i am not between two languages—one language controls me and the other is a lost ocean

— Craig Santos Perez, from “from sourcings,” from unincorporated territory [saina]

poetry, too, consists of textual land surfaces and the surrounding deep geographies of silence, space, and meaning– the aztecs and mayans used bark from banyan trees to make paper for their codices– with stones they drummed strips of bark– the paper was called amatl in nahuatl and copo in mayan– no page is ever truly blank–— Craig Santos Perez, from ‘:oceania compositions:’. From Unincorporated Territory: [saina].

It’s always an immense honor when Craig Santos Perez comes to town. Here he is reading his poem “America” in honor of Allen Ginsberg at the historic @citylightsbooks in North Beach. His words speak to what perhaps many of us have been grappling with. / “Are you being unjust or is this a national allegory? I’m trying to Google the point. I refuse to give up my high-speed internet. America stop surveilling me I’m doing something private. America the honey bees are falling. I’ve been reading the newspapers for months, everyday a cop is not indicted for murder. America black lives matter to me. America I refused to enlist in the Army after high school and I’m not sorry” / Craig Santos Perez, a native Chamorro from the Pacific Island of Guåhan (Guam), co-edited three anthologies of Pacific literature and authored three poetry books: from unincorporated territory [hacha] (2008), from unincorporated territory [saina] (2010, PEN Center USA/Poetry Society of America Literary Prize recipient), and from unincorporated territory [guma’] (2014, American Book Award recipient). He holds an MFA from the U of San Francisco and a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley. He is an Associate Professor in the English Department at the University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa. / https://www.omnidawn.com/product/from-unincorporated-territory-lukao/ #omnidawn #citylights #craigsantosperez #nortbeach

from unincorporated territory [saina]

Craig Santos Perez