Holding Space in Discomfort

Welcome to 2024! Here at Legacy Magazine, the editorial board is excited about recent developments (new all-digital platform! “Behind the Article” author videos!), and we are excited for innovations still to come. In particular, the editors are thrilled to use our 2024 issue themes to uplift JEDAI principles and amplify voices of interpreters from under-represented communities.

To pursue this inclusive work to the fullest, several of our upcoming issues will be guest-edited. We begin with our March/April and May/June 2024 issues: “Women in Interpretation.” Guest editor Dr. Christina Cid will curate this special double issue sequence, both written cover-to-cover by women and femme-identified interpreters. Look for her words in our next “Editor’s Desk” column.

As we enter 2024 through this issue on “Uncomfortable Interpretation,” I’m reminded of NAI Executive Director Paul Caputo’s closing remarks to the 2023 National Conference in Little Rock. He looked ahead to the future and to why it is essential to be an interpreter right now, even—and especially—in the most challenging spaces. He said:

“There are stories to be told, and people who want to keep us from telling them. We are going there because interpreters are the purveyors of truth, authenticity, and hope. I’m proud to be part of that. […] I’m grateful to all of you for being purveyors of truth, for building this community, and for sharing the stories.”

In this issue, Legacy contributors bring a courageous commitment to truth, community, and story, in all of its messy and uncomfortable aspects.

These interpreters look at historical traumas and their continuing impacts today. They show us how to offer our programs to the community for evaluation, and how to accept and implement challenging, constructive feedback. We witness moments to speak out—and to step back and help others’ voices to rise up.

Across numerous articles, these interpreters remind us that effective uncomfortable interpretation is often about holding space in discomfort: not rushing to fill an important silence with facts, solutions, or another topic—but “building the community,” as Paul Caputo said. Here, we and those we serve can recognize, admit, and acknowledge. Move slowly through these pages. Allow the discomfort, and these writers, to teach us.