Oregon Poet Laureate Lawson Fusao Inada is just as interested in hearing audience members’ stories as he is in sharing his own.
Before officially beginning the discussion Tuesday evening, he sat before the small crowd of students and adults in Gerlinger Lounge, his legs crossed and an inquisitive look on his face, asking people about their hometowns and fields of interest. The U.S.-born Sansei poet and professor of writing emphasized affiliation, commending the Asian/Pacific American Student Union, the organization that asked him to speak.
“It’s nice to have affiliation … America is getting less and less affiliated with things,” said Inada.
Initially Marc Alumno, the APASU External Outreach Coordinator, was going to introduce Lawson with a brief description of his accomplishments, but Inada asked that instead the members of the APASU executive staff read some of their own poems aloud. APASU staff member Laura Fong read “The Ghost in Me,” a short story; Alumno read his poem, “The Taste of Strawberries;” and Kyra Hayashi, the APASU co-director, read “2500 Miles,” a poem about missing home.
Inada then read some of his own selected poems. He was expressive, using gestures and an animated tone of voice to project a range of emotions.
“He has an amazing ability to express the history and culture of Asian/Pacific Americans,” said Dan Lam, a freshman member of APASU. “We need more people like him in our society because he helps progress the agenda of Asian Americans.”
Each poem had a story behind it. The first poem he read, “The Legend of Lost Boy,” portrayed the sentiments that he felt as a young boy in a Japanese-American internment camp at the Fresno Fairgrounds in California.
“We get lost in a lot of ways, but we usually get found,” Inada said. “Being lost strengthens you to go through these experiences.”
He also read “Rayford’s Song,” which described a situation he remembered from the third grade regarding a teacher’s unwillingness to embrace diversity. Inada elaborated on the racial and cultural segregation from his childhood.
“In the community where I was raised, even the food was segregated,” Inada said. “If you wanted a taco, you had to cross the railroad tracks. Now you can go to the mall and it’s like a multicultural buffet.”
Some other poems included “Eating Noodles,” “Putting Back the Rain,” “Seeking the Great” and “The Shovel People.”
“Hearing his poetry from him was a really good thing,” said Justin Tandingan, a junior and the selected 2008/2009 APASU co-director. “It kind of put a face to the words. I really liked the tone and the personal connection he created with the audience.”
Lawson ended not with a piece that he had written, but rather with a poem by a Vietnamese Buddhist monk called “Washing Dishes,” which encouraged appreciation of even the tedious of chores in life.
The diverse crowd reflected the themes of Inada’s writing: Audience members included a man from India, a woman from the Philippines, an Irish man and a woman form Sicily.
Alumno helped organize the event and was the one who suggested Lawson come speak.
“People like Lawson shed some light on issues like the internment of the Japanese, which I really didn’t know much about,” Alumno said. “He is definitely promoting the voice of the Asian community as a whole,” he said.