Accent x heytea I A Stream of Light Tea Gathering: Midsummer Afternoon poetry & tea Immortals' Gathering

​A Stream of Light Tea Gathering: Midsummer Afternoon poetry & tea Immortals' Gathering

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​With Lee Ann Brown, Jiaoyang Li, and Kevin Ge

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​In 353 CE, Wang Xizhi gathered with Xie An, Sun Chuo, and thirty-nine other literati at the Orchid Pavilion in Kuaiji's Shanyin — "letting cups float on a winding stream, seated in order along its banks." The company sat along a meandering brook and set wine cups adrift on the current. Wherever a cup came to rest, the person before whom it stopped had to compose a poem on the spot.

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​More than sixteen hundred years later, on a midsummer night at a HEYTEA tearoom on the Upper East Side, a long table winds like a stream, with fifteen tea guests seated along it. The music of xiao (vertical bamboo flute) performer Kevin Ge runs through the whole evening — from the emptiness of “Traces of a Monk on Cold Mountain” to the dampness of “Rain Amid Apricot Blossoms,” interspersed with countless unscored improvised passages, carrying the poetry as it winds and drifts like flowing fire.

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​Poets Lee Ann Brown and Jiaoyang Li stand at either end of the long table, unfolding an improvised ritual of poetry recitation — language crossing and growing in the dim light, guiding the guests to gather tea leaves and scatter them freely across paper. Amid the sound of the xiao, the scattered leaves are drawn together into an imagined form — whether a concrete object or an abstract feeling. Like a ritual inviting a tea immortal to descend, the fifteen guests move among poetry, tea, xiao music, and candlelight, imagining themselves aboard an ancient boat, each sailing toward the depths of their own memory. Wherever the music stops, the drifting fire settles — and from that point, a story begins to grow.

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​Poets:

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​Lee Ann Brown, a celebrated American poet, born in 1963 in Japan and raised in North Carolina, graduated from Brown University. She is the founder of Tender Buttons Press, a New York experimental poetry press long dedicated to publishing experimental women's poetry. Her own poetry is associated with both the New York School and Language poetry. Her published collections include Polyverse (1999, winner of the National Poetry Series Award), The Sleep That Changed Everything (Wesleyan University Press, 2003), and In the Laurels, Caught (Fence Books, 2013). Robert Hass has called her “one of the wittiest and most inventive of the young American poets.” Over the past two decades she has curated poetry, theater, and cross-disciplinary performances at institutions including The Poetry Project, Segue Foundation, and Torn Page, and she currently teaches in the English department at St. John's University in New York.

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​Jiaoyang, a poet and cross-media artist, whose texts, performances, and visual art have been presented at New York Live Arts, Chashama, Mana Contemporary, Today Art Museum, the Asian American Writers' Workshop, the Immigrant Artist Biennial, the Performa Biennial, the New York City Poetry Festival, Push the Boat Out Poetry Festival in Edinburgh, the International Poetry Festival in Greece, the New York Public Library, and elsewhere. Jiaoyang is devoted to translating visual and sensory material into text and narrative, often exploring puppetry, narrative games, and ritual — objects both wearable and fleeting. She is also a co-founder of Accent, an independent bookstore and cultural organization in New York.

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​Musician:

​Kevin Ge, co-founder and president of 7s Art in New York, Vice President of the New York Guqin Society, and a third-level associate instructor of Ikenobo Ikebana. He began studying guqin under renowned master Liu Li in 2008, and later studied xiao under flute master Chen Tao. He won the Silver Award for guqin at the 1st New York International Folk Music Competition, and the Gold Award for xiao at the 3rd New York International Folk Music Competition.

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​Accent x 喜茶·茶吧

​流光茶席・仲夏夜诗剧场茶仙会

​公元353年，王羲之与谢安、孙绰等四十一位文人聚于会稽山阴的兰亭，"引以为流觞曲水，列坐其次"——众人沿一条蜿蜒的溪水两岸列坐，将盛酒的杯子投入水中，任其顺流而下。杯至谁前而止，谁便即兴赋诗。

​一千六百多年后的一个仲夏夜，在上东区的喜茶茶室，长桌蜿蜒如溪，十五位茶客列坐其间。古箫演奏者Kevin Ge的音乐贯穿全场，从《寒山僧踪》的空寂，到《杏花天雨》的湿润，间以无数未被记入谱的即兴片段，托举着诗，蜿蜒走火。

​诗人Jiaoyang与Lee Ann Brown立于长桌两端，展开一场即兴的诗歌念诵仪式——语言在暗处交错、生长，并引领茶客们抓取茶叶，随意洒落在纸间。在箫声中，将散落的茶叶勾连成一个想象的形态——不管是具体的物件还是一种抽象的情绪。如同一场邀请茶仙降临的仪式，十五名茶客在诗、茶、萧乐与烛火间，将想象自己身处一条古船，又各自驶向记忆深处。音乐停在哪里，流火便落在哪里，故事，便从此处生长。

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​诗人：

​李骄阳，诗人与跨媒介艺术家，她的文本、表演、视觉艺术、讲座曾呈现于New York Live Arts Center，Chashama，Creative time, Pionner Works， Mana Contemporary,今日美术馆，亚裔美国作家工作坊，移民艺术家双年展，Performa双年展，纽约诗歌节，北京诗歌节，爱丁堡Push the boat 诗歌节，希腊国际诗歌节, New York Public Library等。 李骄阳致力于在文字和叙事中转译视觉和感官的物料，常常摸索的东西有：傀儡，叙事游戏和仪式；可穿戴的和稍纵即逝的。她也是纽约独立书店和文化机构重音姐妹的联合创始人。

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​Lee Ann Brown, 美国著名诗人，1963年出生于日本，在北卡罗来纳长大，毕业于布朗大学。她是纽约实验诗歌出版社Tender Buttons Press的创办人，长期致力于出版女性实验诗歌。她的诗作被归入纽约诗派与语言诗派。出版诗集包括《Polyverse》（1999年，获New American Poetry Series Award）、《The Sleep That Changed Everything》（Wesleyan University Press, 2003）、《In the Laurels, Caught》（Fence Books, 2013）等。Robert Hass曾称她是"最机智、最富创造力的青年美国诗人之一"。过去二十年，她长期为The Poetry Project、Segue Foundation、Torn Page等著名诗歌艺术机构策划诗歌、剧场与跨界艺术演出，目前她任教于纽约圣约翰大学英语系。

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​音乐人：

​葛文潮，纽约七堂7s Art联合创始人，总裁，纽约古琴研究会副会长，池坊花道准教授三级华匡。2008年入古琴名家刘丽门下学琴，后又跟随笛箫名家陈涛学箫。获第一届纽约国际民乐比赛古琴银奖，第三届纽约国际民乐比赛箫金奖。