Members List
All members names are listed alphabetically. To learn more about each member click on their name below. Please scroll down.
Bami Adedoyin, Brooklyn, NY
Mohd Fuad Arif, Malaysia
Megan Bisbee, Alfred, NY
Missy Carr, Washington, DC
Kristin Carroll, Boston, MA
Tony Conrad, Buffalo, NY
Kristin Carroll, Boston, MA
Tony Conrad, Buffalo, NY
Lara Davis, Providence, RI
Cindy DeFelice, Brockport, NY
Ghen Dennis, Buffalo, NY
Leigh Ann Francis, New Brunswick, NJ
Chifumi Fujisawa, Mosumoto, Japan
Amy Goldberg, Rochester, NY
Bethany Goldpaugh Brown, Kingston, NY
Virva Hepolampi, Helsinki, Finland
James Holland, Southbury, CT and Rochester, NY
Kelly Jacobson, Kansas City, MO
Akil Kirlew, Brooklyn, NY
Caroline Koebel, Buffalo, NY
Jennifer Little, Rochester, NY
Edna Madera, Rochester, NY
Darin Martin, Oakland, CA
Tammy McGovern, Buffalo, NY
Colleen Vera Melisz, Buffalo/Rochester, NY
Toni Mosley, Auckland, New Zealand
Tomoya Murazumi, Kanazawa City, Japan
Akane Nakamori, Kanazawa City, Japan
Stephanie Nolasco, New York, NY
Natasha Pachano, Costa Rica
Warren Peace, Jersey City, NJ
Anjanel Dawn Pinet, Rochester, NY
Mima Simic, Croatia
Joan E. Stoltman, Buffalo, NY
Diane Teramana, Kingston, NY
Angela Tessier Kanazawa City, Japan
Andy Tetzlaff, Kanazawa City, Japan
Matthew Underwood, Boston, MA
Adam Weekley, Buffalo, NY
wolfgrrrl sometimes billijo, Rochester, NY
Walter Wright, Lowell, MA
Ami Yamasaki, Kanazawa City, Japan
Ojima Yukari, Kanazawa City, Japan
Karen Y. Zhang, Beijing, China |
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Members List
Joy Messinger
Political Poet and Spoken Word Artist
I was born in Seoul, South Korea and adopted at the age of three months. Since then, I have grown up and lived in upstate New York. Writing began as an emotional outlet at the age of 7 and continued through high schoool. After taking a four-year hiatus from creative expression, I attended an Evo Girls show at the Atomic Eggplant in Rochester and immediately saw the artistic outlet my activist spirit so badly needed. My love for poetry continues today, an organized and outspoken rant on American society, culture, and government.
peace, Joy
http://silenceiscomplicity.tripod.com
Life...
Life is...
Life is nothing...
Life is nothing without passion: the passion to speak out, the passion to stand up and fight.
Passion has become my motivation to write and perform. Passion to fight against society's real weapons of mass destruction: white privilege, sexism, homophobia, capitalist exploitation, poverty, AIDS, classism. the list goes on and on. Passion is my contribution as an artist, an activist, a citizen of the true majority.
***
fluency joy lynne messinger ©2004
fluency
it moves through me
lies move through me
fly off my tongue
at a rate faster than
they are printed & than
they are imagined & than
they are spun from the
minds of white men
preserving the
history of white men
whoa, hold up, friend
that ain t my history my
history my asian history
remains a mystery
to me
to my mind but the
fluency
it moves through me
as my pride becomes
depleted
defeated
when I need it
to be strong and
I long to be proud of
the asianness that
lives within
the whiteness
that I have known
since adoption day but
I got no other
options because the
fluency it moves through me
while the
railroad slaves and
$10 girls who will
love you long time,
of which I am neither,
are all that remain in the
stereotype-perpetuating
minds of the history writers
become a
history fighter
I told myself as my ancestry
was cut off at
Angel Island and
the chronicles of
someone else were
sold to me as
the only truth that existed
did I miss it when
an entire race was
sent back over the Pacific
only to suffer nuclear fallout
at the hands of those
who rejected them
should have protected them but
instead moved them to the
head of the class and then
stood by in silence
while the violence of
Los Angeles 1992
burned through their
hopes and dreams with
a flame of hate
how much longer
do I have to wait
speaking words that
make no sense to me
learning verbs that
have no tense with me
for my past is not
the past
passed out in
history class and so the
fluency
it moves through me
I ace the test
forget the rest and
leave my soul behind
only to find that
I know everything and
nothing at the same time
I know everything
I know nothing and
I long to
speak the
language of
myself |
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