Last weekend Saturday Dec.9, Irene Suico Soriano & R. Zamora Linmark debuted their new poetry books, Primates from an Archipelago and Pop Verite at the Pilipino Workers Center (PWC) in the Historic Filipinotown district of Los Angeles. The art event was more than a poetry reading, and involved visual art, dance and music for the audience. The PWC community meeting hall had every seat filled and displayed art on walls while complimentary wine was offered with delicious vegan fusion Pilipino snacks (ie. matcha bibinka, and pumpkin puto) by Kabute Catering.
“Primates… is a haunting and powerful collection of poems that weaves the tormented and violent history of the Filipino people into every poem. Irene Suico Sorano memorializes, pay homage, salvages. She celebrates her many communities by telling their stories, bearing witness to their struggles and sorrows-she adds their dreams and their suffering to the public record…” writes fellow writer Jennifer Tseng.
R. Zamora Linmark is the author of novels, Leche and Rolling the R’s. In his collection of poems “Pop Verite Linmark rightly honors our appetites: for art, sex, travel, excitement and serenity. Each poem is a celebratory cultural synthesis, an inclusive manifesto of how to live and love as a true global citizen right this minute,” writes poet Amy Gerstler.
Photographer Nica Aquino discussed her art especially drawing attention her multimedia video piece serving as memorial to her brother in the Philippines, an innocent victim to President Duterte’s war on drugs. The cover of Soriano’s book was drawn from a piece by Tala Oliver Matero who also displayed other works at PWC that evening. Tina Ford, a dancer, performed as well as singer Jenny San Angel and musician Jonathan Saxon. A portion of the events sales was donated to AT-CHOO Foundation for special needs and senior animals that enter our LA shelters.
KITAKITS was co-sponsored by: Pilipino Workers Center, UCLA Asian American Studies Department, UCLA English Department, UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies, AAPI Dialogues at UCLA, UCLA LGBT Campus Resource Center, Art for Animals’ Sake, TULA Southern California Poetry Network, KAYA Press, Center for Art & Thought, and PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellowship Program