Nina Mingya Powles has made a stunning poetry zine, Seams : Traces, in response to Korean American writer Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's life and works, which you can read below. A screen-reader friendly version is downloadable below. A limited edition print run of the zine is available to order here for £6.
Please be aware this work deals with rape and murder. Get in touch at deadwomenpoets@gmail.com if you have any access requirements.
Notes
Dictée was originally published by Tanem Press in 1982, New York, and re-published by the University of California Press, 2001.
All the artworks referred to in these poems are catalogued and digitised by the Online Archive of California.
Snow language
This poem quotes from a section of Dictée addressed to the speaker’s mother, p. 80.
Snow memory
“I heard the swans / in the rain” is a line from a poem-fragment on p. 67 of Dictée, written in both English and French.
Performance notes 2 (Pomegranates) refers to a hand-sewn artist’s book by Cha titled Pomegranate Offering (1975).
This creative response was commissioned as part of Nina Mingya Powles's resurrection of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, for a séance on the Dead [Women] Poets Society national tour in 2019/20. This séance would have happened on 20 July 2020 at The Poetry Café, but was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Read Bridget Minamore's golden shovel after Margaret Walker here. Book to join the rescheduled séance online on 20 July 2021 here, and find out about future events by signing up to our free and fun mailing list.
This project is supported by Arts Council England. Illustrations by Lily Arnold.