top
San Francisco
San Francisco
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

China Rock Miner Poet Chen Nianxi 陳年喜 In San Francisco

by Labor Video Project
Chen Nianxi 陳年喜 a rock miner poet came to San Francisco on November 18th and 19th, 2016. His poetry is part of the first anthology of modern Chinese working class poets called Iron Moon: The Poetry of Chinese Migrant Workers.
china_iron_moon.jpg
China Rock Miner Poet Chen Nianxi 陳年喜 In San Francisco
https://youtu.be/yI9D6UsqDks

Chen Nianxi 陳年喜 a rock miner poet came to San Francisco on November 18th and 19th, 2016. His poetry is part of the first anthology of modern Chinese working class poets called Iron Moon: The Poetry of Chinese Migrant Workers.

There is also the film that premiered in San Francisco "Iron Moon". An assembly line worker in an Apple factory who commits suicide at the young age of 24, leaves behind 200 poems of despair—“I swallowed an iron moon…..”; a guileless lathe operator who is rebuffed at every turn, living in the world of his poetry; a female clothing factory worker who lives in poverty but writes poetry rich in dignity and love; a coalminer who works deep in the earth year round, trying to contact and make peace with the spirits of his dead coworkers through his poetry; and a goldmine demolitions worker who blasts rocks several kilometers into mountainsides to support his family, while writing poetry to carry the weight of his fury and affections—“My body carries three tons of dynamite….” They could be any of the 350 million workers in China, and yet these five are also poets. Using poetry as a tool to chip away at the ice of silence, they express the hidden life stories and experiences of people living at the bottom of the society. This is one story behind the sudden rise of China, and a mournful song of global capitalism.

Iron Moon: The Poetry of Chinese Migrant Workers
http://www.ironmoonmovie.com
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/963482307/iron-moon-the-poetry-of-chinese-migrant-workers/description
The presentations were made at LaborFest http://www.laborfest.net and the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition.
Production of Labor Video Project
http://www.laborvideo.org
sm_chen_with_nellie_wong.jpg
Chinese Rock miner poet Chen Nianxi 陳年喜 met with Chinese American working class poet Nellie Wong during the readings of both at the special LaborFest event with poetry and the premier San Francisco film screening of Iron Moon.
sm_chen_at_sf_redstone_building_labor_temple.jpg
Chinese Rock Miner Poet Chen Nianxi 陳年喜 visited the San Francisco Redstone Building which was formerly the Labor Temple and read his poetry.
Add Your Comments
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$110.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network