Thousand Star Hotelconfronts the silence around racism, police brutality, and the invisibility of the Asian American urban poor.
From with thanks to Sahra Nguyen for the refugee style slogan :
They give the kids candy to bet.
My daughter loses the first four rounds,
she's a quiet wire as they take her candy away, piece by piece.
When she finally wins, I ask if she wants to play again.
No! she shouts, grabbing her candy, I want to go home!
True refugee style:
take everything you got and run with it.
Bao Phiis a National Poetry Slam finalist.
Lowell, MA; College Park, MD; Minneapolis, MN; St. Paul, MN; Portland, OR
Much more than a set of poems, [Thousand Star Hotel] is its own history: a chronicle of Phi's family, present, past and future. Spinning this history together from fragments of memory and reflection, the collection provides a critical thread in the fabric of Asian American literature, history, and activism—past and present. —Kartika Review, The Stories Bao Phi Tells
“Written with immense empathy and honesty, Thousand Star Hotel is a moving, heartbreakingly beautiful portrait of the lives of Vietnamese refugees in the U.S.”—Buzzfeed
...Thousand Star Hotelskillfully weaves a range of topics -- police brutality, Asian American representation, masculinity, fatherhood, and his immigrant experience growing up in Minnesota, to name just a few. —Angry Asian Man, Trust the Process: An Interview with Poet Bao Phi
The many fans of Bao Phi will be thrilled by this book. New readers will be seduced by his trademark blend of passion, politics, and poetry. His poems alternate between the profane and the provocative as they deal with war and history, lă!