came from, but it was about what my brother and I were like before I we were born. Because, at the time, reincarnation was sort of a given.
So we'd always sort of talk about who we'd been in past lives. And while I don't literally believe the myth from before we were born, that narrative has structured so much of my life. And now it feels like its true, even if it's not true.
Have you two always been so opposite?
Clearly, I've been aware of our differences since I was a kid.
In the myth, we're hanging out before we're born, and we're arguing about who gets to go first. And suddenly, this shelf appears, and it has all of the things you get to be born into the world with. Health, creativity, happiness. And we noticed the shelf was sort of meagerly stocked, and I was like "Well, looks like we're both going to have really mediocre lives."
"Or," he said, "one of us could have a really extraordinary life," and before I could respond to that, he leaves everything to me, so that I could have that life. And when I was a kid, I believed that. And I thought that he thought that, too. But I didn't ever bring it up.
Basically, from the beginning, he had so many problems...like, just so much shit came his way. And in the back of my mind, it's like he did it for me. And I've always felt like I've had to live up to this, because it's always been with me. And this is the first time I'm sharing this all.
It's been really, really cathartic for me.
Do you think the theme of the event is going to be influenced by what's going on now, with the Occupy protests?
I don't know if anyone's piece is going to specifically deal with Occupy--it sort of depends on whether or not they got started really early or not. The lead-time for this event was really long, and we got contacted back in summer. I'd already fallen down the rabbit hole with this whole other idea, but only because I started before the protests. But I do wonder if it's going to be a lens that the audience views it through.
I actually worried about that at some point, like, maybe I should have done something about that (the protests), but I'm pretty confident in my piece now.
Come see Dr. Nixon's powerfully personal piece this Friday at Hugo House. Ticketing information is here. And here's a sneak-peak of the his piece, which he was kind enough to upload on YouTube for us:
