2nd National Asian/Pacific Islander American Spoken Word and Poetry Summit, August 1-4, 2003

MISSION

to establish a national network of progressive artists involved in the APIA community
to challenge the often peripheral and passive roles the artist is branded within the
APIA community and the arts community at-large
to acknowledge the arts as a critical, elemental component in building, empowering
and transforming our community and our selves.

PRESS RELEASES

Press release in Adobe Acrobat format
Press release in Microsoft Word format

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For Immediate Release: 06.16.03
Contact: Anida Esguerra tel. 773.271.9531 fax 773.271.9538
www.wordfist.org anida@mangotribe.com

THE 2ND NATIONAL APIA SPOKEN WORD & POETRY SUMMIT 2003

Chicago, IL - The Asian American Artists Collective-Chicago proudly presents the 2nd National Asian/Pacific Islander American Spoken Word and Poetry Summit to be held August 1-4, 2003, in Chicago, Illinois. Co-sponsored by Hostelling International-Chicago, Diaspora Flow, and DePaul University Women's Studies Program, the Summit highlights the oral tradition of story-telling and poetry as a fundamental medium for creating culture, preserving history and transforming community. Over 175 people are expected to attend the four-day gathering, building upon the historic, inaugural event in 2001. The theme of the summit, "first there was the WORD...then there was the FIST!" underscores the need to build a progressive, national dialogue among APIA artists and community. "Gathering APIA artists together is in itself a political act," says Giles Li of spoken word group, re: verse. "The summit is a matter of the political content of our work being manifested in something that is positive and productive for ourselves as artists, and for our community as people. Every individual is always a work in progress, but the summit helps bring us one step closer to completion."

Incorporating workshops, showcases and regional meetings, the four-day Summit will prove to be challenging work for its participants. In emphasizing a true intergenerational dialogue, a special youth day is planned for the expected 60 teens attending and special invitations have been sent to many pioneering APIA artists. "The APIA Summit connects people, young and young at heart, who NEED to know each other," says Summit co-coordinator, Jona Mercado. "This is an amazing experience where there are no bystanders. Everyone can walk away with a deep sense of community, and learn from each other in a safe space."

Summit events include:

feature performances by Mango Tribe, Robert Karimi, Zero 3 and Isangmahal and more
master classes on poetry, performance storytelling, and playwriting
intensive workshops on artist and career management, art as an organizing tool, race as performance, multi-racial identity, and self-publishing
group and panel discussions facilitated by participating artists and organizations from across the country
an entire day devoted to APIA youth activities including group-building exercises, performance and writing primers, and youth-led workshops from Young Asians with Power (Chicago), GenerAsian Next (Philadelphia) and Youth Speaks (Seattle)
a showcase highlighting work from all participants
a series of round-table discussions and "family meetings" to review and re-envision the state of Asian America as it pertains to the artist as activist, organizer and conscience in the community

As in 2001, the Summit will precede the National Poetry Slam, to be held August 6-9, 2003, in Chicago. Participants are encouraged to stay through the duration of the Summit and NPS 2003 to help support those APIA artists competing in the slam, and to contribute to the Asian American Showcase, an NPS sponsored day-activity.

Grass-roots efforts are already underway, with invaluable fundraising and support from Isangmahal Arts Kollective (Seattle), Proletariat Bronze (Bay Area), Balagtasan Collective (Los Angeles), Yellow Rage (Philadelphia), Luvjones Productions (Chicago) and Mongrel (Minneapolis).

Daren Mooko, Director of the Asian American Resource Center at Pomona College, declares, "poets and spoken word artists are truly the historians for the masses. The second APIA Spoken Word Summit will carve its place in history for being as an event where the history tellers and history makers will, yet again, move the masses and tell the stories."

For more information, contact Anida Esguerra, anida@mangotribe.com, tel. 773.271.9531. www.wordfist.org.

***

For Immediate Release: 07.29.03
Contact: Anida Yoeu Esguerra tel. 773.271.9531 fax 773.271.9538
www.wordfist.org anida@mangotribe.com

PARTICIPANTS EMBARK ON THE SEARCH FOR ASIAN AMERICA
AT THE 2ND NATIONAL APIA SPOKEN WORD & POETRY SUMMIT 2003

Chicago, IL — The Asian American Artists Collective-Chicago is proud to announce an all-star line up of seasoned performers and emerging voices who will participate in this weekend's 2nd National Asian/Pacific Islander American (APIA) Spoken Word and Poetry Summit to be held August 1-4, 2003. Co-sponsored by DePaul University’s Women's Studies Program and Hostelling International-Chicago, the Summit highlights the oral tradition of story-telling and poetry as a fundamental medium for creating culture, preserving history and transforming community. Over 175 people are expected to attend this four-day gathering.

“The APIA Summit connects people, young and younger, who NEED to know each other,” says Summit Co-Coordinator, Jona Mercado. “This is an amazing experience where there are no bystanders. Everyone can walk away with a deep sense of community, and learn from each other in a safe space.”

Among the summit activities that include workshops, panel discussions and master classes, two evening performances are scheduled for Saturday August 2nd and Sunday August 3rd, 2003 at Chicago’s Vittum Theater located at 1012 Noble Street. Over the course of two nights, the performance work will span both generations and geography, redefining images and stories from Asian America.

Featured performances include work from:

Nobuko Miyamoto, performer and founder of Great Leap, a multi-cultural arts organization since 1979. Miyamoto was recently announced as one of 29 national finalists for the prestigious Ford Foundation’s Leadership for a Changing World grant.
Mango Tribe, a Chicago-based APIA women's interdisciplinary performance group.
Mango Tribe recently toured “Sisters in the Smoke,” a project partially supported by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation Multi-Arts Production Fund.
Genny Lim, poet, playwright and performer whose work has been featured on the PBS series, The United States of Poetry and American Playhouse. Lim has collaborated with jazz artists, Max Roach and Jon Jang. She has recently published a new book of poetry entitled Child of War.
Robert Karimi, writer, educator and filmmaker. Karimi recently presented his one man and two DJ show: “self (the remix),” as part of the “United States of Asian America” Festival.
Zero 3, Los Angeles based performance trio. Zero 3 is currently artists-in-residence at Visual Communications in Los Angeles, the nation's oldest Asian American media arts group.

Kelly Tsai, Summit Co-Coordinator emphasizes, "The summit and the showcases reflect a truth of ourselves rarely seen in the mainstream. From teenager to elder, we are more than breaking stereotypes and discussing basic identity politics. We are shaping America.”

SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 2003 /// 7:00PM - "first there was the WORD....."
***Summit participants with Featured Artists: Nobuko Miyamoto & Mango Tribe

SUNDAY, AUGUST 3, 2003 /// 7:00PM - ".....then there was the FIST!"
***With Feature Artists: Genny Lim, zero3 & Robert Karimi (w/DJs Yellowfist & DDouble)

@ The Vittum Theatre
1012 N. Noble St. (between Milwaukee/Augusta)
Chicago, IL 60622
(773) 278-7471

$10 tickets / $7 students w/IDs (each night)
For more information, contact Anida Esguerra, anida@mangotribe.com,
tel. 773.271.9531

www.wordfist.org

FUNDRAISING EVENTS

A million thank you's goes out to those dedicated artists and supporters who are working hard to make the 2003 APIA Spoken Word & Poetry Summit happen! Make sure to come out and show your support! We have released a "beg-a-thon" letter for anyone interested in donating to the summit. Help out!

2003 APIA Summit beg-a-thon letter in Adobe Acrobat format
2003 APIA Summit beg-a-thon letter in Microsoft Word format

BAY AREA
SUNDAY, MAY 25, 2003 /// 8:00pm & 10:30pm (2 shows!!!!)
"Bomb Shelter" - A Fundraiser for the 2003 APIA Spoken Word & Poetry Summit
Featuring Mush, Theresa Vu & Direct, Irene Duller (8th Wonder), Geologic (isangmahal), Jason Bayani, Rupert Estanislao, Mesej 1 & Leonard Shek (Proletariat Bronze)

@ Bindlestiff Studio
185 6th Street (at Howard)
San Francisco, CA
(415) 974-1167

For more info: bounceback@hotmail.com / www.bindlestiffstudio.org

All proceeds will be given to the 2003 APIA Spoken Word & Poetry Summit, taking place this August in Chicago. This is family reuniting, a moment to catch ourselves breathing before we meet again in Chicago for the 2003 APIA Spoken Word/Poetry Summit. There are movements in art and poetry going on in different cities, and we're limited to catch small glimpses of what our community is doing, a community that has grown coast to coast.
See photos of "Bomb Shelter"
courtesy of David Huang

PHILLY
SATURDAY, JUNE 28th /// 7:00pm (Doors open at 6:30pm)
Fundraiser Show for 2003 APIA Spoken Word & Poetry Summit

@ Asian Arts Initiative
1315 Cherry Street, 2nd Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107
(215) 557-0455

Suggested Donation $5-$15 Sliding Scale

All proceeds will be donated towards the 2nd APIA Spoken Word & Poetry Summit and to help fund travel to the summit for teens from our GenerAsian Next Teen Theater Troupe. The evening's line-up includes: Omar Telan, kontrast, Gabby Callendar (from Mahina Movement), Margarita Sabrina Alcantara (Bamboo Girl), Giles Li (of re:verse), Hanalei Ramos, Taiyo Takeda Ebato, GenerAsian Next. Yellow Rage hosts this fundraiser which will also feature a raffle of CD's donated by Bao Phi, Kevin So, and many of the evening's performers! www.asianartsinitiative.org

SEATTLE
TUESDAY, JULY 15th /// 7:00pm (Doors Open at 6:30pm)
isangmahal presents
poetics & consciousness: 2003 APIA Summit Fundraiser

@ Northwest Asian American Theater
409 7th Ave. S
Seattle, WA

Suggested Donation: $5-$10 Sliding Scale

On Tuesday, July 15, isangmahal arts kollective will be throwing a fundraiser show at the Northwest Asian American Theater in support of the 2003 2nd Asian Pacific Islander American Spoken Word & Poetry Summit. The Summit, organized by Asian American Artists Collective-Chicago, will be held in Chicago, IL on August 1-4, 2003. All proceeds will go toward funding the 4-day long summit, as well as assisting local artists with travel and lodging expenses. After two months of all-open mic shows and a brief hiatus in June, this month’s isangmahal show will feature a performance from isangmahal and the house band, as well as an open-mic. www.isangmahal.org

MINNEAPOLIS
Thursday, July 31, 7:00 p.m.
First there was the WORD, then there was the FIST
National APIA Spoken Word Conference Celebration Performance

Featuring Proletariat Bronze (Bay Area) and local MN APIA performers
At the Loft 1011 Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN

$5-$10 sliding scale admission

more info to come.....

LOS ANGELES
Thursday, July 31, 9PM-??
Oiwake restaurant, Little Tokyo Village
122 Japanese Village Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Price: $8 admission
Features:
DJ Rhettmatic; World Famous Beat Junkies, Visionaries
DJ Icy Ice; World Famous Beat Junkies, Stacks

Brought to you by: Balagtasan Collective, Katalyst Productions, One Of
Agency. For more information, contact: Daren Rikio Mooko: darenmooko@hotmail.com

QUOTE THIS!

See photos of the 2001 National APIA Spoken Word & Poetry Summit!
courtesy of David Huang

No other gathering addresses the questions: What does it mean to be an Asian spoken word artist in America? Who are we accountable to? What do we inherit, what work have we to do? This summit brings an urgency to these questions, backed by the visceral experience of our collective range and power, that transcends definitions of conference or summit. It's not an event, it’s a collective awakening.
- Shailja Patel, Kenyan Indian poet/spoken word artist

Like all great national poems, the APIA summit is a memorial to the future history of America as some already know and live it.
- Ed Bok Lee, Mongrel

"the nation will never be the same after this. our people will never be the same after this. we sent ripples, that will rock complacency onto the doorstep of stage, stage becoming any street at any time, without a mic or a beat, one voice backed by millions echo from projects to suburbs to downtown and uptown to east mid south and west coast! our brothers and sisters have and will have children someday and we all will be telling this same story. of how love became movement, and how movement became poetry, right before our very eyes, the gods and our ancestors and our guardian angels blessed our unravelling path, told us no one is alone now. no one is afraid now. no one is without love now. and fuck suffering. the world will never be the same.
- Maya Santos, Isangmahal Arts Kollective

I saw the last summit to be a turning point in my short life. I had never imagined i would experience something like i did. I recieved so much love and support and i wasn't a spoken word artist! I made many connections that i wouldn't have if i didn't go. I was one of the youngest people to be at the summit, so I was taught so much from the other people attending. Two years later, I feel i have to teach others of my experience and hope that they become affected by the summit as i was.
- Lyle Prijoles

From as early as stanzas etched in stone walls at Angel Island, poetry has been and will always be at the heart of Asian Pacific Islander American art. Poetry inspired and moved our community through the turbulent 1960s and has proven once again to shake our community into consciousness in this time of greed-driven war and imperialism. The Summit will be a time to bring together generations of poets to compare notes, share their work and conspire for the next wave of the movement.
- Daren Rikio Mooko, Director, Asian American Resource Center, Pomona College

i really needed the opportunity to step out the box and experience the movements and struggles that my brothers and sisters across the nation were undertaking. i hope that you will all continue to spread the word and raise fists... and that i'll be able to see all of you again in this lifetime.
- Paul Kim

All too often, Asian Americans are expected to confirm or assimilate in order to be considered American. The summit is a good place to bond, debate, and celebrate what it means to be an Asian American amongst your peers. It's an important space because it is so rare and so necessary. How often do we see one or two token Asian faces at events? At the summit, we create a space that is empowering, supportive and challenging, on our own terms - as Asian Americans.
- Bao Phi, Program Associate, The Loft Literary Center Poet and Community Servant