Throughout the US and in other countries, writers are organizing their own Writers Resist events on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, January 15, 2017. Invited speakers will read from a curated selection of diverse writers’ voices that speak to the ideals of Democracy and free expression. The public is encouraged to attend. —WRITERS RESIST

{NOTE: Read Tammy Ho’s introduction to #WRITERSRESIST in Hong Kong here.}

Event: #WRITERSRESIST: A Joint Reading
Organisers: Cha: An Asian Literary Journal and Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine 聲韻詩刊
Date: Sunday 15 January 2017
Venue: The House of Hong Kong Literature 香港文學生活館  (1/F Foo Tak Building, 365-367 Hennessy Road, Wanchai / 灣仔軒尼詩道365號富德樓1樓)
Time: 3:30-5:00 p.m.
Contact: tammyhoATasianchaDOTcom (Tammy) and szjchrisATgmailDOTcom (Chris)

On Sunday 15 January 2017, as part of the #WRITERSRESIST initiative, Hong Kong-based journals Cha: An Asian Literary Journal (English) and Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine (Chinese) will join together to host a reading of poetry that celebrates democracy, freedom of expression and compassion for mankind.

Fifteen contributors from Cha and Voice & Verse will be reading from their own or others’ work which reflects the spirit of the event, followed by an open discussion on the relevance of poetry in today’s society. Audience participation is very welcome during this session.

自由與民主，本屬人類與生俱來的權利，卻從古至今屢遭打壓。當我們追求豐衣足食、國泰民安之際，彷彿犧牲了自由與民主。1月15日是著名已故人權領袖馬丁路德金的誕辰，世界各地作家紛紛藉此舉辦不同活動高呼自由與民主的可貴，呼籲人們珍惜。有見及此，Cha: An Asian Literary Journal 及 聲韻詩刊合辦是次活動，誦讀相關詩歌來贊揚民主、自由及人性的光輝。活動歡迎各界人士參加，也期望大家能為自己及下一代發一點聲，留下迴響。

Runyu Huang 黃潤宇，青年寫作者，江蘇無錫人，現於香港就讀。寫詩寫文，作品偶見於香港媒體、藝文刊物如《明報·世紀版》、《字花》等。
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Akin Jeje, originally from Canada, now lives in Hong Kong. His works have been published and featured in Canada and Hong Kong. His poetry collection Smoked Pearl was a semi-finalist for the 2009 International Proverse Prize, and published by Proverse Hong Kong in 2010. Jeje’s most recent publication was in issue 53 of New York’s Linden Avenue Literary Journal in October 2016. He is a regular performer at Hong Kong’s Poetry Outloud and previously the MC for Peel Street Poetry. He is also an advisor to the Hong Kong International Young Readers’ Festival.

Tim Kwan 關天林，生於香港，詩作曾獲大學文學獎、青年文學獎，著有《本體夜涼如水》，詩集獲第十三屆中文文學雙年獎推薦獎。在詩裡追求拋擲的風景、結構的磨礪，和命運的體驗。
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Suzanne Lai is an ardent bibliophile and cinephile. She sees the world in vivid colours. With a concentration in Comparative Literature, she straddles both Chinese and English narratives with untethered imagination. Hoarding a vast collection of novels and vinyl records, Suzanne lives dangerously under a wavering tower of words and rhythm. “You can never run away. Not ever. The only way out is in,” said Junot Díaz. Suzanne still trusts that we can keep barging in unapologetically with our heads held high – to read and write relentlessly.

Louise Law 羅樂敏，香港中文大學哲學系畢業，同校獲英文文學研究式碩士學位，曾任香港文學雜誌《字花》編輯、香港國際文學節節目經理，現為水煮魚文化製作行政總監。多從事編輯、翻譯、寫作及文學活動策劃等工作。
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Keith Liu 池荒懸，詩作散見於港台兩地報刊。詩作收入《港澳台八十後詩選》、《衛生紙詩選》、《書在，人在—在緊緻的密縫中閱讀》、《黃詩帶》、《2013香港詩選》及《2012香港詩選》等。著有詩集《海灘像停擺的鐘一樣寧靜》和《連花開的聲音都沒有》。第三屆秋螢新人詩獎得主。石磬文化社長。

Lut Ming 律銘，基督徒，偶然寫詩。喜歡自己的工作，是和別人同行生命的一段路。另有筆名風緣。2001年與林一葉和方綺組織港大詩社。作品散見香港詩歌雜誌及副刊。詩作《我們是苦難的好孩子》被國際文學雜誌 Asymptote翻譯成英文刊登。著有詩集《如今常存的》，《所望之事》。

Collier Nogues is a poet and a student and a teacher who moved to Hong Kong from California in 2013. She’s especially interested in how poetry intersects with politics and activism. Her books of poetry are The Ground I Stand On Is Not My Ground, selected by Forrest Gander as winner of the 2014 Drunken Boat Poetry Book Contest,and On the Other Side, Blue (Four Way, 2011). She teaches creative writing at Chinese University of Hong Kong’s MA in Literary Studies programme, and was the 2016 Writer-in-Residence at Lingnan University. She’s also a PhD Fellow at the University of Hong Kong, where she studies contemporary poetry’s response to US militarization. Last year she collaborated with several Hong Kong poets and a Canadian poet on a digital bilingual project about Hong Kong’s political future. She co-edits poetry for Juked, and curates Hong Kong’s English-medium poetry craft talk series, Ragged Claws.

Michael O’Sullivan is a writer, teacher and critic living in Hong Kong and an associate professor at the Chinese university of Hong Kong. If asked what he is passionate about, he would say preserving, practicing and promoting space for creativity and imaginative self-expression that harnesses and nurtures human potential through the play of enchantment and inspiration in word, music and image. For him, this space is often constrained by political realities. Engrained institutional inequalities mean not everyone has the opportunity or conditions for being able to discover this space and this creative passion for discovery and enquiry. This elicits another form of passion in him. Resisting strategies of exclusion that his institution might also serve to perpetuate is something he is also passionate about. Resisting – through the tools of his trade and through sharing and collaborating with like-minded people – misreadings of philosophers such as Marx and resisting political movements that deny other cultures and peoples their right to prosper and self-determine are yet more things he is passionate about! His recent book is Academic Barbarism, Universities and Inequality.

Jason S Polley is associate professor of literary journalism, postmodern literature, and poststructural theory in the English Department at Hong Kong Baptist University. His research interests also include post-WWII graphic forms, media studies, and contemporary Indian fiction. But he prefers to skateboard, scuba dive, and harangue lap sap chungs.

Tegan Smyth is a former lawyer, aspiring writer and regular at Peel Street Poetry. She draws inspiration for her writing from current affairs, culture, politics and identity. When she isn’t writing or at her day job, she organises community events through Hong Kong Community Connect. She is also currently working on a food project with refugees and asylum seekers in Hong Kong.

Lian-Hee Wee became a phonologist when he failed as a syntactician, which followed his failure as comedian, and before that, musician. His latest failure is at veganism. However, his failures are categorically indistinct from current passions since he hasn’t given up trying, tinkering and finding solace that any non-success is material for humour. His political views are naïve because for him RIGHTS & RESPONSIBILITIES apply to all sentient beings, even if they have a predator-prey relationship. Democracy is one of many ways to safeguard these rights, and Lian-Hee is angered that despite centuries of sacrifices, hallowed grounds continue to be trespassed, freedoms stolen and rights robbed. When will we be ready to debate, explore models more effective than democracy with regards R&R? It should be evident that Lian-Hee is confused on the boundaries between fury and funny.

Jessica Yeung is Associate Professor of Translation at Hong Kong Baptist University. She teaches courses on Translation and Intercultural Studies. She was born and bred in Hong Kong, and therefore has never had any experience of political self-determination. She is very curious as to what that might feel like. Her intellectual engagement has always been inter-cultural relations in the contexts of power differentials. She previously researched on representations of Chinese culture in the West, but since she realised that the post-colonial paradigm was no longer useful for describing the relationship between China and the world, she shifted her focus to cultural representations of the Uyghurs and the Tibetans under Chinese rule. She also studies independent Chinese cinema and contemporary Chinese literature, and creates her own theatrical works. She is committed to the principles of freedom and autonomy, and believes animals are entitled to exactly the same rights as human beings are.

Jacky Yuen 熒惑，香港中文大學生物化學（醫學院）哲學博士，中學生物及化學科教師。曾任大學吐露詩社社長，現為書寫力量顧問。獲青年文學獎、大學文學獎、中文文學創作獎、李聖華現代詩青年獎。著有詩集《突觸間隙》（文化工房），正在籌備第二本詩集《香港夜雪》。
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Gabriel Wu 吳耀宗，現任教於香港城市大學。主要研究方向為中國現當代文學、香港文學。近著有詩集《逐想像而居》(2015)。獲頒亞細安扶輪青年文學獎首獎（1994年）、新加坡青年藝術獎（1998年）、新加坡文學獎（2010年、2016年）。香港十八區巡迴詩會會社社長。

Tammy Ho Lai-Ming is the Founding Co-editor of Cha: An Asian Literary Journal and an assistant professor at Hong Kong Baptist University.
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Chris Song is Editor-in-Chief of Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine. Currently working at the Centre for Humanities Research of Lingnan University as Assistant Editor of Journal of Modern Literature in Chinese, he is completing his Ph.D. in Translation Studies at the same university.