Category: Poetry

Ode B’kongofon
Hafez Modirzadeh Ensemble

Post author By hoisanpoet
Post date May 2, 2022
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Hafez Modirzadeh Ensemble

Thursday, May 12 – 7:30pm

Bird & Beckett Books & Records

653 Chenery Street, San Francisco, CA 94131

With B’kongofonic blood at the saxophonic root, well below surface engraving, resonating within its alloy, sounds are gathering to invoke a heroic people: kongo as “gathering”, a Central African people’s homeland; fon as “sound”, a West African people’s language; B’ referring to all “peoples” along the resistance continuum. Hear ye, the animating force of a strange horn sanctified!

Genny Lim – poetry, invocation
Hafez Modirzadeh – kongofon, assorted winds
Francis Wong – kongofon, assorted winds
John-Carlos Perea – electric bass, cedar flute, vocals
Keshav Batish – drums, tabla

Genny Lim and the ensemble perform Modirzadeh’s epic poem, Ode B’kongofon.

$25 cash cover charge; byob and a mask (optional if vaccinated)

birdbeckett.com

Tags Bird & Beckett, Francis Wong, Hafez Modirzadeh, John-Carlos Perea, Keshav Batish, Ode B’kongofon

Music Performance Poetry

SFJAZZ Poetry Festival 2018 with Genny Lim

Post author By hoisanpoet
Post date April 5, 2018
No Comments on SFJAZZ Poetry Festival 2018 with Genny Lim

Thursday, April 5th – Sunday, April 8, 2018, Joe Henderson Lab

Curated by SFJAZZ Poet Laureate Genny Lim, the 2018 Wordology Festival featured “the greatest poets of the Bay Area and beyond, centered on the concept of ‘wordology.’”

Web Gallery

Genny Lim and Francis Wong at SFJazz Poetry Festival 2018

“I want poets to… let go of their concept of how the poem is supposed to be, to surrender to the spirit of improvisation, so the poem can breathe and become a whole new poem.”
GENNY LIM

This year’s festival is bookended by two illustrious poets: on opening night, former California poet laureate Al Young, whom Lim calls “the Duke Ellington of letters,” and who is the much-honored author of 22 books of various genres; and, playing piano at the closing matinee, Ishmael Reed (“just a lion—a political satirist, a playwright, an essayist,” says Lim).
In between is a multicultural and multigenerational lineup of poets, rappers, spoken-word artists and jazz musicians, many among them part of San Francisco’s underground arts scene, many of them social activists as well: Arlene Biala with musician Brittany Biala; Royal Kent with Copus Multimedia (his duo with composer/pianist Wendy Loomis); also Paul Flores, Tongo Eisen-Martin, QR Hand, novelist and hip-hop artist Aya De Leon, Tony Robles, rapper Equipto, the musical ensemble the Broun Fellinis, “drum strategist” Marshall Trammel and saxophonist Francis Wong. The festival includes a tribute to Charles Mingus and Native American sax player Jim Pepper.
Poetry and Jazz Make a Harmonic Hybrid by JEAN SCHIFFMAN, sfarts.org

Poetry Reading

Conversations at the Wartime Cafe: A Decade of War 2001-2011

Post author By hoisanpoet
Post date November 3, 2011

Reading and signing. 30 writers marking the 10th year of the War on Terror.

Genny reads her poems, “Revoked,” “Resurrection from Egypt to Wall Street,” “Exile,” “37 Practices of a Bodhisattva,” “This is My Country,” “Life is a Riff” and “The People’s Prayer” at the DNA Lounge, 375 Eleventh Street, San Francisco.

Genny Lim’s reading – Conversations at the Wartime Cafe: a Decade of War 2001-2011

The book, Conversations at the Wartime Cafe: a Decade of War 2001-2011 is an anthology of poetry, fiction, memoir, journalism, and essays.

Conversations at the Wartime Cafe @ DNA Lounge

Thursday, November 3

6:30pm – midnight.

all ages.

$5.

Tags Conversations at the Wartime Cafe, DNA Lounge

Poetry

Bohemian Universe (2009)

Post author By hoisanpoet
Post date November 23, 2009

"Language of the Birds," site specific sculpture by Brian Goggin and Dorka Keehn. Photo by Andi Wong. 2016.

Genny recited her poem, “Bohemian Universe,” at the dedication ceremony for Brian Goggin’s and Dorka Keehn’s site specific sculpture, “Language of the Birds,” on the corner of Columbus and Broadway, on Sunday November 23, 2009.

Published in The Semaphore, Winter 2009, a publication of the Telegraph Hill Dwellers,

Tags Bohemian Universe, Genny Lim, Language of the Birds, North Beach, poetry, public art, Telegraph Hill Dwellers, The Semaphore

Poetry Reading

The Poetry Center: Q. R. Hand Jr., Genny Lim, and Juan Felipe Herrera (February 24, 1983)

Post author By hoisanpoet
Post date February 24, 1983

The Poetry Center presents poets Q. R. Hand Jr., Genny Lim, and Juan Felipe Herrera, presenting their poetry at the South of Market Cultural Center (subsequently SOMArts), San Francisco. Hand and Lim each read solo from their work, and Herrera is joined in his performance by Troca, a Bay Area grupo featuring a mix of percussion, bass, and guitar. The poets, who each offer extended sets, are introduced by Poetry Center director Jim Hartz, who thanks poet Wilfredo Castaño of the South of Market Cultural Center, along with the San Francisco Arts Commission, for the community-centered collaboration with The Poetry Center.

Genny Lim, two poems, Feb 24 1983 at South of Market Cultural Center — The Poetry Center

Link to FULL PROGRAM VIDEO at DIVA San Francisco State University Poetry Center Digital Archives

Genny Lim reads two poems: “She sits in a slip, mirror in hand….” and “A Woman’s Room” (noted as “a poem for Virginia Woolf”), on February 24, 1983, at the South of Market Cultural Center (now SOMArts), on a program organized by The Poetry Center, San Francisco State University. Featured besides Lim on this historic full-program video are extended performances by fellow San Francisco poets Q. R. Hand Jr. and Juan Felipe Herrera. The video-still depicts Lim drawing the Chinese character for “woman.”

Tags Jim Hartz, Juan Felipe Herrera, Q.R. Hand Jr., SOMArts, The Poetry Center