AA Limelight Interview with Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai

10:52 pm - Tue, Aug 7, 2012: 19 notes

AA Limelight Interview with Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai

Who are you?
I’m a lover, fighter, spoken word poet, playwright, filmmaker, dancer, Chicagoan turned Brooklynite, artist-activist, dreamer, and someone who is lucky enough to make a living at what I love.

(The official bio would be: KELLY ZEN-YIE TSAI has performed at over 500 venues worldwide including the White House, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Apollo Theater in Harlem, and 3 seasons of Russell Simmons’ HBO Def Poetry, etc. – but only because I was a girl who couldn’t ever stop writing who matured into a woman who chose not to stop writing. Poetry and the people that I have met through my travels make me who I am today.)

What are you all about?
I care about community. I grew up at the dinner table arguing politics with my family. I have a sense of history and a desire to share with people the beauty of our many histories. The paths we are traveling may be new, but in essence, have been traveled before. I grew up hanging out at spoken word poetry and later hip hop open mics. It’s where I learned the value of being myself and honoring unique experiences, rhythms, and words.

What keeps you going?
Sometimes the creative challenge of trying something new. Sometimes the powerful affirmation from my audiences. Today, I just finished performing / facilitating a workshop for a group in DC, and this woman told the organizer that the day completely rejuvenated her soul. That’s a pretty hard-core, yet wonderful statement. It’s crazy amazing that these tiny arrangements of abstract sound and image (i.e. language) can move people’s hearts and minds so thoroughly.