If you see Bao Phi coming, you better do a gut check, and set your motherboard to receive. Anyone who has been lucky enough to experience his work knows he means to re-adjust our minds, unseat our comfortable assumptions, and teach our hearts to weep and sing. He is our grief-stricken brother howling, moaning, and wailing in remembrance of those who suffer because of inadequate representation. He is our ecstatic shaman, manifesting through his work the oldest sources of passion, imagination, and cosmic joy. Sông I Sing is a gift. Thank you, Bao Phi.
- Li-Young Lee
Saturday, September 24, 2011
8:00pm – 10:00pm
Minneapolis Central Library
300 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN
Free and open to the public.
Seating is first come, first served.
Doors open at 45 minutes in advance of program with a book sale and wine reception. Book signing and desserts follows program.
Celebrate the launch of new poetry collections by Ed Bok Lee and Bao Phi, two of the Twin Cities’ most dynamic poets on the national Asian American literary and spoken word scene. In “Whorled,” Ed Bok Lee looks toward a global future, one where the dividing lines between state, religion, race, history, and culture have been blurred to the extent that the very idea of difference requires a new understanding. In Bao Phi’s “Sông I Sing,” the Twin Cities provides the backdrop to a rhythmic exploration of the contradictions of race and class in America. Emceed by multidisciplinary artist and spoken word performer Shá Cage, the program will feature a performance and conversation by the poets and music by DJ Nak.
Co-sponsored by Coffee House Press, Graywolf Press, Milkweed Editions, and Magers and Quinn Booksellers.
Local presses and the public library have always had a shared mission to inform and inspire people to read. As collaborative crusaders in nurturing and celebrating the written word, it seemed only logical that we join together to promote the literary arts.
