For the past few wednesdays, some friends and I have been checking out Hong Kong’s poetry nights. It’s not directly musical, but to myself and many, lyrics are poetry. So for you songwriters out there, here’s a post for you!
Every first wednesday of the month, the poetry nights are held at the Fringe Club in a more formal setting. Every other wednesday, poets and poetry lovers get together at Joyce is Not Here for a more intimate evening of poetry reading. As with music, the poetry brings a whole range of people from different walks of life together. Students, young teachers, professors, writers, musicians and city hoppers.
The fringe club is a great setting to experience some great poetry. On the first wednesday of February, a tribute was held for the late Hong Kong poet and professor P.K. Leung. Some of his close friends and students read out poems he had made in his lifetime, evoking captivating visuals and sensations about past Hong Kong. His powerful use of words was really amazing to hear.
Later on in the evening several poets of the city, got up to share parts of themselves through their writing. In a city of millions where we literally brush past one another with zero acknowledgement of anyone’s presence, I loved the idea of strangers opening themselves up to strangers, and being able to connect with experiences so similar to my own. I was especially blown away by a sixteen-year-old friend of a friend, who recited a Spoken Word poem she had written about a girl’s ‘first time’. The atmosphere was truly amazing.
The other wednesdays at Joyce, we had a couple of beers and read out our personal poems and the works of poets that inspired us.
Isn’t this what music, writing, and sharing work is about? connecting to strangers who we all share at least one thing in common with? Whether it be the city we live in, the experiences we’ve had, or this simple fact that we’re all human. It’s great to have this communication of artists and their personal work, who will tell legitimate stories about our human experience in our very own city!