Flowers to the River: Reading and Discussion with Tibetan Poets

Three women sit and talk in chairs facing the audience and the camera.
Flowers to the River: Reading and Discussion with Tibetan Poets, Tang Teaching Museum, September 23, 2023, photo by Shawn LaChapelle

Join us Saturday, September 23, at 10 am, for a reading with poets Sonam Tsomo Chashutsang and Lekey Leidecker, followed by a discussion moderated by Tsering Wangmo Dhompa. This reading is the second event in the series Flowers to the River: Tibetan Poetry in Dialogue.

In connection with Forms of Awakening: Selections from the Jack Shear Collection of Himalayan Art, Flowers to the River: Tibetan Poetry in Dialogue explores connections between the visual art featured in the exhibition and the work of contemporary Tibetan poets and translators through readings, discussions, a poetry workshop, and a film screening.

The event is free and open to the public.

About the Speakers

Sonam Tsomo Chashutsang is a poet who writes in Tibetan, English, and Hindi. She has a degree in creative writing from Miami University, and publishes in the online journal, Khabdha, one of the most popular Tibetan literary sites, and TibetWrites, which publishes the creative work of Tibetan writers. Her work has been published in Newtown Literary, Bridges (Villanova University), and in a special issue of Cadernos on Tibet, entitled “Testemunho poético de tibetanos no exílio” (“The Poetic Testimony of Tibetan in Exile”). She was born and raised in Bir, Himachal Pradesh, India, and attended Sarah College in Dharamsala before moving to the United States with a scholarship to Miami University in Ohio.

Lekey Leidecker (she/her/མོ་) is a Tibetan writer and poet born and raised in Berea, Kentucky. Her family is from Pemako. She divides her time between New York City and London. Her poems and essays have been published in Yeshe, The Pomelo, Diaspora Baby Blues, ANMLY, Genre: Urban Arts, Rigorous, and elsewhere. Her first poetry collection is forthcoming from Blackneck Books in 2023.

Tsering Wangmo Dhompa is the author of the poetry books, My Rice Tastes Like the Lake, In the Absent Everyday, and Rules of the House (all from Apogee Press, Berkeley) and three chapbooks of which Revolute was published in 2021 by Albion Books. Dhompa’s first non-fiction book, Coming Home to Tibet was published in the US by Shambhala Publications in 2016 and by Penguin, India in 2014. She was born in India and raised in the Tibetan refugee communities in India and Nepal. Dhompa teaches in the English Department at Villanova University.

Flowers to the River: Tibetan Poetry in Dialogue Events

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