Tag: Poetry Reading

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Thank you to everyone who braved the filthy weather and turned down Thanksgiving to show up at Mind HK‘s poetry event Poetry for Mental Health: The Healing Power of Words in SoHo last night! The event was part of a week-long exhibition More Than A Label: I Was. I Am. I Will Be. I felt quite emotional after reading my poem, listening to the stories of the two other poets, the incredible Vish and Derek, and chatting about the stigma of mental illness in Hong Kong. There was an overwhelming amount of love in the air at the intimate event at the uber-cute gallery on Lyndhurst Street. I can’t wait for the next one!

Thanks to Mind for the endless encouragement, opportunity to read, and for curating such a powerful exhibition of letters and artwork. I loved reading every single one of the letters on display and the psychedelic 3D artwork of Mind HK ambassadors’ brains! Thanks especially to Odile for emceeing and sharing her own insightful observations. If you’ve not already seen it, you’ve still got a chance! The exhibition is open until Monday.

#More Than A Label #Poetry for Mental Health: The Healing Power of Words #I Was. I Am. I Will Be

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I will be reading an extract from my (very long) debut poem War of Voices for HKU Libraries at an event organized by Proverse Publishing this Thursday (July 15) from 6-8pm!

The poem was published by Proverse and Chinese University Press April 22, 2021 after winning a place in the 2020 Proverse Poetry Prize anthology, Mingled Voices 5. A film of the event will be available on the Proverse/ HKU websites.

I have to admit I’m a little nervous about this. Not because I’m a nervous public speaker. Just because War of Voices is the first thing I’ve written where I don’t hear my own author’s voice AT ALL! Whose voice do I hear? Unfortunately, it’s Aled Jones’ voice, circa 1980s, when he sang the Christmas hit, Walking In The Air.

Why is this bad? Why do you think!!! Because I sound nothing like an 8 year old choir boy with an angelic voice. I sound, at best, like a cat that’s being strangled slowly to death by a python. So I guess my greatest fear is of breaking into song midway through the reading.

Your prayers that this will NOT happen on Thursday are very much appreciated at this difficult time.

https://www.hku.hk/press/news_detail_22997.html