 produce our speakers here. All right, so welcome, everyone, to Two Languages, One Community, a discussion about the creative partnership of Michael War and Chun Yu. My name is Taryn Edwards, and I am one of the librarians here at the Mechanics Institute of San Francisco. And this event is produced in partnership with the San Francisco Writers Conference, which is an organization with whom I work very closely with to provide learning experiences for the Bay Area writing community. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Mechanics Institute, we are an independent membership organization that houses a wonderful library, the oldest in fact designed to serve the public in California, not just mechanics, a cultural event center and a world renowned chess club that is the oldest and continuous operation in the United States. Right now, however, due to the shelter in place, almost all of our activities are virtual, but I encourage you to consider becoming a member with us. It is only $120 a year, and with that, you help support our contribution to the literary world of the San Francisco Bay Area. Now, our speakers today are both affiliated with the Institute. Michael War is a decorated author and poet with several books to his name. He recently was presented with Berkeley Poetry Festival's Lifetime Achievement Award. And in 2017, he was named a San Francisco Library Laureate. He also is the former deputy director of the Museum of the African Diaspora here in the city and has extensive experience in community-based arts. I have a lot of material to put in the chat space about him, so I will do that shortly. Meanwhile, Chun Yu has a doctorate from Rutgers University in Chemistry and was a postdoctoral fellow at a Harvard MIT joint program. She is the author of multi-award winning memoir called Little Green and is working on a historical graphic novel. And her work merges science, art, and spirituality based on her experiences as an immigrant from a culture undergoing revolution and coming into a new world of transformative science and technologies. She has won support from the Zellerbach Foundation, poets and writers, and all sorts of other community-based organizations for her community work in poetry and in writing. So I'm gonna put her website in the chat space as well and let's use that space as a place to put questions to pose to Chun and Michael after their presentation. I also wanna say that their books are available via Alexander Book Company and other local bookstores. We just like Alexander because they're the closest to Mechanics Institute. All right, thank you both for coming and speaking with our friends here. Thank you. Thank you so much, Erin, and welcome everybody. We're really glad to be here. And I just wanna kind of reiterate the point about the bookstore, not only to buy our books, but also to support our local book store. So I used to just work two blocks away from that particular store and I'm glad that our books are there. And we, Chun and I met in 2014 and we've been working on this project to language as one community ever since. We kind of started it the very next day after we met, which was at a poetry reading at one of Jack Hirschman's readings that was at Fort Mason. And we just kind of start talking. I let her know that I had been long wanted to have my poetry translated into Chinese and hadn't been successful with that. So I put it on the back burner. But the next day I was able to share some poems with Chun Yu and I think a lot of times that might be the way that translation relationship starts with the translator seeing a few poems by the writer. And this poem that I'm going to start with was not one of those poems because this poem emerged out of our collaboration. Chun, is there anything you want to say before I start reading? Yes, I would really like to thank the Mechanic Institute Library and Teran for putting this together. And the library is one of my favorite places in the city. I used to go there a few times every week. So it's very hard. And I even have my own desk, my favorite desk and second favorite and third favorite. I just go, I mean, I spent a lot of my time writing there since I become a member. So I really, really long to go back. So hopefully that time will come soon. So, but it's just wonderful to be able to do this. And the Mechanic Institute Library has been very supportive for all kinds of all my writing projects. I've done like multiple events there. And I was going to do an event for my San Francisco arts commission grant for my graphic novel about Chinese immigration history in San Francisco, but that's the event is canceled. But I still hope one day we will be able to do that. So thank you again for being so supportive. And now can also be part of our two languages, one community project. Yeah, so. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, go ahead, yeah. Yeah, and I'm also looking forward to being there again. I've been to many wonderful events. So let's make this one part of that. And this first poem that I'm going to read as I mentioned was not one of the poems I gave. From you, because one of the things that has happened with our work is it has inspired us to write new poems. And this is a poem called Black Star. And what you're looking at right now is the cover of a book that we have coming out from our workshop which combines poetry and prose that Tune translated. And in some cases there are other translators in the book who were in the workshop. And the images that you see there are of Tune and my mothers. And this poem emerged out of a situation where I didn't see that image of my mother until relatively recently. And when I saw it, I was struck by what a beautiful image it was. I thought, wow, she looks like a movie star. And many people that I showed it to also said the same thing. But this poem is about as beautiful as she was how people used to tease her for being so black. It's called Black Star, Gaynell war 1932 to 2015. She got called Shinola outside her name as slight against her blackness by lost souls caught inescapably in her dark attraction and blinded by her radiance in the sky. Okay, the Chinese version. Hey,明星, Gaynell war 1932 to 2015. So we did her the heat of me as she have a nice yet slow that time. We've got a total of a piece of the same week. He'll be time to take him home. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. And later when we have discussion, we can talk about how we come up with some of our themes and how we've been influenced by each other. This next poem is called to your salient who attacks us all. And this is also a really new poem. It kind of represents my kind of a change in my own writing because I can hold on to a little bit of a little bit of my own writing because I can hold on to a poem for years. But this one we were both asked to participate in a project with the Chinese culture center, the Chinatown Culture Center. And it was part of a project where they asked us to respond to COVID-19 and also to shoot a video. So you can find the video of this poem on our website to languagesonecommunity.com. And it was shot on the stairs of the Asian Art Museum with the city hall in the background, okay? So I'm gonna read that now. To your salient who attacks us all. The project that we were responding to also was about the violence against Chinese people that was going on around the world. Do you call yourself God-fearing? Do you devote it to do on to others? Does your God condone your violence, your ignorance, your corruption? Does your God hate your neighbor like you do? Does your God share your love for profits bearing false witness, fueling your grievance fever? Do you swallow the lies they regurgitate? Do you really need a reason? Are you truly a true believer of both God and golden calf? Does he all knowing know you? Do they love you as you are? Does it matter that they are watching your naked depravity? Do you pray before you pray on innocence in this guilty world? Do you have your God's blessing or as you as Godless as you seem? Did your father teach you to beat the mean and main? Is he proud of your cowardice? Does your mother say, well done son? Did they train you in backwardness? Do you feel bigger in your smallness, content with acts of uselessness? Is your inner bully seething still beneath your concealed surface? Are you comforted in your criminality, stupefied by superiority, simply insane or lost? Who are you? Yes. I just want to tell people a little bit about where I translated the poem and the whole background of COVID-19. So I came back the end of January, right before all of the direct flights to and from China were canceled. So I came back for our event with the Chinese Cultural Center. And then lots of bad incidents around the world were happening towards Asians because of the COVID-19. And Michael, there was an incident in San Francisco in Bayview. It caused a lot of attention. So it was a tough time. And then Michael wrote this poem. I was really deeply moved. And so I translated and then we shared it with communities from both sides, including my Chinese and Chinese American community. So people really appreciate it. It's a very timely piece. So 至攻击你们的人, 他们在攻击我们所有人, 这是正在进行中的咆哮, 对新冠疫情中, 对针对亚裔暴力攻击的回应. 你自称尽未上帝吗? 你致力于急所不欲, 故事与人吗? 你的上帝宽诉了你的暴力, 你的无知, 你的墮落吗? 你的上帝像你这样仇恨, 你的邻居吗? 你的上帝会认同, 你的带着假见证, 不断给你的愿放, 火上, 郊游的, 所谓先知的爱吗? 你吞下他们, 反复口吐的谎言吗? 你真的需要理由吗? 你是你的神和神像真正的信徒吗? 你那全知的神认识你吗? 他们会这样爱你吗? 他们会这样,会爱这样的你吗? 你在乎他们看着你侍裸的墮落吗? 在袭击这个有罪的世界上的无辜者士, 你祈祷吗? 你有上帝的祝福吗? 但是像你看起来那样,没有上帝。 你的父亲教你去攻击, 贬低和残害他人吗? 他会为你的切诺,感到骄傲吗? 你的母亲会说, 干得好,儿子吗? 他们训练你,倒退,落后了吗? 你卑鄙秒小时,感到更强大吗? 你满足于自己无意的行为吗? 你藏在你表面下的恶霸,还在沸腾吗? 你在被优越性麻木了的犯罪中, 受到了安慰吗? 是疯了还是迷途了? 你是谁? Thank you. Thank you very much. This last piece I'm going to read is an excerpt. It's from a much longer poem. I call it a serial poem. And I started adding names to this poem in 2018. Just adding the names of black people who were shot by the police, sometimes for the most mundane reasons, most of them unarmed or even are legally armed. And it's called What Not To Do, an unfinished poem. And Chun has also translated this. And today will be the first time that this poem is being read in Chinese and public. And this is only an excerpt. It's about three minutes, a little bit over three minutes, of a poem that's somewhere between 12 and 15 minutes. And you'll be able to find this on our website as well at some point. What Not To Do, an unfinished poem. Breathe, Eric Garner choked. Sell, lucies. Resist to death. Stand, Amadou Diallo, investibule. Carry while it, look out of place. Act suspicious, 41 fired, 19 bullets killed. Park, Tanya Hagerty, on side of road. Talk, on sell, on side of road. Shot, on side of road. Drive, Philando Castile with broken headlights. Carry, legal firearm. Announce, you have a gun. Shout, not reaching for gun. Shot, five bullets, two to heart. Approach, Oscar Grant, the police. Big, not to shoot. Kneel, shot anyway in back. Carry to mill rice, toy gun, shot with real bullets. Carry, remain Brisbane, prescription bottle, shot two bullets to torso. Not carry, Keith Lamont Scott, a gun when told to drop it. Shot, B, Natasha McKenna, schizophrenic. B, superhuman, stunned while shackled, 50,000 votes to death. B, John Crawford, an imminent threat. Shop, for Walmart air rifle. Carry Walmart air rifle at Walmart. Talk, on cell phone at Walmart. Shot, with real bullets at Walmart. B, George Floyd, a suspect. B, a six foot seven black man. B, claustrophobic, a fixated knee on neck while handcuffed. Run, Stefan Clark, the grandmother's yard. Carry, cell phone, shot, 20 bullets fired, eight hit, primarily in back. Jog, Amon Arbery, shot two bullets kill while hunted. Sleep, Breonna Taylor in bed, shot eight bullets kill. Sleep, Rashard Brooks at Wendy's, flea for daughter's birthday. Point, did Taser over shoulder, shot two bullets in back. Walk, Elijah McClain home. Look, sketchy, play music, wear ski mask, shop for I.T. Carry, I.T. act crazy, whisper, can't breathe, display superhuman strength. B, to go home. B, anemic. B, suspicious. B, on something, choked to death. Breathe. Yes. So when Michael first showed me this poem, I thought we were not sure. I mean, if this is translatable because it has such a unique style, then I thought about it. I said, so I tried in Chinese. And I feel it does work, so eventually. And this is also a shorter version of the poem what Michael read. He has a very long one, which is, I translate a seven minute version one and we shorten it to three minutes for this reading. So yeah, and then, of course, if you all know, this is an ongoing poem because what's happening now. So in Chinese. Don't do anything. A poem that hasn't been completed. It's done by Michael Warren. Yuchun translation. Breathe. Elique. Janna. Zhixi. Mai. Xiangyan. Fancao. Zhisi. Zhanli. Amadou. Diya Luo. Zai Menlang. Xie Dai. Qian Bao. Kan. Fuzi Zai De. Juzong. Kei. Sisi Chiang. Dada. Shijiu Ke. Zidai. Sha Si. Ting Che. Tan Ya. Ha Ge Xi. Zai Lu Bian. Tan Hua. Zai Shou Ji Sha. Zai Lu Bian. Bei. She Sha. Zai Lu Bian. Kai Che. Belando. Kastir. Sha Cha Deng Huai Le. Xie Dai. He Fa Wuxi. Xuan Bu. Ni You Qiang. Han Jiao. Niu Shen Shou Na Qiang. Bei Shi Sha. Wu Ke. Zi Dan. Liang Ke. Dadao. Xin Zhang. Jie Jing. Oscar. Galante. Jin Cha. Qi Qiu. Bu Yao Kai Qiang. Gui Xia. Bei She Sha. Hai Shi. Cong Hong Nian. Xie Dai. Tamir Lai Si. Wan Ju Qiang. Bei She Sha. Yong. Zhen Da. Zi Dan. Xie Dai. Lu Man. Bu Li Si Ben. Chu Fang Ping. Bei She Sha. Liang Ke. Zi Dan. Dadao Qu Gan. Mei You Xie Dai. Ji Si. Lamont Kost. Qiang. Dang Bei Gao Zhi. Yao Fang Xia Ta Shi. Bei Shi Sha. Fang Xia. Ka Hu An Lei. Yipa Qiang. Hou Lai Fa Xian. Bei Shi Sha. Cong Bei Hou. Shi. Na Ta Sha. Maikana. Bei Ren Gong Ji. Jin Shen Fen Ye Zhen. Shi. Cao Ren. Shi. Bei Kao Shi. Bei Dian Ji. Wu Wan Fu Te. Zhi Si. Shi. Yue Han. Ke Lao. Fu De. Yige. Po Zai Mei Jie De. Bei Xie. Go Bai. Wu Er Ma. Xie Bu Qiang. Xie Dai. Wu Er Ma. Xie Bu Qiang. Zai Wu Er Ma. Tan Hua. Zai Shou Ji Shao. Zai Wu Er Ma. Bei Shi Sha. Yong. Zhen De. Zi Dai. Zai Wu Er Ma. Shi Qiao Zhi. Fu Luo Yi De. Yige Xian Yi Fan. Shi. Yige Qiying. Liu Yin Chi. Qi Chun De. Hei Ren. Shi You Bi Kong Ju Zheng. Hwan Zhe. Zhi Xi. Xigai. Ya Zai Bo Zi Sha. Dai Zhe Ke. Shou Kao. Bun Pao. Steven. Ke La Ke. Chuan Guo. Zhu Mu De Yuan Zi. Xie Dai. Shou Ji. Bei Shi Sha. Er Shi Ke. Zi Dai. Shi Chu. Ba Ke. Ji Zhong. Zhu Yao. Cong. Hou Mian. Man Pao. Hai. Ai Ha Mai De. A Bo Li. Bei Shi Sha. Liang Ke. Zi Dai. Sha Shi. Shou Lian Shi. Shi Jiao. Bulai Anna. Tai Le. Zai Chuan Sha. Bei Shi Sha. Ba Ke. Zi Dai. Sha Shi. Shi Jiao. Leisha De Bu. Rukes. Zai. Wendi Hang Bao Dian. Taobao. Bei Nuo Er De Shen Rui. Die En. Si Dian Chiang Zai Jian Sha. Bei Sha. Liang Ke. Zi Dai. Cong Hou Mian. Zou Huai. Yiliya. Maike. Lian Jia. Kan Xi Lai. Ke Yi. Fang Yin Yue. Dai Hua Xue. Mian Zhao. Mai Ding Cha. Na Zhe Ding Cha. Ju Zhi. Feng Kuan. Jie Shi. Bu Neng. Sheng Que De Huxi. Zhan Shi. Cao Ren De Liliang. Qi Qiu Huijia Shi Ping Xue Shi Duo Yi Shi Ke Le Shen Mei Yao. Bei Zhi Xi. Zhi Si. Huxi. Thank you. Thank you, Chen. You're welcome. Yes, so I will move on to my reading. I'll read you my own poetry. Let's see. I have some slides to share. Screen share. You guys can see? Yeah, OK. I just need to do the slideshow. This slideshow. So I want to start by introducing my first book, which is a memoir in pre-verse. It's called Little Green. And I wrote this when I was a scientist. And it was in pre-verse because I tried to write it the normal way. It didn't come out. It didn't flow. So I basically, my whole childhood was spent in the Chinese Cultural Revolution. And so I told the 10 years of my childhood during that difficult and very tragic time. And at that time, also China was isolated from the rest of the world. So we accept a very few communist countries we were connected to. So I never saw a foreigner when I was a child. And I did not know what the rest of the world looked like. And also, I did not know what the past looked like either because lots of the old traditions were not taught in the schools. Lots of books were burned. And so I will just share the opening of this book. And the library has my book. Little Green. I was born in a small city near the East Sea when the Great Cultural Revolution began. My name is Xiaoqing Little Green. My country, China, the Middle Kingdom. When I was 10 years old, our leader died and the revolution ended. And this is how I remember it. Little Green. Xiaoqing was the name they gave me. Xiaoqing, the green of tree leaves in early spring of clear water in a deep pound. My father said, of beautiful youth, the evergreen of life. My mama said, and a precious gold worn clothes to the heart. My nanae said. So you have this young life born into pretty much the moment, actually, the moment the Great Cultural Revolution was announced. Later on, I went to Beijing University or Peking University. That's one of the very important cultural institutes of China. The whole university's history is reflective of modern Chinese history. Actually, my birthday was the day the Cultural Revolution was announced in the university history. And I only learned years later. So I felt I was destined to write this book, changing my past from a scientist. I had no idea why something was driving me. I couldn't be a scientist peacefully until I started to write this book. So this is me and my older brother Go-Go. And we were both each holding a Miles little red book. And some of you here probably are familiar with it. And a few years ago, I learned the Black Panther raised their funding for their first two guns, two weapons by selling the little red book I was holding on the Berkeley campus. It was such an interesting history, I find out later. But we had no idea of the Black Panther or what's we only like, but in the whole history classes, we were denouncing the evil capitalist society, of course, so that we learned. And the other thing is, this is my dear grandmother. So if you look at the little shoes we are wearing, they are cotton shoes that she made us. And it's a Chinese tradition for thousands of years. We made shoes from cotton. And those little, the sole of the shoes, and it's layers after layers of cotton, it's very hard to stitch through. But it's full of stitches. And she basically, half of the time, we were with her because my father was sent to be reeducated in a countryside and my mother was teaching in a country school. So we only saw him a couple of times a year. And then every night, my mother and all of the teachers in her school had to go to study revolutionary theories. So all of the children were locked up at home. So our grandparents had to come to rescue. So most of my friends are brought up, at least partially by our grandparents. And my grandmother lived in some miles quite far away. So one of us will be sent to be with her. And she, they were cotton produced in our field, in our area. So we followed her to pick cotton when we were children. So when I learned about the black history in this country, and that's one thing I can relate to, cotton picking. So as a child, it's very hard for you to imagine the life of people in a country you never, you know, visited, never seen. But as a child, I can relate through something I knew. So I wrote this poem, cotton, like not very recently. And went after the Asian Art Museum event. And I wrote this in one morning, like in one hour. It just somehow it just came out of me. So cotton, all I could think of was little black hands picking, picking, and picking snow white cotton when I was a child, learning about your people's fate on the other side of the ocean in the winter classroom with no heating. My country, red and deep in revolution, isolated from the world. I heard slavery, a term ancient and distant, re-denounced in the land where I sat with frozen toes, trembling with indignation and yearning for justice. The original shan, the pure goodness at the heart of a child, revolution or not, red, black or other. I had never met a child of another color. All I could think of was little black faces smiling like blooming cotton flowers bursting warm in the summer harvest. All I could think of was little black hands giving warm white cotton away, little black hands snatched away from black hands of mama and grandma, little black hands forever lost in the vast world. Little black hands forever reaching at a loss, little black hands forever wiping tears, clear and salty just like my own when I missed my mama. As I snuggled next to my grandmother under an ancient oil lamp, her hands ruffled from cotton picking for the ism and the revolution, we must all love and give everything to. Stitching and cushioning shoes night after night, with the few handfuls of cotton rationed to her and a long thread she spun with a wooden spindle spinning since the beginning of time and the memory to keep my feet warm, little black hands, where was your cotton? Where was your thread? Where were your mama and grandma? I had never met a child of another color. When I learned your history as a child, all I could feel was your ocean of tears flooding into the yellow sea, rushing the shore a hundred miles away. Thank you. So I have shown this poem only to two people. First, of course, Michael Wall. And the other is my dear friend, Mitch. He's here in the audience. And I want to thank to both of them for their such immediate response and to help me to finalize this poem. It happened really fast. It doesn't happen all the time. I wish I could write a poem like this every week. So I actually have a Chinese translation. I just want you to look at it. We might not have time to read every Chinese translation. So yeah, it's there. You can look at it. So this is a painting from my dear little sister. She's in this photo with me. She's kicking the shoes. My grandmother made her. So she painted this painting. She gave it to me because she knew how important this is to both of us. And I would be probably in the world, the one of the person who, I mean also my brother who appreciated the most. So this is the history of cotton and my connection to here. And I was just remember the other day that when I was in like middle school learning English and you know, Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream was the recording was one of the recordings very few recordings in English we had. I actually, I can recite the whole thing. I could, I don't know now if I still can in his style because we listened to it and, and you know, we recited and that's part of, you know, my experience learning English too. And one day I show writer poem about that. So as I say, the end of basically January the third years I came back for this event. I run to home in September because my mother was hospitalized. I canceled this event. It was supposed to be much earlier around the Mid-Autumn Festival. And then I made a commitment to do this during Chinese New Year. And at that time, San Francisco didn't have many cases and people and including the city and the Chinese Culture Center were very optimistic. They told me, no, we're not canceling the event. So I came back to fulfill my promise. It was really hard. My heart was completely torn because my mother was still in the hospital then. And so, but I still made that trip. I came back and quarantine myself without anybody asking me for 14 days. And right, I mean, timing just worked out right after I finished that we did this event which was really great. And then Michael wrote that poem I translated. And then this poem, which I wrote for my parents was published here around Father's Day, which I asked them to because I wrote this poem because my father, whenever I visit my parents in Nanjing and I would go out to meet my friends, he always said, where are you going, little green? Let's look at the map. He just wanted to know where I was to be settled with my mom. Sometimes it's the street not far away from home. So that just really stayed with me. So this poem, the map came to me. It was published in Chinese when I was in China by the Xinhua Daily, which is a state newspaper. And I brought the paper to my parents and to my mom in the hospital. My father was there with her every day. So they were really happy for this. And then Poem of the Day of San Francisco Public Library published this. It's curated by Kim Shuck, the current poet laureate. So I give you this poem in both Chinese and English to you, the map. When I was born, your bosom was a map. I occupied all of it in your cradling arms. When I began to walk, your eyesight was a map. I learned my steps, toddling and the weathering in your adoring gaze. When I started school, your mind became a map. I ventured out and back morning and night in your unceasing care. When I grew up and left home from hometown to other towns, home country to other countries, your heart became the map. I searched far and wide, high and low for my direction and a place in the world, in your loving thoughts. Each time I set out for a journey, you asked for my destination, studied an open map and accurately located the point of my being. Then one day, you picked up a magnifying glass, eyes moving closer and closer, hands trembling more and more. Finally at a loss, no longer seeing clearly the lines and the points on the map, you hold me in your heart. Growing older and older, you can now walk. Walk only, you can now only walk in my eyesight fumbling steps every trip outside and adventure. From now on, I will walk by your side so you can lean on me when we are at a loss, not knowing where to go. Love is the map. Thank you. So the Chinese version, 地图, 刚出生时,你的怀抱是一张地图, 我是那地图的全部, 在你的怀抱中。 刚走路时,你的目光是一张地图, 我在那地图中摇摇学部, 在你的注释中。 上学时,我走出了家门, 你的脑海是一张地图, 我在那地图中招出木龟, 在你的牵挂中。 长大后,我离开了家, 从故乡到外乡, 从祖国到义国, 你的心是一张地图, 我在那地图中摸索方向, 寻找位置,在你的想念中。 每当我开始一个新的旅程, 你总会打开一张地图, 寻问我的去处, 时时都能准确找到我的所在。 后来,你拿起了放大镜, 眼睛离地图越来越近, 手抖得越来越厉害。 从于茫然中, 你已经看不清地图上的点, 于现我在你的心里, 见行见卖, 有一天你只能在我的目光里盘山, 每一次出行都是一场冒险, 从此我将把你衬服在我的地外, 当我们茫然不知所向, 唉,是一张地图。 The last poem I am going to read is called Today. I wrote this on the Chinese Memorial Day, which is April 3rd here, April 4th in China. It's the day a million people was diagnosed with COVID-19 around the world, but today we have six millions in US alone. But for me, it's a symbolic moment. When I saw that, I knew we were in big trouble. And I have lots of friends coming from science and lots of friends working as medical doctors, medical workers, and also researchers around the world. I mean, regardless of boundaries of countries and, but everything today is becoming, unfortunately, very political-ized. And for me, when I came into science, I never believed there should be borderlines between science because I think the whole human species, the whole, we all own our discoveries. And that's also why my parents encouraged me to go to science because they say in science, things are much more clear. You can say one plus one is two, but it might not be true anymore. And so this is my wish of us to be united. Today, today the world has fallen ill. Today, a million have been diagnosed. Today, tens of thousands have left us. Today, the door to heaven is crushed. Today, angels in white are fighting on earth for us. Today, a virus is forcing all nations into a united front. Today, we humans have to learn to become one. Today, the world has fallen ill. Today, a million have been diagnosed. Today, tens of thousands have left us. Today, the door to heaven is crushed. Today, angels in white are fighting on earth for us. Today, a virus is forcing all nations into a united front. Today, humans have to learn to become one. Together. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for listening. So now we are open to answer questions from the audience. Terin, do you want to host this part? Yes. Let's see. Just sort of reeling from all that dramatic stuff. Well, Sally has a question. She wants to know if you have considered making a voice recording of your poems because hearing you both speak them is so powerful. And hearing them both side by side is really helpful. She thinks it's helpful, I think it too, to read them and then also hear your voices at the same time. Yeah, I mean, I would love to. I did some recordings on my own and also in collaboration. I mean, also in collaboration with some musicians. And I would like to, I mean, I'm totally really open to do that. And sometimes I record to music of my own choice that play in the background. It's actually poetry reciting is very big in China. Yeah, it's an art. It's an art that people appreciate, people listen to. And Michael, you can talk about the situation here and what your thoughts are. Well, first of all, thank you. It's a very good idea. And we have a few poems that have been recorded. But, you know, it's been more hit and miss. And it would be good to have kind of a conscious, planned, supported project to do that. I think that's a really good idea. To Your Salon is an example of that, at least in the English. I think, do you have a recording of that in Chinese tune? Yeah, I mean, Sizi's Chinese Culture Center broadcast it. Right. And you put it on the website? Yeah, and also there is one of the first, maybe the first poem we worked on together with Chun translating me is a poem that's on the... My father's favorite pastime, which is about the first time my father ever took me to Candlestick Park. And that poem is also available with Chun reading it on the site, Tracing Poetic Memory. So thanks for that idea. I think we should follow it for the day. Yeah, we would love to put maybe a more formal production together. Any other questions? Yeah. Other questions? Mana Zhe has a question, in which language do you write the poems first? Translating the poems, is translating the poems difficult? Well, translating poems, I know small deals and even for translating my own poems. And I can never predict if the poem is going to come to me in Chinese or English. Like the most, like the cotton, right, came to me in English. It was done in English in one shot, basically in one hour. But I've been constantly playing that poem for a long time. And this connection for cotton, whenever I think of the black history here, I mean, honestly, that's the image that comes to me. I have to take it very seriously. I mean, also the map, right? My father looking at the map, he just keep on coming and then came the poem. And the map came in Chinese first, but I went back and forth at some point I forgot, which you have to go back to look. But cotton happened so recently. I mean, it's just clearly everything came in English. So it's a very mysterious process. And translating is hard for certain poems. And some poems I haven't even made an attempt to translate because I just look at it and say, this is a little impossible to translate. So yeah, that's a great question for bilingual poets. I think maybe we all go through similar things. For me, at this time, it's very unpredictable. But if I go to China and stay there for a few weeks, like after, sometimes even after a week or two, most of the poems will come to me in Chinese because the environment is so powerful for the whole language environment. But here it alternates, depending on what I am writing about, yeah. And at our next reading, I'm going to read in Chinese. So everybody be ready for that. Just kidding. But you know the thing that I wanted to say is that this is the fourth language I've been translated in over a period of like, I don't know, at least 20 years. And the first one was German. And well, the first one actually was Creole. And Jack Hirschman arranged that I had nothing to do with it. I just saw my poem translated in Creole one day in the magazine. It probably was the first time I'd ever been published. And it was a very different experience years later when I went through being translated in German because like the relationship that Tune and I have, it's very interactive. There's conversation, there's, you're picking it apart. You're, you know, like we had this experience where she translated the poem called Black Star. The first poem I read about my mother. And when we met to go over the questions that she had about the poem, she had not been familiar with the word Shinola. And what I learned is that that word, which we, if you go up in America, you know it's a shoe polish. And what I found out is that in China, it was a, it was a big fashion brand out of Detroit. I had no idea. And so for Chinese people, they would have no idea what it meant. I absolutely don't know what's a Shinola shoe shine. She had no idea what it meant. And I had no idea that the company Shinola, it was the same company. The shoe company, the shoe polish company had rebranded. But the point is that you have to really dig deep over some of these cultural questions to get at not just the translation of the word, but the meaning of the word. And I really appreciate going through that. I learned that in my first experience with the German translator. We, and we were using fax machines to kind of communicate with each other. So that's one of the things I love about this project. And that's what led to the idea of we can bring this experience that we're having into communities and bringing people who are particularly in the African-American and the Chinese community, there's often a lot of division. And we see it as a way of bringing people together. At least talking to each other. Yeah, exactly. I mean, we both feel, when we first met, I was not, I mean, I have so many of my own projects. So I never really focused on translation, I mean, except my own poetry. But at that time, actually, I was mostly writing in English, but also write some poems in Chinese. And that's all I did, the translation. I'm a little high translate a Chinese author's book. But in general, I am very careful with that. And the translation poetry is a very consuming work. But for us, we also built this two language one community project. We are broadening the connection to other poets in both communities. It's really wonderful to be able to do that. It makes it very meaningful. Yeah, we are also hoping to connect to schools. Because I love to show children of immigrants and lots of them are bilingual. They should realize they have power with their native language. They can bring into the community and they can write poetry because some people feel like they have to study so much in order to write their first line of poems. You just have to do it. And you can write about things like, you never know, you can write about a curtain and then it connects all of the history. And so you need a spark and it could be anything. So yeah, we will continue this. So it's in a broader sense and that's what this project means for me. Did you wanna finish off your thought? Oh yeah, I'm just reading more comments. Yeah, so. I was struck with the poem, What Not to Do and It's Rhythm. And so was Arlen and Kate. And I just was wondering how challenging was that to capture the rhythm for you. Because amazingly, you pulled it off. Yeah, at the beginning I wasn't sure because it's such a unique style. But then as I said, you just have to try. Then I started translating a few lines. I said, oh, this actually can work. So that's how I started at the beginning. It's very intimidating. Because as I said, it's not structured as a normal structure, right? But then I just translated some of it. I read it and said, oh, it comes through. Yeah. I actually created a structure for this poem because I typically don't use kind of designated form. I don't have anything against it. It's just not the way I learned to write. And in this case, I really built a structure for the poem that is absolutely critical to the publication of it. And this poem was so important to me that initially I didn't care if it was a poem. I didn't know if it was a poem. And I submitted it to an award, a Pablo Neruda Award for Nimrod, the Nimrod International Journal. And it was a runner up. And so I jokingly said to myself, okay, I guess it's a poem. And they published it. But I can't tell you how much I've struggled with the form of that poem and how many evolutions it's gone through. I think I finally got it down. But this is after, like I said, I started writing it in 2018. And I hope sometimes what I do is I actually take a section of the poem and show it so that people can see the form that it's written in. And I really need, which I don't normally need, but I really needed something to control myself. And the form, this form that I created to do that, it gives me continuity like in a film. Where you build a character and you have to remember where that character came from, who else they've met, who they've been introduced to. Because if you don't hold on to that continuity, you all of a sudden you're just, you know, you go into a tangent. And that's my big struggle with this poem. I still find problems with it. And that's another thing I love about the translation process that Chun and I had to go through this poem. And I had to answer all her questions that we had to have really deep and sometimes complicated discussion about it. And again, that's part of the process. And I have to say, this is the first time I've heard her read it out loud. And what I realized from my work with her is that I think in my mind, I was expecting, I should know better, but I was expecting her to say the names in English. But that's not the way it works, which means this is extremely complicated. She had to take each one of those names and find the, you know, the, I'm calling it the sound and not using the technical word, but Chun, can you talk, do we have time, can you talk a little bit? Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's a little easier now because lots of the names are like pretty common names. They have common translations in Chinese. So I don't have to make them up. I prefer not to because if a name is translated certain way, I shouldn't, right? So these are all according to songs I have to, but I have to check some of them. Yeah, you don't have to make them up, but you... See if I agree with the translation they have because sometimes it's not very accurate. So that's one of the challenge I was thinking. And I certainly I could just read the English name, but then it's not exactly right. I love the way you did that. And I think that that's also relevant to the rhythm of the poetry. If I read it in English straight, it would disrupt the rhythm and it would just sound not right. Yeah, so I'm pretty glad. This is the first time I read it off. I mean, I read to myself, of course, but this is we are debuting this poem today. I have real difficulty reading that poem sometimes. The, I think it was about, boy, I guess it was over two years ago. The first time I read it in public I could barely get through it. I broke down. Yeah, it's a very emotional poem. It still happens to me every once in a while. Yeah, I mean. That's the other thing going through my mind. Right, I think, I mean, we don't have a Chinese audience today. I do think the emotion really comes through in Chinese. Yeah, yeah, we show one day we should read it to a Chinese audience. I'm sure we will. I think we have somebody with us. Yes, we do. Do we have any Chinese people? Please speak up. Okay. There's some over that have called in, but some people that have called in, I'm not sure what their ethnicity is, but... Yeah, yeah. Oh, we have Leon, Leon. I don't know. Leon, do you speak Chinese? Leon, son? Leon? Leon? His mic is off. Yeah, okay. Do you speak? I do speak and hear Chinese, but I can't read it. Okay. But I still appreciate the sounds of it and even more appreciation as I hear the sound and see the words, even if I can't read the words by themselves. When I hear it, I know the word. So I had about maybe second grade Chinese in school when I was still in China. Once we left, I didn't learn Chinese anymore. Yeah, but you can't understand some of the... I mean, it's about 70% of it. No, that's good. There were somebody else who raised their hand, but I don't see them now. Is there anybody else on here? I think Mary had to leave. Okay. There are a couple more questions. Arlen asks, Michael, if you're interested in having your work translated into different languages, is it primarily to broaden your readership or is it just to have a powerful partnership experience? Well, you know, the interesting thing is, is that I've been translated into German, into Creole, German, French, and what not to do is about to be translated into Spanish. And I think that might be the first time I've been translated into Spanish. And all of those were kind of happenstance. You know, I don't know if I call the German translation. No, that wasn't happenstance. That was a real kind of planned thing that I grew out of the Goethe Institute. And I used to run an organization, a literary organization I founded in Chicago. I grew up in San Francisco, but I lived in Chicago for like, you know, 20 years or something. And I had, we built a relationship with the Goethe Institute. And so we were doing these exchanges between German writers and American writers. Pretty amazing stuff. And one of them led to my poetry being translated. So that was very intentional and very highly organized. And the translator was being paid very well in this type of thing. So June is laughing. And so I had a particular desire to be translated into Chinese. And it's really kind of weird because I just was thinking of it as a poet and getting my poetry out there in the world. Initially, that was what kind of started the process. And you know, the more readers that could read your poetry, the better. So why not a bunch of Chinese people? Yeah, we have a lot of them. But it's not as easy as it sounds, you know. And now that we actually have work, we are looking for places to publish the bilingual work. And that is easier said than done. And I agree with June that it would be, you know, one of the things we have to work on is getting more bilingual audiences at these readings as well. The reading that we did at the Asian Arts Museum a couple of weeks ago, you know, that probably is the largest audience we've had where there were a large number of people who could actually, you know, understand the Chinese. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree with you. And I also wanted to talk about his culture. Culture, so. I also want to say my poem, The Map, has been translated into French by my friend, Richard, who's here. He did a beautiful version. We are, I don't know if we have time for him to read it, or if he's even ready to read it this time. Maybe I won't put you on the spot. But yeah, so I am, because I was so focused on just, you know, my work is already bilingual. I was so focused on those two languages. I haven't, I mean, there were people keep on asking me, I just haven't turned my attention to be translated into other languages yet, you know. So I would like to have more connections to do so. I'd like to be translated into an African language. That's something that I thought of recently. And that's something I'll probably pursue. Poetry, oh, Kevin says Poetry. Hey, Kevin. Yes, Poetry International. Why don't we take the last few moments to go ahead and open up the, if you wanna turn your mic off and ask a direct question, let's do it, have a little pow wow together. Conversation together. Yeah, we can unmute ourselves. If you want. Any more questions? I mean, many of you probably are like bilingual or some speak many languages. You know, I've lots of friends who speak multiple languages and we are also, I mean, people ask us why just those two languages? It's because I only know those two languages and I don't think Michael can translate in another language. So, but this is a concept can apply to many languages together, multi languages. One community. We're definitely open to include other languages. And just like, you know, I cannot do it by myself. And there are other programs like MyLab at MIT. They are running actually multi language programs for young underprivileged girls to pursue science and they are open to open, open to expand into literature. So we could collaborate with them and they already emailed me. We're trying to figure something out. So there are just really a lot of things we can do. And if you have any ideas you want to explore, we are certainly open for discussion and we can talk about how we do it as we talk today. And this is a work in progress and we have so many projects going on like Tune mentioned. So I would encourage you to follow the links. One person asked about the availability of sound clips. There's some availability of that at Tracing Poetry Memory for instance, which is one of my sites. But the site, two languages, one community. Pay attention to that. That's a work in progress as well. But for instance, the video that we've heard too can be found there. And I think for instance, Mitch's translation, that's a place where we could share that work. So keep your eye on that site because it's young, it's relatively new to the world and it's going to mature and a lot more is going to be added to it. Right, it's an ongoing process. Yeah, we are also new to it. Yeah. Well, you're both fabulous. And I wanna thank you both for letting me twist your arm and hosting this event. And I just wanna say if you have any other ideas of events that you'd like to see or you'd like me to host or if you'd like to star, please let me know because word of mouth and hosting events that people ask for is what we do at Mechanics Institute. We don't wanna host events that no one wants to see. So please be in touch. And thank you both for sharing your work with us. Thank you, thanks for inviting me. Thanks to everybody for being here. And it's very connected to the library again. Yeah, and to all of the people. And I also have writer's groups in the library and some of my friends from writer's groups are here. Bob, Randall, yeah, thank you for being here. And please see our links for upcoming readings. There's readings every week right now. Yes. Yes, you are busier than you've ever been before I expect. Maybe we all are. Open up possibilities. A lot, yeah. And I mean, there's nothing is all bad or good but I just do miss being in the library. Let me say that another time. I miss everything about it except maybe the commute. I don't miss that, but. Even that. It's kind of freedom, right? Free to commute. Free to commute and to Zoom. All right, well, thank you all. Oh, yes. Thanks for letting us go a little bit over. Thank you, Michael. You take care. Take care. Thank you. Thank you. All right, bye-bye. Good night. See you Monday. Bye. Take care, Kevin. Yeah, see you Monday.