Mode of Program Participation
Performances and Arts
Participation Type
Performance
Presentation #1 Title
An AppalAsian Finds Home
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Lisa Kwong will read poetry and creative nonfiction that explore the complexities of being an Asian American woman from Appalachia. While Asian Americans are often caught between the cultures of their ancestors' home country and the US, Kwong's work complicates this dynamic by attempting to understand what it means to be part of two marginalized groups in the US and to be marginalized within those groups. This extreme othering manifests in a rich multiplicity of experience, including spiritual and religious conflicts, the juxtaposition of "the model minority myth" and being from a working class immigrant family, the politics of romance, and intersections with other cultures outside of Kwong's Chinese and Appalachian background. By existing in and fusing together vastly differently communities, an AppalAsian searches for and finds home not only in her family and physical living space, but also in her body, relationships, and identity.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
A native of Radford, Virginia, Lisa Kwong currently teaches Asian American Studies and English at Indiana University in Bloomington. Her poems and creative nonfiction are forthcoming or have appeared in Best New Poets 2014, the minnesota review, Banango Street, Still: The Journal, Naugatuck River Review, Appalachian Heritage, Pluck!, The Sleuth, and other journals.
An AppalAsian Finds Home
Lisa Kwong will read poetry and creative nonfiction that explore the complexities of being an Asian American woman from Appalachia. While Asian Americans are often caught between the cultures of their ancestors' home country and the US, Kwong's work complicates this dynamic by attempting to understand what it means to be part of two marginalized groups in the US and to be marginalized within those groups. This extreme othering manifests in a rich multiplicity of experience, including spiritual and religious conflicts, the juxtaposition of "the model minority myth" and being from a working class immigrant family, the politics of romance, and intersections with other cultures outside of Kwong's Chinese and Appalachian background. By existing in and fusing together vastly differently communities, an AppalAsian searches for and finds home not only in her family and physical living space, but also in her body, relationships, and identity.
