Impossibilities of Imagination (Or Lacks Thereof)
With: Bryan Thao Worra
Tuesday, August 10, 2021, 6:45-8:30 pm eastern time Free to the public
Zoom: LINK
Poets and writers call upon a wide range of inner and external resources to express their creativity. Even after thousands of years, there is much to express, and opportunities to explore. As a refugee poet, who has represented his former homeland at the Olympics, presented at the Smithsonian, and drawn upon science fictional verse to aid the postwar reconstruction of his culture’s literary traditions, Bryan Thao Worra will discuss the importance of a creative writer’s community and imagining greater possibilities for where a poet/writer presents beyond the page and stage, and how we make successful proposals that expand the boundaries of where poetry and prose might be found in our lives.
Bryan Thao Worra is a 2009 US National Endowment for the Arts Fellow in Literature and a 2019 Joyce Fellow. He holds over 20 awards for his writing and community leadership. Featured in over 100 international publications and the author of 8+ books, he represented the nation of Laos during the 2012 London Summer Games as a Cultural Olympian. The Creative Works Editor for the Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement, he is also president of the international Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. The Lao Minnesotan Poet Laureate, he serves on the Minnesota State Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans advising the legislature on policies affecting Lao refugees.
Brian Thao Worra WEBSITE
Performance samples: YouTube