Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai
Spoken Word
Presenting:
Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, Spoken Word Artist
On participating in Vagina Festival 2008:
My performance will be a 20 minute spoken word performance that will integrate live performance as well as one of my spoken word videos that showcases the marriage of spoken word and a short film format. The poems will range from discussing issues of womanhood, race, culture, activism, and using creative means to respond to violence in our communities.
About Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai:
As a Chicago teen in the early 90's, I was introduced to spoken word via local legends at Chicago's Uptown Poetry Slam (often credited as the birthplace of the international poetry slam movement). Since then, the single greatest influence upon my work has been my cumulative exposure to thousands of grassroots spoken word artists from salmon fishers in Vancouver to would-be actors in L.A. to driving salesmen in Albuquerque. It has been their infinite methods of making sense of syllables, sound, and experience that has shaped the power of my voice as an American-born Chinese Taiwanese female of the hip hop generation. Now, based in Brooklyn, I am proud to be a part of the legacy and tradition of spoken word carved out by critical voices of color in New York's five boroughs. I understand my work as a spoken word artist as the catalyst for activating hearts, minds, spirits, and guts to flipping the script on the historical inequities of our world."
Spoken word artist Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai has been featured in 300 performances worldwide at venues including the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, the House of Blues, the Apollo Theater, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and three seasons of the award-winning "Russell Simmons Presents HBO Def Poetry." The author of Inside Outside Outside Inside (2004) and Thought Crimes (2005) and the CD Infinity Breaks (2006), Tsai has shared stages with Mos Def, KRS-One, Sonia Sanchez, Erykah Badu, Amiri Baraka, and many more. Her poetry has also appeared in We Don't Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists (Inner Ocean 2006, We Got Issues! A Young Woman's Guide to a Bold, Courageous Empowered Life (Seal 2007), and The Spoken Word Revolution Redux (Sourcebooks 2007).
Contact: booking@yellowgurl.com
Website: www.yellowgurl.com
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