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
