Arlene Biala, Urayoán Noel, Aimee Suzara: April 22, 2016

Steve Dickison introduces the third event in the three-day Kuwentuhan (Talkstory) residency, then introduces poets Arlene Biala, Urayuan Noel, and Aimee Suzara, who read in succession. Arlene Biala opens with a song and praise poem to honor Yemaya, dedicated to Genny Lim, then "In the Morning When I Rise," dedicated to Maurice White of Earth Wind & Fire. She sings from Prince's song "Seven," and reads a draft of a new poem dedicated to Prince.

Urayon Noel reads from Buzzing Hemisphere / Rumor Hemisferico "Poem Alfabeto" in Spanish, and in mixed Spanglish and English, then "Poem Alfabeto en Creole" in Puerto Rican Creole and in English. He reads, with musical accompaniment from a smartphone app (put to use subsequently in his performance), "Rumoreos / Her Hemisphere in Me" dedicated "for my mother and her struggles." He reads "Signs of the Hemisphere / Letreros del Hemisferio," based on street signs seen in upstate New York and Brazil, and improvises a coda to the poem. He closes with "Decimas del Otro Mundo / Otherworldly Decimas" in Taino, English, Spanish, and an admixture of languages.

Aimee Suzara opens with the "Dearly Beloved" invocation from the beginning of Prince's Purple Rain album, then reads Part One of a new work dedicated to Prince, who died the previous day. She performs a poem on racial stereotyping and misogyny from her book Souvenir (WordTech Editions, 2014), then reads "Scissor Cut," "Dad and the Leechee Tree," a recent untitled poem beginning "I'm at my Lolo Jose's gravestone in Manila...," and a poem beginning "When I remember my dream, like life...." She closes with a poem based on Balagtasan, a Filipino form of poetic debate enacted in verse. Steve Dickison closes the night by inviting the audience to the Kuwentuhan collective performance the following night at McRoskey Mattress Co. in San Francisco.