BAD MILK PRESS

On MALA LECHE #5 with Jess Walters

Listen to an recorded interview with Jess Walters on the conception of the theme for MALA LECHE #5 and what the issue means to them.

Below is a transcription of the audio recording

Recording 1: How did you get involved with MALA LECHE?

My name is Jess Walters. I am the guest editor of MALA LECHE #5; it’s called Embodiment: Secrets Under Our Skin. 

I first got involved with MALA LECHE I think back in the summer of 2020. Sri and Ramona were putting out an open call for a group show, a virtual group show, called Inside. And I think Inside, which was this, like, collection of creative work that had been made while we were all isolated from the COVID-19 Pandemic. I think Inside was a way for us to connect and create and sort of come together, and that was where this sort of seed was planted for MALA LECHE to sort of use these voices kept behind walls, and bring them out into, uh, the world, and share them with each other.

Um. I think shortly after Inside, there was an open call for the first issue of MALA LECHE, which includes a poem-drawing of mine that I created as something of a journal entry. Um. I made it in 2019 as I was walking by the Lee statue, and, which had been recently defaced, and, uh, I think MALA LECHE, I was compelled, I think I was compelled to participate with MALA LECHE because I was intrigued by what the open call was asking us to contemplate:  it was asking us to imagine a world without white supremacy, without patriarchal heteronormativity, uh, without sexism, without all of these sort of constructs that we sort of have been fed, um, and don't necessarily inherently believe or reflect in our own world. And.

I think that’s also why I continue…am continuing…to participate in MALA LECHE is that I sort of feel compelled to continue to answer those calls to action, to create, to community.

Recording 2: On the theme of ‘Embodiment’

How did I come up with “Embodiment?” Um. Well, in 2018 I was experiencing end stage renal disease, or kidney failure. I underwent dialysis treatment and received a kidney transplant that December, and since that time, I’ve really worked to gain more awareness about my body, and its needs. Um. I’ve worked really hard to improve education and awareness and sort of advocacy around the idea that mental and physical health are inseparably intertwined. 

And I think, even before I was asked to create a theme for MALA LECHE, I had already been thinking about creative ways to approach this idea of embodiment–of being in a body, and exploring what that’s like, both as an individual and a collective. Um.

And I, I think this issue was really borne out of me sort of asking other people how they relate to their bodies, right? ‘Cause I, I’ve been spending all this time exploring myself and my own body in sort of an introspective way, and, um, it’s very physical, and I, as I relate to the people that I’ve come to know through these collective works of MALA LECHE, I think I was, uh, intrigued at the idea of seeing what the responses would be like if I begged other people to explore themselves in sort of the same way that I have been exploring myself.

Um. As far as the final result differing from my original vision, I really think that my original vision stayed pretty true. Um. In the sense that, I wanted to create a body of work, right? Like, a collection of works, where each individual was represented, but also somehow inexplicably related to the other works within that body–within that collective body. And I, I think I did that. (Laughs).

Um. I, I really think that the responses that we got, it just,  it was like kismet. It was like it just came together. I mean it was a lot of deciding, but some of the works and some of these voices just…they, they felt like they naturally belonged together, and I think that that was a sort of really beautiful thing that manifested just from having the theme of ‘embodiment. Um

I think the end result really showed something of a strangely unified voice across the dimensions of individuality. Um. I will say that I was very pleasantly surprised at the vulnerability being shared by the contributing artists for this theme. I think, really and truly, there’s so much heart in this work that came to this issue. Um. I wasn’t…I had hoped that people would go deep into themselves for this, but I was really blown away by the responses, and I, I think I still will continue to return to this issue for many a time to come to just reflect on the interconnectedness of all the people in this amazing community.

Recording 3: What does MALA LECHE mean to you?

What does MALA LECHE mean to me? I guess, in a word, like one word, my answer is community. I have found a lot of community in MALA LECHE; I think about this ‘zine as something of a collective yawp from these marginalized voices in a world that is built… mostly to our detriment. 

MALA LECHE gives us the space not only to call out the MALA LECHE–the bullshit, the deception of the world, but to sort of dream anew what we would like to build together. I think MALA LECHE is a creative space for us to explore ourselves and to explore ourselves in community–to see what that looks like when we share, when we engage, when we create and collaborate together.

In the creating of these issues, I have come to know so many new friends. And you know, these women and these queer folk have become kinfolk, and I’m incredibly and eternally grateful for that. But I also feel like there’s, the beauty of it is that it’s still growing, it’s still open, it’s still inviting, and, in some ways, um incapable of possessing just one definition. And I think that that subjectivity is what makes MALA LECHE brilliant. I really love the paradoxical unified diversity of this space. Um. So. To, me, I suppose the easiest way to answer is MALA LECHE is the community of people who are unafraid to call bullshit “bullshit,” and speak up when things are sour, and to create a new idea that might give us hope.