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an introduction to Kelly Tsai
by Anida Yoeu Esguerra
Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai knows Asian America is not a mythical nation-state. Asian America is alive and thrives in her poetry. Her narratives add to a history of resistance by Asian people in America, writings that date as far back as the plantation worksongs sung by Japanese laborers in1885. Tsai, born and raised in Chicago, is the daughter of Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants. Like many second generation Asian Americans, she understands that assimilation is a kind of survival instinct used by her immigrant parents. Unlike her parents’ generation, she knows surviving in America is more than about assimilation.
For Tsai, identity politics serve as stepping-stones to tackling deeper issues about social justice. Tsai is part of a legacy of writers and activists who challenge what it means to be American as much as what it means to be Asian. She challenges our world and herself— questioning, poking and prodding for answers, opening portals to more questions and even more discoveries. Her stories are investigations. Read any Kelly Tsai poem and you will realize that the world matters too much to let things just slip by without questioning our place in it, without thinking about why events happen, how we are connected to one another, and why people act the way they do. Experience one of her performances and you will understand that fierce artists do not need to scream to be heard. Her poems declare complex realities of growing up Asian in America. Her work is proof that the face of America is changing and most importantly you don’t have to be Asian to appreciate her work. Tsai’s poetry creates an American landscape where struggles intersect, moments collide, and experiences replace the theoretical.
Tsai’s narratives stitch seemingly disconnected moments together to unravel compelling truths about the kind of world she wants to live in. This is a world that values human lives and stories and the differences within our experiences. This theme in which she weaves simple everyday moments together with complex, disparate thoughts, is beautifully executed in many of her poems.
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"By-Standing: The Beginning of an American Lifetime" is a powerful narrative poem that takes a chronological look at our generation’s recent history with war from 1986-2003. In tracing her encounters with violence, she paints vivid moments with honesty, sensitivity and a clear purpose. Read the poem to understand how historical moments intersect within present personal realities to prove her point, "Never, nowhere, anywhere: this is why no war." The act of "Making Guacamole" with her sister in the suburbs becomes an internal reflection about race consciousness and the complications inherent in defining community. A casual stroll into a bookstore triggers her memories of failed language lessons at Chinese school. As the story unravels, the language lesson is an indictment against activists who trivialize culture and romanticize revolution. One of Tsai’s gifts is her use of rhetorical questions as loaded statements aimed at changing the way we think even if it’s for a moment, a stanza, a 3-minute performance poem, or just maybe for the rest of a reader’s life. Her words are precise. Her target is clear: "change hurts / living it is hard / we’ve got to be ready."
Tsai’s words are fierce reminders that change never comes easy. This kind of change includes her own commitment to transform herself and her community. In poems like "Aftershocks," "Sacrifice," and "Player’s Girl," she reminds us that even intelligent, tough, and politicized women are not immune to the difficulties of relationships— whether it’s with god, culture or lovers. Kelly is as vulnerable as she is fierce. She makes no apologies for her words or her experiences. She is not afraid to expose her pain and contradictions or her dreams and disillusions. She is not afraid to point out the necessary changes even within her own community. Her yawp for a unified Asian American nationalism becomes a critical comment about the ways in which voices are continually marginalized even within already marginalized communities. Her poems are anthems of how change is not only possible and necessary, but inevitable.
I have had the pleasure of knowing Tsai and her work for nearly seven years now. I have followed her work since her University of Illinois slam days in 1998 to her poetic collaborations with the multicultural ensemble, Sirenz, to her recent theatrical explorations with Mango Tribe and We Got Issues. Her artistic career is filled with experiments in self-discovery and a commitment to social change. Her works are extensions of her complicated self in a world that flattens identities and dismisses difference. And at the heart of all her work is a deep love and respect for family, both that of blood and of choice. Kelly Tsai is one of the most important emerging voices of our generation. She doesn’t merely write to prove that she exists, but that change must exist. She is on a journey armed with the heart of a poet and the dreams of an activist. Her words pulse with life and urgency where every story is valued. Every moment is sacred. People are connected. Change is inevitable. Poetry is a necessity. She knows the world is changing. She knows the face of America is changing. She knows Asian America exists. It is a nation where Asian women are no longer sacrifices; where god and radio DJs have no right to laugh at tsunami victims; where revolutions are not trivialized; where guacamole tacos trigger dreams of cross cultural dialogues; where languages are not loss; where human bones weigh heavy with stories; where American does not mean White; where happy people eat ice cream; and where there will be no wars.
- Anida Yoeu Esguerra, atomicshogun.com
April 2005
Continue to Kelly Tsai's poetry.
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