00:00:08.232 --> 00:00:13.732
♪

00:00:13.732 --> 00:00:19.033
People have been trying
to kill me since I was born.

00:00:25.233 --> 00:00:29.266
We are poets
and we are also survivors.

00:00:44.432 --> 00:00:48.966
Artistic creativity is the only
thing that is left to you

00:00:48.966 --> 00:00:50.899
as a survivor.

00:01:11.866 --> 00:01:14.732
I believe there's a poem,
a poem

00:01:14.732 --> 00:01:18.699
that is...perfect.

00:01:34.532 --> 00:01:37.199
(male)
And it happens to be
a proposition

00:01:37.199 --> 00:01:41.465
about the evolved human being.

00:01:41.465 --> 00:01:44.798
There won't be any peace
on Earth unless we evolve.

00:01:44.798 --> 00:01:46.799
That's what I'm saying.

00:01:46.799 --> 00:01:50.233
You know, in the East,
in Zen Buddhism, in Taoism,

00:01:50.233 --> 00:01:52.899
they all recognize
the writing of poetry was

00:01:52.899 --> 00:01:57.399
very integral to evolution.

00:01:57.399 --> 00:02:00.599
The Buddhists,
they would make their students

00:02:00.599 --> 00:02:02.932
compose a poem on the spot.

00:02:02.932 --> 00:02:04.999
If you couldn't,
they would say,

00:02:04.999 --> 00:02:06.999
"Well, that's because
you're not realized.

00:02:06.999 --> 00:02:09.333
"You're not a realized
human being yet.

00:02:09.333 --> 00:02:11.665
"Your language, your mind,
and your body

00:02:11.665 --> 00:02:14.166
haven't synchronized."

00:02:14.166 --> 00:02:17.365
They believe that
if you were in the spirit,

00:02:17.365 --> 00:02:19.365
you could speak poetry.

00:02:19.365 --> 00:02:21.365
You wouldn't have to write it.

00:02:21.365 --> 00:02:24.066
They were very suspicious
of that, in fact.

00:02:24.066 --> 00:02:26.732
Which makes me a hack
compared to them.

00:02:26.732 --> 00:02:30.532
Which is true--
My mother says I'm a hack.

00:02:30.532 --> 00:02:34.132
I argue with her--
She says, "You're not a poet."

00:02:34.132 --> 00:02:36.499
She said that great,
ancient Chinese poets,

00:02:36.499 --> 00:02:40.432
they made poetry
walkin' to the store.

00:02:40.432 --> 00:02:45.732
"You need all this time
and solitude, always thinking."

00:02:45.732 --> 00:02:47.732
She says, "That's not a poet."

00:02:47.732 --> 00:02:49.666
That's what my mother says.

00:02:58.199 --> 00:03:00.599
[Li-Young Lee reading]

00:03:18.566 --> 00:03:20.999
[crossing bell dinging]

00:03:20.999 --> 00:03:23.166
[train horn blowing]

00:03:23.166 --> 00:03:25.100
Should I move?

00:03:57.466 --> 00:04:00.699
[mixed voices]

00:04:21.565 --> 00:04:25.798
(male)
Here we are, 13 poets
from different backgrounds,

00:04:25.798 --> 00:04:28.033
different situations.

00:04:55.332 --> 00:04:58.732
(female)
Do you or your family
speak Chinese growing up?

00:04:58.732 --> 00:05:00.732
My mother
only speaks Chinese.

00:05:00.732 --> 00:05:04.231
My brother was tortured
repeatedly

00:05:04.231 --> 00:05:06.899
and sodomized and everything
you can think of.

00:05:06.899 --> 00:05:09.565
He didn't make it
when he left China.

00:05:09.565 --> 00:05:11.566
He came to this country.

00:05:11.566 --> 00:05:14.399
He was dysfunctional.

00:05:14.399 --> 00:05:18.532
My feeling is, I'm more
a witness to my parents' pain

00:05:18.532 --> 00:05:21.332
and my sister's pain
and my brother's pain.

00:05:21.332 --> 00:05:24.699
But I didn't actually have,
you know--

00:05:24.699 --> 00:05:26.699
I wasn't actually tortured.

00:05:26.699 --> 00:05:30.299
I wasn't actually nearly killed

00:05:30.299 --> 00:05:32.566
or anything like that.

00:05:32.566 --> 00:05:36.000
I'm here to listen.

00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:38.999
Just want to see how
these other people survive,

00:05:38.999 --> 00:05:40.933
how they make it.

00:05:47.966 --> 00:05:51.265
(Boraks-Nemetz)
So, imagine this little villae
near Warsaw,

00:05:51.265 --> 00:05:54.298
maybe 40 minutes away.

00:05:54.298 --> 00:05:57.799
A child is sitting on a verana
eating her breakfast

00:05:57.799 --> 00:06:01.798
and all of a sudden, a huge car
came along the streets

00:06:01.798 --> 00:06:06.066
with a loudspeaker telling
all Jews to go into the ghetto.

00:06:06.066 --> 00:06:09.866
[air raid siren sounding]

00:06:09.866 --> 00:06:13.732
(indistinct male voices)
Jews ought to be confined
within the ghetto.

00:06:13.732 --> 00:06:15.732
...as a ghetto for the Jews.

00:06:15.732 --> 00:06:17.666
...concerning
the Warsaw ghetto.

00:06:30.465 --> 00:06:32.666
[Boraks-Nemetz reading]

00:06:55.732 --> 00:06:59.432
It is true because part of me
stayed there.

00:07:55.966 --> 00:08:01.398
My father decided to get me
and my sister out of the ghetto.

00:08:01.398 --> 00:08:04.766
So, on the day of my leaving,
I got sick.

00:08:04.766 --> 00:08:08.398
My father brought
my little sister and said,

00:08:08.398 --> 00:08:10.432
"Say good-bye to your sister."

00:08:12.164 --> 00:08:14.833
And I said, "Go away, I'm sick."

00:08:14.833 --> 00:08:18.499
And I turned my face
towards the wall.

00:08:18.499 --> 00:08:23.331
Two days later when I got rid
of the fever,

00:08:23.331 --> 00:08:26.665
I looked out and I saw
my sister was gone.

00:08:26.665 --> 00:08:29.232
Her things were gone.

00:08:29.232 --> 00:08:31.532
And I never said good-bye.

00:08:33.398 --> 00:08:35.698
Then my turn came.

00:08:35.698 --> 00:08:38.799
My father gave me the suitcase,
my little suitcase,

00:08:38.799 --> 00:08:43.399
and he told me to walk away
and not look back.

00:08:43.399 --> 00:08:47.932
And it was at that moment
that I realized

00:08:47.932 --> 00:08:50.833
that he wasn't coming with me.

00:08:50.833 --> 00:08:53.999
I got to the other side,
my knees shaking,

00:08:55.198 --> 00:08:57.565
and a woman came from nowhere.

00:08:57.565 --> 00:08:59.899
This tall woman in a gray suit.

00:08:59.899 --> 00:09:01.899
She grabbed my hand

00:09:01.899 --> 00:09:05.599
and we ran towards
Aleje Jerozolimskie,

00:09:05.599 --> 00:09:08.132
towards the train station,

00:09:08.132 --> 00:09:12.498
where we went on a train
to my grandmother in Zalesie.

00:09:12.498 --> 00:09:32.931
♪

00:09:32.931 --> 00:09:35.064
Maybe this is not the gate.

00:09:35.064 --> 00:09:37.799
[barking]

00:09:41.599 --> 00:09:43.932
I'm not sure this was
the window.

00:09:43.932 --> 00:09:46.265
Yes it-- yes it was.

00:09:46.265 --> 00:09:49.832
Because I came
from that-- there.

00:09:49.832 --> 00:09:53.098
We came in and she went
like this

00:09:53.098 --> 00:09:55.799
because I wasn't allowed
to run to her.

00:09:55.799 --> 00:09:59.899
So, she wanted me to come inside
with the woman.

00:09:59.899 --> 00:10:01.899
And then she hugged me.

00:10:01.899 --> 00:10:04.566
[dog barks]

00:10:08.732 --> 00:10:11.732
The Germans came to investigae
in the village

00:10:11.732 --> 00:10:14.498
and I had to go into hiding.

00:10:14.498 --> 00:10:20.399
And I was hiding in a hole
right near that bush.

00:10:20.399 --> 00:10:24.565
I hear the footsteps coming
closer and closer.

00:10:24.565 --> 00:10:28.399
And the outhouse that was
right next to the hole stank.

00:10:28.399 --> 00:10:30.398
It was very smelly.

00:10:30.398 --> 00:10:33.466
I think that's what stopped
them, I really do.

00:10:38.198 --> 00:10:42.932
Laughing Skeletons
for my sister Basha.

00:10:44.432 --> 00:10:46.898
[Boraks-Nemetz reading]

00:10:53.132 --> 00:10:58.265
I think all my life
I felt guilty that I survived

00:10:58.265 --> 00:11:00.199
and she didn't.

00:11:23.732 --> 00:11:25.766
[male reading]

00:11:41.864 --> 00:11:45.332
[clamoring]

00:12:10.098 --> 00:12:12.999
[speaking Japanese]

00:12:20.132 --> 00:12:23.032
Let's go there.

00:15:22.998 --> 00:15:25.665
[Shigemoto reading]

00:16:03.532 --> 00:16:06.399
(male)
If the poems speak
to somebody else,

00:16:06.399 --> 00:16:09.532
I feel that's
a really happy accident.

00:16:09.532 --> 00:16:13.399
But I write--
because when I'm writing,

00:16:13.399 --> 00:16:15.597
I feel so alive.

00:16:15.597 --> 00:16:17.965
I feel more alive
when I'm writing

00:16:17.965 --> 00:16:20.265
than when I'm living.

00:16:20.265 --> 00:16:22.998
Thank you.

00:16:22.998 --> 00:16:26.032
This is called Immigrant Blues.

00:17:09.831 --> 00:17:12.531
(Li-Young Lee)
Much of my family was killed

00:17:12.531 --> 00:17:14.764
during the Cultural Revolution
in China.

00:17:14.764 --> 00:17:17.565
My father was
a political fugitive.

00:17:17.565 --> 00:17:22.598
My family left China
for Indonesia.

00:17:22.598 --> 00:17:25.597
Our family was being
transported to a prison colony

00:17:25.597 --> 00:17:27.597
and we escaped.

00:17:27.597 --> 00:17:31.098
We fled to Hong Kong
and then Japan, Malaysia.

00:17:31.098 --> 00:17:34.366
And that lasted about three
years before we came here.

00:17:40.531 --> 00:17:43.198
See, is that new?
I don't know.

00:17:43.198 --> 00:17:45.132
Everything's changed,
but I don't remember.

00:17:48.131 --> 00:17:50.465
Oh, I'm sorry,
it's right over here.

00:17:55.365 --> 00:17:59.764
I think it was the church that
brought us here as refugees.

00:17:59.764 --> 00:18:02.598
Political refugees--
and we stayed at a place.

00:18:02.598 --> 00:18:04.931
It might have been
on that corner.

00:18:04.931 --> 00:18:07.199
I remember it was
a corner building.

00:18:10.131 --> 00:18:12.132
And we were trying
to assimilate.

00:18:12.132 --> 00:18:15.798
There was a part of us
that wanted to be invisible,

00:18:15.798 --> 00:18:18.264
to just blend in
with the culture.

00:18:18.264 --> 00:18:20.199
Look at that--
I love that.

00:18:22.498 --> 00:18:25.165
I love this,
I could eat this now.

00:18:25.165 --> 00:18:28.265
[car honking]

00:18:28.265 --> 00:18:32.299
Writing poems, for me,
satisfies the deepest appetite

00:18:32.299 --> 00:18:34.765
I have for language.

00:18:34.765 --> 00:18:37.165
I get, sometimes,
hungry for language.

00:18:37.165 --> 00:18:39.265
So, I go to poetry.

00:18:39.265 --> 00:18:42.299
And that just looks
like sheer appetite to me.

00:18:43.764 --> 00:18:46.198
And somehow,
recently I've been realizing,

00:18:46.198 --> 00:18:48.332
since I turned 50,

00:18:48.332 --> 00:18:52.298
that I want to get
way down there

00:18:52.298 --> 00:18:54.498
into the marrow of life.

00:18:54.498 --> 00:18:57.531
I want to live
with more passion.

00:18:57.531 --> 00:19:00.598
And I don't mean excitement,
I mean passion.

00:19:00.598 --> 00:19:03.732
[honking]

00:19:57.331 --> 00:20:00.464
Part of me feels like
my mother's alive,

00:20:00.464 --> 00:20:02.398
but she didn't survive.

00:20:03.765 --> 00:20:06.464
My father,
even though he escaped,

00:20:06.464 --> 00:20:08.464
I don't think he survived.

00:20:08.464 --> 00:20:11.698
I think he was half dead.

00:20:11.698 --> 00:20:15.065
I think my mother was
half dead.

00:20:15.065 --> 00:20:19.199
My mother spends all of her
days and nights in the dark.

00:20:19.199 --> 00:20:22.198
In the evening, she doesn't
turn on any lights.

00:20:22.198 --> 00:20:25.865
So, she cooks in the dark--
I always considered that normal.

00:20:25.865 --> 00:20:28.865
I feel bad--
I wish I had good news

00:20:28.865 --> 00:20:30.865
to say the spirit
is resilient.

00:20:30.865 --> 00:20:34.132
Some days I feel the spirit
is not so resilient.

00:20:36.598 --> 00:20:38.531
Good morning.

00:21:27.497 --> 00:21:30.331
[various news sound bites]

00:22:26.197 --> 00:22:28.132
[Kimenyi reading]

00:23:30.865 --> 00:23:34.198
[choir singing]

00:24:21.664 --> 00:24:23.798
[Kimenyi reading
in Kinyarwanda language]

00:27:13.098 --> 00:27:16.530
(female)
A for alcoholism,
B for battalions,

00:27:16.530 --> 00:27:20.131
C for corruption,
D for dictatorship,

00:27:20.131 --> 00:27:23.097
E for exploitation,
F for the feud

00:27:23.097 --> 00:27:25.331
that powered forty families.

00:27:25.331 --> 00:27:28.264
And et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera.

00:27:28.264 --> 00:27:30.264
My et cetera country.

00:27:30.264 --> 00:27:34.064
There is no stray bullet, sirs.

00:27:34.064 --> 00:27:37.464
No bullet like a worried cat
crouching under a bush.

00:27:37.464 --> 00:27:41.931
No half-hairless puppy bullet
dodging midnight streets.

00:27:47.997 --> 00:27:51.798
[reading in foreign languages]

00:28:22.064 --> 00:28:24.431
(female)
Some of us are lucky because

00:28:24.431 --> 00:28:27.397
we weren't in the center
of destruction.

00:28:27.397 --> 00:28:30.064
Maybe we were
on the fringe of it.

00:28:30.064 --> 00:28:33.698
In the fringes of all the awful
things that happened.

00:28:33.698 --> 00:28:37.297
But only those people can really
do something about it.

00:28:37.297 --> 00:28:39.631
The people who were
in the middle

00:28:39.631 --> 00:28:42.397
sometimes are destroyed by it.

00:28:42.397 --> 00:28:46.064
For them to be represented,
for their story to be known,

00:28:46.064 --> 00:28:49.364
somebody else has to come in
sometimes.

00:28:49.364 --> 00:28:55.030
Hello, I was born
in Kurdistan in 1974,

00:28:55.030 --> 00:28:58.364
which was a very bad year
for Kurdish people.

00:28:58.364 --> 00:29:00.964
The Iraqi government crushed
the Kurdish revolution.

00:29:00.964 --> 00:29:06.031
I was one month old when
my family had to flee to Iran.

00:29:06.031 --> 00:29:09.497
The Anfal Campaign,
which is the genocide campaign

00:29:09.497 --> 00:29:12.231
started in February, 1988.

00:29:12.231 --> 00:29:14.998
(male newscaster)
...lying everywhere
in the streets...

00:29:19.030 --> 00:29:21.131
[Choman Hardi reading]

00:29:53.564 --> 00:29:56.597
There are times when you're
facing such shattered lives,

00:29:56.597 --> 00:29:59.930
terrible stories of people
who come to you for help,

00:29:59.930 --> 00:30:01.930
and you can't help them.

00:30:01.930 --> 00:30:04.797
And it makes you feel
so powerless.

00:30:04.797 --> 00:30:09.763
I had women who were very sick,
survivors of chemical attacks,

00:30:09.763 --> 00:30:14.297
who crawled to the place
where I was just to tell me,

00:30:14.297 --> 00:30:18.597
"Please, tell the world and
maybe somebody will help me."

00:30:18.597 --> 00:30:21.031
I think we have to have hope.

00:30:21.031 --> 00:30:24.730
If I don't have hope,
I'll kill myself or I'll think,

00:30:24.730 --> 00:30:27.097
"It's just useless,
why should I listen,

00:30:27.097 --> 00:30:30.264
why should I do anything
if it doesn't matter?"

00:30:30.264 --> 00:30:34.198
And I feel that there's
so many stories I need to tell.

00:30:42.863 --> 00:30:46.598
To the children
of prison and exile.

00:31:35.197 --> 00:31:37.131
Come on.

00:31:38.297 --> 00:31:41.298
I'm sorry, it's not good.

00:31:44.364 --> 00:31:47.397
It's not good because
I did ruin the poem.

00:31:47.397 --> 00:31:49.397
[audience laughs]

00:31:49.397 --> 00:31:53.064
I started writing poetry
when I was very young.

00:31:53.064 --> 00:31:55.398
But when I became

00:31:56.763 --> 00:32:01.064
18 years old or maybe 20,

00:32:01.064 --> 00:32:06.964
I became a leftist revolutionary
against Shah's regime.

00:32:06.964 --> 00:32:08.997
And I decided, you know,

00:32:08.997 --> 00:32:14.198
to--do not write poetry until

00:32:15.564 --> 00:32:17.764
you know, the liberation.

00:32:17.764 --> 00:32:20.931
[crowd chanting]

00:32:25.163 --> 00:32:27.664
[indistinct broadcast]

00:32:30.565 --> 00:32:35.297
[Naficy]
But when my first wife Ezzat
was executed,

00:32:35.297 --> 00:32:38.364
all of a sudden
after eight years,

00:32:38.364 --> 00:32:40.431
I started writing poetry again.

00:32:40.431 --> 00:32:44.364
And nine poems came just
by one stroke.

00:32:44.364 --> 00:32:48.364
And I called them
Ezzat Was Executed.

00:32:48.364 --> 00:32:50.497
I wanted, you know,

00:32:50.497 --> 00:32:54.464
somehow to revive Ezzat

00:32:54.464 --> 00:33:00.764
and take revenge
of her murderers.

00:33:00.764 --> 00:33:04.697
I wanted to say that,
"No, she's not dead."

00:33:04.697 --> 00:33:07.897
And that was the only weapon
that I had.

00:33:10.597 --> 00:33:15.530
After the revolution, my brother
Sa'id and his wife was executed.

00:33:15.530 --> 00:33:19.431
My brother-in-law Husayn
was executed.

00:33:19.431 --> 00:33:24.030
And my sister gave birth

00:33:24.030 --> 00:33:27.130
to her child in prison.

00:33:27.130 --> 00:33:29.964
So, I had to leave Iran.

00:33:29.964 --> 00:33:30.930
Excuse me.

00:33:30.930 --> 00:33:31.897
I'm sorry.

00:33:36.264 --> 00:33:38.198
How much it will be?

00:33:44.231 --> 00:33:46.164
[Naficy reading]

00:34:01.331 --> 00:34:05.464
It's not that you say, "Okay,
I'm survivor and I am saved."

00:34:05.464 --> 00:34:09.063
No, there are other challenges
in your life.

00:34:09.063 --> 00:34:13.030
And you don't have
to be necessarily

00:34:13.030 --> 00:34:16.963
caught in a political upheaval
or an execution.

00:34:16.963 --> 00:34:19.831
For example, my eyesight.

00:34:19.831 --> 00:34:22.097
You know, my eyes--

00:34:22.097 --> 00:34:26.463
I have been always
nearsighted person.

00:34:26.463 --> 00:34:31.298
But I was inflicted
by retinal degeneration

00:34:31.298 --> 00:34:37.064
and it's a gradual
deterioration of your eyesigh.

00:34:37.064 --> 00:34:41.364
You know,
I recite my poetry on tape.

00:34:41.364 --> 00:34:46.664
I put a headphone
and as I listening to it,

00:34:46.664 --> 00:34:49.931
I recite my poem back
to the audience.

00:34:49.931 --> 00:34:53.464
[gulls crying]

00:35:00.830 --> 00:35:03.198
[Naficy reading]

00:35:47.264 --> 00:35:50.263
I was very surprised when,
a few years ago,

00:35:50.263 --> 00:35:53.130
all of a sudden, my son Azad

00:35:53.130 --> 00:35:57.063
started writing the lyrics

00:35:57.063 --> 00:36:00.463
for rap, for hip-hop music.

00:36:00.463 --> 00:36:03.464
[hip-hop song playing]

00:36:04.864 --> 00:36:07.397
♪ You crept outside
and they won't let me in ♪

00:36:07.397 --> 00:36:09.897
♪ So I watched them rise from
the other side of the fence ♪

00:36:09.897 --> 00:36:12.530
♪ I'm trapped outside
ridin' the bench ♪

00:36:12.530 --> 00:36:14.964
♪ Watchin' folks cry
as they lie in the trench ♪

00:36:14.964 --> 00:36:17.497
♪ You crept outside
and they won't let me in ♪

00:36:17.497 --> 00:36:20.063
♪ So I watched them rise from
the other side of the fence ♪

00:36:20.063 --> 00:36:22.630
♪ I'm trapped outside
ridin' the bench ♪

00:36:22.630 --> 00:36:25.164
♪ Watchin' folks cry
as they lie in the trench ♪

00:36:25.164 --> 00:36:27.597
♪ I haven't cried
since early sixth grade ♪

00:36:27.597 --> 00:36:30.131
♪ When my father went blind
and my eyes turned gray ♪

00:36:30.131 --> 00:36:32.464
♪ Smoke screen vision
we're not seein' the same ♪

00:36:32.464 --> 00:36:35.164
♪ Paint those my hot days
with clouds and dark rain ♪

00:36:35.164 --> 00:36:37.630
♪ I'm more than just torn
and the sad part is ♪

00:36:37.630 --> 00:36:41.430
♪ My dad's not allowed in the
country that he was born in ♪♪

00:36:41.430 --> 00:36:43.430
Mmmm. [kiss]
Love you.

00:36:43.430 --> 00:36:45.530
Yep, me too.

00:36:45.530 --> 00:36:49.596
♪ I woke up around seven
in my little brother's bed ♪

00:36:49.596 --> 00:36:52.330
[hip-hop continues
in background]

00:36:59.496 --> 00:37:01.931
[Li-Young Lee reading]

00:37:29.164 --> 00:37:31.164
[audience laughter]

00:37:31.164 --> 00:37:34.098
[audience applause]

00:37:39.730 --> 00:37:41.464
Give me a hug, okay?

00:37:41.464 --> 00:37:42.797
Give me a hug?

00:37:42.797 --> 00:37:43.797
Hug, hug.

00:37:43.797 --> 00:37:47.430
[mixed voices]

00:37:47.430 --> 00:37:49.997
You do hug?

00:37:49.997 --> 00:37:55.231
(Li-Young Lee)
Why do I think making art is
a way we become safer animals?

00:37:55.231 --> 00:37:57.563
Deeply, we think that too,
right?

00:37:57.563 --> 00:38:01.430
Civilization is an artifact
that we build.

00:38:01.430 --> 00:38:05.997
And it's a place of safety,
right?

00:38:05.997 --> 00:38:09.396
There are laws, there are--
yeah, safety.

00:38:09.396 --> 00:38:11.330
Civilization, safety.

00:38:12.963 --> 00:38:14.897
Making art.

00:38:16.663 --> 00:38:19.863
Yeah, I mean,
it's a long and difficult

00:38:19.863 --> 00:38:25.164
and bloody and spotted record.

00:38:25.164 --> 00:38:27.664
But I think we're doing okay,
right?

00:38:32.830 --> 00:38:34.797
Bye-bye.

00:38:43.931 --> 00:38:47.530
[door squeaking]
[footsteps on stairs]

00:38:50.564 --> 00:38:52.731
[speaking Chinese]

00:39:04.263 --> 00:39:11.763
♪

00:39:20.663 --> 00:39:49.764
♪