IWP Residents Perform at Pittsburgh Jazz-Poetry Concert

Text on screen: “On Sept. 8, 2013, Sridala Sami & Jiaxin Wang, performed at the City of Asylum’s Jazz Poetry Concert as part of their residency at the International Writing Program (IWP).”

Jiaxin Wang, International Writing Program Resident Performing Poetry:

Speaking in Mandarin with English text on the screen behind him

“Last night I set down the word ‘snow’. Today, from the sky over the city, it’s falling.”

“Before, in America, I did my poems in Chinese first. Then, my translator would read my poems in translation. But this time it is very special. I have no translator. First I read my poems in Chinese, then the musician sing my poems in English. So this time is very special.”

Text on screen: “Wang & Sridala traveled to Pittsburgh from the University of Iowa, the host of their 10-week intensive International Writing Program (IWP).”

Sridala Swami, International Writing Program Resident Performing “Redacted Poetry”

Reciting a poem: “You have one book with you. It is your lifeline because you are in a now in a place with no means of communication. There is only this book and your one chance of speaking to the world is through the words in it. So you compose your message in your head.

Text on screen: “The International Writing Program at the University of Iowa brings writers together for three months of writing, conversation, and community outreach, such as the Pittsburgh Jazz Poetry Concert.”

We’ve just been about 10 days into it. I feel really close to some of the writers, I feel there so many pending conversations. So a lot of the poets we meet every Wednesdays at 5 so that we can share our work with each other and we can talk about, you know, one poets work that we really like. We’ve talked about our experiences  of being from  certain countries, of certain parts of the world, and our histories and our shared colonial pasts and, you know, how that affects our writing. How we will live in this world and write in it today.”

Musical refrain.