East Meets Words: Forum for Strong Asian-American Voices

August 15th, 2008

For years now, on the 2nd Friday of every month, a small independent volunteer-run Asian-American bookstore is crammed with poets, writers, musicians, storytellers, rappers, artists, students, thinkers, and listeners. This is East Meets Words, a convocation of minds, positive energy, and activism through art. The bookstore, for many, is the one place where the experienced and inexperienced come together to share. At the back of the bookstore is a huge sign shaped like a “Hello…my name is” name tag, completely covered up with signatures, praises, and declarations of love from artists that have featured there, amongst them Kit and me, individually.

Last Friday, we stopped by to participate in the open mic. With the upcoming move to New York City, it’s hard to tell when we’d get a chance to come again in the next year. Earlier in the day, we had lunch with Kay, who, as a first time EMW attendee, did a piece about his mother.

Clearly, I am not a photographer. Or not so clearly, in this case. I did take some video of a sick freestyle performance by Victor and Dave. Check it out.

The feature this month was Ed Bok Lee, published Korean-American poet from Minneapolis. He read from his recent book, Real Karaoke People. His pieces were deeply moving. Kit and I bought his book because he totally blew us away on the stage.