If I were to list those people I consider prophets of my generation, Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai would be near the top of my list. An incredibly accomplished Chinese/Taiwanese American spoken word artist / author/ choreographer / multi-media producer Kelly just put out her latest video project BLACK, WHITE, WHATEVER on Youtube and Facebook. It's a timely call demanding that the presidential candidates acknowledge that the mosaic of the US population is composed of more than just black and white pieces.
I was privileged to share in some of the early days of Kelly's journey as an artist and an activist. We went to school together starting in 5th grade and became good friends in high school. I was able to get a front row seat at some of her earliest forays into performance poetry - facilitated by our beloved English teacher and forensics coach Mr. Sampson. (I also played the secretary/treasurer role during her tenure as class president). Several years ago I got to see Kelly perform at a theater festival in Chicago and have followed her work online ever since.
While it's truly incredible to see how far she has come so fast - it's not surprising in the least.
3 comments:
I tried watching it here, and on youtube, but without success. Can you still see it?
Hi G. I was able to access it last night - not sure if being outside of the US it is a different url (there are a number of US video feeds that I can't access her). Try link on my Facebook profile.
Thanks. I'll try again!
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