Contemprary Tanka Poet Mariko Kitakubo. Reading Performance.
Tanka reading performance oveseas.
September 30, 10:00 a.m., Japan Time (Sept. 29, 6:00 p.m., PST), I hosted the 15th Anniversary event on Zoom to celebrate my bilingual Tanka reading activity overseas to introduce Tanka to the world.
Although it was the prime time of Pacific Standard Time and the U.S. Presidential Debate was on air, I am very glad that many audience viewed my one-hour-and-half online event.
In the event, I presented ten sequences in total - four of which I created with Ms. Deborah P. Kolodji in 2020 during the time we suffer from corona virus pandemic, one with Ms. Kathabela Wilson, and five created by myself. I am greatly honored by audience's very favorable comments and reaction.
Please enjoy the video of my event on my website which contains already published pieces.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude toward Ms. Deborah P. Kolodji, who have made a great contribution to the planning and implementation of this event, and Mr. & Mrs. Wilson, who offered wonderful background music with Tambura, Shakuhachi, and Indian flute. I would also like to thank Ms. Yvette, Ms. Deborah's daughter, for sending information to the audience in advance.
I am planning to host the same event for the different time zone so that audience in India, Tanzania, England and other European regions can enjoy my performance.
I am sorry but no pictures are available for the people joined the event in the middle.
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
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October 14, 4:00 p.m. PST (Oct. 15, 8:00 p.m. Japan Time), I participated in Wednesday Poetry Zoom Meeting, and performed Japanese-English bilingual Tanka reading. |
Wednesday, October 14, 2020
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October 11 at 4:30 p.m., PST (Oct. 12 at 8:30 a.m., Japan Time), I participated in Zoom Reading Event presided at by Ms. Maja Trochimczyk and performed reading of my English Tanka sequence "Borderless Prayer," which was published in "WE ARE HERE: VILLAGE POETS ANTHOLOGY". |
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It was their 10th Anniversary of their virtual event, and I was very honored to be a part of the event together with the other poets whose poems were published in the same anthology. |
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Below is the quote from their website: FLINTRIDGE BOOKSTORE PRESENTS VIRTUAL CELEBRATION OF 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF VILLAGE POETS READINGS. WE ARE HERE: VILLAGE POETS ANTHOLOGY MAJA TROCHIMCZYK & MARLENE HITT, EDITORS |
Monday, October 12, 2020
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September 23, 4:00 p.m., U.S. time (Sept. 24, 8:00 p.m., Japan time), I participated in Wednesday Poetry Zoom Meeting presided at by Ms. Kathabela Wilson, and performed reading of "Wish List", which is a Haiku & Tanka sequence I composed with an English Haiku poet, Ms. Deborah P. Kolodji just a night before the meeting. |
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Composing sequence with Ms. Deborah is an irreplaceable joy because we inspire each other through an invisible rainbow between her in California and me in tokyo. |
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In addition to flute play by Mr. Rick Wilson and paintings by Mr. Robert Stewart, I was inspired by the photos of mural paintings Ms. Deborah took in Santa Fe by chance. It was a very rich and artistic time. |
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Wednesday, September 23, 2020
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September 16, 4:00 p.m., U.S. time (Sept. 17 8:00 a.m., Japan time), I participated in Wednesday Poetry Zoom Meeting presided at by Ms. Kathabela Wilson. I performed reading the latest Haiku & Tanka sequence, "Tilt of the Earth", which Ms. Deborah P Kolodji and I composed together. I am glad that everybody enjoyed it. |
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In this meeting, I had an opportunity to get in touch with different ways of expression such as a collaboration of art and poetry, music performance, and paintings. All of them inspired me a lot. It was a precious time for me. |
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I would like to thank all the participants. I am looking forward to seeing you all next week. |
Wednesday, September 16, 2020
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September 9, 4:00 p.m., U.S. time (Sept. 10, 8:00 a.m., Japan time), I participated in Wednesday Poetry Zoom Meeting presided at by Ms. Kathabela Wilson, and performed reading of tanka sequence with some new pieces about life and the transmigrations of soul. |
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Although I was able to participate in today's meeting due to my personal reason, I was very glad that the members enjoyed my presentation. |
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The photos of me performing were taken by Ms. Kathabela Wilson. |
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Wednesday, September 9, 2020
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September 8, 7 p.m., U.S. time (Sept. 9, 11 a.m., Japan time), I participated in online event of The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes in which Ms. Teresa Mei Chuc was featured, and I performed reading as an open-mic speaker. |
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Ms. Teresa Mei Chuc offered me a great help when I published my sixth anthology, "INDIGO" from Shabda Press in 2016. I really appreciate the efforts she made for me. |
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I am honored to be able to listen to Ms. Teresa's impressively powerful poems. |
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* My pictures were taken by Ms. Kathabela Wilson. |
Wednesday, September 9, 2020
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September 2, 4:00 p.m., U.S. time (Sept. 3, 8:00 a.m., Japan time), I participated in Wednesday Poetry Zoom Meeting presided at by Ms. Kathabela Wilson, and performed bilingual reading of my tanka sequence "The traveler" in Japanese and in English. |
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Being inspired by the fellow members' poems and artistic expressions, I was able to spend meaningful time. |
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Monday, September 7, 2020
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August 29, 4:00 p.m., U.S. time (Aug.30, 8 a.m., Japan time), the publication event of Mr. Rick Lupert's new poetry book, "The Tokyo Van Nuys Express", was live-streamed. |
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For this event, I was offered to perform reading of "Distance 2020" together with Ms. Deborah P. Kolodji. |
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In the Zoom event video, our performance starts at 09:20 after the opening and lasts for about 5 minutes. |
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I hope you enjoy it. Please watch the video from here! |
Thursday, September 3, 2020
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August 26, 4:45 p.m., U.S. time (Aug. 27 8:45 a.m., Japan time), I participated in Wednesday Poetry Zoom Meeting presided at by Ms. Kathabela Wilson. |
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In this meeting, I met a Haiku poet who recently started creating Tanka for the first time. I performed reading of my latest Tanka sequence, wishing to introduce the beauty of Tanka to her. I was glad that she enjoyed my performance. Her Tanka was so good that it was hard to believe she started Tanka recently. I once again realized that it is not really the years one has spent for writing poems, but the depth of emotion one has been cultivating as well as one's sense that determins the quality of poems. |
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I was also impressed by Mr. Rick Wilson's flute and Mr. Robert Stewart's paintings. |
Monday, August 31, 2020
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