On May 6th, we will be hosting a poetry reading in partnership with the Brooklyn Museum, featuring poets Kiran Bath, Wo Chan, Hazem Fahmy, and Elmo Tumbokon. Each poet will read selections from original works exploring themes of migration, identity, and labor, as well as the broader theme of liberation for Asian diasporas invoked in the works of poet and painter Oscar yi Hou.
This in-person event will be held on Saturday, May 6th from 5:30–7:00 PM ET in the Stephanie and Tim Ingrassia Gallery of Contemporary Art, on the 4th Floor of the Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11238. This reading is open to the public with limited seating and is first come, first served, but RSVP is required via link (RSVPs will be available starting Friday, April 21st).
Read more about our featured poets below:
Kiran Bath is a Poet from New York by way of Sydney. She is a Tin House alumni, and has received fellowships from Kundiman and Poets House as well as support from the Vermont Studio Center and Brooklyn Poets. Her writing has appeared in The Adroit Journal, The Brooklyn Rail, wildness and other decorated journals. Kiran’s debut collection of Poetry Instructions for Banno is forthcoming with Kelsey Street Press.
Wo Chan who performs as The Illustrious Pearl is a poet and drag artist. They are a winner of the Nightboat Poetry Prize and the author of Togetherness (2022). Wo has received fellowships from MacDowell, New York Foundation of the Arts, Kundiman, The Asian American Writers Workshop, Poets House, and Lambda Literary. Their poems appear in POETRY, WUSSY, Mass Review, No Tokens, The Margins, and elsewhere. As a member of the Brooklyn-based drag/burlesque collective Switch N’ Play, Wo has performed at venues including Lincoln Center, The Whitney Museum of American Art, National Sawdust, New York Live Arts, and the Architectural Digest Expo. Find them at @theillustriouspearl.
Hazem Fahmy is a writer and critic from Cairo. A PhD student in Middle Eastern Studies at Columbia University, he runs the literary newsletter wust el-balad, on Substack. His debut chapbook, Red//Jild//Prayer won the 2017 Diode Editions Contest, and his second, Waiting for Frank Ocean in Cairo was published in 2022 by Half-Mystic Press. A Kundiman and Watering Hole Fellow, his writing has appeared, or is forthcoming in The Best American Poetry 2020, The Boston Review, Prairie Schooner, Mubi Notebook, Reverse Shot, and Mizna. His performances have been featured on Button Poetry and Write About Now.
Elmo Tumbokon (he/him) is a writer from Los Angeles, California and Makati, Philippines. A recipient of fellowships from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Get Lit! Words-Ignite, and CIRCULATE, he serves as an Editor for Notes On after a stint as Associate Editor for the Cleveland Review of Books. His poetry has been performed from Dodger Stadium to Warped Tour to the Kennedy Center, as well as collaborations by the California Endowment, CreateCA, Aspen Institute, Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, and more. He is his mother’s son.