Kirjahaku

Bienvenidos al tango, sensual, escurridizo, y seductor. En "Tango, Tangueando: Poemas y Dibujos," Mong-Lan extiende una invitacion a explorar el sensual mundo de tango argentino a traves de la poesia y el arte. Su impactante poesia y sus elegantes dibujos a pincel y tinta de bailarines de tango argentino iluminan y revelan este mundo de una manera original que cautiva e intriga. Poeta galardonada, artista visual, bailarina y profesora de tango argentino, Mong-Lan combina sus talentos y conocimiento en un libro bello y luminoso. Entre sus galardones se cuentan el Premio Juniper, una beca Fulbright, una beca Stegner para la Universidad de Stanford, la inclusion en las antologias Best American Poetry y Pushcart Prize. Sus obras de arte han sido expuestas en el Capitolio en Washington D.C., en el museo de Bellas Artes de Dallas, en el museo de Bellas Artes de Houston, en galerias en los Estados Unidos y en exposiciones publicas en Buenos Aires, Bali, Bangkok, Seul y Tokio.

In this highly unusual chapbook, memorable poetry and beautiful calligraphic art are married to exquisite tastes. One immediately identifies with Mong-Lan's poems, while with her calligraphic art, one wishes to linger. And, the tastes remain, even after the pages are closed. Whether Mong-Lan is singing of her love to food or writing of Southeast Asia (particularly Vietnam and Thailand), her poetry is quick-witted, humorous, vibrant, intoxicating and worldly. One sips the words slowly, imbibes to smell, not only to taste; then to devour wholeheartedly of what the soul sings.

Welcome to the tango, sensual, elusive and alluring. In "Tango, Tangoing: Poems & Art," Mong-Lan extends an invitation to explore with her the sensual world of Argentine tango through poetry and art. Her striking poetry and elegant pen & ink drawings of tango dancers illuminate and reveal this remarkable world in an original manner that captivates and intrigues, leaving you "breathless from its impassioned elaborations and imagistic intensity." Prize-winning poet, visual artist and Argentine tango dancer / teacher, Mong-Lan combines her talents and knowledge in one beautiful, luminous book. Mong-Lan's honors include the Juniper Prize, a Fulbright Fellowship in Vietnam, a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University, inclusion in Best American Poetry and Pushcart Prize Anthology volumes. Her artwork has been exhibited in galleries in the United States, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the U.S. Capitol House, and in public exhibitions in Tokyo, Seoul, Bali and Bangkok.

Mong-Lan once again brings us her tango art, full of sensuality, vigor and loveliness. Based in Buenos Aires, Mong-Lan shares with us her tango vision, a world of lines, flowing bodies in motion. A world of great heart, a blossoming love, and a vision all her own. Reminiscent of Picasso, Matisse, and the great artists of this century, Mong-Lan's pen and inks on paper are like performance pieces on the page, a moment captured. Floating, yet grounded in a ferocity of the mind along with Mong-Lan's impeccable technique of the hand and eye, the dancers tango in a centrifugal force of the heart. Prize-winning poet, visual artist, Argentine tango dancer and educator, Mong-Lan took her MFA at the University of Arizona. Among her honors include a Fulbright Fellowship in Vietnam and a two-year Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University. Her artwork has been exhibited in the U.S. Capitol House, galleries in the U.S., the Dallas Museum of Art, and in public exhibitions in Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Seoul, Bali and Bangkok.

Mong-Lan's new collection, Dusk Aflame: poems & art, is a bittersweet melange, a delirium of experiences and memories. Buenos Aires looms large with elegiac, nocturnal footsteps: on the edge of chaos and accidents waiting to happen. Buenos Aires, womb and capital of the tango, a melancholic music and sultry dance created by men and women who felt a need for the embrace. Death aspires to be a character here, and Dusk, too, female, animistic. An elegy for all that exists only in memory. On a lighter note, Mong-Lan continues with her cherished theme--love poems to nourishing delectables, like persimmon, rice, and sesame seeds. Dusk Aflame includes odes to the South, New Orleans, Houston, Galveston, and an island in Thailand. Jazz in poetry, in rhythm to the syncopations of life, to the tango, all comes together in a voice and vision that is uniquely Mong-Lan's. Mong-Lan's virtuoso brush and ink paintings accompany her poems in a poetic dance of movement, providing a visual resonance and portent to her work.

In this striking first collection of poems, the grainy strangeness of the modern world is transformed into a place at once knowable and enduring. Mong-Lan conveys the certainty that even when the world stops making sense, decency and beauty somehow survive. From Saigon to San Francisco, she combines the earthly and the ecstatic, the animal and the sublime, to create lyrics that tempt and haunt.