191: Sabrina Mei-Li Smith

Nostalgia Interviews with Chris Deacy

My guest this week is Sabrina Mei-Li Smith who lectures in Creative Writing at De Montfort University in Leicester. Sabrina has written a novel set in the mid-1990s and some of the research behind her novel is heavily connected to the themes of nostalgia and identity.
We learn about the way Sabrina examines themes of race and gender within the accepted narrative that surrounds the rise and demise of Britpop, the emergence of 1994's Criminal Justice Act, and the standardization and neutralization of alternative lifestyles.
Sabrina also has an exhibition as a work in progress, which focuses on her novel's research materials. This exhibition consists of archive materials from NME, Melody Maker, and fanzines as a method of communication before the widespread use of the internet.
Sabrina talks about the hidden histories of mixed race performers and how we only tend to remember one accepted narrative, and we discuss what has changed over the decades and the fake and distorted memories from those eras, including the extent to which memory is a fallible tool.
We talk about the differences between autobiographies and biographies, and the way cover songs encapsulate nostalgia.
Sabrina also talks about Walter Benjamin’s collection of arcades in Paris and how until 10 years ago all of the characters in her own writing were white, female and middle class. We learn the reasons for this, and then, at the end of the interview, we discuss how we might still be in the mindset of our teenage selves.