Food: Chinese, American and German Poetry Collaboration
Over the last 150 years, Washington, DC’s Chinatown has been home to many immigrant groups. Each has contributed to the vibrancy and diversity of our neighborhood and our city. Three cultures - Chinese, American and German - are highlighted in this annual celebration of poetry and voice.
The theme for 2011, “Food,” nurtures people across cultural boundaries in body and soul. Food is something that all people have in common. We may eat very different things, and prepare them in special ways. But we all have to eat. And what we eat, and how we do it tells a lot about us - both as individuals and as representatives of our time and culture.
This website presents the texts of all 12 poems selected for this year, together with their translations - four from each of the cultures - Chinese, American and German. Information about the poet and poem appears underneath each poem. The poems are grouped not only according to culture, but also according to several unifying themes.
This year’s Time Shadows project is organized in conjunction with the recent launch of the book The Poet’s Cookbook: Recipes from Germany, Poems by 33 American Poets with German Translations.
We invite you to spend some time with the poems, share them with others, and let us know your opinions. Perhaps one of them reminds you of a favorite recipe - we’d love to find that out, too!
Part of the annual “Time Shadows” poetry collaboration, a project organized by the Goethe-Institut, the Chinatown Community Cultural Center, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library, in partnership with the Confucius Institute at George Mason University.
Norma Broadwater, Goethe-Institut Washington
Public Relations, Tel: +1 (202) 289-1200 x106
nbroadwater@washington.goethe.org
Lane Jennings, Project Consultant in Columbia, Maryland
Tel: +1 (301) 596-2943lanejen@aol.com
