Sunday, May 27, 2007

APIA Spoken Word Summit Benefit: June 7th!

Come support!

All the artists, including Kelly, have graciously waived their fees and are donating their performances for this benefit for the 2007 National APIA Spoken Word Summit in August in New York City.

Thursday, June 7th, 7:30 pm

National APIA Spoken Word Summit Benefit Show featuring New York's KELLY TSAI

With special guests: Christy NaMee Eriksen, Tou Saiko Lee, Bao Phi, Bryan Thao Worra, Juliana Hu Pegues, Dan Le and more!

Music by DJ Thuyet

$5 to $10 suggested donation

At Intermedia Arts
2822 Lyndale Avenue South, Minneapolis
Seats are first come, first serve

Co-sponsored by the Loft, Equilibrium: Spoken Word at the Loft, Intermedia Arts, and the featured artists.

From the Sulu Series at Galapagos Arts Space in Brooklyn, March 2006. Pic by Derek Srisaranard. From www.yellowgurl.com

Friday, May 18, 2007

2007 Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Annual Dinner


On Friday, May 18th I attended the 2007 Annual Dinner to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in Minnesota.

Organized by the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans, this year it was held at the Golden Valley Golf & Country Club.

Over 300 people were in attendance from across the state. Entertainment and cultural performances included myself, the CAAM Chinese Dance Theater and Tou Ger Xiong.

Salo Ale served as this year's Master of Ceremonies.

Jodie Tanaka, the chair of the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans and Ilean Her, the Executive Director of the Council discussed the importance of this month and the exciting projects our community is undertaking to plant the seeds for the future, from the Asian Pacific Cultural Center to the MN Dragon Festival and the Asian Pacific Endowment.

We also honored MN Asian Pacific community members for their leadership and service to the community, including Hedy Tripp, Seng Yang, Takuzo Ishida, Terry Cheng, and Vee Phan Nelson.

This reading was also an opportunity to demonstrate the relationship of art and writing to the story of Asian Pacific Minnesotans, and my belief there is much poetry to be found in our community and in our experience. These are things well worth writing about.

The poems that I read this evening included: Stairways In Luang Prabang, Burning Eden One Branch At A Time, five fragments, The Shape, Zelkova, and Whorl, which will be featured in my book On The Other Side of the Eye, coming out this August from Sam's Dot Publishing.

It was a great and satisfying evening, and I thank everyone who came. I look forward to seeing you all next year!

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

May 1st At the Loft

Here are some of the first shots from the Loft Literary Center which recently held the book release party for Sun Yung Shin, Yuko Taniguchi and Wang Ping's new books from Coffee House Press!

A full report will come soon!