MOTHSUTRA is a graphic poem portfolio by RUSSELL C. LEONG! First performed live at the Bowery Poetry Club, The Lower East Side. A childrens book for adults. This is Leong’s second graphic book in 50 years, after his “My Chinatown A to Z” a coloring book for children done in 1966. MOTHSUTRA is published in … Read more
In styles ranging from naturalism to high-camp parody, Leong goes beneath stereotypes of immigrant and American-born Chinese, hustlers and academics, Buddhist priests and street people. Displacement and marginalization ― and the search for love and liberation ― are persistent themes. Leong’s people are set apart, by sexuality, by war, by AIDS, by family dislocations. From … Read more
This long-awaited collection of poetry includes”Aerogrammes,” an account of the author’s journeyto the Chinese homeland; “In the Country ofDreams and Dust,” featuring male and femalevoices in sixteen sections; and “Unfolding Flowers, Matchless Flames,” a meditation on the L.A. riots from a Buddhist perspective. Jessica Hagedorn characterizes Leong’s work as “eloquent and mystical”; Ishmael Reed has … Read more