big things come in small packages?

moving on, saturday, i had the privilege and the pleasure of performing at Umass VSA’s culture show: Spring of Heritage (btw, dopest juxtaposition evar). let me just say, it always does my soul good to see hella vietnamese people who are connected to their culture and proud. that critical mass is sometimes hard to achieve, and always energizing to see. living in new york, sometimes i get disconnected from this larger conception of vietnamese america. it’s understandable, as there is such a tiny population of vietnamese americans in the City, but that just makes the times when i get surrounded by my folks feel even that much more special.

rolling up to Umass was a trek, as are bus rides in general. but i managed to sleep through a lot of it, and i’ve come to appreciate the changing face of scenery i get when i move up and down the nation’s roadways. but immediately upon arrival in the town, i got picked up by one of my old high school classmates, TRISTAN in his bomb bmw. he’s the president of the VSA, and my point person for the whole trip up. i gotta shout him out and give him hella love for going out of his way to be hospitable, even with no sleep and with the hecticness of running the larger show. which leads me into telling yall that the Umass Amherst student run hotel is fiyah. hella surprisingly so, considering it looks like a waffel iron from the outside, but is hella gorgeous on the inside. guess who made my reservations there?

me being me, after i dropped my stuff, i decided to “rest” by going drinking with some friends.

old friends NEATH and LINDA (who i secretly have a crush on… or do i?), met me up, took me to their home and showed me a wonderful drunken time with new friends like the hella subtle clever and beautiful LU and the impeccably dressed korean balla MYUNG HYUNG. oh whiskey, how you make me feel at home.

fortified, i got a ride back from the ever generous NEATH and LINDA to the hotel, and tossed myself into my usual insomnia and nightmare punctuated sleep. it was great seeing these folks, because like many of yall, they are good friends that i never get to see enough, so i cherish my time with them… what i can remember of it. i usually don’t mention friends i meet up with, for a host of different reasons, but i figured they deserved it, considering i see them once a year. and since NEATH has started me on my path of WoW addiction. and of course they drove me back to the bus station for my ride back, which is always nice.

at the run up to the show, i met hellllllllla people, who must forgive me for not remembering their names. it’s been awhile since i’ve done a culture show this big. special props goes out to the really dope sound crew, whose names i’m hoping i’m going to get right… KATHARINE, CHRIS x2, STEVE, AYUMI and a few others who i’m too much of an alky to remember. they were a hella professional crew who made your friendly neighborhood poet boy sound and look so much better than he could have otherwise. so many thanks and much love to them, and to tech crews everywhere. hanging out with the tech boys and the stage hands, ANDRE and TONY (i think) was one of the highlights of chilling at the fine arts center before the show.

one of the trippiest experiences i’ve had was meeting the two Miss Vietnam International pageant queens, Ms Donna Vo and Ms Jennifer Le, both of whom managed to combine beauty and presence in such a way as to draw every eye in the room when they entered (male and female). they were the first beauty queens i’d ever met, so it was one of those trippy cool experiences i know imma tell my kids about.

the show itself was dope, coming together in spectacular fashion. there was a pretty big turnout, in a really crazy big cement and steel auditorium that made me feel like a gladiator in roman times. really though, part of my ritual is walking the venue, to focus and to kind of take it in… ish took me forever son.

but yes, hella folks on the playbill, but i’m going to do my damndest to mention all of those i got to see before i dipped out to prepare myself. it’s the least i can do after all.

the mcs were TRISTAN and JENNIFER LE, who both looked resplendent in their traditional ao dai. which reminds me that i have never worn an ao dai in my life. which maybe should be a priority someday. they opened up with the national anthems of the united states and vietnam, as well as lighting the incense to the ancestors. the girl who sang the us national anthem, had one helllluva voice on her.

the lion dancers from Hong Tinh were dope, had a bunch of really interesting tricks and really got ummm, right into the audience. by the way, i wish i had the camera to see that one guy in the crowd slapping one of the lions in the ass. one of the most epic moments ever.

i actually bounced at this point to head back stage… but, i had caught a bunch of the acts before when they were running their sets in dress rehearsal, so let me just give the acts i missed a few words. judy le sang Bonjour Vietnam, which i’d never heard before but will be listening to after this blogpost.

the girls of the modern dance crew rocked the stage and got the crowd moving to a really interesting mastermix.

the new year’s skit was hilarious, and hella real. my vietnamese is kinda wack, but i actually understood what was going on, which was nice. and in all honesty, the skit was hilarious, especially in that it touched on experiences that vietnamese ams and asian ams have all experienced and understand. it was a wink and a grin at our parents and our miscommunications that warmed the heart and brought a smile to the face.

i only managed to catch part of the fan dance and the traditional fashion show in rehearsal and didn’t get to see it, but considering the roar of approval from the crowd, they went over hella well.

i must give props to UCONN’s modern cinderella skit, as it was extraordinarily well put together. they had all of cues perfectly timed, so much so that they were actually lip synching to a tape in the background and still managing to pull it all off perfectly. i managed to catch their set twice, once in rehearsal and live from the stage, and i hafta give them their due. between costume changes, lighting and music changes, the crew managed to pull off a really intricate dance, and do it with verve. as someone who’s done theatre before, i know how hard that can be, so much respect. even more than that, i gotta give love for them graciously sharing space with me… they had the nicest green room and allowed me to take a nap in there. i hope i get to see those folks again sometime and kick it for real. get at me folks.

TRISTAN was on before me, and managed to serenade the crowd with a love song, even after being sick and running around making sure the show was together. much respect to him for being able to juggle all that he did and still sing on top of it all.

when i got on stage, i was struck by how welcoming the audience was. it was a sizable number of people, but they definitely engaged with my work, and made me feel really welcome and loved. the beautiful Ms DONNA VO helped me out with milking poetry, before i went into the rest of my set. she was a great sport, and made me look hella good, so great love. i always like to think of sets as conversations with my audiences, which is why i banter a lot, try to gather opinions and do the pieces i do. the fact that the audience gave me so much of themselves and were so into it reaffirmed to me why i love my job so much.

give me your phone number?

i unfortunately didn’t catch the rest of the show, until the modern fashion show. which i gotta highlight because of the intricacy and delicate elegance of the paper dresses that were modeled. i go to school with hella fashion majors, so i know how difficult design actually is, and considering the really beautiful creations i saw were made from one of the most ornery materials ever, i have to tip my hat to the folks who put that together. absolutely amazing.

after the show was the usual after show hijinks. much love all around to all the people i met, including ‘dre, jenny, kevin, chau, tony, tiffany, linda, the other vinh, and too many others for showing me hella love. beer and chicken forever. oh and of course, facebook for the pics.

special gratitude to LUAN and ANNA for taking me into their home and feeding me one of the bombest breakfasts i’ve ever had. hospitality like yours renews my faith in the goodness of people. hit me up if you’re ever in the City.

as i left umass amherst, the snow started piling down, making it even more of a winter wonderland. i’ll always ‘preciate the great memories i now have from umass amherst.

thanks yall, everyone who i met, who showed love, ‘specially TRISTAN and the VSA crew and the dope sound crew.

great love. facebook me. big cheeks are ‘sposed to be good luck right?

tune in next time to hear my ramble about the NYU occupation. oh and…

life is a series of (un)fortunate accidents and misplaced pencils, that somehow form a pattern. god has a sense of humour.

this blogpost will not get all full of ruminations. instead i’m going to post a poem i wrote a long, long time ago, and have been editing recently.

but firstly, since for whatever reason, hella people find my site after googling how to say love in vietnamese, i would just like to say… it’s anh yeu em. simple, neh?

oh, and this is hella random, but i found a facebook group that has a bunch of people named hua in it. which trips me the hell out, because outside of my family, i’ve never met anyone with that name… it’s actually more common than i thought. whoa. it kinda gives me a warm sense of community and continuity, that other people share my surname. weird, but true.

onto the poem.

———————————————————–
a chinese restaurant

my homegirl katie tells me
‘people are fucking stupid.’

She comes to this conclusion
after working for more than a year at Mr. Wang’s China Grill.
And yes, before you ask, it’s really called that.
And yes, Mr. Wang is a dick.

I guess once someone’s spent any amount of time
working at a chinese restaurant, they grow a sense of cynicism
about the meaning of it all.

It’s been more than a year, more than long enough
for her to get sick of wiping windows, long nights
and longer days, shit ass crab wontons
a boss who doesn’t stop hitting on her,
old white people who assume she doesn’t speak English
just because she’ vietnamese, their grandsons
who try to kick game
with the two words they learned in mandarin, bratty kids
and even brattier parents.

‘And ni hao to you too’
‘No sir, we do not have spaghetti. This is a chinese restaurant.’
‘No ma’am, we can’t move your table because you don’t like the feng shui.’
‘Yes sir, general gao’s chicken is really authentic chinese food’
‘No, I will not go on a date with you.’
‘Yes sir, no sir’

The litany continues till she can see herself,
young woman who doesn’t know who she is yet,
going out back to the boxes she packaged earlier in the day,
grabbing her stuff, walking out.

She imagines saying, as a parting remark to her boss
‘Your food is shit, your customers are asssholes,
I’d rather date your eighty year old father.
Turn the light on, just because it’s low
doesn’t mean we can’t tell you’re ugly.’

But she’d never say something like that,
she’s too nice, kind hearted enough
to feel guilty about uncharitable thoughts

but wishes she could stop

stop smiling like she likes this shit, as if a dollar above the minimum
were worth the way her legs ache
and the feel of her hands, that her mother once told her
were her grandfather’s
a calligrapher back in the homeland

wishes she had the courage to say she hates working here,
hates doubting herself, hates the down economy
high gas prices and college loans

but she’s a fighter, struggled to bitch about it now

So, no wonder she says it,
‘People are fucking stupid.’

i tell her she’s right
i’m not stupid enough to argue with a vietnamese woman
when she has access to kitchen knives.

It’s six hundred miles of distance and two years since I’ve seen her last.
i tell her i love her,
that she’s more beautiful than she’d ever know
her hair windblown, her eyes stretched in a smile
the girl who’s too busy to find love

She laughs, thinking i’m faker than this restaurant’s ‘classic chinese cooking’,
and i grin like i always do, ‘cause ain’t no one have to believe it
for it to be true.

Maybe people really are stupid.

————————————

oh and i just wanted to plug some events for my boston and new york folks.

this friday in boston, boston progress arts collective will be throwing its monthly open mic series, east meets words at 9pm in cambridge at east meets west bookstore. dope name isn’t it? guess who thought of it?

sunday the 15th, sulu series will be doing our monthly series at the bowery poetry club at 9. the crazy and creative and wonderful kristina wong will be performing, as well as my hella dope talented homegirl cynthia lin.

much love. and let me leave you with this.

life is moments of heart pounding consciousness amid a klonopin haze.

View all New York City events at Eventful

oscar grant is dead. oakland burned.

palestine and israel are burning.

obama is about to get sworn in.

cheery blog post neh? but as people, we take our pieces of hope where can find it, polish them brightly in the night and safeguard them, taking them out to light our ways when it gets darkest.

so let me move onto more lighthearted matters, because i am ever so awful at dealing with the weighty ones.

as we all know, i am epic fail at keeping a regular posting schedule. or even regular content, with the last post being a midnight rant about pubs for goodness sake. but let me just say that i’ve put the long break to some productive use. i’ve really started writing again hardcore, healed up from the kinda crazy lifestyle i was living in new york for awhile there with all the food in my mother’s kitchen. now, i’m fat and satiated, my body doesn’t feel as battered and i actually have a relatively sunny disposition on life. which is always a bonus.

and most importantly, i am getting together a chapbook with one of my greatest friends who is an even greater illustrator.

soon “pubs, pennies and profanity – poems and illustrations by vinh ‘tehkid’ hua and geoff ‘ship tang’ kim” will be at a merch table near you.

the dope folks at broadleaf studios will be doing our layout.

below you’ll see a piece entitled “media condiment” as an example of geoff’s really amazing work. this will give you an idea about the dismorphic and transformative, often hallucinogenic quality of his art. i think it’ll meld really well with my own work, giving it an extra layer of meaning and informing the path of the chapbook as a whole.

——————————–

furthermore,

i just want to say. snow is wack.

and the chinatown bus is wacker. but i’ll be trekking back to the city that never sleeps soon, to get my education, my crazy living and my jiujitsu-ing on.

but i gotta give big ups to boston before i do, and all the folks i saw and the culture-ing i did. it was what i needed, that break in the whirlwind. and for that i am immensely grateful.

also… boston has reignited my love of listening to music that i would never normally listen to while i write. the discordance actually helps my process along but raises some important points in my head

yo what the hell is it about vietnamese pop music that we do hella covers? furthermore, what the hell is with the disco sound? especially with like 20 sommat artists. some of the original songs actually have good elements or lyrics (so my father tells me) but are mixed in such a way as to gut them. i feel like i’m listening to vietnamese abba.

why is there such a dearth of vietnamese rappers? ive actually been listening to a lot of korean rap and while alot of it is WACK as HEO, some of it is actually really dope. i think i’m in love with Tasha. i wish there were more vietnamese heads in the hip hop game, i know a few like the magnificent t-vu, but she doesn’t rap in tieng viet. which i find to be trippy enough to be entertaining.

and jesus christ, it’s both hilarious and enlightening hearing korean covers of stan.

on top of that, i’ve discovered that i have an abiding love for vietnamese rock music… especially the band microwave. now if they actually played music like this for paris by night or the asia dvds, i actually might watch ‘em for anything else than a lame excuse to bond with my father.

now this is music i can actually get behind.

which consequently hurts my process… guess back to the therapeutic pain that is trish thuy trang and thuy huong, at least until i’m done with my work.

——————————–
i also wanted to update ya’ll that i’ll be doing a show at umass amherst for their vietnamese students association on Feb 21st 09 at 730. its to benefit VOICE, an anti human trafficking organization and ya’ll should definite roll through.

i would love to see your beautiful faces and hear your harmonious voices.

i love touring, seeing faces and meeting folks. if you want to see my pug-face or like my poems, send me a hollah.

keep tuned as to the release of 3P.

peace, love and happy new year.

ps i know no resolutions, you should think me some, maybe i’ll write a poem about ‘em. and i’m assembling the links i should be getting together, please hit me up if you think i should be linkin’ to you.