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| 18th Annual Multi-Cultural Poetry Reading |
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August 11, 2018, offered another stimulating afternoon of poetry, friends and exciting discussions. There seemed to be everything else scheduled on the same day throughout the Greater Bay Area, so our attendance was the smallest ever, with only about 15 attending. Dispite the small number, or perhaps because of the small number, those attending raved about the wonderful discussions we had on languages, linguistics, poetry, poetics, and cultural concepts. We hope that next year you can join us in this wonderfully unique event.
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| Azy Heydon with a high school exchange student from Japan at the potluck table. |
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Our book table was overflowing with books containing poetry in English and another language. During lunch, everyone sat around the table chatting, eating and choosing their poem and parter for the bi-lingual read-around. We were so enraptured with the dynamic conversation, including a spontanious discussion on the relative values of vowels in various languages, that we forgot to take a photo of people engaged in this activity.
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| Our first to recite was 3 year old Amy. She had recited her poem earlier while playing, but was silent when it was her turn to perform. Amy is our youngest ever to attend. She has been in the USA only 3 months and speaks only Chinese. |
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| Richard Angilly chose a poem from a book of Tang Dynasty poetry. His partner was David Chung who is excellent in reciting poetry in Chinese and English, in both modern and traditional styles. |
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| David Chung announced his choice of poem. Lili said, "I can dance that!" So she did. The poem and dance together was beautiful. |
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| Tanya Joyce chose a French/English poem and was going to read in French. However, her reading partner, visiting professor Yao Hong (Gloria) from Beijing, preferred French to English, so Tanya read English and Gloria read French. |
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| Natica Angilly reads English with Lili reading Chinese. |
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| Event coordinator Judy Cheung read Spanish by local poet David Madgalene and Mary Lowe read English |
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| Azy Heydon read English with a high school exchange student from Japan read Japanese. Later, the other Japanese exchange student read in Japanese with Judy Cheung reading English. |
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| Aliza Lee Salomon read German. Judy read English. Lee also reads poetry in Hebrew. |
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After the bi-lingual pick-a-partner read-around, we had a regular read-around with everyone reading their choice of poem and language, with or without partners. Along with both sets of readings, we had discussions on content, form, delivery styles, and general linguistics of poetry. High praise for the event, especially from our visiting professor from Beijing, was well appriciated.
This event is cosponsored by Artists Embassy International, Poets of the Vineyard and Redwood Empire Chinese Association. We thank each of these organizations for their attendance and assistance in this unique annual event.
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