On Wednesday, September 25th, students gathered in the CAPA symposium to watch the live virtual launch of the New Poetry Anthology Series: We the Gathered Heat: Asian American and Pacific Islander Poetry, Performance, and Spoken Word. The editors of the Anthology include four celebrated Asian and Pacific Islander poets: Bao Phi, Noʻu Revilla, Terisa Siagatonu, and Bennington’s own Franny Choi.
Phi is a long-time performance poet, a two-time Minnesota Grand Slam champion and a National Poetry Slam finalist. Revilla, not in attendance at the launch, is an Ōiwi poet, educator, and recipient of the 2021 National Poetry Series and 2023 Balcones Prize. Siagatonu is a poet, teaching artist, mental health educator, and community leader devoted to her Pacific Islander community. Choi is currently a professor of literature at Bennington College, and the author of several poetry books. She is also the poet laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts.
The creation of the Anthology began in 2020, after Choi was asked if she would edit an anthology highlighting AAPI poetry, specifically spoken word and slam poetry. Choi then brought in Phi, as well as Siagatonu. A little later, Revilla joined the team. During the question and answer portion, Choi spoke about her and Phi’s learning process of Pacific Islander representation, growing to put the burden of that representation not just on Siagatonu and Revilla’s shoulders but also take it upon themselves.
The launch began with an introduction by Phi and Siagatonu. Both poets expressed their heavy hearts at the execution of Marcellus Williams and the continued genocide in Palestine, and the competing emotions this gave them being at the launch. Siagotuno stated the importance of artistic communities saying that she “can always go where the poets are.” They discussed emphasis on spoken word and oral tradition throughout the collection and spoke of the importance of oral traditions in AAPI culture.
After an introduction, poets from the Anthology were introduced. The first poet up was George Abraham, a Palestinian poet, memoirist, and recipient of the Arab American Book Award for their 2020 book, Birthright. Instead of reading their poem from the Anthology, George instead chose to present a hijacked version of another poem in the anthology “Virginia” because as they put it “there are no more normal poems in this time.” They titled their version of the poem “Israel.”
The next poet to read was Sham-e-Ali Nayeem, an author of one poetry book and two musical albums as well as a recovering social justice lawyer with Hyderabadi Muslim roots. Nayeem started off with an acknowledgement of George’s statements and said she would like to read George’s poem, but they encouraged her to read her own, so she read a poem from the Anthology titled “Show Us your Papers.”
After Nayeem, Nicola Andrews, a poet and university librarian of Māori and Pākehā descent read her poem, “Decolonization against the Transcription Algorithm.” She also spoke about how, as a librarian, a book like We the Gathered Heat is the kind of title she tries to make sure are on shelves.
After Andrews read, Siagatonu read “someone praise poem in the key of diaspora” followed by Phi’s powerful performance of his poem “Alternate Reality.” After Phi and Siagatonu, Saba Kermati, author of Self-Mythology, selected by Patricia Smith for the Miller Williams Poetry Series, read her poem, about feeling alive in a community of poets, which is the last poem in the Anthology.
The final reader was David Mura, a poet and writer with a decades long history of activism and encouragement of POC art. His most recent book is The Stories Whiteness Tells Itself. Phi introduced Mura with an obvious deep admiration and respect for his career and his activism. Mura read his poem “Why Bruce Lee is Sad” inspired by a New York Times Article about a supposedly depressed fish named Bruce Lee.
We the Gathered Heat is available for purchase from the Haymarket Books website and may also become available in the Bennington bookstore soon.
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