feedBACK is a pan-Asian, New York City based performance poetry troupe whose eight poets, one musician, and one activist speak the words needed to be spoken to intiate dialogue and give voice to new chapters of consciousness. Threaded with elements of hip hop to han, lumpia to `a little bit louder`, salsa to Sunnyside, their eclectic language is a voice of resistance against the misconceptions that bind Asian America. They have helped to create (re)collection, an open mic series sponsored by The Asian American Writers` Workshop that provides an "open space to recollect the spirits and stories of Asian Pacific America."
feedBACK is also an active part of "Poetry: Brought to you by the Letter A," a program that visits different schools in the New York City area to teach Asian American Literature and to run writing workshops.
**(re)collection featuring Jennifer Armas plus Open Mic
@ The Asian American Writers` Workshop
16 West 32nd Street
10th Floor
Koreatown, NYC
doors open @ 7:00 pm
open @ 7:30 pm
**
Chia-Ti Chiu (chiati) is a Taiwanese American performance poet and teaching artist. She has created and produced ZOAR: Asian American Awareness and Empowerment and the one woman show r e t u r n * poetry in three movements. She has performed and been featured at theatres and collegesaround the Northeast and at New York City hotspots such as the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, A Gathering of the Tribes, Bluestockings Womens Cafe, and 13 Bar/Lounge. She was a Nuyorican Slam Finalist last season. Chia-Ti has been published in Dark Phrases, Rising (UK), and in the upcoming Tribes Magazine.
Ishle Yi Park is a Korean American writer born and raised in New York. She isa Spring 2000 recipient of a fiction grant from the New York Foundation of the Arts and has been published nationally in journals and anthologies such as New American Writing, DisOrient, Icarus, Slam, and The NuyorAsian Anthology. She currently works as the Arts-In-Education director of The Asian American Writers` Workshop.
Beau Sia (TOTALCHINK) is a Chinese American boy, born in the year of the Dragon. He is the author of a Night Without Armor II: The Revenge (MouthAlmighty Books), he has a spoken word album called Attack! Attack! Go! (MouthAlmighty/Mercury Records), is featured in the films Slam and Slam Nation, has had his poetry appear during ESPN`s 2000 Winter X-Games, is a member of two national poetry slam championship teams, and he loves to play guitar.
Taiyo Takeda Ebato (taiyo807) is a nisei and nosei poet born and raised all around downtown Manhattan. He is a 2001 Youth Speaks New York slam team member and has performed at various venues onthe East Coast. He can be found workstudying at NYU`s A/P/A Studies or runningpoetry workshops for youth in the Bronx.
Nancy Yap (botanricecandy) is a Chinese Filipino activist that was born and raised in the Cleveland area. She is the current bookstore manager at the Asian American Writers` Workshop, a non-profit organization dedicated to Asian American literary arts. She has organized numerous readings, concerts, and workshops in the New York City area such as Asian American Bandstand, East Coast Asian Student Union, and small group discussions that tackletopics such as race, gender, and class.
A Pilipino/Pilipino-American, Tim Arevalo has calledManila, Oakland, Daly City, and now Brooklyn his home. He has worked with YouthSpeaks - a non-profit youth arts organization - co-facillitating writing workshops, peer mentoring, and coaching the first New York City youth poetry slam team that took part of the National Youth Poetry Slam in San Francisco of April, 2000. He is featured in the film Poetic License and is published in the anthology Revolutionary Voices (Alyson Press, 2000).
Julie Hyun Jung Hwang is a Korean American spoken word poetess and activist. She is the coordinator for the New York branch Korea Exposure and Education Program (KEEP). KEEP has organized community forums on MaehYanri bombing range in Korea and militarized sex slaves. Currently, Julie is working on a creative workshop for Korean American youth in Flushing and is a medical student at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Kai Ma is a Korean-Amerikan poet and activist from Los Angeles, currently living in Brooklyn and dreaming big for Mexico, Chile and the stars. She is working on a documentary on racial Amerikan experience and narrative, and helps teach writing workshops for Asian American youth. She has been published in Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies and recipient of the 1999 Dolores Huerta Writing Award in Free Form.
Helen Yum is a Korean American from California now attending the Columbia University Graduate School of Social Work She has worked as a psychotherapist, a play therapist, and advocate for immigrant women and children. Helen has been featured at the Gathering of the Tribes and is a regular at various open mic venues throughout New York City.