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Performance poet Ed Bok Lee to hold one-day residency

By Trent Chaffee '09
October 1, 2007

Spoken word poet Ed Bok Lee will hold a one-day residency at St. Olaf College Thursday, Oct. 4. The day's events will culminate in a poetry performance and book signing starting at 7 p.m. in the Lion's Pause of Buntrock Commons. The event is free and open to the public.

The award-winning Korean-American writer will begin with a question and answer session from 11:20 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. sponsored by the St. Olaf Asian Cultures Association. From 3 to 4:30 p.m. he will host an open house on "Poetry Matters" in Rolvaag Memorial Library 525. Visitors are encouraged to bring a favorite poem or song lyrics and discuss "Why is one literature, and one entertainment?" Both events are open to St. Olaf students, faculty and staff. Others interested in attending should contact faculty member Jenny Dunning (507-786-3442).

LeeSeoulMagazine
Ed Bok Lee on the cover of Seoul magazine.
Lee is the author of Real Karaoke People, a national bestseller in poetry and winner of a PEN/Beyond Margins Award, an Asian American Literacy Award and a Many Voices Prize from New Rivers Press.

Lee attended kindergarten in Seoul, South Korea, grew up in North Dakota and Minnesota, and has since lived in a half-dozen cities around the world. He has studied at the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Minnesota, Kazakh State-Almaty and Indiana University, and holds an MFA from Brown University.

Reaching a new audience
Lee writes of his experiences as an immigrant, a Korean-American and an American. Over the years his dynamic poetry and performances have reached an audience that might not typically be interested in poetry.

"When I'm writing, I don't have these lenses of being Asian-American or Korean-American. I'm writing basically naked and just trying to tell the stories of the people and their lives and events that make them who they are in this world," said Lee in a 2006 interview for MTV News. "I'm trying to make the stories of the people I love most part of the American narrative."

In Real Karaoke People Lee connects tradition, politics and pop culture to bridge generations and continents. His poems and stories usher the reader through a kaleidoscope of karaoke rooms, churches, dog fights, movie houses, Asian night clubs, immigrant kitchens and small-time Midwestern wrestling rings, while scrutinizing conceptions of race, class and history. The book appeals to a wide variety of readers with its portrayals of the changing face of America, the Immigrant experience, karaoke singing, Asian pop culture and hip-hop, Buddhism, the Korean War and/or travel through Asia. It shows America at war with change, loss, hope and desire.

Lee has read his poems and stories in more than 250 venues across the United States and Asia, including schools, prisons, reservations, shelters and numerous colleges and universities across the nation.

Contact Jenny Dunning at 507-786-3442 or dunningj@stolaf.edu.