The Shanghai Tunnels Project

INTERNATIONAL VIDEO POETRY FESTIVAL

HAL and UNSHOD QUILLS have teamed up with Portland’s Monica Storss to produce a cross-cultural, trans-Pacific video poetry film festival. Hosting bi-lateral events in Shanghai and Portland, the festival will celebrate the spoken word as infused by the medium of film, promoting and connecting artists from around the world.

Shanghai and Portland, Oregon have more in common than meets the untrained eye. Dark, busy, and both studded with Shanghai tunnels (those in Portland were used in the insidious pursuit of many illegal activities, including the kidnapping of young men for use as slave sailors on the Pacific; Shanghai’s own tunnels transport people in cars beneath the river to do whatever the hell they want). Both cities are divided by a river of trade and both cities are booming with literary communities as vibrant as anywhere else in the world. Both cities lay claim to Unshod Quills and HAL Publishing, sister sites and companies united in the pursuit of promoting excellent art and literature the world over.

$300 USD (RMB 1900) Grand Prize – Judges Choice for Best Video Poem – Second and Third Prizes – Screening Events in Shanghai and Portland, Oregon – Publication on HAL and Unshod Quills –

Guidelines and Submission forms after the jump. Continue reading…

River South Arts Festival

SLAMHAI3 — Slam poetry for the people of the ‘Hai

That’s right all you haters: H.A.L. is going back to River South Art Center on December 3rd, with new and improved poets for a new and even less harmonious SLAMHAI3. And, oh, a new book: MIDDLE KINGDOM UNDERGROUND. End of the year party is on people! If by chance you missed last year’s poetry bash you may want to check it out here.

Full Press Release for SLAMHAI3 here.

Love
B.

Illumin8tors at Mao Livehouse Tonight!

H.A.L. proudly presents: Kelly Tsai live in the ‘Hai!

Read about this past event at: http://shanghai.talkmagazines.cn/blogs/2011-11-01/evening-kelly-zen-yie-tsai

The H.A.L. crew is very proud to present our next feature, Brooklyn-based bad-ass Chinese Taiwanese American performance poet Ms Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai in  her first ever performance in Shanghai! As part of the infamous HAL BARd Fight series of hard-hitting literary events, we’ve lined up five of the baddest female poets Shanghai has to offer, including SLAMHAI! winner Susie Gordon and loose canon poet Andrea Fassolas. The evening will also premier the first installment of Shanghai Erotica winner Dena Rash Guzman and Jerimiah Whitlock’s film adaptation her story “Dan Orange of Shanghai,” along with a  screening of her video poetry created with Viv G. All in all, not an evening for the faint hearted.

We take Girls on Top very seriously, so drinks are free for all early birds (get it?), courtesy of the Rabbit Hole.

The Rabbit Hole (408 Shaanxi Lu/Beijing Lu), 8PM, Saturday Oct 29th.

Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai (察仁义)

Spoken word artist Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai has been featured in over 450 performances worldwide at venues including the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, the House of Blues, the Apollo Theater, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and three seasons of the award-winning “Russell Simmons Presents HBO Def Poetry.” The author of Inside Outside Outside Inside (2004), Thought Crimes (2005),No Sugar Please (2008), and the CD’s Infinity Breaks (2007) and Further She Wrote (2010), Tsai has shared stages with Mos Def, KRS-One, Sonia Sanchez, Talib Kweli, Erykah Badu, Amiri Baraka, Harry Belafonte, and many more.  (www.yellowgurl.com)

News: Unshod Quills releases Issue Two 9/15/11

Superman Down - Photography - Jillian Brall of Unshod Quills

We at HAL are happy and proud to inform you that our sexy sister site in Portland has released the second edition of Unshod Quills, containing art, fiction, videos, and more; all the finest in hip literature in pandemic format. A good amount of HAL authors are including in this issue (you remember the China-US cross-writing exercise we did at Groupthink? You see people, there’s a plan with everything we do, promise!), look out for Jason Lasky, Lucinda Holmes, Ginger wRong Chen and Catherine Platt, just to mention a few. Oh, and your favorite HAL editor debuts as a photo artist. In all modesty as always, needless to say. Big congratulations to Dena and UQ, HAL loves ‘ya!

B. Continue reading…

Hello, HAL. Do you read me, HAL? HAL: Affirmative

Note: This is a true story. Some names have not been changed to protect the innocent.

Deep in the wilds of Western Oregon, HAL contributor and foreign correspondent Dena Rash Guzman was in the midst of a coffee fueled all night editing bender, with only the damp chilly summer air and some howling coyotes in the river gorge for company, when a text message from an unrecognized number appeared on her phone.

What’s the name of your publisher?
And do you have an email for them?

Though somewhat startled, Dena was not ever in the mood to miss out on a submission for HAL. She responded to the text.

You are likely thinking of HAL Publishing.
My email is dena@haliterature.com
They are in Shanghai but I am
Managing Director North America so
I can direct your query. Who is this?

A few moments later came this response.

You’ll be receiving a message soon.

Continue reading…

United Verses

One day a group of really talented and really attractive poets got together and said, “You know what nobody is doing? Nobody is getting English and Chinese poets together and melding them into one massive poetry machine.” A joyous “Yop!” went up around the table and these wonderfully talented poets knew that they had something special. So it was that Richard Watkins, Laura McCrae, Andrea Fassolas and our very own talented Tom “the man” Mangione created United Verses. A show to end all shows. A Show that would bring local and ex-pat poets together in the spirit of brotha/sistahood. Using the ancient art of “Translation,” lovers of poetry who ain’t be knowin’ how to speak or read no not other language but their own, can now enjoy Chinese poems in English or the other way around!

Come on out to Anar on Saturday, July, 23rd (address on the beautiful poster above!) and get ready to enjoy the poetic stylings of some of Shanghai’s best and brightest poets working in tandem to bring you some sick, kick-ass poetry!

Readings From the people’s republic of

Continue reading…

SLAM Theatre Tonight at the Ke Center

HAL and SRT open the curtain tonight for Shanghai’s first ever SLAM Theatre performance. Four teams have been locked up inside the Ke Center since last night eight o’clock, and will emerge this evening before your eyes, live on stage with four completed original one-act plays. Read more about it here and here.

Address is 613-B Kaixuan Lu (near Yan’an Xi Lu),凯旋路613号,近延安西路, down the road from Yuyintang. Doors open at 7PM tonight (Sunday). Be there! Below pictures from last night and this morning, just to give you an idea.