Poems of Chinese Exclusion with Jeffrey Thomas Leong
12:00 pm – 1:15 pm PDT
Mechanics’ Institute 4th Floor Meeting Room | 57 Post Street | San Francisco, CA
Jeffrey Thomas Leong will read from his books Wild Geese Sorrow: The Chinese Wall Inscriptions at Angel Island and Writ. He will present new translations of poems written by Chinese immigrant detainees one hundred years ago that tell of their incarceration experience: from the shock of arrival, through lengthy stays of up to two years, humiliating medical exams, political outrage, and for some, deportation. These poems show the dark underbelly of American immigration policy where more often than not, immigrants of color are selected for discriminatory treatment and outright exclusion such as in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Leong will also read from his original poetry inspired by the wall poems.
These readings will end with a Q&A with the audience and a book signing. Copies of Leong’s books will be available for sale at the event.
This special session of Mechanics’ Institute’s Monday Noontime History Series is presented in partnership with the Center for the Art of Translation and marks the intersection of National Poetry Month (April) and AAPI Heritage Month (May).
Registration is required for this event. Use the promo code “CAT” for free tickets.
Read this interview with Jeffrey Thomas Leong on our blog!
Jeffrey Leong is a poet and writer, raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, who worked for nearly three decades as a public health administrator and attorney for the City of San Francisco. While earning his MFA in Writing at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, he translated anew the Chinese wall poems found at the Angel Island Immigration Station. These translations are collected in Wild Geese Sorrow: The Chinese Wall Inscriptions at Angel Island (Calypso Editions, 2018), winner of a Northern California Book Award for Poetry in Translation. His new chapbook Writ (Eastwind Books, 2019) consists of original poems about immigration at Angel Island.
His writing focuses on the Asian American experience including adoption, multiracial families, and student activism during the 1960s. His work has appeared in Crab Orchard, Cimarron Review, Bamboo Ridge, Hyphen, Spillway, Eleven Eleven, and Poetry Flash.