2012
more on:
Asian American poetry, Asian American Spoken Word, Asian Americans, Coffee House Press, Hyphen Magazine, Jane Y. Kim, Sông I Sing, spoken word, Vietnamese American poetry, Vietnamese Americans
There is a certain catalyzing style that comes of utter fearlessness, and the poet Bao Phi has cornered it with his debut poetry collection, Sông I Sing.
Jane Y. Kim, Hyphen magazine
Read the full review here.
2011
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Asian American poetry, Asian Americans, Coffee House Press, Sông I Sing, spoken word, the New York Times reviews, Vietnamese American poetry, Vietnamese Americans
In this strong and angry work of what he calls refugeography, Bao Phi, who has been a performance poet since 1991, wrestles with immigration, class and race in America at sidewalk level… on this song of his very American self, every poem Mr. Phi writes rhymes with the truth.
read the full New York Times review here.
Dana Jennings, the New York Times
2011
Bao Phi’s words are undeniably politically brave and brutally honest—a rarity of a voice much needed.
Ly Vũ Hoàng, Pacific Reader Journal Review
2011
more on:
Asian American Studies, Ethnic Studies, poetry, Professor Greg Choy, SÔNG I SING reviews, spoken word, Vietnamese Americans
George Uba reads the tribalism, in discursive Asian American poetry, as an ethnographic signifier of resistance to an oppressive and dominant culture, as anti-assimilationist, as privileging the oral over the written, and as more embracing of the polemic than the poetic—all descriptors that resonate through Bao Phi’s poetry…
Professor Greg Choy, Department of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley
Read the full review here.
2011
more on:
Asian American poetry, Land of Gazillion Adoptees, Psychology Today, Sông I Sing, spoken word, Vietnamese American poetry, Vietnamese Americans
I’ve been fortunate in that a lot of good people have been saying good things about my book.
First off, a very talented fellow Vietnamese American artist and community organizer whom I have a lot of respect for, and whom I am lucky to call friend, Sahra Nguyen.
Also Kevin Ost-Vollmers was kind enough to devote some space to an interview with me on his awesome blog, Land of a Gazillion Adoptees.
And last but not least, Dr. Ravi Chandra, a fine poet who recently released a dope chapbook himself, wrote about my book on Psychology Today’s website, of all places! Hey, I’m just glad that it’s a positive review of my book on there by brother Ravi, and not an analysis of my psyche.