Born With Song: Wang Ping Spreads Art, Poetry & Kinship From The Mississippi To The Yangtze

Wang Ping was born in Shanghai and came to the USA in 1986. She is the founder and director of Kinship of Rivers, an international project that builds kinship among the people who live along the Mississippi, Yangtze, Ganges and Amazon Rivers through exchanging gifts of art, poetry, stories, music, dance and food. She paddles along the Yangtze and Mississippi River and its tributaries, giving poetry and art workshops along the river communities, making thousands of flags as gifts and peace ambassadors.

Wang Ping’s poetry books include My Name Is Immigrant, Ten Thousand Waves, Of Flesh and Spirit, and The Magic Whip. She has also published fiction and memoir and has translated Chinese poetry.  Along with many multi-media solo exhibitions, she collaborated with the British filmmaker Isaac Julien on Ten Thousand Waves, a film installation about illegal Chinese immigration in London.

She is the recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council of the Arts, Minnesota State Arts Board, and many others.  Wang Ping teaches creative writing as Professor of English at Macalester College. www.wangping.com.

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Poetry & Planet is produced by Ethan Goffman. “Deer Park” by Wang Wei is read by Wang Ping. “Rip Rap” by Gary Snyder is read by R. Michael Oliver.  Musical excerpts from “Elements of Life” and “Earth Revisited” are written and performed by Reginald Cyntje, with vocals by Christie Dashiell.  Aural interludes are by Douglas Harvey.

The opening poetry chorus is voiced by Jomo K. Johnson, Dr. Michael Anthony Ingram, Marianne Szlyk, and R. Michael Oliver.

“Riprap,” by Gary Snyder, is from Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems, Counterpoint Press (1958), and is used by permission of the author.