OMG! Great news: Two of my films NEWS FROM FUKUSHIMA and THE VERY SPECIAL DAY just became Official Selections at the Montreal Independent Film Festival.
Thanks to the festival, everyone for giving of their talent.
Thanks for believing in my poetry, my stories and my filmmaking.
My film “NEWS FROM FUKUSHIMA: Meditation on an Under-Reported Catastrophe by a Poet” has now been selected to be part of the Silent River Film Festival. It has moved online because of the pandemic and runs Aug. 7 ~16, 2020.
I am proud of what we have achieved with our film. Thanks to the film organizers for supporting independent filmmaking. And thanks to my many collaborators for the well-deserved honors we are getting.
The festival was founded by Indian American poet, writer and filmmaker Kalpna Singh-Chitris.
We are in good company.
THE BIRDS _ a poem by Yuri Kageyama (exceprt from The River) with cello by Hirokazu Natsuaki
Yuri Kageyama · THE BIRDS a poem by Yuri Kageyama with cello by Hirokazu Natsuaki
Kabuki’s answer to the Pelican
The Flamingo, the Albatross,
The Heron swoops through the sky
Perches so perfectly on a pine _
Princess in mirrored waters;
The humble fish-gulping Cormorant
Dives in muddy waters,
Spreads battered wings to dry,
In flight, freed from slavery _
Transforms, a gliding Black Swan;
The Sparrow plays, chirping staccatos,
Small furs of speckled brownness,
They play, always searching
Like a lost forlorn child _
Unchanged from Issa’s poems.
>___<
I waited all summer
For your return
Flutters of petal
Above the water
Buddha’s wafting lily pads
Your squawks swim the salty breeze
Circling, swooping, dancing,
They say birds vanish before an earthquake,
A hurricane, an apocalypse;
It matters not you don’t remember me
Your playful swoops
Silence screams of hate
Your presence is comfort
In this Atomic Age
You are back:
“I will not cry
Except in love” _
I wrote those lines
When I was very young,
And they are still true
As I die, You are back
I usually don’t write poetry in Japanese, but I wrote this. And now, looking back, I realize I’ve written Japanese rap. I am going to make this part of the rap section of my song “Nothing Happens.”
Japanese Rap for George Floyd
_ A Poem by Yuri Kageyama
死ぬまえ
のこる生命で
えらんだ言葉
息ができない
彼のおもい
アメリカの差別
歴史のおもい
すべてが
あまりにも
すごくて
言葉がない
息ができない
息ができない
The Tokyo Lift-Off Film Festival has selected not just one but two of my films for the event in June 2020 _ NEWS FROM FUKUSHIMA and THE VERY SPECIAL DAY.
Thanks to the organizers for believing in my vision. And thanks to all the artists who put up with me and worked on the films. We are all so looking forward to taking part in the event.
Both films are screening (online as the event has moved because of the coronavirus outbreak) MON June 22 ~ SUN June 28, 2020.
THE VERY SPECIAL DAY is showcased in the “Newcomers Short” section for Short Films, while NEWS FROM FUKUSHIMA is in the “Trendsetters” section for Feature Documentaries at the Tokyo Lift-Off Film Festival.
Our NEWS FROM FUKUSHIMA: Meditation on an Under-Reported Catastrophe by a Poet airs SAT June 6, 2020 9 p.m. on PBS Guam as part of the Select Showcase for the Guam International Film Festival.
What an honor and what an uplifting feeling for my collaborators and myself at a time when we so need it.
I AM THE VIRUS _ a poem in homage of Ishmael Reed
By Yuri Kageyama
(Written SUN March 22, 2020 as the world fights the pandemic over the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and I continue to be aghast at the utter lack of integrity among the supposedly best of us, the ignorance, selfishness, ugliness. )
I am the virus
I thrive on mossy envious egos
They keep showing up
Offices, clubs, picnics,
Choosing being seen, hoarding
Over social dis-tan-cing
I am the virus
I fester in corona-shaped clusters
Commuter trains, cruises, crowds
Peering at the Olympic torch,
I love the naming “Chinese virus”
The taunts, attacks on slant-eyed people
I am the virus
I cower when folks stay in
Takeout food, work from home,
A meter apart on solitary walks,
Wearing masks, washing hands,
Mixing aloe and alcohol
I am the virus
The crazy evil devoured
By doctors, vaccines, canceled concerts
Turning into live-streamed music,
People who remember to tell those they love
How much they really love them
RANDOM RENEGADE RENGA
Written by Taylor Mignon and Yuri Kageyama
In Tokyo Spring 2020 as the World trembles in face of the Pandemic but Poets believe in the Power of the Word
—
Santana muzak Oye Como Va
Make us yearn for Devo lounge
—
Digging Mi Ritmo in our Minyo village
Enya to tto Enya to tto Tito Puente
—
On the black sugar cane field a hurricane
saved by voices: Ne Nezu & Yuricane
—
He came to her room, said little then went on
To kill himself; jisatsu nante zurui (自殺なんてズルイ) So selfish so selfish
—
彼は誰？何と言うてました？なんで自殺したんだろう。「質問祭り」
—
The Poet with The Questions
Taylor Mignon Taylor Mignon? Taylor Mignon!
—
Kageyama encapsulates tortoise mountain, Turtle Island & Yaponesia cornucopia
—
Taylor is Razor Music entwined, David Bowie James Brown
Red Hot Chili Peppers George Clinton the Parliament-Funkadelic
—
Peter Tosh dangerous, yes to DB, P-Funk, JB —pass on Chili—am more Epic
—
Epic Poet Taylor screaming Eternal Tokyo
Ephemeral this world this thought this poem
—
My Name Is Rio skips in this stuck lift, Duran Duran sand dance
—
The scream of poetry that pierces Tokyo
Hear him scream
(notes for Taylor reading: screams loud and long)
—
The funkqueen of poesie that grooves Tokyo
(Hear her riff, adlib or skat)
—
From funk fusion to depa-chika to Icarus galaxy to Joni Mitchell and back,
Taylor and Yuri are done but only for now
