asian american poets
Showing 38 items.
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The Poetry Center presents Ai, reading poetry from her book Cruelty, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1973, and from as yet uncollected work.
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The Poetry Center presents Amarnath Ravva and giovanni singleton, each reading from their work, followed by a conversation between the poets and in response to questions from their audience. Ravva reads from his prose work American Canyon (Kaya Press, 2014), presenting still and moving images related to, and incorporated into, this book "blending myth with interviews and first person narrative" exploring "the ghosts of history." singleton reads from her California Book Award-winning book of poetry, Ascension (Counterpath Press, 2011), written under the spiritual influence of Alice Coltrane, and as a "diary of intentionality, [wherein] the behearer and the beholder approach the world with an attitude of longing—for less: less sorrow, less suffering." This program was supported by the San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund.
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The Poetry Center presents Poetry Center Book Award winner Bao Phi, reading and in conversation with award judge Sarah Menefee. Sarah Menefee reads from her books Human Star (Factory School, 2005), Cement (Swimming with Elephants Publications, 2019), and unpublished poems. Bao Phi reads from Thousand Star Hotel (Coffee House Press, 2017) and from unpublished work in manuscript. Then the poets respond to questions from the audience. This event is co-sponsored by The Poetry Center and the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
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The Poetry Center presents Brandon Shimoda and Aisuke Kondo, featuring a reading, an art presentation, and conversation. Shimoda reads a new work, written for the occasion, reflecting on the experience and legacy of Japanese American internment during World War II, followed by one long poem from his book The Desert (The Song Cave, 2018). Kondo, Japanese artist and visiting scholar at SF State in Asian American Studies, speaks (with live Japanese-to-English interpretation by Wesley Uenten) on the influence of his great grandfather's migration to the US and his internment during World War II in the Topaz Camp, in Utah, on his own art and creative process, interspersed with a video presentation and slideshow from recent exhibitions. Prior to the event, the audience was invited to join an informal gathering at the Ruth Asawa Garden of Remembrance, a public space designed to commemorate the 19 Japanese American San Francisco State University students incarcerated in internment camps during World War II. The reading and presentation are followed by a conversation between the artists and with the audience (with Japanese-English interpretation by Takeshi Moro). This event, funded in part by a Ford Foundation grant to the Academy of American Poets in support of the Poetry Coalition, is part of a series of nationwide programming during the month of March 2019 in conjunction with the Poetry Coalition, under the theme: "What is it then between us?" Poetry and Democracy, and was co-sponsored by the Department of Asian American Studies at SF State.
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The Poetry Center presents Carolee Sanchez and Lawson Inada, reading from their poetry in the César Chavez Center at San Francisco State University. Sanchez, from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and mixed Laguna Pueblo and Lebanese ancestry, at the time of this appearance coordinated the Poetry in the Schools program in the Bay Area. She would later receive a BA from SF State (in Arts Administration), though before that degree she had joined the faculty at SF State, where she taught for multiple programs into the mid-1980s, chairing American Indian Studies for part of that time. Inada, raised in Fresno, California, and incarcertated with his Japanese-American family during World War II, at the time of this event had been living in Oregon already for a decade, where he taught for many years at Southern Oregon University, in Ashland. Lewis MacAdams, in his first season as director of The Poetry Center, introduces the poets.
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The Poetry Center is honored to welcome Denise Riley, in a rare online appearance, and Jennifer Soong. Joining us, respectively, from London, U.K., and the Eastern U.S., the poets each read from their work. Riley reads new poems from a manuscript titled Lurex (forthcoming in 2022, Picador, UK) and from her first collection of poems from a U.S.-based publisher, Say Something Back / Time Lived, Without Its Flow (New York Review of Books, Poets Series, 2020), and Soong reads new unpublished poems from the manuscript of a forthcoming book, Suede Mantis, Soft Rage (due in 2022 from Black Sun), from her debut book, Near, At (Futurepoem, 2019), and from new work. The poets then join one another in conversation, together with emcee Brandon Brown, responding to questions from him, from one another, and from their remote-access audience. This program is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, and co-sponsored with NYRB Poets and Futurepoem.
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The Poetry Center co-presents a celebration of the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN), held at Jack Adams Hall in the César Chavez Student Center, San Francisco State University. DVAN co-founder and Pulitzer Prize novelist (for The Sympathiser) Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Thi Bui, author of the celebrated graphic novel The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir, are joined by DVAN co-founder, scholar and SF State professor of Asian American Studies Isabelle Pelaud; She Who Has No Master(s), including writers Lan Duong, Aimee Phan, and Julie Thi Underhill; and by writer and comedian Danny Nguyen. Program emcee is Philip Nguyen.
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The Poetry Center presents David Lau reading from his forthcoming book, Still Dirty (AK Press/Commune Editions, 2016), and Ed Pavlic reading from Let’s Let That Are Not Yet: INFERNO (Fence Books, 2015), followed by questions and conversation with the audience. NOTE: The video recording was lost in the back-up process, so this event is represented via audio recording only. Our apologies.
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The Poetry Center presents Trisha Low performing pieces from The Compleat Purge (Kenning Editions, 2013) and Elaine Kahn from Women in Public (City Lights Books/Spotlight Series, 2015), followed by discussion and questions from the audience.
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For the concluding event in erica lewis's weeklong Mazza Writer in Residence program for Spring 2022, she is joined by Oakland-based poet Christine No, each reading from their work published by Barrelhouse Books. No reads from Whatever Love Means (Barrelhouse, 2021) and lewis follows by reading from daryl hall is my boyfriend (Barrelhouse, 2015), the first book in her "box-set trilogy." Note: lewis's reading is represented by audio-only recording. Program supported by the Sam Mazza Foundation. Still photos by Jesus Rodriguez.
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The Poetry Center presents erica lewis, Poetry Center Mazza Writer in Residence for Spring 2022, joined by Divya Victor. Victor reads from her book CURB (Nightboat Books, 2021), at the time of the reading just awarded the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and Pen American Open Book Award, and lewis reads from mary wants to be a superwoman (Third Man Books, 2017). Following their readings, the poets join in conversation, along with emcee, Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta. The Mazza Writer in Residence program is supported by the Sam Mazza Foundation.
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Co-presented with the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies and Diaspora Arts Connection, this remote-access event features California poets/translators Armen Davoudian, Farnaz Fatemi, Gary Gach, Zara Houshmand, Persis Karim, Mojdeh Marashi, and Sholeh Wolpé, each contributors to the new anthology, Essential Voices: Poetry of Iran and Its Diaspora, edited by Christopher Nelson; introduced by Kaveh Bassiri (Green Linden Press, 2021). The poet/translators read from their own poetry and poems in translation by Iranian poets, followed by a conversation in response to questions from the audience, and from emcee, Steve Dickison.
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The Poetry Center, together with Dogpark Collective, presents a celebration of two new works from this Oakland-based publisher, with readings from new books by Gabrielle Daniels and Hung Q. Tu. The event opens with Tu, reading poems from The New Boma (Dogbark Collective, 2021), and follows with Daniels reading a selection of poems from Something Else Again: Poetry and Prose, 1975-2019 (Dogpark Collective, 2022), a volume collecting works in various genres from across five decades. The poets are introduced by Steve Dickison, with introductory comments on Tu by Caleb Beckwith, who, together with Kate Robinson Beckwith and Eric Sneathen, is co-editor/publisher of the collective press. The program takes place at Medicine for Nightmares, in the Mission District, San Francisco. Still photographs of the poets are by Jesus Rodriguez.
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Gary Snyder, after reading from his Cold Mountain (Han Shan) Poems and his poem "Axe Handles," with Wang Ping reading her Chinese translations, talks about the genesis and nature of these works. Wang Ping writes: "In this video, Gary read some of his Hanshan poems, and I read the translation [to Chinese], then we went on to his legendary 'Axe Handles' poem, and the translation. We discussed how the poem was made, bringing many centuries of cultural entanglement, including Book of Songs from Confucius era, Ezra Pound and Arthur Waley's translations, Lu Ji's Wen Fu, and how it all came together at Kitkitdizze, Gary's homestead, at the foothills of the Sierras, where generations of beat poetry, environmental and deep ecology movements were birthed and flourished. This video was filmed by Steve Dickison, director of The Poetry Center, SFSU, which sponsored my poetry reading event at the Medicine for Nightmares bookstore on 11-11-21, which allowed me to make the trip to Kitkitdizze." Video courtesy of Wang Ping and Gary Snyder.
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The Poetry Center presents Hollie Hardy reading from her Poetry Center Book Award winning volume How to Take a Bullet and Other Survival Poems (Punk Hostage Press, 2014), together with award judge Mukta Sambrani, reading from The Woman in This Room Isn’t Lonely (Writer’s Workshop, Calcutta, 1997) and Broomrider’s Book of the Dead (Paperwall Media, Mumbai, 2015).
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The Poetry Center presents Jackie Wang and Lily Hoang, reading and in conversation. This event is one of many programs featured across the U.S. during March 2018 as part of the Poetry Coalition series on The Body (sponsored in part by a Ford Foundation grant to the Poetry Coalition). Jackie Wang reads from Carceral Capitalism (Semiotext(e) Interventions Series, 2018) and Lily Hoang reads from A Bestiary (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2016). Their readings are followed by a conversation with the audience.
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The Poetry Center presents poets John Yau and Andrew Joron, reading and in conversation. Joron reads from recent work, as does Yau, the latter from the manuscript of what would be his book Genghis Khan on Drums (Omnidawn Publishing, 2021). Following their readings, the poets respond to questions between themselves and from the audience. The writers are introduced by Carlos Quinteros III, emcee for the event. This reading was the first of two programs featuring Yau, appearing remotely from his home in New York City, and the final program sequence in The Poetry Center's In Common Writers Series.
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The Poetry Center presents, as the final program in its two-year In Common Writers Series, John Yau and Claudia La Rocco, each reading from new work and followed by a discussion, facilitated by emcee, Brandon Brown, among themselves and in response to their remote-access audience. La Rocco, from her home in Oakland, reads from her book Quartet (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2020), and Yau follows, reading from his home in New York City from the manuscript of what would be published as Genghis Kahn on Drums (Omnidawn Publishing, 2021).
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The Poetry Center presents Layli Long Soldier and Truong Tran reading and in conversation. Layli Long Soldier reads from Whereas (Graywolf Press, 2017), along with unpublished work. Truong Tran reads new poems in manuscript. The readings are followed by a conversation with the audience. During March 2017, all Poetry Center programs were dedicated to the theme "Because We Come from Everything: Poetry and Migration," shared with 30+ organizations across the US engaged in the Poetry Coalition.
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The Poetry Center and the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies, San Francisco State University, co-present a program of poetry, fiction, film, and conversation, inspired and emboldened by the work and legacy of one of Iran's outstanding cultural figures of the 20th century: poet, filmmaker, and feminist iconoclast Forugh Farrokhzad (December 29, 1934–February 13, 1967). The program features poet and translator of Farrokhzad, Sholeh Wolpé, novelist Jasmin Darznik, and poet-filmmaker Shabnam Piryaei, with emcee Persis Karim, Neda Nobari Distinguished Chair and director of the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies. This program was supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
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The Poetry Center presents Leticia Hernández-Linares reading her poetry from Mucha Muchacha, Too Much Girl (Tía Chucha Press, 2015) and Lee Herrick reading his works from Too Many Miles From Desire (WordTech Editions, 2007) and Gardening Secrets of the Dead (WordTech Editions, 2012), followed by the two poets conversing with one another and responding to questions from the audience.
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The Poetry Center presents Jackie Wang and Lily Hoang reading at The Green Arcade. This event, debuting Jackie Wang's book Carceral Capitalism, is one of many programs featured across the U.S. during March 2018 as part of the Poetry Coalition series on The Body, sponsored in part by a Ford Foundation grant to the Poetry Coalition. Lily Hoang (introduced by Jackie Wang) opens, reading from A Bestiary (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2016). She is followed by Jackie Wang (introduced by Brandon Brown) reading from Carceral Capitalism (Semiotext(e) Interventions Series, 2018).
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In celebration of Kelsey Street Press's 45th Anniversary, The Poetry Center, together with Kelsey Street Press and The Green Arcade, presents Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Andrea Abi-Karam, and Ching-In Chen, reading at McRoskey Mattress Co., in San Francisco. Following Patricia Dienstfrey and Rena Rosenwasser, co-founders of the press, recalling its history and several of the authors it has presented, notably Kathleen Fraser and Barbara Guest, Rosenwasser introduces Berssenbrugge. Berssenbrugge reads from NEST (Kelsey Street Press, 1998) and from her forthcoming book A Treatise on Stars (New Directions, 2020). Mg Roberts, of Kelsey Street Press, introduces Abi-Karam, who reads from their book EXTRATRANSMISSION (Kelsey Street Press, 2019). Roberts then introduces Chen, who reads from their book recombinant (Kelsey Street Press, 2017) to close the event. The program was supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
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The Poetry Center presents Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, in an early recorded solo reading of her poetry. Scheduled to appear together with Leslie Marmon Silko, Berssenbrugge, visiting from New Mexico, opens by reading a poem of Silko's, given the latter was unable to attend. She then reads generously from her own poetry, reading, from manuscript, poems that would subsequently appear in her book Random Possession (published by Ishmael Reed's I. Reed Books in 1982), poems from her previously published book, Summits Move With the Tide (Greenwood Review Press, 1974), and what she notes are new poems.
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The Poetry Center presents Mg Roberts and Geneva Chao reading and in conversation. Mg Roberts reads from not so, sea (Durga Press, 2014) as well as from her forthcoming book Anemal Uter Meck (forthcoming from Black Radish Books, 2017). Geneva Chao reads from One of Us is Wave One of Us is Shore (Otis Books, 2016) and Hilary is Dreaming (Make Now Books, 2016). The readings are followed by a conversation with the audience.
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The Poetry Center presents a poets' reading and tribute in honor of Mitsuye Yamada's 100th birthday, hosted by Brynn Saito and Brandon Shimoda, and co-organized with them and Hedi Yamada Mouchard. This online event features readings and tributes by Marilyn Chin, Chrystos, doris diosa davenport, W. Todd Kaneko, traci kato-kiriyama, Shirley Geok-Lin Lim, Mia Ayumi Malhotra, Cherríe Moraga, and Nellie Wong. Their presentations are followed by a reading by Mitsuye Yamada of her poetry, from Full Circle: New and Selected Poems (UC Santa Barbara Asian American Studies, 2019), recorded to video the day before the September 23, 2023 webcast. The video program concludes with a gathering of photos as shared at the start of the webcast.
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The Poetry Center presents Nellie Wong and Genny Lim reading and in conversation. Wong reads works from Breakfast Lunch Dinner (Meridian Press Works, 2012), The Death of Long Steam Lady (West End Press, 1986), Stolen Moments (Chicory Blue Press, 1997), and Speaking for Myself (Chicory Blue Press, 2014). Lim reads new work along with poems from Kra! (Omerta Publications, 2016) and Paper Gods and Rebels (Ishmael Reed Publishing Co., 2013). The readings are followed by an extensive conversation in response to questions from the audience.
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The Poetry Center's New Voice Series was initiated in Spring 2021 as an annual reading series that pairs a poet alum of SF State, a current SF State graduate student poet in Creative Writing, and a current undergraduate student poet at SF State (any major), to each read their work and engage in conversation with one another and their audience. For the premiere New Voice program, poet Dan Lau appears along with student poets (selected by Poetry Center student staff) Edward Gunawan and Carlos Osoria. They are joined by emcee, Carlos Quinteros III, with each poet reading briefly followed by a conversation between them and in response to questions from one another, Quinteros, and the audience.
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The Poetry Center presents Maw Shein Win, Carrie Hunter, Melissa Eleftherion, Aja Couchois Duncan, and Trevor Calvert reading from their contributions to The Poetry Center Chapbook Exchange, an online community for poets to share and collaborate through chapbooks, hosted by The Poetry Center. Their readings are followed by a conversation with the audience.
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The Poetry Center presents poet Prageeta Sharma, reading from her book Grief Sequence (Wave Books, 2019), appearing from Los Angeles. Sharma shares the program with Dodie Bellamy, in San Francisco, reading from an essay in manuscript from what would appear one year later as her book Bee Reaved (Semiotext(e)/Native Agents, 2021). Introductions are by emcee Norma Cole, with the readings followed by a candid conversation between the writers focused on loss, grieving, and writing in relation to the death of one's partner. This program was one of many programs organized as the In Common Writers Series.
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The Poetry Center presents Prageeta Sharma reading from Undergloom (Fence Books, 2013), from previously published works, and from manuscript. Thomas Devaney reads from Calamity Jane (Furniture Press, 2014), Runaway Goat Cart (Hanging Loose Press, 2015), and other work. The readings are followed by a conversation between the poets and their audience.
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The Poetry Center presents poets Q. R. Hand Jr., Genny Lim, and Juan Felipe Herrera, presenting their poetry at the South of Market Cultural Center (subsequently SOMArts), San Francisco. Hand and Lim each read solo from their work, and Herrera is joined in his performance by Troca, a Bay Area grupo featuring a mix of percussion, bass, and guitar. The poets, who each offer extended sets, are introduced by Poetry Center director Jim Hartz, who thanks poet Wilfredo Castaño of the South of Market Cultural Center, along with the San Francisco Arts Commission, for the community-centered collaboration with The Poetry Center.
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The Poetry Center and the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies at San Francisco State University co-present a reading by Solmaz Sharif. Sharif reads from her book of poetry Look (Graywolf Press, 2016), and from new work in manuscript. The reading was followed by a reception, with the event held in celebration of the new Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies and its premier director, Persis Karim.
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The Poetry Center, together with The Green Arcade and Kelsey Street Press, co-presents Susan Gevirtz and Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, reading from their work for the second of two events in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Kelsey Street Press. Gevirtz, who reads from Black Box Cutaway (Kelsey Street Press, 1998), Coming Events (Nightboat, 2013) and work in manuscript, is introduced by artist Lynn Marie Kirby. Berssenbrugge, who reads from Four Year Old Girl (Kelsey Street, 1998), Nest (Kelsey Street, 2002), and Hello, The Roses (New Directions, 2013), is introduced by writer and filmmaker Trinh T. Minh-ha. Patrick Marks of The Green Arcade welcomes the audience and Steve Dickison of The Poetry Center provides further opening remarks. The event takes place at McRoskey Mattress Co., on Market Street in San Francisco.
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The Poetry Center presents this landmark 1977 recording of a group reading by eight West Coast Asian American and Asian Pacific Island American poets. Reading from their work in sequence are: Al Robles, Lou Syquia, George Leong, Lane Nishikawa, Janice Mirikitani, Alan Chong Lau, Laureen Mar, and Garrett Hongo. The event, billed as "Tempest in a Teapot," was sponsored by the Department of Asian American Studies, in the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State, and hosted by Professor Jeffery Paul Chan. Each poet is introduced in turn by Chan, with the event taking place at San Francisco State University.
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The Poetry Center and the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network co-present Dao Strom and Vi Khi Nao, reading and in conversation with emcee Isabelle Thuy Pelaud, cofounder of the Diasporic Vietnamese Artist Network (DVAN), an organization for the representation of Vietnamese American writers and literature. Dao Strom, creative director of the DVAN project She Who Has No Master(s) (SWHNMs), shares a musical recording and reads from her collection Instrument (fonograf editions, 2020). A video featuring the poem "One Day I'll Have Vietnam Again," written and narrated by Vi Khi Nao, follows, and Nao reads from her forthcoming book A Bell Curve Is a Pregnant Straight Line (11:11 Press, 2021). Then, together, the poets read a bilingual poem, written in English by Strom with translation to Vietnamese by Nao, with images of the poem, in both languages, in situ as a public wall-sculpture in Portland, Oregon. Then the writers engage in extended conversation, facilitated by Pelaud, and focusing on the situation of writers and artists of the Vietnamese diaspora and particularly Vietnamese American women writers and artists in the US, and their work to organize coalitions and networks of support. This program was supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.
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The Poetry Center presents Wang Ping and Ava Koohbor, reading from their poetry, in what is the first formal event at the newly opened bookstore and gallery Medicine for Nightmares, on 24th Street in San Francisco's Mission neighborhood. Koohbor reads from Death Under Construction (Impart Ink/Ugly Duckling Presse, 2020); Wang reads from My Name Is Immigrant (Hanging Loose Press, 2020) and unpublished work, followed by both writers responding to questions from the audience. Josiah Luis Alderete welcomes the audience and Steve Dickison introduces the event and poets. Program supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.
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The Poetry Center presents Youmna Chlala and Ken Chen, reading and in conversation from their home in Brooklyn, NY. Chlala reads from her book The Paper Camera (Litmus Press, 2019), poetry accompanied by Super-8 film stills from her series Notes on Leaving and Arriving (2014/2017). Chen reads from the manuscript of his new work in progress, Death Star, and shares the challenges and process of working on the project. This event was supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.