Activism Feminism Mentors Musings Poetry Work

Asian American Literature Festival 2024 Keynote Address

Chinese Culture Center San Francisco, California September 14, 2024 Nellie Wong If art cannot engage with life, it has no future —Ai Weiwei The literature, poetry, art, songs of Asian America sail and float throughout the cosmos, indeed on earth through workers’ hands, their compassion, survivors’ instincts, their respect for the living and the dead, for permanent revolution, our communal search for bread and roses, for beauty. Our voices may tremble or shout, murmur, somersault,…

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Activism Feminism Movies Reviews

Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space

A Movie Review by Nellie Wong | February 2024 “A woman by herself is a beautiful thing,” intones the narrator of Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space, a two-hour documentary produced in 2023 by PBS for the American Experience series. This vibrant film speaks well about a heretofore under-recognized anthropologist, playwright, novelist, and researcher. The viewer sees Hurston “claim her space” by doing the work she wanted to do: to tell the stories of Black…

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Feminism Mentors Poetry Recording The Memory Palace Work

Ironing, Ironing

IRONING, IRONING (For Tillie Olsen) Like a drunken fool I pick out the wrinkles linen and shirt, the foam-green dress, the black, long sleeve T and I drink ice cold glasses of lemon tea as the temperature lingers at 90 plus degrees. When I ironed as a 12-year old, I listened to the radio. Imogene Coco and Sid Caesar battled in their boisterous humor, the Lone Ranger and his faithful companion, Tonto, rode in clouds…

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