March 11, 7 & 7: 7 Poets Celebrate Kundiman's 7th Year

7 & 7: 7 Poets Celebrate Kundiman's 7th Year (Hossannah Asuncion, Ching-In Chen, Janine Joseph, Joseph O. Legaspi, Alison Roh Park, Soham Patel, & Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai)

Kundiman poets gather to showcase a provocative range of voices and aesthetics engaging in a poetic conversation about building the imaginative capacity of our communities. Kundiman is dedicated to nurturing emerging Asian American poetry. In a culture where the lives and voices of Asian Americans are often marginalized or excluded, Kundiman works to overturn this inequality by creating a community where Asian American poets can articulate our struggles, possibilities, and liberation.

http://www.splitthisrock.org/index.html



2010 Intergenerational Writers Lab (IWL)

2010 Intergenerational Writers Lab (IWL)

A program of Kearny Street Workshop, Intersection for the Arts and AMATE: Women Painting Stories
with Ben Fong-Torres, Genny Lim, Lorna Dee Cervantes and Leticia Hernandez

A unique program with three of SF's community-based interdisciplinary arts organizations designed to thoroughly explore and develop your writing. Accepted applicants will participate in eight workshops led by accomplished writers and artists, engage in and be inspired by other artistic genres, perform their work at a public event, be published in online anthology, and have the opportunity to develop a communal network of writing peers.

Click here to download the application.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: RECEIVED BY 5PM, FEBRUARY 19, 2010.
NOT A POSTMARK DEADLINE. PHYSICAL APPLICATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY 5PM on 2/19/2010.

SF-based arts organizations, Kearny Street Workshop, Intersection for the Arts and Amate: Women Painting Stories. are seeking applications for, the 7th annual Intergenerational Writers Lab (IWL), a literary program for emerging writers, scheduled to take place April 3 - May 22, 2010 (Saturdays, 10 am – 1 pm). Twelve students will be selected to participate in the literary program which will involve a series of workshops, a public reading, and an online anthology publication. IWL workshops will be led by Lorna Dee Cervantes, Leticia Hernandez, Ben Fong-Torres and Genny Lim. The IWL will conclude with a public reading in early July at Intersection for the Arts.

The goals of the IWL program include the following:

  1. to provide twelve local emerging writers/artists with the opportunity to challenge, develop, and expand their practice by working with established writers in a variety of genres;
  2. to contribute to the development of new literary forms and language that incorporate multiple forms of creative expression;
  3. to provide emerging artists with the opportunity to create community by connecting and working with each other and with established writers in the literary world;
  4. to provide the larger community with an opportunity to engage with new work and new explorations of form and language;
  5. to publish an online anthology that highlights work by exciting new writers committed to exploring new forms and voices.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS

lornadeeLorna Dee Cervantes
A fifth-generation Californian of Mexican and Native American (Chumash) heritage, Lorna Dee Cervantes was a pivotal figure throughout the Chicano literary movement. She began publishing the literary journal Mango in the mid 1970s. Lorna is a dynamic poet who draws tremendous power from her struggles in the literary and political trenches. Her poetry has appeared in hundreds of literary magazines, award-winning anthologies, and over 150 textbooks. Lorna has taught at the University of Colorado at Boulder and San Francisco State University. She has received two National Endowment for the Arts poetry fellowships, a prestigious Lila Wallace Readers Digest Fellowship, and two Pushcart Prizes. (Photo by Francisco Dominguez).

 

leticiaLeticia Hernandez
Writer and educator, Leticia Hernandez, has presented her music and teatro-infused poetry throughout the country and in El Salvador for over 10 years. Her writing has appeared in newspapers, anthologies and literary journals, some of which include, Street Art San Francisco, and Latino Literature Today. Her chapbook of poetry Razor Edges of my Tongue was published by Calaca Press in 2002. She has taught literature, creative writing, and worked with youth and community-based organizations throughout California, and currently serves as the Executive Director of GirlSource, a non-profit organization that supports and empowers young women in San Francisco. The San Francisco Arts Commission recently awarded her an Individual Artist Grant to complete a poetry manuscript and spoken word/music album entitled Mucha Muchacha. Too Much Girl.

benfongtorresBen Fong-Torres
Ben Fong-Torres is a radio, broadcast and print journalist who wrote for Rolling Stone for 13 years and the San Francisco Chronicle for 11 years. He was born in Alameda, Calif. and was raised in Oakland Chinatown, where his parents owned a restaurant. He won a Billboard Award for San Francisco: What a Long Strange Trip It's Been, a syndicated radio special that Ben wrote and narrated. Ben has authored six books, including Not Fade Away: A Backstage Pass to 20 Years of Rock & Roll, The Hits Just Keep on Coming: The History of Top 40 Radio, and his memoirs The Rice Room: Growing Up Chinese-American from Number Two Son to Rock & Roll. (Photo by Pat Johnson Studios).

gennylimGenny Lim
Genny Lim’s live and recorded poetry/music collaborations include jazz greats Max Roach, Herbie Lewis, Francis Wong and Jon Jang. She's performed at jazz festivals in San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, Houston and Chicago, and has been a featured poet at World Poetry Festivals in Venezuela (2005), Sarajevo (2007) and Naples (2009). Her play “Paper Angels,” was performed at Settlement House in New York City in 2009, and her performance piece “Where is Tibet?” premiered at CounterPULSE, Dec. 2009. She is the author of two poetry collections, Winter Place, Child of War and co-author of Island:Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island. Genny is a adjunct faculty at CIIS. (Photo by Bob Hsiang).

We are looking for local (SF Bay Area) emerging writers and multidisciplinary artists who wish to develop and expand their practice and skills by experimenting with new forms and taking risks in creative expression. Selected participants will participate in eight workshop sessions of three hours duration each (all workshop sessions will take place on Saturday mornings) and will have the opportunity to attend and participate in a public event at Intersection. Writers need not be published, but must demonstrate a consistent pursuit of the arts and a deep interest in participating in an experimental writing program.

TO APPLY:
Please submit the following:

  1. An IWL 2010 application form;
  2. Writing sample, 12 point & double-spaced, not to exceed 7 pages;
  3. A description of why you want to enroll in the IWL program, not to exceed 500 words.
  4. A submission fee of $10 (check or money order made out to Intersection for the Arts). Please note: submission fees are used to cover artist fees, the online publication, and partial and full scholarships. Submission fees may be waived on as-need basis, and per applicant request. To request a submission fee waiver, please contact KSW at info@kearnystreet.org.

TUITION & SCHOLARSHIPS:
The tuition for accepted IWL participants is $425, (two full or four partial scholarships are available). Tuition levels will be determined on a case-by-case basis, based on individual participant needs. If you wish to be considered for a partial or full scholarship, please submit an additional description of your circumstances and why you believe you deserve a scholarship.

Please submit all materials and application fee to:
Intersection for the Arts
Attention: IWL 2009
446 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

For more information, please contact:
Ellen Oh, Executive Director
Kearny Street Workshop
415.503.0520
ellen@kearnystreet.org
www.kearnystreet.org

Rebeka Rodriguez, Program Director
Intersection for the Arts
415.626.2787 ext108
rebeka@theintersection.org
www.theintersection.org

Leticia Hernandez, Director
AMATE: Women Painting Stories
amatepoetry@gmail.com



Elma Stuckey Liberal Arts and Sciences Emerging Poet-in-Residence

Elma StuckeyColumbia College Chicago is an urban institution of over 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students emphasizing arts, media, and communications in a liberal arts setting. The Department of English is seeking applications for an annual, one-year, non-renewable position to start in August 2010. Poets from underrepresented communities and/or those who bring diverse cultural, ethnic, theoretical, and national perspectives to their writing and teaching are particularly encouraged to apply.

Position is named for Elma Stuckey, a poet born in Memphis who lived in Chicago for more than 40 years. Author of The Big Gate (1976) and The Collected Poems of Elma Stuckey (1987), she has been described as "the A.E. Housman of slavery"-a poet who recast for contemporary readers "those things that were kept from the ears of the unknowing slavemasters."

The Creative Writing, Poetry Program has a commitment to excellence in teaching and is founded upon strong ties between the study of literature and the practice of creative expression. An active reading series brings well-known poets to campus monthly; faculty and students also produce two national literary magazines: Court Green and Columbia Poetry Review.

Successful candidate will teach one course per semester (undergraduate workshop, craft, and/or literature seminars), give a public reading, and possibly supervise a small number of graduate theses. Qualified candidates will have received an MFA in poetry or PhD in English (with creative dissertation) or other relevant terminal degree in past five years, demonstrate experience and excellence in college-level teaching, and have strong record of publication in national literary magazines.

Columbia College Chicago encourages female, Deaf, LGBTQ, disabled, international, and minority individuals to apply for all positions. Position is contingent on funding. Salary: $30,000, benefits not included. Application deadline: 02/05/10. To be considered, please send cover letter, CV, 5-page sample of published poetry, sample syllabus for undergraduate or graduate-level poetry workshop or literature course, three letters of recommendation (at least one should address teaching), and statement of teaching philosophy as Word or PDF files to Dr. Lisa Fishman at: EnglishPoet@colum.edu.

E-mail to Post feature now live!

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Fellowship: Stadler Center for Poetry


Bucknell University
. Stadler Center for Poetry. The 2010-11 Emerging Writer Fellowship offers professional training in arts administration & literary editing in a thriving, university-based poetry center, while also providing the Fellow time to pursue his or her own writing. The Emerging Writer Fellow assists for 20 hours each week in the administration of the Stadler Center for Poetry &/or in the editing of West Branch, a nationally distinguished literary journal. The Fellow also serves as an instructor in the Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets in June. The Fellowship stipend is $20,000. Unlike the related Stadler Fellowship, the Emerging Writer Fellowship currently does not include housing or health insurance. All campus academic, cultural, & recreational facilities are available to the Emerging Writer Fellow. To be eligible, an applicant must be at least 21 years of age, must have received an advanced degree in creative writing with an emphasis in poetry (i.e. MFA, MA, PhD) no earlier than spring 2005, & must not be enrolled as a student during the period of the Fellowship. (Persons enrolled in a college or university at the time of application are eligible.) The Emerging Writer Fellowship is potentially renewable for a second year pending funding. Submit the following items by postal mail: letter of application, curriculum vita, three letters of recommendation, a poetry sample of no more than 10 pp., to: Emerging Writer Fellowship, Stadler Center for Poetry, Bucknell Hall, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA 17837. No materials will be returned; please do not send originals. Postmark deadline: Wednesday, February 10. Notification: late spring 2010. For more information on the Stadler Center for Poetry, see our website: www.bucknell.edu/stadlercenter (AWP)

Lantern Review interviews Joseph Legaspi

A Conversation with Joseph Legaspi

From the Lantern Review posted November 19, 2009 by Ada.

Joseph O. Legaspi is the author of Imago (CavanKerry Press), winner of a Global Filipino Literary Award. He lives in New York City and works at Columbia University. A graduate of New York University’s Creative Writing Program, his poems appeared and/or are forthcoming in American Life in Poetry, World Literature Today, PEN International, North American Review, Callaloo, Bloomsbury Review, Poets & Writers, Gulf Coast, Gay & Lesbian Review, and the anthologies Language for a New Century (W.W. Norton) and Tilting the Continent (New Rivers Press). A recipient of a poetry fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, he co-founded Kundiman (www.kundiman.org), a non-profit organization serving Asian American poets.  Visit him at www.josepholegaspi.com.

* * *

LR: So where did the idea for Kundiman come from, and what unique purpose does it have in the Asian American writing community?

JL: It really started off as kind of the infamous BBQ story. [Co-founder] Sara Gambito had invited me to an aunt’s place—the term of endearment, no blood relation—and we were sitting on hammocks, eating charred meat, amazed how this group of people was so comfortable together, like family. It just hit us. We had both struggled upon graduating from MFAs: we had tried finding communities but were both at a loss. I told her about Cave Canem, which is a home for African American writers. We thought, why not do this for ourselves, for Asian American poets?

Unlike umbrella organizations for a lot of different writing, Kundiman is more focused towards poetry. Because the Asian American umbrella is very complicated, we try to vary the retreat ethnically, by age, and stylistically: we’ve had Myung Mi Kim, who is a very experimental poet; Rick Barot, who is a formalist and narrative poet; and Staceyann Chin, who is a spoken word poet. We don’t want to shun anyone. Remember that Sarah and my initial experience was that we felt excluded. So that’s what we try to do–create a space.

LR: Kundiman’s main event is its workshop, to which fellows apply, and where they meet other Asian American writers. What effect have you seen on the writers who go through it?

JL: From the six years we’ve done the workshop, we’ve seen our emerging poets not only develop as writers, but become successful at pursuing academic careers. A high percentage of them have been getting into MFA programs. Others are pursuing Ph.D.s.

But we are seeing other kinds of development. We will sometimes have 20-year-old undergraduates, and I think having a community like this, they know that there are people like them, this is not some unicorn, not something mystical: this is something they can do and they can love poetry and it’s okay.

LR: Can joining a community tangibly change someone’s writing style?

JL: I have one person in mind, whose work was very unstructured. When we review applications, we look not only at craft, but process and potential. This person came to the retreat and was just how we imagined—great person, but very out there. By the end of the retreat, this person’s work was much more reflective, just in those four or five days. Not only did this person manage to make use of form, but for the first time, used images that hearkened from his background as a Filipino American, which I didn’t see before. There were a couple of other Filipino Americans there, and seeing how those other Filipino poets handled and carried themselves I think caused this person to tone down.

LR: So there is a tangible change–it does have an effect to be around other Asian American poets.

JL: It really does have an effect. A lot of people will say, “When I’m here, I don’t have to explain myself.” I think that speaks volumes.

LR: It seems at this point in time there have been many Asian American poets that have been successful—you bring many of them into your workshop. Even with these role models, are there more ways to go for Asian American writers?

JL: I think we’re at this juncture where there are Asian American poets that are second or third generation, and willing to take a risk and pursue something creatively–something marginalized, like poetry. But I also think a lot of Asian Americans are writing, and we’re so thankful for those individuals who led the way. There are those who have struggled in ways probably far more complicated than I myself can even really understand, establishing identity. For example, for [former Kundiman faculty] Lawson Inada, just being visible was such a struggle: being of Japanese American descent, a young lad interned with his family. I feel Kundiman creates a space where young emerging American Asian poets can have access to these amazing individuals who have a lot to give.

LR: Earlier you talked about the diversity of the Asian American community. Is there anything unifying it? Is there a way to define Asian American poetics?

JL: Poetry with a capital “P” is definitely what unifies us. Is there any unifying style? No. We’re not writing about our grandmother’s anymore, or not solely that.

LR: Moving a little into your own work. In your book Imago, you wrote about your childhood. Why did you decide to start there for your first book?

JL: I don’t think I did. I feel it was kind of inevitable that I would write about my childhood. I came to America when I was twelve, and I think the transition—I can even call it the shock—of immigrating from the motherland was really character building, I think. I was also the first person in my household to have left home for college. I felt I lost some part of me, so it was an active reclaiming. I felt that I needed to chronicle what happened.

I also feel like every life is worthy of being mythologized, and so this was an active self-mythologizing. I think poetry is just such a great medium for that.

LR: What do you mean by mythologizing?

JL: I’ve always been fascinated by creationist myths. It was my childhood literature; I loved Genesis. In a way, I’m poking fun at myself. But in a way every life is important. Now, once its transferred to paper, it is your life but its not your life anymore. Its art now, or so you hope.

LR: Or you’re hoping other people will access it and relate to it.

JL: Exactly. When it’s published, its out of your hands, and you’re hoping people can get something out of what you’ve done. The whole self-mythologizing is how I can make my life, in a way, “better”–more magical than it really is. In a way that makes it literature and not journalism.

LR: Do you think that writing about the past and our personal histories is in any way more important to Asian Americans, immigrants or minorities?

JL: Yes and no. I’m leaning towards yes, because I feel like at this point, Asian American writers are still very much underrepresented in the media, in literature, in publishing. Publishing is hard for Asian American poets: once you have the Jhumpa Lahiris, publishers don’t want to go beyond the Jhumpa Lahiris. In a way there is still plenty of room to be filled by our stories, by the Asian American diaspora.

But then again, why do we always have to write about Asian American issues? We don’t.

LR: Do you have advice for young Asian American writers, how they can promote Asian American community?

JL: Just persist on writing. I know so many talented writers across cultural lines who just stop writing. In a way, it becomes an endurance game. So just continue writing our stories.

Support other Asian American writers. Buy their books, go to their readings, teach Asian American literature. Be community leaders, be in academia, be community activists. The more of us out there, the better.

But definitely, the root of it is, just keep writing. Sit down at that desk, and tackle that blank page.

LR: Any upcoming Kundiman events to mention?

JL: The only thing brewing is the Kundiman Prize. It is such an amazing opportunity for an Asian American writer. It’s the first one, and we want to make it a success. We need to mobilize and support one another in this venture.

Call for Submissions: Storyscape

Dear Storyscape Fans,

We are writing to announce that:

1. we're open to it

We are now once again reading, listening to, and viewing: submissions, this time for the highly anticipated and much-rumored-about-in-dark-bars  ISSUE 5!  

Please visit the site for submission guidelines, and pass along the news to your friends. 
As usual we are looking for the unusual.  Please send us your craftiest.

www.storyscapejournal.com/submit.html


2. everybody just be cool

For those of you who made it to the ISSUE 3 journal launch party and remember Ken Cormier's fabulous performance of "Everybody Just Be Cool" alongside his Storyscape piece "The Sounds of Lunch" will be thrilled to know that this song (among others) is now available from Itunes.  His CD of hits is called Nowhere is Nowhere.

That's all for now!

happy storytelling,
Storyscape Journal
 

Announcing Kavad

In launching the Kavad program in 2010, Kundiman is combining two important aspects of its mission – giving voice to the past and fostering the next generation of poets. Kavad will not only preserve the personal histories of Asian American immigrants, but also re-invigorate them through the power of creative writing. 

Through the program, Asian Americans poets will conduct oral history interviews, usually with family members or senior Asian American literary figures. They then, through poetry, will add their voices to complement these personal stories. The interviews and the poems will be recorded and archived in audio and visual form to be made available to the public over the internet and on the Kundiman website.

The filmed segments and poetry will be featured in public presentations and enriched through historical and cultural context provided by humanities scholars. The schedule of presentations will be listed on the website in Fall 2010.