As we get closer and closer to the Summit (we’re so close!) I’d like to take some moments to pay homage to members of our community and past Summit participants who have helped shape me as an artist and a person.  Ishle Yi Park is an incredible Korean American poet from Queens who has called everywhere from Hawai’i to New Zealand to the Bay home (okay, those are all kinda tropicalish sometimes you gotta leave the NY air for some mangoes and green yadiggggg?)

The first chapbook I ever owned was Ishle’s Girlfish which I got as a strapping young lad back in 2002 at the Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam.  Since then she has gone on to rock all over the world as a part of the Def Poetry on Broadway lineup, gotten her MFA in writing, and released a number of books and albums.