Writing Race & Belonging: A Live Monument

As part of Writing On It All, Kundiman is sponsoring a creative enactment of tolerance and belonging for poets of color.  In this live "monument," one group of poets will write a collaborative poem centering on their experience of racism which will alternate between an exquisite corpse (poets writing in succession) and an exploded poem (poets writing at the same time) on a projected new media space.  A second group of poets will select portions of the projected new media poem to act as first lines for their own pieces which will be centered on their and their families' experience of making a home in America.  This second group of poets will write their poems in paint on wall paper that has been hung around the perimeter of the space.  What we aim to create is the sensation that acts of violence and racism figured through new media are absorbed through the more physicalized poems of home and belonging that are painted throughout the space.  Throughout this staged writing, there will be readings from the books of Asian American poets and writers.  

Saturday, June 15
12 - 3 pm
Governor's Island

For more information, go here:  http://writingonitall.com/

Kundiman Prize Reading: Matthew Olzmann's Mezzanines

Join us as we come together to celebrate Matthew Olzmann's Mezzanines, recently published by Alice James Books!

• Thursday, May 9, 2013
• 7:00pm – 8:30pm

• Fordham University (map)
• 113 W. 60th Street, South Lounge
• New York, NY

 Facebook event page here: 

https://www.facebook.com/events/453993521349198/

“Olzmann’s masterful debut heralds the arrival of a delightful and daring poetry that scorches and coils its way through galaxies, strip malls, and the intricacies of the human body. With a wickedly delightful wisdom at its core, Mezzanines practices the most graceful kind of alchemy—its greatest strength is how it turns tiny heartbreaks into a bright and satisfying beauty.”

—Aimee Nezhukumatathil

“Olzmann has an outsider’s wit and a border crosser’s slick vision. From seam, threshold, and cut, these poems navigate the galactic and the aquatic, the immediate and the imaginary, the reasonable and the American. He’s amused by his own bewilderment. What’s more, he manages to never abandon love. Olzmann’s skilled play, terrific ear, and immense heart make Mezzanines a must-read.”

—Patrick Rosal

“With Mezzanines Matthew Olzmann has given us a vibrant new poetry, as soulful as it is funny. Sci-fi and snake charms, love poems, ship wrecks, and a dash of artful self-parody—the materials of his narratives come from all over the cosmos to find, in this wonderful poet’s hands, a shape crackling with power that’s connective, convincing, and true.”

—David Baker

 

Save the Date! March 17: Kundiman & Verlaine Reading with Seni Seneviratne, Mandy Gor & Kit Yan

March 17

Seni Seneviratne,
Mandy Gor & Kit Yan

Evenings of poetry & libation
Readings begin at 5 pm
Open Bar from 4-5 pm
$5 donation

Verlaine

110 Rivington St.
(Ludlow & Essex Sts.)
212-614-2494
F train to Delancey

 

Check out our exciting 10 Year Anniversary events at this year's AWP in Boston!

Kundiman is an official Literary Sponsor of the 2013 Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference

Anniversary Celebration

Thursday, March 7, 5:30 - 8:00 pm, Pucker Gallery, 171 Newbury Street Boston, MA
By Invitation Only

Panels

The New Workshop: Literary Community through Pedagogical Innovation 
Friday, March 8, 12:00 - 1:15 pm, Room 102, Hynes Convention Center
Sponsored by Kundiman. (Sarah Gambito, Regie Cabico, Paisley Rekdal, Myung Mi Kim) Three acclaimed Asian American poets read new work and discuss how literary community and innovation in pedagogy are mutually reinforcing. How does one write toward a realizing of a literary community? These three poets, all who have served as Kundiman faculty members, offer multiple strategies on how to disrupt traditional paradigms of workshop and invite questions of identity and social community into a writer’s practice and life.
Book-signing directly after at the Harvard Bookstore booth located in Hall A at Booth #513, 515. 

Intersecting Lineages: Poets of Color Cross-Community Collaboration.
Friday, March 8, 10:30 am - 11:45 am, Room 209, Level 2, Hynes Convention Center 
(Ching-In Chen, Sherwin Bitsui, Celeste Guzman Mendoza, Hayan Charara, Kevin Simmonds) Inspired by collaboration between organizations mentoring poets of color (Cave Canem, Kundiman and Canto Mundo), poets from indigenous, African American, Arab American, Asian American and Latina communities will discuss creative exchange and solidarity amongst writers of color and their communities on this panel. Poets will read work by ancestor poets considered outside of their self-identified communities and talk about how their work benefits from this productive hybrid fertilization.

Reading

Kundiman: 10-Year Celebration of Lovesongs, Verses, and Books
Saturday, March 9, 3:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m, Alice Hoffman Bookfair Stage, Exhibit Hall D 
(Joseph O. Legaspi, Cathy Linh Che, Matthew Olzmann, Brynn Saito and Sharon Suzuki-Martinez)
Since its inception nearly a decade ago, Kundiman continues to foster and champion emerging Asian American voices, resulting in multiple book, chapbook, print and online publications by Kundiman fellows. In partnership with Alice James Books, Kundiman also sponsors The Kundiman Poetry Prize, which guarantees annually a book publication by an Asian American poet. Through caring openness and poetic rigor, Kundiman has built a vital, dynamic community that is transforming the literary landscape.

Bookfair

Kundiman will be at Booth #408 at the Bookfair. Stop by and see us! 

For the most up-to-date information, click on our link: http://www.kundiman.org/awp

Join us Nov. 11 for our Reading Series at Verlaine with Cathy Park Hong, Muriel Leung, and Natalie J. Park

Kundiman & Verlaine present
a night of poetry & libation with  

Cathy Park Hong, Muriel Leung,
& Natalie Jiwon Park

Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012
Reading begins at 5 pm
Open Bar, 4 - 5 pm
$5 suggested donation

http://www.kundiman.org/reading-series/

Verlaine
110 Rivington Street
b/w Ludlow & Essex Sts.
[ directions: F to Delancey or V to 2nd Ave. ]

http://verlainenyc.com/

This program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and is also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council, the Manhattan Borough President's Office, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

RSVP here: http://www.facebook.com/events/449681851734033/?fref=ts

Readers' Bios:

Cathy Park Hong's first book, Translating Mo'um was published in 2002 by Hanging Loose Press. Her second collection, Dance Dance Revolution, was chosen for the Barnard Women Poets Prize and was published in 2007 by WW Norton. Her third book of poems, Engine Empire, was published in May 2012 by WW Norton. Hong is also the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship and a Village Voice Fellowship for Minority Reporters. Her poems have been published in A Public Space, Poetry, Paris Review, Conjunctions,McSweeney's, Harvard Review, Boston Review, The Nation, American Letters & Commentary, Denver Quarterly, and other journals. She is an Assistant Professor at Sarah Lawrence College and is regular faculty at the Queens MFA program in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Muriel Leung is a poet from and currently residing in Queens, NY. She received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College where she graduated with the Lori Hertzberg Prize for Creativity. Her poems and essay have appeared or are forthcoming in Bone Bouquet, Dark Phrases, and RE/VISIONIST. She is a recent Kundiman fellow. With the support of the Engage, Learn, Lead, Act (ELLA) Fellowship and a commitment to social justice based arts education, she has led Write to Resist, a creative writing and zine making workshop series on race, gender, and violence for high school aged Asian American young women. Currently, she is an arts administrator with Elders Share the Arts and a teaching artist with Community-Word Project.

NatalieJiwonPark's most recent chapbook was entitled Dream Farm, which explored the mythical nature of family narratives. She is the author of two other collections, and the proud recipient of the Stanley and Evelyn Lipkin poetry prize. Originally from Woodside, Queens, Natalie also grew up in Albany, NY. She attended Sarah Lawrence College where her poems were given a warm place to grow. A lifelong writer, she also aspires to become a psychiatric nurse practitioner someday. 

MISSION STATEMENT

Kundiman is dedicated to the creation, cultivation and promotion of Asian American poetry.

Joseph O. Legaspi will read at Poets House for Page Meets Stage on Oct. 17th

This pairing will take place at the beautiful Poets House in Battery Park City (10 River Terrace) in downtown New York City.

 

The series continues on the third Wednesday of October with . . .

Joseph O. Legaspi is the author of Imago (CavanKerry Press), winner of a Global Filipino Literary Award. He lives in Queens, NY and works at Columbia University. A graduate of New York University’s Creative Writing Program, his poems appeared and/or are forthcoming in American Life in Poetry, From the Fishouse, jubilat, World Literature Today, PEN International, Smartish Pace, The Spoon River Poetry Review, Gay & Lesbian Review, The Normal School, and the anthologies Language for a New Century (W.W. Norton), Collective Brightness (Sibling Rivalry Press) and Tilting the Continent (New Rivers Press). A recipient of a poetry fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, he co-founded Kundiman (www.kundiman.org), a non-profit organization serving Asian American poetry.

Born in Trinidad and raised in New York City, Cheryl Boyce-Taylor is the author of  three collections of poetry, Raw Air, Night When Moon Follows, and Convincing the Body. Her work has been published in various anthologies including: Callaloo, Carry the Word, The Mom Egg, To Be Left With The Body, So Much Things To Say:100 Calabash Poets and Making the Trees Shiver. A poet, and teaching artist, she holds an MFA in Poetry from Stonecoast: The University of Southern Maine, and an MSW in Social Work from Fordham University. Boyce-Taylor’s text WATER has been commissioned by Jacob’s Pillow, and The Joyce Theater for Ronald K. Brown /Evidence Dance Company. She currently hosts two monthly reading series in New York City, The Calypso Muse Reading Series and The Glitter Pomegrate Performance Series, she is working on a memoir and a new manuscript of poetry titled, The Red Bible: Poems of Loss and Remembrances after her mother Eugenia Boyce.

Page Meets Stage was born in 2005 when Billy Collins and Taylor Mali read together on the same stage in an event called “Page vs. Stage: The Final Smackdown!” Now it is a monthly series curated by Taylor which brings together two poets—one ostensibly repping the “page,” the other ostensibly repping a more performative style—to read/perform back and forth, poem for poem, continuing the conversation of where poetry exists. Some of the most prominent poets in the United States both in the “academy” and in spoken word circles (Gerald Stern, Mark Doty, Carol Muske-Dukes, Valzhyna Mort, Paul Muldoon, Thomas Lux, Roger Bonair-Agard, Patricia Smith, Rives, Lynne Procope, to name just a few) have been involved.

All Page Meets Stage events are co-productions of Words Worth Ink and Blue Flower Arts. Check out YouTube to see some of the more memorable moments in the series (search for “Page Meets Stage”), or go to www.PageMeetsStage.com for the complete schedule.

Tickets are $12 ($6 students) and are available ONLY at the door on the night of the show. Call 917-743-6911 for more information.

Come join us Oct. 10 for our first ever Kundiman & CantoMundo Fellows Reading at Fordham

Please join us for a reading featuring fellows from CantoMundo and Kundiman. The reading will take place in the the South Lounge at Fordham Lincoln Center on 60th and Amsterdam Avenue, New York City. 7pm to 9pm Tarfia Faizullah Deborah Paredez Ocean Vuong Javier Zamora Eugenia Leigh Anthony Cody Hosted by R.A. Villanueva and Eduardo C. Corral

Tarfia Faizullah is the author of Seam (Southern Illinois University Press, 2014), winner of the 2012 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award. Her poems and prose appear in Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, Poetry Daily, and elsewhere. A Kundiman fellow, she received her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, and is the recipient of an AWP Intro Journals Project Award, a Fulbright Fellowship, scholarships from Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Kenyon Review Writers’ Workshop, and other honors.

Deborah Paredez is the author of the poetry collection, This Side of Skin (Wings Press) and the critical study, Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory.  Her poems have appeared in Poetry, Callaloo, Crab Orchard Review, Mandorla, Poet Lore and elsewhere. Her honors include an Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation Award and residencies from the Vermont Studio Center and Hedgebrook. She is the co-founder of CantoMundo, a national organization for Latina/o poets, and an Associate Professor of English at the University of Texas in Austin where she teaches in the New Writers School MFA Program.

Born in 1988 in Saigon, Vietnam, Ocean Vuong was raised by women (a single mother, aunts, and a grandmother) in housing projects throughout Hartford, Connecticut. He received his B.A. in English Literature at Brooklyn College, CUNY. His first chapbook Burnings was released by Sibling Rivalry Press, 2010. A Kundiman fellow, other honors include a 2012 Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize for Younger Poets, an Academy of American Poets prize, the Connecticut Poetry Society’s Al Savard Award, as well as four Pushcart Prize nominations. Poems appear in the American Poetry Review, Guernica, and Drunken Boat, amongst others.

Javier Zamora was born in La Herradura, La Paz, El Salvador. At the age of nine he immigrated to the Yunaited Estais. His chapbook, Nine Immigrant Years, is the winner of the 2011 Organic Weapon Arts Chapbook Contest. Zamora is a CantoMundo fellow and a Breadloaf work-study scholarship recipient. He has received scholarships from Frost Place, Napa Valley, Squaw Valley, and VONA. His poems appear or are forthcoming in DirtyLaundry, NewBorder, Phat’titude, The Homestead Review, The Poetry Show, Spillway Magazine, among other journals. He attends NYU’s MFA program.

Eugenia Leigh is the author of a forthcoming collection of poetry, Blood, Sparrows and Sparrows (Four Way Books, 2014), which was a finalist for both the National Poetry Series and the Yale Series of Younger Poets. A Korean American poet and Kundiman fellow, she holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, and has taught writing workshops for high school students and incarcerated youth. Her poems have appeared in several publications including North American Review, The Collagist, Rattle and the Best New Poets anthology.

Anthony Cody was born in Fresno, California to children of borne from immigrants of the Dust Bowl and Bracero Program. A graduate of CSU-Fresno, Anthony has been writing poetry since he read his first poem in Spanish. Anthony writes to capture the complexities of each moment and hopes that through writing, he, as well as others, can further understand humanity and have an opportunity to reflect upon the personal struggles within life. His work has been previously published in 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross The Border: Undocuments 1971-2007.

This event was funded in part by Poets & Writers, Inc. with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.