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> interview
Trip Lit
Karaoke King
Slam poet Ed Bok Lee shares his views on art, orangutans and karaoke Date posted: September 13, 2006 PLAYWRIGHT, short-story writer, spoken word artist and poet, Ed Bok Lee has long been a prominent fixture in the contemporary Asian American arts scene, especially in the Midwest. He’s known for his innovative and electrifying performances that draw from his time in Seoul, a childhood in North Dakota and Minnesota, and from living around the world (Kazakhstan included). Lee’s first book, “Real Karaoke People: Poems & Prose,” recently won the 2006 Pen/Beyond Margins Literary Award. TripmasterMonkey met up with Ed Bok Lee to hear his thoughts on the creative process and how to karaoke can free your soul…. TripmasterMonkey: How does it feel to have your first book out and under your belt? Ed Bok Lee: It feels great but then again, it felt really really good to have my 7th-grade picture taken while dressed in brand new velour. TMM: What’s the best thing someone has said to you recently about your writing? EBL: The most genuine compliment is when someone says that something I wrote got them thinking about something or someone in their own life, which to me means the piece sunk in so deeply that it’s served as a sort of surrogate for their own emotional life—which I’m pretty sure is a big part of why we read poems and stories in the first place. TMM: What’s the weirdest thing? EBL: Someone said there’s a couple of poems in the book that make them itch inside. TMM: What were your main thoughts as you were organizing the poems to include in Real Karaoke People? EBL: I wanted the poems to tell an overall story of a particular people, time and place. So, in this way, I wanted it to have a kind of loose narrative arc…or, better yet, I wanted it to be like a cat’s spine, arched and ready to pounce. TMM: Do you have to like karaoke to like Real Karaoke People? EBL: You have to not love bad singing unless it’s your own voice in the car or shower. TMM: What’s your favorite poem in Real Karaoke People? EBL: It’s hard to appreciate any of them right now. Probably, it’s an ego thing, and not fair to the poems, but I’m writing in a different mode now and am much more enamored of the new work. TMM: Were there any pieces you wanted to include but just didn’t make the cut? Continue Reading: page 1 page 2 page 3 |
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