Franny Choi's Blog, page 5

Mid-Atlantic Tour Recap!

Ok, so updating this blog while on tour didn’t work out quite so well as I hoped. So here’s a recap:

I had a blast at Kollaboration DC, where I was a guest performer along with last year’s winner, G Yamazawa. Though all the red carpet pizzazz was a little too glam for my octopussy (heh heh) tendencies, it was great to see so much APIA talent in one room. Kudos to winner Dave Yoon who basically broke everyone’s hearts into tiny pieces. (Koreans, man. Gotta love em.) It felt particularly profound to perform “POPgoesKOREA” in a room where so many people had had close interactions with the Kpop system. It was ten times scarier to critique that system, but damn it felt good for people to come up to me afterwards and say, “You’re right. I was there.” Shuddertown!

A few nights later, I got to share the stage with some stellar-ass DC poets, including Pages Matam, Sarah Lawson, G (again), Adele Hampton, and Drew Law at a fundraiser show to help send Pages to IWPS. What a beautiful man. So many bowties. So many poems.

Then I featured at two Busboys & Poets venues. Hot damn! DC might be the only city in the U.S. with a truly sustainable spoken word poetry circuit. And it’s all due to one entrepreneur dude who happens to love poetry. There are like a billion venues that sell out every night of the week. What the f? I mean I know the revolution will not be funded but… it’s hard out here, yall. And better that that money goes to poetry than some other stuff, right? I don’t know. Late night questions for me and the ceiling fan to work out.

Anyway, then it was back up to Philly for a workshop at the Asian Arts Institute, where I got to hang with a bunch of awesome middle schoolers. What a dope org. Thank goodness for games like one-word story and watermelon. I forgot how much middle schoolers need to blow off steam after school. In case you don’t know, it’s a LOT.

That night, I featured at The Pigeon, which is definitely one of the most live, packed shows in the country, I think. I love seeing a room of people who are excited about hearing poems. And a host who says “I will boo you if you get up here and say some racist, homophobic, sexist, ableist, or classist shit.” Respect x 100000000000.

Oh, and then Kiss Punch Poem. Hell yeah. Jared Singer makes my heart come alive. Olivia Gatwood and Thomas Fucaloro made everything perfect. And improv (good improv) is so damn impressive it makes me cry. ATTENTION POETS: THIS IS A FUN THING TO DO. YOU SHOULD DO IT.

NEXT UP: West Coast Tour! See dates here!

 

 

 

 

Mid-Atlantic Mini-Tour!

Today was the first day of my mini-tour of Philly and DC! I headed down to Philly for my first stop, a feature at The Fuze: Philadelphia Poetry Slam. Highlights of the bus ride included my new inflatable travel pillows (no one else seems to be as excited as I am about these) and scarfing down super sloppy homemade California rolls while squeezed between two dudes. (Lowlights included having to pay $20 for a new ticket after I missed my bus from NYC, but f*ck the lowlights [and f*ck Greyhound].)

Big ups to the folks at the slam tonight. The open mic and slam were fantastic. The more of these shows I do, the harder I believe in small poetry communities. It’s pretty wild how you can go to so many different venues across the country and find the same love in every place. People with feelings and ideas coming together once a week to listen to each other talk? Instead of tweeting or Facebooking or Instagramming each other? That’s so beautiful I can’t even stand it. So beautiful it doesn’t even matter what the “quality” of poems is like.

Next stop is DC, where I’ll be a guest performer at Kollaboration DC. Can’t wait to kick it with some talented-ass APIAs.

Let’s all agree we won’t be too disappointed if I fall off updating this blog this week. But also agree that we’ll congratulate me if I do. Cool? Cool.

Write Bloody Contest Video

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUi-WP...]

After a year of learning, loving, and writing, I am again a finalist for the Write Bloody Manuscript Contest. If I’m chosen as one of the contest’s winners, I’ll get a book deal with a dope indie press that specializes in publishing and promoting performance poets. Which gives me lots of prickly feelings every time I think about.
 
I finally sent in my manuscript (a scratched-up, labored-over, many-times-reincarnated little beast) earlier this month. But, as I said, Write Bloody publishes poets who can also give stellar performances of their work, so part of the contest is to submit a YouTube video-poem. 
 
If you’ve already had a chance to peep my poem, thank you! If not, I would be so grateful if you could take a moment to watch the video, like it on the YouTube page, and pass it on.
 
Thanks for believing in my work!
 
In love & solidarity,
FC

13/30: flower boys

i.

in between songs on the radio, all four engines in the car

pause to laugh at the flowers, all their flambuoyant joy.

buzz fiercely over one another to drive out the murky

underbelly of everyone’s insecurities, blossomed into

jokes. the pleasure of friction, of throwing each other’s

manhood under the wheels. of grinding the nectar into

powder to make everyone sneeze out their fears.

ii.

at thanksgiving: a fat red-eyed bulldog named princess

drools in the corner while family friends toss doubt

about someone’s love interest. something funny about

him. everyone accepts this as indecent, the flowers

with their stamens winking in the breeze. they all

up end choosing a side. carving the flesh with their

teeth, hyenas cackling over something rotting.

iii.

in the auditorium, a drone of laughter erupts at the

backhanded beheading of the lilies. i sit, squirming,

praying the thousand searchlights won’t catch me

with my mouth full of honeysuckles. or praying

they will– that is, praying i’ll have the strength to be

a venus fly trap, act sweet and sticky to lure their

pollen before i swallow all their jokes whole.

—

see: flower boys of south korea