Poetics of Solidarity

Inspired by Nina Simone’s assertion that “an artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times,” local poets share original works that reflect the heartbreaking, devastating, and hopeful moment we are in.   

With ASHA, Chinaka Hodge, Genny Lim, Michael Warr, and Chun Yu. Moderated by D. Scot Miller.

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  ASHA

  ASHA is an artist, educator, and poet who strives to use art to create radical change. She has been profiled by KQED Arts and Content Magazine and frequently speaks and presents her work at poetry events and rallies for civil and human rights across the Bay Area. Her TEDx talk tells her own story of identity through poetry. For her work supporting Black youth, ASHA received the Hank Hutchins award from the Santa Clara County Alliance of Black Educators. ASHA consistently uses her platform to speak out against injustice and to speak up for those who have been marginalized and silenced for centuries.

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  Chinaka Hodge

  Oakland-born poet and screenwriter Chinaka Hodge received her B.A. from NYU and M.F.A. from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. She is a senior fellow at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, serves on the advisory board of Headlands Center for the Arts in Marin, and has been recognized as one of KQED’s Women to Watch. Her 2016 book of poems, “Dated Emcees,” was the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association’s Book of the Year and was nominated for the Northern California Book Award. As a screenwriter, her credits include Jason Katims’s “Rise,” TNT’s “Snowpiercer,” and Steven Spielberg’s Apple+ project, “Amazing Stories.”

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  Genny Lim

  Genny Lim is San Francisco Jazz Poet Laureate emeritus. Her most recent poetry-music collaboration, “Don’t Shoot! Requiem in Black,” dedicated to Black Lives Matter, premiered at SF Jazz Center in April 2018 with percussionist Marshall Trammell, saxophonist Francis Wong, and rapper Equipto. Lim’s award-winning play, “Paper Angels,” was the first Asian American play to air on PBS’s “American Playhouse” in 1985 and has been produced throughout the U.S., Canada, and China. She is the author of five poetry collections and co-author of “Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island,” winner of the American Book Award.

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  Michael Warr

  Michael Warr’s books include “Of Poetry and Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin” and “The Armageddon of Funk, We Are All The Black Boy.” In 2017, he was named a San Francisco Library Laureate. Other honors include a Creative Work Fund award, PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature, Black Caucus of the American Library Association Award, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. His poetry is translated into Mandarin as part of his “Two Languages / One Community” project in collaboration with Chun Yu. Warr is the former deputy director of the Museum of the African Diaspora.

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  Chun Yu

  Chun Yu grew up in China and moved to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. in biomaterials from Rutgers University. She is the author of the award-winning book “LITTLE GREEN: Growing Up During the Chinese Cultural Revolution” and a contributor to the anthology “Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace,” edited by Maxine Hong Kingston. Her poetry collection in English and Chinese won a San Francisco Arts Commission Cultural Equity Grant. Her project in collaboration with Michael Warr,“Two Languages/One Community,” brings together Chinese American and African American communities in poetry and storytelling. Her current projects include a poetry collection and two graphic novels.