Date: Monday, October 12th
Times and locations:
· Workshop: 4-5pm in LC 105
· Dinner discussion: 5:30-6:30pm in the Berkeley Swiss Room
· Spoken word performance: 7:30pm in the Calhoun Cabaret
Q+A and Jook Songs are bringing Jess X Chen and Will Giles, two Asian American spoken word poets, to perform at Yale! There will be not only a performance, but also a dinner discussion and a writing and performance workshop (about 70/30 split). Below are their official tour description and their autobiographies. RSVP to our Facebook event here!
If you are interested in the workshop and/or the dinner, please fill out this form. Spots are limited for the workshop, and it’s first-come first-serve, so sign up soon!
This event is sponsored by the Asian American Cultural Center (AACC), the Office of LGBTQ Resources, the Intercultural Affairs Council, and the Wallace-Sexton Fund for LGBT Studies.
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LAST WORDS * FIRST SONGS: AN API*A POETRY TOUR
Will Giles & Jess X. Chen will be touring the Northeast in mid-October 2015. bit.ly/lastwordstour
☆ DESCRIPTION ☆
To be an immigrant in America is to know the cost of our own blood. How our ancestors carried it across borders, oceans, genocides and yet still gave life to this body.
Award-winning poets and artists: Will Giles & Jess X. Chen give voice to the Asian American and Pacific Islander oceans roaring to be heard. Through pulsating performances, projections, and intimate poetry, they excavate the last words of ancestors drafted to war zones, honey bees suffering from colony collapse, immigrants of color who hold up the spine of America, and the Earth, driven to the end of its life. These poems will show you how “a (human) shield given no voice ー can still grow teeth, still teach itself how to sing.” How the personal is political, and the environmental is personal. How community and love is what enables generations to cross borders and transcend trauma with music and grace.
☆ BIOGRAPHIES ☆
WILL GILES is a second generation Samoan-American poet, playwright, and educator from Hawaii. A Kundiman Poetry Fellow, he studied with the First Wave Hip Hop and Urban Arts Learning Community at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he debuted his one man show Still Born. His work navigates post colonial oppression, masculinity, and the disconnect of immigrant identity for those still drowning in their own blood. Will has performed and facilitated poetry workshops in New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Guahan, England, and across the United States. He currently works as the Workshop Coordinator for the nonprofit organization Pacific Tongues on Oahu. He is a Brave New Voices International Poetry Slam Champion, National Poetry Slam Finalist and the 2015 National Underground Poetry Slam Champion. He thinks you’re exquisite.
(Poem: Ursula)
JESS X CHEN is a first generation Chinese-American poet, artist/activist, filmmaker. She is the author of poetry chapbook, From the Earthworm To The Night. She is a member of the justseeds Artists Co-operative, and a facilitator of Artists Against Police Violence. Her work exposes narratives of colonial trauma, diaspora and collective protest by connecting the violences between the female, queer and colored body and the body of the Earth. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, her work has appeared in Asian American International Film Festival, The Huffington Post, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Nepantla: A Journal For Queer Poets of Color, The Wing Luke Museum, Feministing and The New York Times HQ. As a poet and speaker, she has performed at TEDx Conferences, Netroots Nation, and on three national tours of spoken word poetry. She is currently developing a feature film on the Navajo Nation. She thinks you’re sparkling. (Poem: Last Words of Honey Bees / www.jessxchen.com)