Join Brooklyn Public Library in elevating the voices of AAPI community organizations, authors, and the library in solidarity with our Asian American & Pacific Islander communities. This event will highlight the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund and give clear action items for participants seeking to combat hate in our community and grow in allyship. The afternoon program will be one in a series of BPL programs this summer standing against racism. It will be in held with social distancing protocols and in conjunction and celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
Kimiko Hahn is the author of ten books of poems, including: Foreign Bodies, Brain Fever and Toxic Flora (both collections prompted by science) and The Narrow Road to the Interior a collection that takes its title from Basho’s famous poetic journal. Her collection The Unbearable Heart received an American Book Award. As part of her service to the CUNY community, she initiated a Chapbook Festival that became an annual event co-sponsored by major literary organizations. Since then, she has added chapbooks to her publication list: Write it!, Brittle Process, Brood, Ragged Evidence, A Field Guide to the Intractable, Boxes with Respect, The CryptiChamber, and Resplendent Slug. From 2016-2019, Hahn served as President of Poetry Society of America. She is a distinguished professor at Queens College.
Tina Chang is an American poet, teacher, and editor. In 2010, she was the first woman to be named Poet Laureate of Brooklyn and she continues to serve in this role. She is the author of three poetry collections: Hybrida, Of Gods & Strangers, and Half-Lit Houses and is a co-editor of the anthology Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond. She is a professor and Director of Creative Writing at her alma mater, Binghamton University.
Eugenia Leigh is the author of Blood, Sparrows and Sparrows, the winner of the Late Night Library's 2015 Debut-litzer Prize in Poetry as well as a finalist for the National Poetry Series.
Her poems and essays have appeared in numerous publications including The Rumpus, Ploughshares, Waxwing, Pleiades, North American Review, the Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day, the Best New Poets 2010 anthology, and the 2017 Best of the Net anthology. , Eugenia has served as a teaching artist with a variety of organizations including the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund's undocumented youth group, RAISE. Eugenia is the recipient of fellowships and awards from Poets & Writers Magazine, Kundiman, Rattle, and more.
The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, a New York-based national organization founded in 1974, protects and promotes the civil rights of Asian Americans. AALDEF focuses on critical issues affecting Asian Americans, including immigrant rights, voting rights and democracy, economic justice for workers, educational equity, housing and environmental justice, and the elimination of anti-Asian violence, police misconduct, and human trafficking.