“Without a doubt, Anida Yoeu Esguerra has one of the sharpest tongues in America.
Her spoken word performances have been known to make audiences cry,
cheer and think – all in one breath”- PoliticalCircus.com

Asian Improv aRts Midwest
presents
Living Memory/Living Absence
October 20-22, 2005
Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 8pm
Admission $12; $10 students
LINKS HALL
3435 N. Sheffield,
Chicago, IL 60657
Tel 773.281.0824

Performed, Written & Created by Anida Yoeu Esguerra
Movement Director: Nicole LeGette
Video Artist: Masahiro Sugano
Musician: Amy Homma
Dramaturg: Robert Karimi

Living Memory/Living Absence marks the return of Cambodian American artist, Anida Yoeu Esguerra, to her birth country after 25 years of absence. The multimedia work traces Esguerra’s poetic fears of returning to a country she never knew; the incredible joy she felt immersed in ancient Cambodian traditions; and the irreversible legacy of a genocide that lingered in the streets and countryside like stretched shadows without owners. In Living Memory/Living Absence Esguerra performs poetry with movement inspired by Butoh set against a video backdrop of the sites and sounds of her memories of Cambodia. Esguerra reveals a journey through a landscape of fragmented old memories, an open ache for Home, and the junction of ancient cultures and modern curiosities. Living Memory/Living Absence is presented as part of the 10th Annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival. A musical performance by taiko/shamisen (Japanese lute) artist Amy Homma will open each show.
 
Anida Yoeu Esguerra seeks an artistic, spiritual and political exploration of her identity as a non hyphenated Cambodian Muslim American woman. Esguerra uses an interdisciplinary approach to creating art which mixes the visual, spoken and written into performed explorations of hybrid identities. She is interested in using performance work as a means to transform losses into conversations about healing and understanding. Esguerra is a founding member of the critically acclaimed groupsI Was Born With Two Tongues and Mango Tribe. She is a participant in Dance Theater Workshop’s Mekong Project Artist Residency program in Thailand and Cambodia. Esguerra tours extensively in North America with recent international performances in Delhi, Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh and Chiang Mai. Esguerra is a co-editor of Screaming Monkeys: Critiques of Asian American Images (Coffee House Press, 2003), an anthology that won ForeWord Magazine’s Gold Book of the Year Award. Esguerra has been recognized by PoliticalCircus.com as one of the 30 most influential Asian Pacific Americans 30 years of age or younger. She is a recipient of Insight Arts’ Creative Movements Festival Award for Spoken Word/Poetry that honors individuals, collectives, and organizations whose cultural and intellectual work has contributed to the development of dialogue concerning social justice and human rights. She aches for home, a good pair of ass-kicking shoes, and poetry by Audre Lorde. She is proud to call Chicago home but knows the journey never really ends for the refugee.

For more info please visit atomicshogun.com

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RESERVE TIX IN ADVANCE
also because of limited seating – Links Hall is advising that people RESERVE TICKETS IN ADVANCE. You can do that by calling LInks Hall (773) 281-0824. Tickets are then paid for at the door – cash or checks. no credit cards. Its general admission so you’ll want to be there early for the better seats.