Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, on spoken word.

Here's an archived interview that I just came across of an Gothamist Interview with Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, spoken word artist and fellow member of the 3f diaspora.

Some highlights:

"Whenever I’m talking to people about poetry I’m basically working off a couple definitions. The first definition is that poetry is in a rhythm, so every person’s poetry should be different because every person’s rhythm is different - our rhythm is informed by our lives. The other definition I go by is poetry is about the words and it’s about order...


"I’m finishing up a play right now that’s called “Murder the Machine” that focuses on a group of young people in Chicago between 2003-2004. Living in Chicago in the post-9/11 society, I saw things I never thought I’d see. In the play, I’m trying to document the events that touch on the fear and the anxiety that exist after 9/11, things like the E2 nightclub tragedy or the police response to the anti-war protests that shut down Lakeshore Drive. That was just really intense heavy stuff that changed the way I looked at myself, the way I looked at what was going on in our community."