“A Decade of Asian Am Spoken Word” Bai Phi, YourVoices, January 4, 2010
Check it out! This is the site I almost wrote for, but I had a change of mind (as you know, I may have a lot to say, but I don’t get it down in writing to say it very often). When the contract came back postage due, I knew I had made the right decision! But, now, Bao has started writing for YourVoices–yes, he used to skateboard in my neighborhood/my front yard with my sons–that’s what he told me–memory fades!
Is it too late, am I too old to become a Spoken Word Artist? Yes and no. How to memorize my own words? I ask students to memorize a poem, they sigh. I used to say, when I memorize my poems, I will know I am a poet. I’ve been writing poetry since second grade. This month I will be of social security age. I have only memorized one five line poem of mine. It’s enough. No pressure.
But, I do admire Minnesota’s Spoken Word Artists; I do appreciate Bao Phi’s work as an artist, and an activist–keeping Asian American voices visible and heard (what’s the antonym for silent? seriously. visible and loud? this is why I don’t blog often. wordsmithing? i get caught up in language. what words am i supposed to know and understand and use correctly? a topic for another blog entry. lunch is over. extended actually. another time)
Sherry
http://www.startribune.com/yourvoices/80632997.html?elr=KArks47cQiUdcOy_9cP3DiU47cQUU
One more time with feeling…and correct spelling…sorry:
I love to watch the spoken word artists, but I can’t do it…I have a hard enough time reading it off the page in front of me. I think it must come from a different place, the place where performance comes from. I don’t think of myself as a performer, so I don’t (or can’t)act as one.
That is funny that this was the same child who skateboarded by your house : )