Poetry reading: Sara Uribe & Laura Jane Lee

Young Laura Jane Lee (b. 1998, Hong Kong) surprised us with her recently published collection flinch & air (October 2021), which is as much about love as it is a unique exploration of Asian female identity. Against the backdrop of the mass protests in Hong Kong, she explores Asian women’s cultural, political and social struggle, particularly that of her female ancestors, telling a story of indebtedness, courage, resilience and sacrifice. At the same time, she delves in a clear, fresh way into the sensuality, tenderness, madness and uncertainty of romantic love. Lee writes in English and in Mandarin. In her poems, the two languages enter into a dialogue, and she also engages in discussion with poets like Frank O’Hara and Reginald Shepherd, her great inspirations. “This poetry has an uncanny lightness and ease of movement. It is sharp, funny and deeply seeing.” (Mark Waldron)

Sara Uribe (b. 1978, Mexico) first came to widespread notice with her collection Antígona González, in which she uses the myth of Antigone as a poetic metaphor to draw attention to the growing number of missing persons in Mexico (90,000 people have disappeared without trace, and their numbers continue to rise). Like Antigone, Antígona Gozález is desperately seeking her missing brother. While this year Poetry International delves into the poetic body, Uribe's poignant poems enable us to feel what it means when there is suddenly no body there. Since she is unable to tell the story of the missing persons, Uribe tells the story of the tirelessly searching loved ones who remain behind. In the midst of atrocities and despair, Antígona González offers hope by naming the disappeared, giving them a place to exist in her beautiful but harrowing poems, albeit it only as a memory: ”As if written by the Emily Dickinson of Tamaulipas (…) it is that intimate, honest, unaffected, intelligent, urgent, innovative, spare, and beautiful.” (Francisco Goldman)

Host: Fiep van Bodegom