SUMMARY
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UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Cathy Park Hong who will present her memoir Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning
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Award-winning Poet and 2021 Time Magazine 100 Honoree
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New York Times bestselling book of creative nonfiction,Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning
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Minor Feelings won the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography (2020), earned Hong recognition on TIME’s 100 Most Influential People of 2021 list, and was a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize
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This presentation is part of the 2021-2022 CREATING HOPE programming initiative
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Thursday, February 10th / 7:30 p.m. Pacific / Campbell Hall
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$20: General Public / $0 for UCSB Students (Current student ID required; registration required)
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Health & Safety: Proof of full vaccination is required for all attendees. Proof of booster vaccination will be required for all eligible attendees beginning February 4, 2022. Masks are required indoors at all times. N95, KN95, KF94 or FFP2 face masks are strongly recommended. Regardless of the mask type, it is only effective if it is worn over your mouth and nose. Visithttps://artsandlectures.ucsb.edu/SeasonFAQs/ for updates and further details.
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Tickets/Info: (805) 893-3535, www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu
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This event includes an at-home viewing option (live stream only; no replay).
SANTA BARBARA — UCSB Arts & Lectures presents 2021 Time magazine 100 Honoree Cathy Park Hong who will present her award-winning memoir Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning on Thursday, February 10th at 7:30 p.m. Pacific at Campbell Hall. This presentation is part of the 2021-2022 CREATING HOPE programming initiative.
Cathy Park Hong is an award-winning poet and essayist whose memoir, Minor Feelings, integrates personal stories, historical context and cultural criticism into a radically honest meditation on the Asian-American experience. In this presentation and moderated conversation, Hong discusses race and identity, utilizing poetry for social change, and the power of creating art that is influenced by politics, culture and the current societal moment.
ABOUT CATHY PARK HONG’S MEMOIR “MINOR FEELINGS”
New York Times bestseller • Pulitzer Prize finalist • National Book Critics Circle Award Winner • One of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People
In development as a television series starring and adapted by Greta Lee • One of Time’s 10 Best Nonfiction Books of the Year • Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, New Statesman, BuzzFeed, Esquire, The New York Public Library, and Book Riot
“Hong is writing in agonized pursuit of a liberation that doesn’t look white—a new sound, a new affect, a new consciousness—and the result feels like what she was waiting for. Her book is a reminder that we can be, and maybe have to be, what others are waiting for, too.” The New Yorker
“Cathy Park Hong’s voice is urgent and raw as she unpacks what it’s like to experience prejudice that doesn’t fit into the exact mold of oppression faced by other minorities in the U.S…Hong is brutally self-aware and embraces her anger as she captures how she’s struggled to make sense of her identity.” Time
This is the book to read when you ask me, ‘How can I be an ally?’ This is the book to read if you want to educate yourself. This is the book to read if you want to be more in touch with your humanity.”
– Writer and Comedian Ali Wong
Poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong fearlessly and provocatively blends memoir, cultural criticism, and history to expose fresh truths about racialized consciousness in America. Part memoir and part cultural criticism, this collection is vulnerable, humorous, and provocative.
Binding these essays together is Hong’s theory of “minor feelings.” As the daughter of Korean immigrants, Cathy Park Hong grew up steeped in shame, suspicion, and melancholy. She would later understand that these “minor feelings” occur when American optimism contradicts your own reality – when you believe the lies you’re told about your own racial identity. Minor feelings are not small, they’re dissonant – and in their tension Hong finds the key to the questions that haunt her.
With sly humor and a poet’s searching mind, Hong uses her own story as a portal into a deeper examination of racial consciousness in America today. This intimate and devastating book traces her relationship to the English language, to shame and depression, to poetry and female friendship. A radically honest work of art, Minor Feelings forms a portrait of one Asian American psyche – and of a writer’s search to both uncover and speak the truth.
ABOUT CATHY PARK HONG
Cathy Park Hong is the author of three poetry collections andMinor Feelings, a New York Times bestselling book of creative nonfiction which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography and was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence. Hong is a recipient of the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Her poems have been published in Poetry, The New York Times, The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, and other journals. She is the poetry editor of The New Republic and full professor at Rutgers University. More at http://www.cathyparkhong.com/.
See A&L’s full 2022 lineup here
This is a moment that calls for Optimism, Resilience, Courage and Vision.
Santa Barbara needs Hope, and Arts & Lectures is uniquely positioned to respond.
A&L’s 2021-2022 CREATING HOPE programming initiative has already inspired our community with presentations by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, chef Jose? Andre?s and author Anne Lamott. We will continue to inspire, through shared experiences with thought leaders, creative problem solvers and arts visionaries who will guide us forward. CREATING HOPE programs strengthen human connection, promote emotional well-being, joy and compassion, and envision positive change. Learn more about the CREATING HOPE: https://artsandlectures.ucsb.edu/CreatingHope.aspx
ABOUT UCSB ARTS & LECTURES
Founded in 1959, UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) is the largest and most influential arts and lectures organization between Los Angeles and San Francisco. A&L annually presents more than a hundred public events, from critically acclaimed concerts and dance performances by world-renowned artists to talks by groundbreaking authors and film series at UCSB and Santa Barbara-area venues. With a mission to “educate, entertain and inspire,” A&L also oversees an outreach program that brings visiting artists and speakers into local classrooms and other venues for master classes, open rehearsals, discussions and more, serving K-12 students, college students and the general public.
Cathy Park Hong is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures.
This presentation is part of the 2021-2022 CREATING HOPE programming initiative.
$20: General Public / $0 for UCSB Students (Current student ID required)
For tickets and more information, call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535 or visit www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu.
Justice for All Lead Sponsors: Marcy Carsey, Connie Frank & Evan Thompson, Zegar Family Foundation, and Anonymous
Presented in association with the UCSB Department of Asian American Studies and the Santa Barbara Public Library
Special Thanks:
UCSB Arts & Lectures gratefully acknowledges our Community Partners the Natalie Orfalea Foundation & Lou Buglioli for their generous support of the 2021-2022 season.