We use cookies on this website. By continuing to use this site without changing your cookie settings, you agree that you are happy to accept our privacy policy and for us to access our cookies on your device.
California has a new poet laureate. And for the first time, that state poet is Asian American. For VOA, Genia Dulot traveled to Fresno, California, to hear from Lee Herrick about his roots and his poetry.
Content TypePackage
LanguageEnglish
Transcript/Script((TITLE: Asian American Poet Laureate
HEAD: California Names First Asian American as Poet Laureate
TEASER: Adopted from South Korea, poet driven by search for racial identity
PUBLISHED AT: xx/xx/2023
BYLINE: Genia Dulot
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: Fresno, California
VIDEOGRAPHER: Genia Dulot
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA
PLATFORMS:
SCRIPT EDITORS: Stearns, Jepsen
TRT:
VID APPROVED BY:
TYPE: TVPKG
UPDATE:))
((INTRO))
[[California has a new poet laureate. And for the first time, that state poet is Asian American. For VOA, Genia Dulot traveled to Fresno, California, to hear from Lee Herrick about his roots and his poetry.]]
((NARRATION))
California’s new poet laureate was adopted from South Korea when he was just 10 months old. Lee Herrick imagines those days in “Three Dreams of Korea. Notes on Adoption.”
((Lee Herrick, California Poet Laureate))
“I am on the steps of a church, wrapped in Monday's Korea Times telling of the drought in Pusan. You can live by the water and still die of thirst, and I, there on the cold brick steps, am dying. But dying means the presence of breath. This one happens on Hangul Day, Independence Day in Seoul, where girls in purple satin hanboks parade through downtown streets.”
((NARRATOR))
Herrick’s sister Holly Geylor says having an Asian brother in the 1970s seemed completely normal to her but not to their schoolmates.
((Holly Geylor, Sister))
“Some kids assumed that we’re playing games on them, and we were not really brother and sister. And there were times when I would stick up for him because people would make comments about him, and I jump to defend him.”
((NARRATOR))
Growing up in a white family in rural California, Herrick looked different from most of the people around him. His wife, Lisa, says poetry became a refuge in his search for racial identity.
((Lisa Herrick, Wife))
“I think Lee’s poetry has been a journey and all the different ways he’s trying to connect back to South Korea, to Daejeon, trying to also imagine like through the body of his writing, imagining the bodies of his birth family and trying to meet them, I think until that day happens, the poetry is almost like individual people he’s talking to.”
((NARRATOR))
Herrick has been unable to find his biological family in South Korea. As California’s first Asian American state poet, he hopes there will be many more to follow.
((Lee Herrick, California Poet Laureate))
“I always feel like there could’ve been and maybe should’ve been somebody before me, but also I’m deeply honored. I still don’t know if I’ve been able to really make sense of it.”
((NARRATOR))
As poet laureate, Herrick is charged with advocating for poetry in California classrooms and beyond. Friend and fellow-poet Marisol Baca says Herrick’s deeply personal story is just what a diverse California needs.
((Marisol Baca, Poet))
“For me a big part of that is the search, is looking in your poetry, asking a question, where do I come from, who are my people? What’s important to me about where I come from? And then figuring out that you’re a product of all of these different things. And so his poetry for me speaks to that, searching, but also, when it comes down to it, really acknowledging and loving where you are.”
((Lee Herrick, California Poet Laureate))
“Here, in my California, we fish out long noodles from the pho with such accuracy you'd know we'd done this before. In Fresno, the bullets tire of themselves and begin to pray five times a day. In Fresno, we hope for less of the police state and more of a state of grace.”
((NARRATOR))
Herrick’s term as state poet runs through 2025.
((Genia Dulot, for VOA News, Fresno, California))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Embargo DateMarch 2, 2023 08:40 EST
BylineGenia Dulot
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
