BAO PHI! bay area release party! tonight!

June 25, 2005, 8pm
Galeria De La Raza (Locus Arts)
2857 24th St @ Bryant
SF, CA 94110
Admission: $6-8 sliding scale

Refugeography: Bao Phi's San Francisco CD Release Party
"If you listen closely, every poem on Bao's CD is a love poem: rough-edged, raw, and scalding, or quiet enough to break your heart. Much will be said about his fearless politics and his power, but his words are also threaded with humor, humanity, and beauty - my brother is on a mission to keep us all knit tight, and to remind us how we are quilted together in this cold country. Buy this CD. It will keep you warm at night."- Ishle Yi Park, Poet Laureate of Queens

Locus is proud to present National Poetry Slam Individual Finalist and Def Poetry Jam Poet, Bao Phi's San Francisco Release Party for much anticipated sophomore CD, “Refugeography.”

OPENING PERFORMERS
Danny Nguyen::: Magnetic North ::: DENIZEN KANE

"Bao Phi's refugeography takes the spoken word back to the old school when spoken word meant cultural critics like Richard Pryor, George Carlin and the Last Poets.... He takes the genre to the next level with his dexterity and his wide array of collaborators that complement his incomparable storytelling and vocal ability.

Bao's poems remind me of the fists of Do the Right Thing's Radio Raheem: at one point he hits us with poems of the hate that he faces, then knocks us out with the love that fills his heart for the community he wishes to inspire." - Robert Karimi, poet

THIEN-BAO PHI was born in Sai Gon, Viet Nam, the youngest son to two mixed blood Chinese and Vietnamese parents who raised him in the Phillips neighborhood of South Minneapolis as a Vietnamese boy in the hood. A graduate of Macalester College and retired pizza delivery boy, Bao has performed at numerous venues and schools locally and nationally, from the Nuyorican Poet's Caf‚ to the University of California, Berkeley. He has twice won the Minnesota Grand Poetry Slam, and also won two poetry slams at the Nuyorican Poets Caf‚ in New York. He remains the first Vietnamese American man to have appeared on HBO's Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry, and the National Poetry Slam Individual Finalists Stage, where he placed 6th overall out of over 250 national slam poets.

His vision is to offer an alternative perspective on Asian American community building through the arts. He has been a featured artist in many community events, rallies and functions, including an event to raise awareness and funds for inmates Eddie Zheng and Viet Ngo, who are working in the California penal system to create an Asian American studies program for incarcerated inmates. He has taught workshops and performed for youth for organizations from the W.O.C. in Minneapolis to the Chinatown Community Development Center in San Francisco. He was an advisory panel member, workshop moderator, and performer for Intimacy and Geography, the Asian American Writers' Workshop national poetry festival in New York.

Currently he works as a program associate at the Loft where he curates and operates Equilibrium, a successful spoken word series he created, which invites nationally recognized artists of color/indigenous artists to share the stage with local Minnesota artists of color/indigenous artists.

Check out www.baophi.com