In celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month the Santa Clara City Library is thrilled to have celebrated poet and author Bao Phi in discussion with SCCL librarian Danny Le, as a part of this webinar series for the month of May.
A two-time Minnesota Grand Slam champion and a National Poetry Slam finalist, Bao Phi has appeared on HBO Presents Russell Simmons Def Poetry, featured in the live performances and taping of the blockbuster diasporic Vietnamese variety show Paris By Night 114: Tôi Là Người Việt Nam, and a poem of his appeared in the 2006 Best American Poetry anthology. His poems and essays are widely published in numerous publications including Screaming Monkeys and Spoken Word Revolution Redux. He has also released several CDs of his poetry, such as Refugeography and The Nguyens EP. A short story of his, Revolution Shuffle, appeared in the anthology Octavia’s Brood: Stories from Social Justice Movements, AK Press, 2015, and an essay of his was included in the anthology A Good Time for the Truth, edited by Sun Yung Shin, Minnesota Historical Society Press.
He has performed in venues and schools across the country, from the Nuyorican Poets Café to the University of California, Berkeley. He was featured in the award-winning documentary feature film The Listening Project as an American listener who traveled the world to talk to every day people about global issues and politics.
The spoken word series he created at the Loft Literary Center, Equilibrium, won the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits Anti-Racism Initiative Award.
His first collection of poetry, Sông I Sing, published by Coffee House Press, was met with strong sales, is taught in classrooms across the United States, and enjoyed rave reviews, including the New York Times which stated “In this song of his very American self, every poem Mr. Phi writes rhymes with the truth.” In 2012, the Star Tribune’s inaugural Best of Minnesota issue named Bao Phi as Best Spoken Word Artist.
His second collection of poems, Thousand Star Hotel, was published by Coffee House Press on July 5, 2017, of which the Chicago Review of Books wrote “this is a different kind of poetry, a volume written by an experienced orator who understands how to tell a story.
His first children’s book, A Different Pond, illustrated by Thi Bui, was published by Capstone Press in August of 2017. A Different Pond earned six starred reviews, a Caldecott Honor, as well as the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer and New Illustrator Honors, The Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, Booklist Editor’s Choice, a Hornbook Fanfare book, and was named among the best books of the year by Kirkus, Washington Post, Huffington Post, The Boston Globe, School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and many others.
His second children’s book, My Footprints, illustrated by Basia Tran, was also published by Capstone, in 2019. In a starred review, the School Library Journal called it “a timeless and important book that deals with the fallout of bullying and the power of a child’s imagination to overcome with the strength and support of a loving family”.
Sign ups are free through EventBrite.
www.baophi.com
www.sclibrary.org
Sponsored by the Santa Clara City Library Foundation & Friends.
