The Thing with Asian Women Drumming by Grace Lau

April 18, 2023
Poem title: The Thing with Asian Women Drumming Poet: Grace Poem: on the taiko is it has to be seen to be believed: an unquiet woman shedding her silence by taking out her anger on the taut skin of a dead animal. It is as if I am listening to one of our oldest secrets: how to coax pain into rage and rage into ecstasy, a frantic alchemy. It is as if I am being shaken loose from my own small life, reaching through the tender tendrils of the earth to the mother of the sister of the aunt of the It is as if I am hearing my own power for the first time on the drum— drum— drum— End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Grace Previously published in The Fold Festival Program - 2020. Grace is a settler living in Ontario on the traditional and Treaty territory of the Anishinabek people, now known as the Chippewa Tri-Council comprised of the Beausoleil, Rama, and Georgina Island First Nations. Her debut poetry collection, The Language We Were Never Taught to Speak, is a Lambda Literary Award finalist. Find her on social media at @thrillandgrace.