Eight writers write about songs that strike a chord with them. The result is an evening of stories, a mixtape of fiction, poetry and non fiction. Expect tales of angst, wonderment and love. And sex. And death. And everything in between.
Lisa Chen was born in Taipei, Taiwan. She earned a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MFA from the University of Iowa. Her work has been published inHanging Loose, ZZYZVA, Prairie Schooner, and Threepenny Review. She works as a media and communications consultant for progressive organizations and campaigns.
Amber Drea received her MA in creative writing from Columbia College Chicago in 2006. She has been published in AMNewYork, Spin.com, BPM and Chicago Magazine.
Ed Lin is the author of the novels Waylaid (Kaya Press, 2002) and This Is a Bust (Kaya Press, 2007). Waylaid was praised in Booklist, Asianweek, and Playboy and was named to Booklist’s Editors Choice 2002 list and also won the Members’ Choice Award from The Asian American Writers’ Workshop. His website is http://www.edlinforpresident.com.
Ishle Yi Park is the former Poet Laureate of Queens, New York. She has performed her unique blend of poetry & song across the United States, Cuba, New Zealand, Singapore, and Korea. Her first book, The Temperature of This Water(Kaya/Muae, 2004), won several awards, including the PEN America Beyond Margins Award for Outstanding Writers of Color. Ishle has read with such artists as KRS-One, Ben Harper, De La Soul, and Saul Williams. The New York Timeswrote, “Ms. Park has an angelic face and the soul of a rock star.”
Bushra Rehman is a vagabond poet who traveled for years with nothing more than a Greyhound ticket and bookbag full of poems. Now, she performs her work regularly around the country. She is author of Marianna’s Beauty Salon(Vagabond Press, 2001) and co-editor of Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism (Seal Press, 2002). Bushra has been featured on BBC Radio 4, the Brian Lehrer show, The New York Times, India Currents and NY Newsday. Her work has appeared in Color Lines, Mizna, Curve, and SAMAR. To read poetry or excerpts of her on-the-road desi adventure novel, visithttp://www.bushrarehman.com.
Patrick Rosal is the author of two full-length poetry collections, Uprock Headspin Scramble and Dive (Persea Books, 2004), which won the Members’ Choice Award from The Asian American Writers’ Workshop, and most recently,My American Kundiman (Persea 2006), which won the Association of Asian American Studies 2006 Book Award in Poetry, as well as the 2007 Global Filipino Literary Award.
Anantha Sudhakar is a PhD candidate in English at Rutgers University. Her poetry has appeared in The Asian Pacific American Journal.
Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai is a Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based Chinese Taiwanese American spoken word artist who has featured at over 275 performances worldwide including three seasons of “HBO Def Poetry.” She was the recipient of a 2007 New York Foundation for the Arts Urban Artist Initiative NYC Fellowship and a 2004 Illinois Arts Council Governor’s International Exchange Award. Her current projects include her hip hop theater solo show “The Grieving Room,” spoken word videos to spark political dialogue via viral media, and a cybermedia project integrating spoken word into mixed-reality platforms. Please visit her website athttp://www.yellowgurl.com.
$5 suggested donation; open to the public
