PORT TOWNSEND — Tessa Hulls, a mixed-race American daughter of two first-generation immigrants, had no television to watch nor internet to surf, so she spent her formative years reading her way through the public library and roaming around with a backpack full of books.
Now Hulls, who recently moved from Port Townsend to Seattle, is the author of her own book, “Feeding Ghosts,” as well as the kickoff speaker in the Jefferson County Historical Society’s 2022 First Friday series.
The artist and writer will give a livestreamed talk at 7 p.m. Friday via www.jchsmuseum.org, where the ticket link is found under the Education and Programs menu. The suggested donation to the nonprofit historical society is $10.
“Feeding Ghosts” is about a lot of things. There’s the story of Hulls’ grandmother, Sun Yi, a persecuted Shanghai journalist turned single mother who fled China soon after the Communist takeover. The book is also about intergenerational trauma, fleeing one’s family — and how mothers and daughters can damage and save each other.
“When I began this book, I fully intended to keep my own story out of it as much as possible,” Hulls said this week.
“I wanted to stick to the history of what had happened to my mom and grandma in the tumult and aftermath of the Communist takeover. But along the way, I realized that to tell this story honestly — in all of its contradictions and gray areas— I was going to need to make it a lot more personal. So my role as the book’s narrator shifted hugely from how I first envisioned it.”
In her seven years writing the book — “I just turned in a draft last week” — she learned the mixed media skills to create a graphic memoir. Port Townsend was the place for this.
“I moved to Port Townsend to write/draw ‘Feeding Ghosts’ because I knew I couldn’t give it the focus it needed unless I moved somewhere I could basically hole up and disappear,” said Hulls, who moved back to Seattle a few months ago.
She’s known there for her work as an illustrator, cartoonist, performer and teacher, among other roles, with the Henry Art Gallery, The Rumpus, On the Boards, the Seattle Art Museum and Microsoft Research.
Her book’s title refers to the Chinese concept of hungry ghosts. These are the spirits of people who died violently or without finishing what they needed to accomplish on earth, and they’re wandering around, appetites insatiable.
“Growing up, my family was shaped around the negative space of unacknowledged trauma, of ghosts — so this book is my attempt to witness their stories and, through that, feed them in the hopes of allowing us all to rest,” Hulls said.
“I jokingly say that my book is for anyone who has a complicated relationship with their mother, but there’s a level on which I mean that seriously,” she added.
“I hope my readers come away with a deeper understanding of the periods of Chinese history that I cover, but also how the echoes of those incidents continue to reverberate through our relationships in the present.”
More about “Feeding Ghosts” and Hulls’ work is found at www.tessahulls.com, while more about the Chinese American experience will be explored during the historical society’s next two First Friday programs. www.jchsmuseum.org has details about filmmaker Valerie Soe’s March 4 talk on her movie “The Chinese Gardens” and author Doug Chin’s April 1 program on the Chinese in Port Townsend and Washington state.
The Jefferson Museum of Art & History, meanwhile, is closed for remodeling. The building at 540 Water St. will reopen with new exhibitions on March 3.
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Jefferson County senior reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com.
