Young Jean Lee v/s Jeremy Harris

Original tweet from YJL - https://twitter.com/YoungJean_Lee/status/1270307643857362944

The play was apparently a small drama written by her former student Jeremy Harris - https://twitter.com/jeremyoharris/status/1270447515570233350

There's so much to unpack here. I don't disagree with YJL that referencing her was unnecessarily mean spirited. But at the same time, reading through Harris' perspective, she wasn't particularly a great teacher to begin with. The racism/patriarchy corrupts all aspects of our being, irrespective of who we are. This is sad to see. I think they're both individually talented people.

Updated On: 6/10/20 at 04:31 PM

Wow, this is incredibly...complicated. I will be thinking about this a lot and watching it unfold, because there is so much to process here.

Goes to show just how incredibly complex and nuanced our world is. To try to make sense of it and do the right thing is incredibly messy, painful, and difficult for everyone involved, but we have to have these conversations in order to move forward!

Valentina3 said: "There's so much to unpack here."

Seriously. This is so messy I don't even know where to begin.

First of all, is YJL's tweet referencing a play that Harris wrote? Because she says it's from a white playwright in 2013. How is that connected with Harris's tweet thread? Or is it not?

My first thought is that I find him annoying and resistant to critique of his work. And he doesn't seem to have respect for other people's opinions about how he chooses to use rape and the abuse of female bodies in his work. But also, her behavior seems irresponsible and unprofessional for a teacher, even in a creative field.

It seems like Yell is another play that Jeremy O. Harris wrote that references YJL as well (but not the same one she was tweeting about). I haven't read it, but I found the one in YJL's tweet pretty distasteful and tacky, like if you want to use your peers as characters I feel like it should be as pseudonyms or if for comic purposes (like what YJL was implying) then get it okayed by them before proceeding.

It does seem YJL didn't handle the feedback session in a particularly sensitive or nuanced manner. It seemed to me that she was very offended by the rape scene, which I suppose she can't be blamed for, but at the same time she didn't seem open to taking in other women's perspectives on it or understanding why Jeremy O. Harris felt the need to include it. I don't pretend to know how YSD operates as an institution, but in general I'd think that not all notes would have to be implemented if the creator disagrees with the feedback. At the same time, I'm not sure how much Jeremy really tried to hold a conversation with her about how to make it less triggering or understand why it was necessary for it to be triggering to get the point across. (On a tangential note, I don't think I remember a trigger warning for the Broadway production, but at the same time, I suppose Broadway isn't the best at communicating these sorts of things).

I can see faults on both sides, but I do think it's disappointing to see how much YJL lashed out while she was in her capacity as a teacher/educator without trying to nurture. Jeremy's texts/emails seem mostly respectful but I do see how they could be perceived as aggravating/manipulative if someone's already wound up. But like he said, he was a second year student so I feel like it just could've been better used as a teaching moment/learning opportunity for him.

TotallyEffed said: "Is it normal to text with a student? Sounds like they both needed some boundaries."

In an MFA program, when you can usually count your students on your hands, it's not super weird.

I agree with Harris's tweet about the steps his took to be respectful to his cast and his audience. He did the work with his actors, got an intimacy coach, posted very clear content warnings. As far as YJL should be concerned, Harris' hands are clean.

Also, if Young Jean Lee, a respected award-winning playwright, really did badmouth a second-year *grad student* to a bunch of industry professionals, then that is super messed up.

"did badmouth a second-year *grad student* to a bunch of industry professionals"

He was a professional playwright while at Yale. Slave Play was given productions and won awards and "Daddy" was slated while he was still attending. Young Jean Lee doesn't sound like much of a mentor and frankly sounds like a jerk here, but the notion that he was a naive and vulnerable "student" isn't quite an accurate depiction.

I am 48, so when I was in PhD program (English lit not theater), texting did not really exist. Flip phones were cumbersome.

But graduate school is different from undergrad. The program is so intimate and your bonds with advisors/professors is different. For one thing, you start using your professors' first names. Unless a professor is really old and really famous. But even Harold Bloom went by Harold.

I agree entirely about boundaries. But the mode of communication---text---doesn't seem to me in and of itself inappropriate. Harris is a Millennial and most Millennials are not comfortable with phone calls. I know parents and grandparents who have to text if they want to communicate with their kids. That generation hardly checks email for any reason beyond professional, and even then slow on the draw.

Her apology in the handwritten note is quite specific. Harris wanted her to use different language: "I bullied you," not "I am sorry you felt bullied."

I am fully aware of the difference. But if YJL didn't feel she had bullied him (and that post-it note with criticism of the character didn't seem so terrible), the only honest thing for her to do was to explain her unfortunate reaction as specifically as possible, and then express remorse for her part in causing him pain.

As a former Yale student (BA, English), who was stabbed in the back by BOTH her PhD advisors in English at UCSB, I would urge people not in the academy to realize how vicious and traumatic PhD programs can be. It's not like college. Both the professors who created trauma in my life for years were white women. I'm a white woman.

Egos and creative differences are not always racial in nature. White women beat up on each other , even when of the same class/background/level of privilege.

LightsOut90 said: "this is beyond messy...."

It is also an unfortunate sideshow that takes oxygen away from the subject folks should be focusing on. Hint: it's not about YOU, kids; it's about a system.

Victorianchick said: "I am 48, so when I was in PhD program (English lit not theater), texting did not really exist. Flip phones were cumbersome.

But graduate school is different from undergrad. The program is so intimate and your bonds with advisors/professors is different. For one thing, you start using your professors' first names. Unless a professor is really old and really famous. But even Harold Bloom went by Harold.

I agree entirely about boundaries. But the mode of communication---text---doesn't seem to me in and of itself inappropriate. Harris is a Millennial and most Millennials are not comfortable with phone calls. I know parents and grandparents who have to text if they want to communicate with their kids. That generation hardly checks email for any reason beyond professional, and even then slow on the draw.

Her apology in the handwritten note is quite specific. Harris wanted her to use different language: "I bullied you," not "I am sorry you felt bullied."

I am fully aware of the difference. But if YJL didn't feel she had bullied him (and that post-it note with criticism of the character didn't seem so terrible), the only honest thing for her to do was to explain her unfortunate reaction as specifically as possible, and then express remorse for her part in causing him pain.

As a former Yale student (BA, English), who was stabbed in the back by BOTH her PhD advisors in English at UCSB, I would urge people not in the academy to realize how vicious and traumatic PhD programs can be. It's not like college. Both the professors who created trauma in my life for years were white women. I'm a white woman.

Egos and creative differences are not always racial in nature. White women beat up on each other , even when of the same class/background/level of privilege.

"

As a longtime veteran of academia myself, this post could not be more accurate. If there is any place uglier than a faculty meeting or a doctoral oral exam, it would have to be an actual war zone.

(For those who read it, I confused "texting" with email in my previous post, which only goes to show how old I am. But email was state-of-the-art when I was teaching and I suspect the same rules or lack thereof now apply to texting. It is absolutely true that a grad student's relationships with faculty are very, very different than an undergrad's.)

To have her bow and act subserviently, and literally emulate a geisha, is to use pretty recognizable racist tropes. How does one pretend it is anything else?

Surely there was a way to satirize her, to make her as awful or irrelevant as he wanted, without going in that direction? I have no idea how awful she is. But as awful as she might well be, Harris doesn't just demean her with that kind of writing, he demeans all Asians.