Maxine Hong Kingston: A Lunar New Year Benefit for the 20th Anniversary of the Workshop
Date: Tuesday, February 1 · 6:00pm – 10:00pm
Venue: Chambers Fine Art
“‘You must not tell anyone,’ my mother said, ‘what I am about to tell you.'” So began The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, Maxine Hong Kingston’s first book, heralding a writer who, possibly more than any, has defined what Asian American literature has meant over the last several decades. The creative memoir sent shockwaves through American letters, establishing themes and controversies central to Asian American literature today: what we carry from our homelands and pasts, the role of myths and family secrets, what narratives are silenced and adventures in genre and gender. We’re proud to kick off The Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s twentieth anniversary and ring in the Lunar New Year by featuring Kingston’s ambitious new memoir in verse, I Love a Broad Margin to My Life. In Margin, Kingston has built a poem animated by a soul large enough to take in the full vista of life: age and mortality; wonderful friends and loved ones, both alive and passed away; and journeys through China and America and through the languages of Hawaiian pidgin, Cantonese, and Thoreau and Whitman.
Winner of our first Asian American Lifetime Achievement Award, Kingston will read and answer questions at one of the finest Chinese art galleries in Chelsea. Prior to the reading, guests for our cocktail reception will be able to sip a signature cocktail custom-mixed in her honor and snap a photo with her in our photo booth. And after the reading, we’ll be holding an intimate dinner in her honor—seating will be limited, so please reserve your seat today. Help us celebrate the Year of the Rabbit and our own birthday with one of the central writers of American letters.
Cocktail reception 6-7 PM
Reading 7-8PM
@ Chambers Fine Art
522 West 19th Street, NY, NY (Btwn 9th and 10th Avenues)
Ticketing:
* 6-7PM Cocktail reception (comes with AAWW membership, photo with Maxine Hong Kingston, and reading admission) – $50
* 7-8PM Reading – $15
* 8:30-10PM Dinner (comes with AAWW membership, cocktail and reading admission, and listing as Benefit Committee member) – $250