September 7: Kundiman & Verlaine Reading Series featuring Franny Choi, Sahra Vang Nguyen, Chris Tran, & Paul Tran
Join us for a night of words & libation with readings by:
FRANNY CHOI, SAHRA VANG NGUYEN, CHRIS TRAN, & PAUL TRAN
Open bar: 4-5pm
Open mic: 4:30-5pm
Feature Reading: 5pm
$5 suggested donation
** This event was funded in part by Poets & Writers, Inc. through public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. **
Franny Choi is a poet, teaching artist, and author of Floating, Brilliant, Gone (Write Bloody Publishing, 2014). Her poems and stories have appeared in Poetry, PANK, Folio, Solstice, Fringe, Apogee, and others. A Pushcart Prize nominee, she has been a finalist at the three largest adult poetry slams in the country. She is a VONA Fellow and a member of the Dark Noise Collective. Through Project V.O.I.C.E. and the Providence Poetry Slam, Franny teaches creative writing in her local community and in classrooms across the country.
Sahra Vang Nguyen is a multidisciplinary artist currently based in Brooklyn, New York. She has served as the Director of the Writing Success Program at the University of California, Los Angeles where she helped undergraduate students develop their critical thinking, self-confidence and agency through the writing process. Her writing primarily explores themes of identity, race in America, the Vietnamese American experience and the power of human potential. Sahra has self-published an e-book titled, "One Ounce Gold," and she has been published in the print anthology, "Pho For Life." She has toured Universities across the country speaking, performing poetry and facilitating workshops aimed to empower and inspire audiences. In Fall 2013, Sahra was invited to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC in a celebration of Asian American artists. More recently, Sahra created a web series about NYC entrepreneurs called, "Maker's Lane," which is co-presented by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.
Chris Tran is an emerging Vietnamese American writer, photographer & media maker from Oklahoma City, OK. He's performed with Sarah Kaye & Hieu Minh Nguyen and was a semifinalist at the 2014 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI). His work interrogates new constructions of race, sexuality & nostalgia. A sophomore at Brown University, Chris constantly yearns for southern fried cooking.
Paul Tran is an Asian American activist, historian & spoken word poet from Providence, RI. He's won "Best Poet" and "Pushing the Art Forward" at the national college poetry slam and fellowships from Kundiman, Coca Cola, the VONA/Voices Writing Workshop, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. His work combines oral history and performance to reimagine the violences inherited from the Vietnam War. Paul is also the cofounder of Gravediggers, a workshop for emerging writers of color, and coaches the 2014 Providence youth slam team heading to Brave New Voices.