The folio is curated by Deborah Poe and "is being published in conjunction with an exhibition at Pace University in Westchester (with a sister exhibit at Kelly Writers House in Philadelphia) that includes handmade, homemade and letterpress chapbooks, broadsides, one-of-a-kind editions, artist collaborations and the construction of texts from unorthodox materials."

I also want to give a shout out to my Kundiman fellows as well as poetry friend at the Poetry Institute of New Haven for their support!

Opening Reception

Thursday, May 10 - 6:00 pm
Performance 7pm- 8:30pm
$5-$15 sliding scale
RSVP

Proceeds will benefit partnering organization Bantei Srei and AAWAA.

La Pena Cultural Center
3105 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94705

Exhibition Statement: Body Maps

Our bodies. Ourselves. Her Asian American body is a historical, political, and emotional site where difference, identity, and freedom are mapped. Our digital age presents a plethora of racialized imagery of her Asian American Body. How to begin? The intergenerational poets and artists of "Body Maps" respond, reclaim, and remap her Asian American body through feminist interventions. "Body Maps" is a feminist exploration, poetic celebration, cartographic journey, in which, we invite you to join us.

Presenting Artists:

* Jai Arun Ravine
* Bonnie Kwong
* Barbara Jane Reyes
* Leah Lakshimi Piepzna-Samarasinha
* Jean Vengua
* Celeste Chan and JDX
* Debbie Yee
* Monica Ong
* Rona Luo
* Kim Tran
* HaeTae and Margaret Rhee

I'm so pleased to be included in the inaugural issue of The New Sound Interdisciplinary Journal of Literature and Art. This issue features my visual poem "Elegy" - a tribute to one of my dearest friends. I use a found image of the anatomy of the arm, and replace the text with a narrative about this person, who was a mother, violinist, and great friend.

It's great to be featured among a selection of work that blurs boundaries of art and literature and span many social and cultural perspective. It is published by the University of New Haven.

Published by Dancing Girl Press, 2012

One of my favorite collaborations was with a wonderful poet, Rebecca Givens Rolland, where I created an interactive experience of one of her poems called Fallow. This month she releases a new chapbook called On the Refusal to Speak, which features some artwork from Fallow on the cover. Her chapbook is published by Dancing Girl Press and is a stunning collection of poems.

Just wanted to let you know that I'll be a featured reader for the Arts @ Night series at the UNH on Tuesday.

Here is an excerpt of their press release.

NEW HAVEN, CONN. --- A nationally recognized poet and an experimental poet/artist will have poetry readings at the University of New Haven on Tuesday, Sept. 20, at 6:30 p.m.

Patricia Smith, author of six books of poetry, and Monica Ong, an artist and poet, will read as part of UNH’s Arts@Night series in the Alumni Lounge in Bartels Hall, located on the UNH Main Campus in West Haven.

The program is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the UNH English department and the Elm City Review. For more information, call (213) 932-9991 or email: rhorton@newhaven.edu.

I'm pleased to share that my visual poem "Corona Mestiza" has recently been published in the Summer 2011 issue of the Lantern Review, a national journal of Asian American poetry.

This piece is a portrait of my father, told through the visual language and typography of the CT scan.

The opening of Critical Condition: When Silence Speaks was a great success! Thanks to Steve Olsen, my installation specialist, for all his hard work. Check out the highlights of the evening as well we the work.

The exhibition will be up through September 16, 2011. Please contact the Parachute Factory at 203-764-7594 for directions and gallery hours. They did tell me they can make weekend appointments.

Critical Condition opens on July 12 at the Parachute Factory in New Haven. It is an exciting group exhibition not only of artists but also of citizen storytellers via the Center for Digital Storytelling's Silence Speaks Initiative. This exhibition seeks to expose the stories about health that you don't hear, narratives that are underreported, undocumented, and untranslated. And I felt really compelled to open a space for these stories to exists in so that we can think about how it informs the way we seek out health. It seeks to question the structure of the global healthcare system where it is all too easy for women or the other to be invisible.

Featured artists
Liana Dragoman, Monica Ong, Silvia Rigon, and the Center for Digital Storytelling

Operning Reception
Tuesday July 12, 6–8 pm

Gallery Hours
Wednesday: 10 am – 2 pm
Thursday + Friday: 12–5 pm
+ by appointment

Parachute Factory
Erector Square, Building 1
319 Peck Street
New Haven, CT 06513

Statement
This exhibition positions the body as a stage – where embedded beliefs and social constructs collide and re-emerge as transformative narratives about cultural anomalies in public health. These artists and storytellers gather voices of witness and meditation, asking questions that are poignant but pointed.

What happens when a woman’s body cannot be translated? Why do scars persist and what do they teach us about silenced histories? When aberrations in cell growth spell out a terminal condition, what happens to our illusion of security? How do we contend with stigma in the face of sexual abuse or mental illness? These ruptures call on us to revisit – and redefine – the social conditions from which they erupt, spill, and burn into our shared memory.

DOWNLOAD PRESS KIT

Please support this collective of women artists for Critical Condition, an exhibition giving voice to important community issues in public health. All donated funds will help to make this show possible at the Parachute Factory, a collaboration between the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health (PRCH), the Community Services Network of Greater New Haven (CSN), and the Arts Council of Greater New Haven.

Thursday, May 19 @ 7pm
The Institute Library, 847 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT

The Poetry Institute of New Haven - I'll be part of the regular Open Mic, which will be followed by featured reader Dimitris Lyacos.

Sunday, May 22 @ 5pm
Verlaine, 110 Rivington St, NYC

Kundiman & Verlaine Reading Series - I'll be part of a oint reading with The Acentos Foundation: Rich Villar, Monica Ong, Christina Olivares & April Naoko Heck

Saturday, June 4 @ 4pm
Supper Club Reading Series - A fusion of fine poetry and fusion dining, I'll be reading alongside Shelly Oria. (Did somebody say Chicken Adobo?)

Please support this collective of women artists for Critical Condition, an exhibition giving voice to important community issues in public health. All donated funds will help to make this show possible at the Parachute Factory, a collaboration between the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health (PRCH), the Community Services Network of Greater New Haven (CSN), and the Arts Council of Greater New Haven.

Featuring new work by artists Liana Dragoman, Monica Ong Reed, Silvia Rigon, and the Center for Digital Storytelling.

This exhibition positions the body as a stage – where embedded beliefs and social constructs collide and re-emerge as transformative narratives about cultural anomalies in public health. These artists and storytellers gather voices of witness and meditation, asking questions that are poignant but pointed.

What happens when a woman’s body cannot be translated? Why do scars persist and what do they teach us about silenced histories? When aberrations in cell growth spell out a terminal condition, what happens to our illusion of security? How do we contend with stigma in the face of domestic violence or HIV/AIDS? These ruptures call on us to revisit – and redefine – the social conditions from which they erupt, spill, and burn into our shared memory.