For the Hmong, the indisputable difference between their instrument and those of other ethnic groups is that the Hmong qeej "speaks." To the Hmong, the qeej is not an instrument designed to produce music; it is a bamboo voice that intones a highly stylized and ritualistic language. Thus "music' and "speech" are inseparable.The qeej is an instrument that communicates with the spirit world. However, unlike most sacred instruments, it is neither mimetic of the sounds and rhythms of the natural world nor does it communicate in symbolic or metaphoric terms. It is an unusual instrument because of its ability to express musically the innate lyrical qualities of the tonal Hmong language.
Four Vietnamese writers and poets have received the Mekong River Literature Prize, together with other 8 Lao and Cambodian authors.The four recipients, including Nguyen Tri Huan (novelist), Trinh Thanh Phong (novelist), Nguyen Anh Ngoc (poet) and Pham Si Sau (poet), were awarded at the 2nd conference of writers and poets from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam taking place in Phnom Penh from February 18-24 on the theme of solidarity, creation, friendship and development.
Also at the congress, the Royal Government of Cambodia presented a medal of friendship to poet Huu Thinh, chairman of the Vietnamese Writers’ Association (VWA) and writer Chan Thi, chairman of the Lao Writers’ Association for their contributions to promoting the solidarity, friendship and literary development in the three countries.
Leaders of the three writers’ associations agreed on the need to boost literary cooperation through the exchange of writers to visit and write about one another’s land and people and joint projects to translate selected works into four languages as Vietnamese, Lao, Khmer and English.
...“river crab” sounds very much like “harmony,” which in China’s cyberspace has become a synonym for censorship. Censored bloggers often say their posts have been “harmonized” — a term directly derived from President Hu Jintao’s regular exhortations for Chinese citizens to create a harmonious society.Interesting. It makes me think of several elements of the "Misty" poetry movement within Chinese poetry a few decades ago, which produced writers such as Bei Dao. But, I also bear in mind, Chinese culture has a tradition of using this style of veiled language for thousands of years. It is interesting to see how all of this plays out in cyberspace now. How the human voice yearns to be free, everywhere in the world.
Oscar Bermeo's Palimpsest. Of course, I'm partial to this, because the palimpsest is a great art term I've loved for years. It refers to writing or creating a work of art on top of another piece of art. Oscar made a bold move to make this book available under a non-commercial creative commons license, a generous and appropriate gesture, given the theme of the book. Poems to check out include Definition, Congruence, The Trouble with Poverty and many other pieces. Several were composed in response to several of our poetic contemporaries, and overall, I find Palimpsest is a great look at the new voices and languages of the 21st century.
Tan Lin's BlipSoak01 was a particular treat to find. I was torn between this or a copy of Cathy Hong's Dance Dance Revolution, but this is by far the more difficult of the two to locate. When it works, it's really daring and inventive, and reminds me how experimental and creative we can be with poetry without it becoming kitschy or bogged down by great technique, but no soul. It's given me a few new thoughts for upcoming projects. Definitely not for everyone, but for people interested in experimental visual poetry, I'd recommend it.
During the AAPIP/NGEC gathering, one of the books they gave to everyone was a copy of Lora Jo Foo's beautiful earth passages: Journeys Through Childhood. At $32.95 it's easy to balk at the price, but Lora Jo Foo's account of coming to terms with her relationship to her mother and how that impacted her as an activist on Asian American women's issues is engaging. There's a great poetry to Lora Jo Foo's account, told not only through her writing, but her nature photography. It's an approach that's quite intriguing without becoming maudlin. Alas, the price will probably keep this out of the hands of many who'd really benefit from it.
Parabola used to be one of my favorite magazines, exploring a lot of interesting ideas on tradition and myth. In recent years, it had been in a bit of a rut, oddly, but their Spring 2009 issue has proven almost as engaging as the first issue I'd picked up of theirs back in the 1980s. This particular issue had a fine retelling of the Monkey King, Kosiya, the Buddhist Scrooge, A Hen and A Rooster and several other interesting pieces. If they keep it up, I may have to start buying these regularly again.
Leonard Cohen's Book of Longing is one of those books I've been reading in the bookstore bit by bit, but hadn't gotten around to buying until now. As most of you know, he's one of my favorite singers, and this was written during his five year stay at a zen monastery. The work that emerged from this period takes some amazing and human turns, and he's that rare breed of writer who truly does both lyrics and poetry well. There are several pieces that linger with me for hours, days and weeks after reading them.
And finally, The Godzilla Collection, a box set of seven remastered Godzilla films, over 20 hours of bonus features and both the original Japanese and English language versions of the films.
