May

Queer Check-Ins: Franny Choi

Are you okay?

The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center presents a series of video poems, curated by Franny Choi. In this series, twelve queer Asian and Pacific Islander diasporic poets check in and give us glimpses of queer life—okay, not okay, and in between. Video footage, shot by the poets themselves, maps out queer space across the U.S. and beyond.

Franny Choi

“It’s a strange time to be strange. For those of us who are queer and trans, femme and gender non-conforming, immigrant and indigenous, every day seems to bring a new understanding of the exact precariousness of our survival. As artists, we are often making our visions for the future while being drained by loss, heartbroken by loneliness and the distances between us. But, as poet Ocean Vuong writes, “loneliness is still time spent / with the world.” As curator for this project, I’m excited to gather these twelve queer voices from across the Asian and Pacific diasporas, to form a kind of collective rest stop in our travels through this America. Together, these poets meet the dark road ahead with fierce tenderness, with legends and incantations, with sharp criticism and complex dreams. Here are twelve check-ins from our extended chosen family; twelve brief glimpses into what it looks like when we stay.”