Voices of America

(By Adam Cheung)

It was another cozy and intellectually-stimulating gathering at Kubrick Poetry thanks to our guest writers Mitch Berman and Susanne Lee, who not only shared their works but also provided us with plenty of insights on what it means to be a writer.

Mitch started by sharing his poem “Turning”. It was a very moving piece even though Mitch himself, a fiction writer, very humbly, made no claim to be a poet. He also read the story “The Poorest Boy in Chicago” which, he mentioned, was inspired by the experiences of his grandfather.

Susanne shared her work “Vol De Nuit” which is featured in Pow Wow. She read with such a raw and spunky narrative voice that the story felt like a kind of breakthrough from the traditional Asian-American tales.

Both Mitch and Susanne provided vivid anecdotes when introducing Ishmael Reed, the editor of Pow Wow. The new anthology features a wide range of voices from various cultures that have all made a mark on American history.

Kubrick Poetry •July• Pow Wow from America

時間 Time：2011/7/31 (Sun) 5:00pm-6:00pm

地點 Venue： 油麻地 Kubrick(next to Broadway Cinemathèque, 3 Public Square St.)

主持 Moderators：Polly Ho, Adam Cheung, Florence Ng, Wong Wai Yim

作家 Writers：Mitch Berman and Susanne Lee

Mitch Berman and Susanne Lee, featured in the new fiction anthology Pow Wow, edited by Ishmael Reed with Carla Blank. A comprehensive collection of American short fiction from such authors as Zora Neale Hurston, Chester Himes, Robert Coover, Bharati Mukherjee, Benjamin Franklin, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Ntozake Shange, Mark Twain, Grace Paley, Russell Banks, Langston Hughes, Gertrude Stein and James Alan McPherson.

Mitch Berman’s short fiction has been nominated for seven Pushcart Prizes, receiving special mentions from the Pushcarts and Best American Short Stories. He has taught creative writing at the University of Texas and San Jose State University, and his fiction has appeared in TriQuarterly, Antioch Review, Witness, Agni, Southwest Review, Boulevard and Gettsyburg Review. His novel Time Capsule was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

Susanne Lee has been a film curator, adjunct professor and international business girl who worked in the World Trade Center and was spared by wanderlust. She has published in Giant Robot, the Village Voice, the Nation, the L.A. Times and Asiaweek. Another part of her story in Pow Wow also appeared in the Guardian UK's Orange Openings Contest.　

* You are welcome to bring your work to read and share, in any languages.

Kubrick Poetry •June • Tightrope! — A Bohemian Tale (novel)

時間 Time：2011/6/26 (Sunday) 6:00pm-7:00pm
地點 Venue： 油麻地 Kubrick (next to Broadway Cinemathèque, 3 Public Square St.)
主持 Moderators：Polly Ho, Adam Cheung, Florence Ng, Wong Wai Yim
詩人來賓 Guest Poet and Writer：Olga Walló

A film-maker father. Mother an actress who didn’t want to act – her finest scene a real-life act: dressed to die defying a Nazi officer seeking the paper-less man concealed in the house.

The Narrator of Tightrope! ─ A Bohemian Tale, an extraordinary, curiously intellectual small girl, undertakes the demanding and costly burden of comprehending the world.

Olga Walló lived for many years in Prague, Czech Republic and now lives in the country-side nearby, She worked for Czech TV for 35 years as a translator and dubbing director and taught dubbing at the Academy of Art. She has translated plays (including 12 by William Shakespeare) and novels.
"I believe that all readers, whatever their different cultural experiences, will find in this novel something to identify with, and I hope that, through the personal accounts of the author, they will be able to trace the complex path which our nation travelled not so long ago."— Václav Havel

You are welcome to bring your work to read and share, in any languages.

Kubrick Poetry • May • Midsummer Enchanted English Poetry Sharing

時間 Time：2011/5/18 (Wed) 3:50pm-4:40pm

地點 Venue：Yan Chai Hospital No. 2 Secondary School.

主持 Moderator：Polly Ho

詩人來賓 Guest Poet：Arthur Leung and Akin Jeje

Arthur Leung was born and raised in Hong Kong. He regularly presents reading of his poetry and has had his poems published in anthologies such as Hong Kong U Writing and Fifty-Fifty, as well as in numerous magazines and journals including Smartish Pace, Yale Anglers’ Journal, Loch Raven Review, Existere, Paper Wasp, Bravado,Taj Mahal Review‏, Poetry Kanto, QLRS, Crannog Literary Magazine, Pulsar Poetry Magazine, Words-Myth, Magma Poetry and elsewhere. Leung has served as external editor for Yuan Yang and as guest poetry editor for Cha. He was a finalist for the 2007 Erskine J. Poetry Prize and a winner of the 2008 Edwin Morgan International Poetry Competition.

Akin Jeje was born in the United States of Nigerian and Kenyan parents in the early 1970s. Akin Jeje now lives and works in Hong Kong. Educated in Canada, he is the graduate of four universities: The University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada (BA Sociology 1994); The University of Calgary (BA English 1996); The University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario (MA 2001) and York University in Toronto (B. Ed. Primary/Junior, 2005). An active poet and spoken-word performer – in Canada since the early 1990s, and in Hong Kong since 2006 – Jeje's works have been published and featured in both Canada and Hong Kong. His poetry collection, Smoked Pearl: Poems of Hong Kong and Beyond was published on 23 November 2010.

The 'Midsummer Enchanted English Poetry Sharing' will be held in the school hall of Yan Chai No. 2 Secondary School. The time will start at 3:50 p.m. to 4: 40 p.m. All are welcomed. If you have any enquiries, please feel free to contact the programme coordinator, Ms. Polly Ho from Kubrick Poetry and Ms. Caroline Fung, from Yan Chai Hospital No. 2 Secondary School.

http://www.ych2ss.edu.hk/

refrain

By Adam Cheung

As a way of letting his poetry tell the story, our guest poet, Jason Polley, began right away, without any formal self introduction, by reading his poem “textbooks yelltell truth”, the first poem featured in his collection refrain. This first reading gave the audience a sense of Jason’s poetic style, stringing words and similar sounds to create a moving and continuous picture of India as though one is passing through the streets looking through the window of a moving vehicle. The audience responded to his reading by asking about his experience in India. Jason went on to read “distrust friendly gentleman,” a poem that tells of how he almost had his backpack stolen during his travels. The story triggered all kinds of curiosity from the audience, and this prompted Jason to speak a little bit about the spiritual insights he got from his journey. He described India as a place that takes him out of his comfort zone, and by having to be on your toes constantly, he was able to keep focus on the present. “If you are comfortable, you’re not in the present,” he said. When asked about why he left this writing project incomplete for so many years before picking it up again recently and having it published, Jason talked about the challenge of capturing and preserving that sense of innocence from his first visit to India, especially as he had made subsequent visits to the country. As well, Jason shared his insights on how to strike a balance between creative and academic writing.

In the sharing session, Adam presented a collection of prose pieces inspired by the pictures taken from his visit to Kolkata last month. Milan shared a poem on the topic of marriage, Polly read a solemn poem about a funeral she attended recently, and Timothy shared a poem dedicated to Choi Yuen Village. Such is the variety of our poets.

The evening concluded with Jason copies of refrain. He also revealed that he has a book of fiction coming out in November.

(Photos by Paul Wan)

Kubrick Poetry •April • Flash Story

時間 Time：2011/4/22 (Fri) 7:00pm-8:00pm

地點 Venue： 油麻地 Kubrick(next to Broadway Cinemathèque, 3 Public Square St.)

主持 Moderators：Polly Ho, Adam Cheung, Florence Ng, Wong Wai Yim

詩人來賓 Guest Poet：Thaddeus Rutkowski

Thaddeus Rutkowski grew up in central Pennsylvania and is a graduate of Cornell University and The Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of three novels, Haywire, Tetched and Roughhouse. Both Tetched and Roughhouse were finalists for an Asian American Literary Award. He teaches literature at City University of New York and fiction writing at the Writer’s Voice of the West Side YMCA and serves as fiction editor for the literary magazine Many Mountains Moving.

A master of both flash fiction and slam poetry, Rutkowski is a two-time winner of the Poetry Versus Comedy slam at the Bowery Poetry Club and a one-time winner of the Syracuse Poetry Slam and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe Friday slam.

You are welcome to bring your work to read and share, in any languages.

* The reading is part of Plug-In-Yourself on Friday night.

無意識的意識

吳耀宗

2011年1月23日傍晚，Kubrick詩會為我在油麻地的書店舉辦了一場讀詩會。在朗誦《半存在》過後的交流時段裏，有人问詩歌於我有何意義。我説：「它是我生命的一部份。」

這樣的回答或許過於平淡，缺乏驚喜，無法令人滿意，但我以爲貼切地描述了當時脈搏起伏血液流動的姿態。儘管身在室內,在照明燈與麥克風之間，我卻感受到層層的春風吹開綠到不能再綠的樹葉，瞅見展露出來枝幹上變幻莫定的陽光。

這「一部份」，用英文說就是part and parcel - 重要的、主要的 - 不能恣意捐棄。即如學術研究一樣，不能從我的生命中抽走。飯後我買了杯咖啡，沿著小徑回返桃園樓的研究室，途中遇見同事，微笑寒暄，步履如常，這也是生命的一部份。

這「一部份」，在時間如沙粒從手指間漏失的存在中悠悠呼吸，呼出去不必要的誇飾,吸進來舒坦的自在。用矛盾語來說，是「無意識的意識」(unconscious consciousness) ，可以細如檐滴，可以闊如江海。

夜裡小貓輕巧一躍,在我膝上盘曲而卧。我嘀噠嘀噠敲打鍵盤,寫下這樣的字句: 「我是詩歌的一部份。」

Unconscious consciousness

By Gabriel Wu

Following a sunset poetry reading organised by a local literary group called the Kubrick Poetry Club, a member of the audience asked me what poetry meant to me. I had been reading from my recent collection Ban Cun Zai (A Half-Existence) at a bookstore in Yau Ma Tei, and in reply I said, “It is part of my life”.

Perhaps my reply was too dull and unexciting, and didn’t satisfy the audience’s expectations. But I thought it aptly described how my pulse beat and my blood flowed when I replied to the question. Although physically indoors, standing between the spotlight and microphone, I could sense a spring breeze gently blowing to bring forth leaves so green that they could not be greener as I seemed to see the ever-changing sunlight radiating through the twigs and branches.

I could never relinquish this “part”, expressed as part and parcel in English, something which is important and essential, just as I could not ever give up academic research, which is part of my life, too.

I bumped into a colleague after I bought a coffee following my meal, and was heading back to my office in the To Yuen Building. We exchanged greetings and then said our goodbyes, and I returned to my usual footsteps. Such an encounter is also part (and parcel) of life.

This “part” gently breathes in an existence where time slips, like grains of sand through one’s fingers, exhaling unnecessary exaggerations and inhaling a soothing sense of calm. Unconscious consciousness—if I may use an oxymoron—can be felt to be as fine as a single droplet of water clinging to the eaves of a house or as vast as deep rivers and expansive oceans.

Night falls. My kitten leaps onto my lap, curling up to sleep. The only sound is that of my fingers tapping at the keyboard. “I am a part of poetry,” I write.

Special thanks to Linkage from City University for the English version.

http://www6.cityu.edu.hk/puo/newscentre/publication/linkage/images/L288e.pdf