Salon for Artistic Experimentation, May edition

We had a second Salon for Artistic Experimentation! This time there was an even wider range of experiments than before, with some returning folks and some newbies. Also the snacks were pretty diverse (including chocolatey homerun balls, banana flavored crunchies, sea creature puffs, and also hummus).

Here are the experiments we experienced and brainstormed about:

4321 project What are 4 books that changed your life? 3 songs that make you want to dance? 2 people you love dearly? 1 memory you’ll never forget? What would it be like to have an online archive of semi-anonymous profiles like this?

Skin-to-skin synth Suppose you could trigger digital sounds just by making skin contact with another person. How would you choreograph a relationship between movement, touch, and sound? What about childhood hand-clapping games like slide and pattycake?

Dancing words She moves her left leg; I say “potato!” She tilts her head; you say “banana!” The performer’s specifc movements cue an audience to say different words. The result is a cacophony of language and movement. How do they interact?

Conference with no humans Who… or what attends this event, inspired by the “non-human turn” in philosophy? What can they say and do? What kind of catering do robots like? Can the keynote address be given by a sock? What is the role of humans if they do attend?

Selfie Prints How does social media amplify and transform the presentation of identity? Can we tell a story about the life of a teenager through artifacts, digital and physical, private and public, presented as art prints?

Re-imagining the solo gallery show What experiences can we create in a gallery? Will people buy zines or other swag? Can the artist attend their own show in another persona? How to combine art prints, sculptural objects and live performance in the same space?

We’ll hold salons on the third friday of each month. The next one is Friday June 20th. What experiment will you bring?

Also, snacks.

April 18, 2014 SALON FOR ARTISTIC EXPERIMENTATION

What do these have in common?

• an interactive projection that lets you draw with light on the wall by moving your body
• an orchestra of iphones making shimmering sounds as you shake them
• a detailed print of an empty apartment after a party
• a question about the transformation of space with light
• an LED array filling the room with pinks and purples and greens, in sync with piano melodies
• a spoken word piece performed by a group in robot voice
• an improvisation game of singing emergent harmonies while lying on the floor

They're all artistic experiments! These were the experiences we shared at the first ever Salon for Artistic Experimentation, held at EMW on April 18, 2014. Artists, musicians, and writers gathered for a pot luck dinner, and then for the next two hours took turns sharing, critiquing and brainstorming. It was exciting to bring together such a mixed group of people and experiments. And even more importantly we were able to create a safe space for extended creative conversations about artistic work in progress.

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April 11, 2014 EAST MEETS WORDS OPEN MIC FEATURING: JESS X CHEN & PAUL TRAN

Poster credit: Jess X. Chen

Hey hey! This April's open mic came out with a lil Pacific Northwest twist, with Iris and I MC'ing the event, and my longtime friend Jess X Chen and my newtime friend Paul Tran featuring their poetry, shadow theater, and film.

Photo credit: Ye Eun Jeong

Open mic participants came through with honesty and courage, like Ricky (above) performing spoken word on gambling addiction and body positivity, and Tomas sharing his poetry for the first time. There was also an interesting moment when someone did a stand-up routine that turned out kinda racist. Though the audience remained disapprovingly silent for his bit, everyone clapped for the guts it takes for someone to go up on stage and tell jokes, and that person stayed for the remainder of the night. That was one of the realest moments I've experienced at EMW: witnessing a community hold one of its own accountable for making mistakes in a way that wasn't about punishment and telling someone to GTFO, but about believing that people can do better.*

Vulnerability and accountability. These themes resonated with me as Jess and Paul turned off the house lights and immersed the audience in their intimate, visually haunting set, sharing their poetry on the effects of war/trauma/colonization on the body/mind/earth. How are our abuse of the land to the abuse of a body to the abuse of a nation's people all interrelated? How do we come to die? Who kills us? How do we come to survive? And what does survival look like?

Jess and Paul's set opened with a screening of #1 BEAUTY NAIL SALON.

Whether or not Jess and Paul intended for that train of thought to go in that direction, that was what was going on in my headspace that night. Just as extraordinary as it was to witness Jess and Paul's immense talent and intellect, it was also wonderful to see the audience breathe and sigh in understanding, bearing a kind of collective testimony to the histories that often remain silenced.

So what did survival look like that night? I saw a community come together to receive difficult truths with grace. I saw a community that, even despite struggle, could laugh and celebrate.

Photo credit: Ye Eun Jeong

Photo credit: Ye Eun Jeong

Photo credit: Ye Eun Jeong

Next month, Franny Choi will be featuring with her new book of poetry, Floating Brilliant Gone, whose cover art is done by Jess. Come by 934 Mass Ave on Friday, May 9th! * For further reading, I recommend Ngoc Loan Tran's article, Calling IN: A Less Disposal Way of Holding Each Other Accountable on Black Girl Dangerous.

East Meets Words 9th Anniversary and Silent Auction

Hey fam! It's Amanda, one of the organizers, along with Evelyn, of the silent auction for East Meets Words' 9th anniversary open mic.

Since this was our first time organizing this fundraiser, Evelyn and I were a little nervous but we soon found out that we really did not need to worry. When we asked the community to show up and donate their time and resources to the space, the community came OUT! We auctioned off beautiful prints and artwork by Jeffrey, Rich, and Christopher Huang; poetry and cypher 101 workshops by artist in residence Kai; flavor Bible culinary lessons by Evelyn; DJ and photography lessons by Kongo, and much, much more.

As the night continued with poetry and music, hilarious and heartfelt messages from folks attending in spirit, and origin stories and future plans for the bookstore, I reflected upon how much this monthly open mic means to me. As a young person trying to make sense of this world, I'm coming to understand how rare it is to find community and creative spaces centered around Asian American experiences. It's not every day that we can come into a space that invites us to be vulnerable, to be real. This is a space that I hope we continue to nurture and care for, just as how it has nurtured and cared for us.

Shout out and love to all those who came to support us with their generosity, creativity, and conscious energy. I hope to see you in many future months.