what’s up world? fallin’ off on the blog again, i guess just living and stuff, inspired to write, saturday morning, the humidity hasn’t set in yet, eaten alive by mosquitoes, summer in full swing, so quickly it’s here, and then gone!
so lots been happening, but if i were to work it in reverse — been working on lots of cool projects from straight-up new spoken word pieces (my chapbook of love poems will be out by the end of the summer, an unexpected by-product of everything else i’ve been working on), some songs and lyrics for a couple of music projects (funny how creativity comes anyway it wants to), working on the screenplay (flawed characters are more fun in art than life, ha!) dreaming on the solo show - letting all the pieces settle like snow in july, gonna be shooting two fabulous election-flavored spoken word videos, and everything from hawaii to the netherlands to japan and virtual reality on the tour schedule for the next year or so, so feelin’ extra blessed and inspired…
been doin’ allll of that good new york/brooklyn shit for the last month and a half or so — checked out the video music box celebration at summerstage with nice ‘n smooth, naughty by nature, special ed, retro kids and more, the day before that was junot diaz who broke that shit down — he is the master, i swear, to impact international literature and keep it real, be who he is, what he represents, where he comes from, RELEVANT without pandering, without compromising, on just straight talent and hard work, no translation necessary — now that’s the future, i’m hoping for 
and he’s mad cool…his wiki is here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junot_D%C3%ADaz
last week, got to kick it with the fam at the hip hop theater festival d.c. (i had a little travel snafu, but it all worked out in the end, ha!) steve connell and sekou tha’ misfit were absolutely gorgeous in “the word begins,” bringing today’s spoken word to that shakespearean level, where verse communicates experience from one human to another with urgency and importance, also the youth of dc writerscorps, b-boy morganics from australia, the wild and brilliant nicole klaymoon, and multidisciplinary wunderkind baba israel. and then an 8 HOUR CAR RIDE (ai-yuh! um, did i mention i only drive like twice a year?) back to bk thankfully with the on-some-next-level-shit hip hop social entrepreneur rolando brown, peep what he’s doing here: www.rolandobrown.com — much love to clyde, kamilah, daphne, chinaka, bamuthi, mateo, khalil, regie, hodari, weusi, rha, joanie, james for making hhtf and brave new voices come to life!
been growing moving earth productions with my right and left hand ladies: alli maxwell and jill aguado, and two more powerful sisters to the voltron: amissa miller and doreen kramer. so in a word: unstoppable. lots of july 4th craziness, an AMAZING time at the kundiman asian american poets retreat (group 1 and luv you joseph and sarah!) with bei dao, tan lin, and aimee nezhukumatathil — the tension and confluence between their diversity of styles and approaches have def helped me to push my poetry to the next level, so check ‘em out! also, got to hang in minneapolis with my old posse students at carleton all graduated and stuff as well as bao phi, juliana pegues, david mura and friends for a hot second, which was good to CONNECT.
random thought 1: how much of general dysfunctions in human relationships are due to a) supreme loneliness in all people b) slight societal tendencies towards sado-masochism c) text messaging (ha!)?
random thought 2: thinkin’ on anthems. complex, passionate, driven. i think we need ‘em, lots of ‘em.
blessings,
hot and humid kells about to get some new tattoos before her golden birthday
July 19th, 2008 |
We WANT YOU to be an EXECUTIVE PRODUCER for Moving Earth Productions’ next spoken word video “black, white, whatever,” written and performed by Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai and directed by Jazzmen Lee Johnson and Alli Maxwell!
This is the deal, as EXECUTIVE PRODUCER:
-Contribute as little as a $1 up to $100’s via PayPal:
Or if you’d like to contribute via check or money order, contact movingearthproductions@yellowgurl.com. :
-In exchange for your contribution, you will receive:
1) Credit as Executive Producer
2) Unlimited Screening Rights to the Video (Via FTP Download or DVD screener)
The goal, the dream, the vision, is to get as many people as possible to sign onto this vision to make a call for politicians to listen up to overlooked communities across the U.S. and abroad!
We will be shooting the video in New York during the second week of August. So please do spread the word, and if you would like to help volunteer for the shoot, contact us at movingearthproductions@yellowgurl.com.
black, white, whatever
by Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai
dear campaign-trail-stomping, advertisement-fundraising, perfect-hair-having,
mudslinging-with-a-smile-so-as-to-not-make-it-look-like-mudslinging candidates for the presidency of the united states of america in 2008, the year of our lord,
i, kelly zen-yie tsai, current resident of kings county, brooklyn, and previously of precinct 47 on chicago’s south side would like to make a request for myself and others like myself to be enumerated in all further speeches, debates, and miscellaneous communications with the american public at large.
now, this could be in reference to our nation of ben and jerry’s chunky monkey ice cream eaters or our nation of women under five foot one and a half with slightly napoleonic tendencies, this could be in reference to our nation of salt ‘n pepa’s blacks magic fans or those who have not yet learned to skateboard, this could be in reference to our nation of janice dickinson modeling agency-watchers or beginning gazpacho-makers, or vegetarians who have (unfortunately) recently turned pescetarian
and although these categories above would be accurate, the nation that i would like you to refer to is even less of a statistical minority, and a fairly obvious one, and that would be:
Asian
oh, oh, oh, i know you may balk about how many Asians you have taken money from or how many Asian events you have attended, but in 2008, the year of our lord – i would like to banish, in your words, the term: “black, white, whatever” to the garbage can of mass media rhetoric forever.
even worse than this is, in your words:
“we believe in the rights of all people black, white, blue, purple, green, silver – “
now, i consider myself a fairly well-traveled and informed person and yet i don’t think that blue or purple or green or silver people exist, but in fact, brown and yellow and red people do.
we may not call ourselves these things, but if we are going to essentialize to the colors of the rainbow and relegate ourselves to stuffing communities into these sloppy pots. i would like to point out that “whatever” does not represent me, nor does blue or purple or green or silver for that matter.
and you may scream well, we can’t talk about everybody’s problems and that much is
true, but i am a sucker for specificity and when it comes down to whether or not
i actually exist and furthermore whether my heart, my uterus, my tax return, and my generation will be represented by your corny ass –
i would like to say: i’m real. i’m here. i’m voting. and believe me, this girl is yellow.
July 9th, 2008 |
what’s up world — chillin’ with a glass of watermelon lemonade, hoping that i’m not gonna clothesline anybody with my freakin’ electric cord at this here cafe. it is a humid sweaty disgusting and glorious mess in brooklyn right now, ai-yuh…been a little bit more grasshopper than ant lately, so gettin’ back to the do it to it this week, but it’s been fun, ha!
taking a ‘lil hiatus during the summer months (will be doing a few shows here and there) to just kick it and get my solo show, screenplay, and poetry manuscript done this summer before my heavy touring season hits again in the fall. so a lot of planting, sowing, tending, growing…so yup, grrowr, WATCH OUT, ha!
to be present in the writing process every time i come to the laptop or the page. like honor, like prayer, like celebration, like love. an intimate meeting with the page, the word, the self, the world, the heart, to just sit with it and not turn away, to not be afraid of what i will or won’t find. (understanding more than anything, i write with my heart, smear it on the page all messy and unrefined and that’s the gift, the blessing of it — intellect and technician be damned, they don’t run this mutha’ altho’ they try to, ha!)…lots of happy creative fertility — and i’m much about it…writing for writing’s sake and i like it
let’s see since i got back from cali…been doin’ the brooklyn summer in a serious way, slow-walking in flip flops and summer skirts down the hot-ass concrete, more dusk ’til dawn booty-shaking, and enjoying the crush of humanity that is new york in the summertime, when everybody comes out looking fly, spirits loose…everyone and everything brilliant, fresh, possible — those nights you wish would last forever. y’know, living
saw “sex and the city” in manhattan (i did wear my heels; i couldn’t resist, i’m a SATC junkie). i’ve never heard so much rampant feminine squealing in a movie theater (or anywhere for that matter), full of gratuitous fashion porn moments (i.e. couture bridal gowns, diva diamonds, and of course, killer stilettos)…but i think it’s ridiculous that the show is criticized for its portrayal of men — ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! not one of the men on the show is a prostitute or has turned up dead, which would be the case for probably 90% of the portrayals of women in pop culture throughout human history.
other snippets of the last two weeks — note to people of non-asian descent: when trying to relate to an asian person, try normal conversation like “hi, how are you? what’s your name? what do you do?” vs. rhapsodizing poetic about how much you love wushu/qigong/buddhism/studied for 90 years at the shaolin temple with sifu yaddayaddayadda, etc. — this happened to me at least FOUR TIMES in the last week. i understand that others may be excited about meeting an asian person and sharing all their random (and largely irrelevant to my lived daily reality of my culture as an asian person) knowledge about asia with said asian person, but believe me, non-asian-related conversation works just as well, thanks.
whoa, where’d my happy summer vibe go? ha! anyhoo, YAY! for barack finally getting the party nomination. thank goodness…more on that next blog, and also went to see the brown girls burlesque tribute (myspace.com/browngirlsburlesque) in honor of prince’s 50th birthday, which was saucy, scandalous, and downright brilliant.
got to go to the gnarls barkley show at irving plaza last night, which was a MIRACLE. i felt so integrated, like any separation in my body and spirit completely dissolved, any separation in the world at all — it was so hot in there, that cee-lo took his shirt off, but yes, he and danger mouse are nothing short of genius. the music (above any or all persona or marketing or media hype), plain and simple, was the healing, the salvation, the star. missed opening act janelle monae but caught battles who were raw and rocked the hell out of the spot…
okey smokey…back to poetry…
superkells
June 9th, 2008 |
what’s up world? a gorgeous day in bk today — 3 cutie pies on my block were backsliding into the cars parked on the street in their baby plastic escalade which made me wanna yell out “xiao xin” — which made me think how funny it is that in mandarin to say “watch out” or “be careful” translates literally into “little heart” like you’ve got to shrink your passion some to keep yourself in check — have i written about that in this blog before? i forget.
performed at abc no rio last night which was lots of fun (thanks christine!), and just got back from the bay on saturday after performing at the cal state east bay ethnic studies graduation celebration (thanks eiko!), which was good stuff too…caught up with lots and lots of spoken word/apia and taiwanese activist community fam in the bay, which was very necessary — booty-shaking with dj phatrick on the 1’s and 2’s at devil’s pie and poleng, carolyn, mitch, sahra, debbie, vu bang, r.j., steve, chin, weyland, jeff, kiwi, adriel, nico, chinaka, watsky, rafael, reynelle — got to see the intergenerational writers event over at kearny street workshop and also lalah hathaway (donny hathaway’s daughter) at yoshi’s oakland, which was amazing.
i have a lot of convo’s with folks about how the little shuffle-ly self-effacing (or self-promoting) intros before poems are just as much a part of the performance as the poem itself, but seeing lalah hathaway perform, made me wonder what poetry would be like if we harnessed the raw power of poetry, pure performance. no hyping, no congeniality, just the song, just the poem, and the rawness of the god in that. her work needed no introduction. it was a revelation, and her scatting made me realize that i’d never REALLY heard scatting before. (thanks weyland!) also, it’s nice to hear an artist whose work and reach will only deepen with time
lot of shenanigans with chicago and l.a. friends in nyc and convo’s with my friend mitch in the bay about culture as commodity, and how some accumulate “culture” like other people accumulate shoes or cars — it’s the same consumerism and elitism, just different stuff — also, this whole complex for marginalized artists re: whether our identities create niches or pigeonholes — can we embrace the niche and pimp external expectations in order to flip them? do we end up playing the system, ourselves, or both?
been reading gao xingjian’s “the case for literature” (chinese nobel laureate exile in paris who wrote “soul mountain”) — to think of the enormous lengths that people have gone to around the world to have the freedom to write. we downright squander our goddamn freedoms in the u.s. on so much dumb shit in the pursuit of profit (can’t tell you how many times i’ve been told in my career to dumb down my work) or in the pursuit of maintaining a neatly defined image of an individual or community (is it leftist enough? radical enough? hip hop enough? asian enough? whatever.)
gao xingjian sez’ “The so-called writer is nothing more than an individual speaking or writing, and whether he is listened to or read is for others to choose. The writer is not a hero acting on the orders of the people, nor is he worthy of worship as an idol, but he is certainly not a criminal or an enemy of the people. At times, he and his writings will encounter problems simply because of the needs of others. When the authorities need to manufacture a few enemies to divert people’s attention, writers will become sacrifices. Worse still, writers who have been duped actually think it is a great honour to be sacrificed.”
–> reckoning lately that what one believes about oneself is approx. 19,756,982,365 times more important than what others believe about that person, positively or negatively. it’s scientific fact. i checked it out.
until next smell,
kells the big-hearted
May 26th, 2008 |
