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Our encore show of Together We Are New York (FREE and open to the public) is Wednesday evening, Sept. 28 at the Blue Gem Room at the Paul Robeson Theater in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Join us for a polyphonic performance of poems mixed with audio excerpts of interviews with Asian American community members: together we will reflect on 9/11 and the decade since and share laughter, sorrows, insights, and a way forward! Would love your presence and feedback!
Special Encore Performance & Dialogue: Wednesday, September 28, 2011, 7-9 p.m.
Blue Gem Room at Paul Robeson Theater
54 Greene Ave., 1st Floor (Please note: this is NOT the 40 Greene Ave. Robeson Theater space but a space slightly further down Greene and up the stairs at 54 Greene Ave.)
Brooklyn, NY (Fort Greene)
SUBWAYS (nearest stations):
A & C train “Lafayette station” then walk 2 blocks on Greene Ave to the Paul Robeson Theater
G train “Fulton Street station” or “Clinton-Washington station”
2, 3, 4, 5, B, D, N, Q, R – “Pacific – Atlantic station”
From the Atlantic Avenue stations, walk over to the Williamsburg Bank building and then walk along Hanson Place to Fulton, and directly across Fulton is Greene Ave.
Featured poets include Hossannah Asuncion, Tamiko Beyer, Marlon Esguerra, April Heck, Eugenia Leigh, Bushra Rehman, Zohra Saed, Purvi Shah, and R.A. Villanueva
http://www.kundiman.org/kavad/
(from Purvi Shah)
Some photos from the prep for the show in Brooklyn:
Tamiko Beyer reading her poem during rehearsal
Sound clip announcement -- my dad's voice is weaved in
Tamiko Beyer's poem for Nisa
During Rehearsals (note no chairs set up yet -- we are waiting for you!)
Last week, poet David Meltzer and his wife Julie came to visit. What’s cooler than a poet visiting to talk about the “Beat” movement in American poetry? Coming in a shirt that says “DownBeat”!
I’ve been reading Beat Thing and will post up some audio clips from the talk (depending on how fancy I can get with this Garage Band!)
It was a transformative experience! And hearing about Kerouac behind “Kerouac” was rewarding in itself… more soon on this talk.
(L-R) Professor Extraordinaire Ammiel Alcalay, Julie and David Meltzer
Yes, you are seeing right! Kohl pencil and a pen shared the panel table with Fawzia Afzal Khan (author, Lahore With Love: Growing Up with Girlfriends, Pakistani Style), Priyanka Motaparthy (Human Rights Watch), Purvi Shah (Moderator/author, Terrain Tracks) and me. Beauty and Power all on one table. (We didn’t know whose kohl pencil that was btw.)
It was lovely speaking about how social justice and home intersect in our writings and work. Priyanka’s work on domestic workers in Kuwait affected me deeply as did Fawzia’s memoir of growing up in Pakistan.
Thank you SAWCC for the support and for a place to talk about ourselves as women writing in the world. Thank you Revolution Books for housing such wonderful books!
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Wednesday, September 28 · 7:00pm – 9:00pm
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Blue Gem Room at Paul Robeson Theater in Fort Greene, Brooklyn
54 Greene Avenue, 1st Floor
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Join us for a polyphonic performance with poetry mixed with audio excerpts of interviews with Asian American community members!Together We Are New York helps to ensure Asian American community voices are presented and shared as a vital part of the fabric of city memory and the nation’s journey forward. To remember the diverse communities affected by the events of 9/11, Kundiman, an organization dedicated to the creation and promotion of Asian American poetry, engaged nine poets to interview Asian Americans on their experiences that day and in the decade since. Join us to reflect, remember, laugh & celebrate our community through poetry and oral history!Featured Poets: Hossannah Asuncion, Tamiko Beyer, Marlon Esguerra, April Heck, Eugenia Leigh, Bushra Rehman, Zohra Saed, Purvi Shah, R.A. VillanuevaFor more information and directions, go to www.kundiman.org/kavad
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Guava Zine from 1997-1999 Printed at Brooklyn College
I’m packing up these beauties to take over to the Brooklyn College Library Zine Collections Archive. Earlier this week Alycia Sellie from the library contacted Robert Booras and I about submitting our zines. Although, at first I thought I had lost my old zines in my move — I was ecstatic after finding this humble three volume zine in my special box of lovely things. Thumbing through the paper, now softened a little with time, I remembered the women-power it required to get these zines filled with talented writers, edited and distributed. In the early clumsy days of email and some strange looking websites put together by Computer Science majors, Guava had managed to get the zine read in Singapore and studied in a class in Senegal. The first edition was put together by hand and that is my nascent artistic hand that illustrated the cover. For the most part we used Elmer’s Rubber Cement to decorate the articles with images of female-power. We ended up getting grants to have the 2nd and 3rd volumes designed by a graphic designer and printed in color. The list of contributors includes: Annemarie Jacir, Sharbari Ahmed, Lisa Suheir Majaj, Suheir Hammad, Hayan Charara, Pauline Kaldas, Bruna Mori, Aileen Cho and my dear friend Sabrina Margarita Alcantara (Bamboo Girl) the list goes on. The Editorial Board comprised of: Danielle Elliott, Habiba Ibrahim and Simone Williamson. What a beautiful college experience to have worked with these women, read together and perform our work in the safety of sisterhood.
We even had Women of Color Clip Art!
SPAWN Zine by Robert Booras added more to the line up of future star poets and writers. What a great marker in time to have these print ephemerals and to have the opportunity to have them archived. This also marks the 11th year anniversary of UpSet Press and a friendship that happily endured and evolved to birth more collaborations, communities and celebrations around the mystical mythics of words.
Here is the lovely write up on the CUNY Commons site by Alycia:
Full Circle: UpSet Press and Alumni Zinesters!
A Kavad for Remembering 9/11: Together We Are New York
“The sense of urgency to write often comes from a place of necessity – to discover truth, to challenge the simplification of stories.” (Hossannah Asuncion)
The 10th anniversary of 9/11 will bring an outpouring of emotions and remembrances: this project ensures, through community interviews by poets and poetic responses, that Asian American community voices are presented, shared, and a vital part of the fabric of our city memory and our nation’s journey forward.
Though time has been swift, our memories of 9/11 and its aftermath remain indelible, profound, and visceral. As New York City – and our nation – prepares for the 10th anniversary of 9/11 in 2011, Kundiman seeks to ensure that this historic anniversary includes public remembrances and the vital voices of a key marginalized community fundamentally transformed by the tragedy: Asian Americans. Kundiman will bring the poet’s ear and vision to a unique community history and public remembrance arts project: “Together We Are New York: Asian Americans Remember and Re-Vision 9/11.”
The poet has an integral role in recording difficult periods of our lives. In fact, immigrant poets are an essential voice for ensuring our histories are not erased. Asian American poets have captured the experiences of Chinese American railroad workers, Japanese American internment camp survivors, and more recently, South Asian and Muslim communities facing scrutiny and violence in the aftermath of 9/11. To ensure we remember the diverse communities affected by 9/11, Kundiman poets will interview Asian American community members on their experiences on 9/11 and the decade since. This material will be crafted into a series of public readings in September 2011 and beyond. This project uniquely combines historical documentation with artistic production & public engagement in the context of a vital moment in history.
As the leading organization for Asian American poetry and poets, Kundiman seeks to ensure our communities have voice in this key moment in U.S. history. At Kundiman we believe our community voices will not only bring healing and hope within our community but also foster much-needed light and new understanding to the wider New York City and national community in order to enable a road forward – for all of us together.
The project will add to the texture of 9/11 remembrances while enabling the public to engage with Asian Americans as Americans as well as the difficult issues of hate crimes, religious tolerance, and civil rights. Furthermore, the poems will be available for future generations to mark how this moment in history has had such diverse legacies – and how we can respond as one community in the strongest diverse, inclusive spirit of New York City and the United States.
Opening Performance & Dialogue: September 13, 2011, 7-9 p.m.
Featured poets include Hossannah Asuncion, Tamiko Beyer, Marlon Esguerra, April Heck, Eugenia Leigh, Bushra Rehman, Zohra Saed, Purvi Shah, and R.A. Villanueva.
Fordham University, Lincoln Center
McNally Auditorium
140 W. 62nd St. (Law School Entrance)
Upon entering the double glass doors and informing the security desk that you are attending the English Department event, walk up the stairs and take a quick left. After going through another pair of double doors, take the first right and enter the Atrium through its glass doors. The Auditorium will be ahead of you to your left.
Additional performances to be scheduled at later dates in other locations.
One Story, Thirty Stories: An Anthology of Contemporary Afghan American writers
EDITED BY Zohra Saed AND Sahar Muradi
(The University of Arkansas Press, 2010)
A remarkable stand-out anthology offering poetry, fiction, essays and selections from the blogs of photographers Masood Kamandy and Gazelle Samizay. Editors Zohra Saed and Sahar Muradi state in their introduction, “This collection reveals what it is that makes the Afghan American experience particular and distinct, what sets it apart.” Among the authors’ topics are Displacement, Identity and Self-Making, Post-911, Women’s Voices, and War. Also included is a Chronology of Afghan American History. Fifty enlightening works of human experience and art.
— Sally Molini
Summer 2011 Editors’ Favorites
Thank you Cerise Press for your support!
On a quiet early morning walk (a very long ambitious walk) I came across this car. This is around Flatbush.
