Dear all,<br><div class="gmail_quote"><br>Some UCR MFA alums & present & incoming students are involved in this event! Hope to see you there to celebrate great poetry & wonderful community organizations & please help us spread the word!<br>
<br>(There is food & drink to be had at this local community business too!)<br><br>xo,<br>
Ching-In<br><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="gmail_quote">
<br>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US">Kundiman West, Flying Fists Collective +
Habi Arts </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US">invite
you to a </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US">Kundiman Reading & Salon
celebrating Asian American poetry!</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US"><br>
Featuring Melissa Roxas, Nicky Schildkraut, Ngoc Luu, Jackson Bliss, Oliver de
la Paz</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US">+ a
salon celebrating Asian American poetry (bring a poem by your favorite Asian
American poet + your own to share!)<br>
<br>
Emceed by Neil Aitken & Ching-In Chen.<br>
<br>
Wednesday, April 28, 2010 – 7-9pm</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US">Casa
Princesa</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US">4527 York Blvd</span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US">Los Angeles</span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US">, CA</span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US">(323)
474-6860</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.casaprincesa.com/" target="_blank">www.casaprincesa.com</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US"><br>
$3 - 10 suggested donation -- to benefit Kundiman (no one turned away for lack
of funds).<br>
<br>
<b>About Our Featured Readers:<br>
Melissa Roxas</b> is a poet, writer, and human rights activist. For the
past 15 years, she has done community work in Southern California and in the Philippines.
While conducting community health work in May of 2009, she was abducted and
tortured by the Philippine military. This experience has deepened her
commitment to human rights work and to continue writing for truth and justice.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US">Nicky Schildkraut</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US">’s poems have appeared in <i>Asian American Poetry and Writing, Salmagundi,
The New England Review, The Mississippi
Review, The Sante Fe Review Online</i>, the 2007 Korean-English anthology <i>I Didn’t Know Who I Was</i>, and has prose
poems in the March issue of <i>The Offending
Adam</i>. She is working on a Ph.D. degree in English Literature & Creative
Writing at the University
of Southern California
and currently serves as the President for the Circle For Asian American Literary
Studies. She is also an incoming Kundiman Fellow. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US">Ngoc Luu</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US"> received her undergraduate degree in
English at UC Berkeley and completed her MFA in Creative Writing at UC
Riverside. She was given a full scholarship to attend the Summer Poetry in
Idyllwild and participated in the Kundiman Asian American Poetry Retreat during
its inaugural year. She was offered a merit scholarship to study in the Summer
Literary Seminars in 2006 and the John Woods Scholarship from the Summer in
Prague Program in 2004. Additionally Ngoc has been published in the <i>Naranjas y Nopales</i> poetry broadside.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US">Hailing
from Chicago, <b>Jackson Bliss</b> is the winner of the La
Vie de Bohčme Literary Award and the 2007 Sparks Prize in Fiction. Jackson has lived in Seattle,
Portland, New York,
West Africa and Argentina
and is a former Americorps and Peace Corp volunteer, crossing lines of
longitude whenever he can both in his writing, his volunteer service and his
travels. Armed with a MFA from the University of Notre Dame, Jackson is now a PhD
student in Literature + Creative Writing at USC. His short stories have
been published in <i>Fiction, Kenyon Review,
ZYZZYVA, Notre Dame Review, Connecticut Review, African American Review, Stand
(UK), South Loop Review, Writers Post-Journal, Ink Collective, Pittsburgh
Quarterly, 3:am Magazine, Word Riot, Fringe, DJ Booth</i> and <i>Denver Syntax</i>, among others.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US">Oliver de la Paz</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US"> is the author of three
collections of poetry, <i>Names Above
Houses, Furious Lullaby </i>(SIU Press 2001, 2007), and the forthcoming <i>Requiem for the Orchard</i> (U. of Akron
Press 2010), winner of the Akron Prize for poetry chosen by Martěn Espada. He
co-chairs the advisory board of Kundiman, a not-for-profit organization
dedicated to the promotion of Asian American Poetry. A recipient of a NYFA
Fellowship Award and a GAP Grant from Artist Trust, his work has appeared in
journals like <i>Virginia Quarterly Review,
North American Review, Tin House, Chattahoochee
Review,</i> and in anthologies such as <i>Asian
American Poetry: The Next Generation</i>. He teaches at Western Washington
University.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US"><br>
<b>About Our Emcees:</b><br>
<b>Ching-In Chen</b> is the author of <i>The Heart's Traffic</i> (Arktoi Books/Red
Hen Press). The daughter of Chinese immigrants, she is a Kundiman, Macondo and
Lambda Fellow.<br>
<br>
<b>Neil Tangaroa Aitken </b>is the author
of<i> The Lost Country of Sight</i> and a
Kundiman Fellow.<span> </span>Neil serves as the
editor of <i>Boxcar Poetry Review</i>, an
online literary journal focused on publishing poetry and showcasing reviews and
interviews pertaining to first books of poetry.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US"><br>
<b>About Our Organizations:<br>
The Flying Fists Collective</b> is a crew of talented Asian-American writers,
poets, photographers, graphic novelists + artists around the world. We believe
three simple things: 1. There needs to be more Asian art in the
world. 2. Culturally speaking, art is crucial in the world.
3. Art needs to kick (your) ass in some way. Based out of Southern California, the FFC is now a global
organization open to all people that want to interact with, contribute to, and
help support Asian art in all of its forms.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US"> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US">Habi Arts</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US"> is a Los Angeles-based Filipino
cultural organization dedicated to promoting community empowerment and
progressive social change through the arts. <a href="http://www.habi-arts.org/" target="_blank">www.habi-arts.org</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US">Kundiman</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";" lang="EN-US"> is an organization dedicated to the
creation, cultivation and promotion of Asian American poetry by creating an
affirming and rigorous space where Asian American poets can explore, through
art, the unique challenges that face the new and ever changing diaspora. In
order to help mentor the next generation of Asian-American poets, Kundiman
sponsors an annual Poetry Retreat for emerging Asian American poets. <a href="http://kundiman.squarespace.com/" target="_blank">http://kundiman.squarespace.com/</a></span></p></div></div></div></div>-- <br>~~~~~<br>Ching-In Chen<br>
THE HEART'S TRAFFIC (Arktoi Books/Red Hen Press 2009)<br><a href="http://www.arktoi.com/books/heart.shtml">http://www.arktoi.com/books/heart.shtml</a><br><a href="http://www.redhen.org/RedHenPress.html#/catalog/catalog">http://www.redhen.org/RedHenPress.html#/catalog/catalog</a><br>
<a href="http://www.chinginchen.com">www.chinginchen.com</a><br>