"Breathe. Breathe," the woman speaks into the mic as the woman standing beside her begins singing a Korean folk song. The melody is hypnotic. A silence descends upon the audience like a blanket.
I heard feedBACK — a New York based Asian American performance poetry troupe — for the first time at the ECASU (East Coast Asian Students Union) conference in Columbia University. Two of the eight poets, Kai Ma and Ishle Park, were performing a collaboratively written poem on Korean comfort women, who were forced to serve in traveling brothels for Japanese soldiers during World War II. The subjects of other pieces in feedBACK's repertoire range from sexuality to family life to assimilation.
Voicing unheard stories lies at the heart of their poems: the group formed to "speak the words that need to be spoken." These are words that need to be spoken and heard on this campus, not only as part of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, but to continue and enrich the dialogue on race and culture. The incorporation of multiple speakers, musical accompaniment, body movement, and threads of hip hop and salsa in their performance poetry breathes energy and innovation. Their rawness and eclectic language seek to topple myths and misconceptions on Asian America.
Musician Mas Yamagata, activist Nancy Yap travel, and poets Tim Arevalo, Kai Bhyul Ma, Chia-Ti Chiu, Taiyo Takeda Ebato, Julie Hyun Jung Hwang, Ishle Yi Park, Omar Telan and Helen Yum have toured and performed at college campuses and coffeehouses throughout the east coast.
feedBACK has also provided a means for collecting and celebrating the stories and voices of Asian Pacific America's with the creation of monthly open mic nights known as (re)collection at The Asian American Writers' Workshop in midtown. They also teach Asian American Literature and writing workshops at New York City schools through the "Poetry: Brought to you by the Letter A" program.
feedBACK will be performing at the Murray Dodge Café this tonight at 8 p.m. Admission is free.
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