Bill Ong Hing

01/17/24 • 59 min

City Lights LIVE, Beacon Press, and Refugee Immigrant Transitions celebrate the publication of “Humanizing Immigration: How to Transform Our Racist and Unjust System” by Bill Ong Hing, published by Beacon Press. “Humanizing Immigration” is the first book to argue that immigrant and refugee rights are part of the fight for racial justice; and offers a humanitarian approach to reform and abolition. Representing non-citizens caught up in what he calls the immigration and enforcement “meat grinder”, Bill Ong Hing witnessed their trauma, arriving at this conclusion: migrants should have the right to free movement across borders—and the right to live free of harassment over immigration status. He cites examples of racial injustices endemic in immigration law and enforcement, from historic courtroom cases to the recent treatment of Haitian migrants. Hing includes histories of Mexican immigration, African migration and the Asian exclusion era, all of which reveal ICE abuse and a history of often forgotten racist immigration laws. While ultimately arguing for the abolishment of ICE, Hing advocates for change now. With 50 years of law practice and litigation experience, Hing has represented non-citizens—from gang members to asylum seekers fleeing violence, and from individuals in ICE detention to families at the U.S. southern border seeking refuge. Bill Ong Hing is Professor of Law and Migration Studies at the University of San Francisco, and Professor of Law and Asian American Studies Emeritus, at UC Davis. Previously on the law faculties at Stanford University and Golden Gate University, he founded the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco and directs their Immigration & Deportation Defense Clinic. Professor Hing teaches Immigration Law & Policy, Migration Studies, Rebellious Lawyering, and Evidence, is the author of 6 books, and was co-counsel in the U.S. Supreme Court asylum precedent-setting case "INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca" (1987). Jane Pak is Co-Executive Director at Refugee and Immigrant Transitions and Adjunct Professor in the Masters in Migration Studies program at the University of San Francisco (USF). Her scholarship and praxis are informed by Critical Refugee Studies; liberatory education; and transnational solidarity. Jane is most energized when engaging with diverse communities and knowledge in collective contexts. Her background is in strategy, development, and research in education and refugee contexts. She has worked in community, nonprofit, government, and business sectors. Jane’s work for justice is motivated by a multi-generational family history of forced migration, resistance, and service. You can purchase copies of “Humanizing Immigration: How to Transform Our Racist and Unjust System” at https://citylights.com/humanizing-immigration-ht-transfor/. This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/.

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Myriam Gurba

City Lights LIVE! presents Myriam Gurba in conversation with visual artist MariNaomi to celebrate the release of Gurba’s new book “Creep: Accusations and Confessions,” published by Simon and Schuster. A ruthless and razor-sharp essay collection that tackles the pervasive, creeping oppression and toxicity that has wormed its way into society—in our books, schools, and homes, as well as the systems that perpetuate them—from the acclaimed author of “Mean,” and one of our fiercest, foremost explorers of intersectional Latinx identity. A creep can be a singular figure, a villain who makes things go bump in the night. Yet “creep" is also what the fog does—it lurks into place to do its dirty work, muffling screams, obscuring the truth, and providing cover for those prowling within it. “Creep” is Myriam Gurba’s informal sociology of creeps, a deep dive into the dark recesses of the toxic traditions that plague the United States and create the abusers who haunt our books, schools, and homes. Through cultural criticism disguised as personal essay, Gurba studies the ways in which oppression is collectively enacted, sustaining ecosystems that unfairly distribute suffering and premature death to our most vulnerable. Yet identifying individual creeps, creepy social groups, and creepy cultures is only half of this book’s project—the other half is examining how we as individuals, communities, and institutions can challenge creeps and rid ourselves of the fog that seeks to blind us. With her ruthless mind, wry humor, and adventurous style, Gurba implicates everyone from Joan Didion to her former abuser, everything from Mexican stereotypes to the carceral state. Braiding her own history and identity throughout, she argues for a new way of conceptualizing oppression, and she does it with her signature blend of bravado and humility. Myriam Gurba is a writer and artist. She is the author of the true crime memoir “Mean,” a New York Times Editors’ Choice. O, The Oprah Magazine, ranked “Mean” as one of the best LGBTQ books of all time. Publishers Weekly describes Gurba as having a voice like no other. Her essays and criticism have appeared in The Paris Review, Time, and 4Columns. She has shown art in galleries, museums, and community centers. She lives in Pasadena, California. MariNaomi (they/them) is the award-winning author and illustrator of “Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Resume,” “Ages 0 to 22,” “Dragon’s Breath and Other True Stories,” "Turning Japanese," “I Thought YOU Hated ME,” the “Life on Earth” trilogy, “Dirty Produce,” and “I Thought You Loved Me.” Their work has appeared in nearly 100 print publications, and has been featured on websites such as The New Yorker’s Daily Shouts, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Rumpus, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Midnight Breakfast, SF Examiner, and BuzzFeed. Their comics have been translated into French (Devenir Japonaise, Editions IMHO, 2021), German, and Russian. You can purchase copies of “Creep” at https://citylights.com/new-nonfiction-in-hardcover/creep-accusations-confessions/. This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/.

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Roberto Harrison With Julien Poirier

City Lights celebrates No.23 in the "Spotlight Poetry Series" Roberto Harrison reads from his work. Introduction by Garrett Caples. Julien Poirier will also be reading from his work. In person event held in City Lights' Poetry Room, hosted by Peter Maravelis. Purchase "Isthmus to Abya Yala" By Roberto Harrison here: https://citylights.com/isthmus-to-abya-yala-spotlight-23/ A conjuration of ancient consciousness aimed at rehumanizing our contemporary cyborg condition. “Abya Yala”–“land of life” or “land of vital blood”–is a Pre-Columbian term of the Guna people of Panamá and Colombia to refer to the American continent and more recently has signified the idea of a decolonized “New World” among various Indigenous movements. In Isthmus to Abya Yala, Panamanian American poet Roberto Harrison summons a mythic consciousness in response to this political and spiritual struggle. In his poems, with mystic fervor, Harrison finds phonetic unities concealing conceptual oppositions he must transcend. Invoking “mobilian” as an ur-language against racism and toward an all-inclusive humanity–in opposition to the “mobile” of phone-mediated existence–the poems of "Isthmus to Abya Yala" burn with a visionary ardor that overpowers rationality through an intensive accumulation of imagery. They even sometimes manifest as visual poems in the form of drawings he calls “Tecs,” opposing the dominance of technology to the advocacy of pan-Indian nationhood by 19th century Shawnee leader Tecumseh. “Tecumseh Republic” is the poet’s name for a new post-racial, post-national, post-binary, post-colonial, holistic and earth-oriented society with no national borders, with Panamá, the isthmus, as its only entry and exit. Roberto Harrison’s poetry books include "Tropical Lung: exi(s)t(s)" (Omnidawn, 2021), "Tropical Lung: Mitologia Panameña" (Nion Editions, 2020), "Yaviza" (Atelos, 2017), "Bridge of the World" (Litmus Press, 2017), "culebra" (Green Lantern Press, 2016), "bicycle" (Noemi Press, 2015), "Counter Daemons" (Litmus Press, 2006), "Os" (subpress, 2006), as well as many chapbooks. With Andrew Levy, Harrison edited the poetry journal "Crayon" from 1997 to 2008. He was also the editor of Bronze Skull Press which published over 20 chapbooks, including the work of many Midwestern poets. Most recently, Harrison served as a co-editor for the "Resist Much/Obey Little: Inaugural Poems to the Resistance" anthology. He was the Milwaukee Poet Laureate from 2017–2019 and is also a visual artist. He lives in Milwaukee with his wife, the poet Brenda Cárdenas. Julien Poirier teaches poetry in the San Francisco public schools and at San Quentin State Prison. His book "Out of Print" was published by City Lights in 2016. He is also the author of "El Golpe Chileño" (2010), "Stained Glass Windows of California" (2012), and "Way Too West" (2015), among other volumes. With Garrett Caples, he edited Incidents of "Travel in Poetry: New and Selected Poems" (2016) by Frank Lima for City Lights. He is also a co-founder of Ugly Duckling Presse Collective, where he edited a poetry newspaper, "New York Nights," as well as an anthology of writing by Jack Micheline, "One of a Kind" (Ugly Duckling, 2008), and a book of travel journals by Bill Berkson, "Invisible Oligarchs" (Ugly Duckling, 2016). He is currently the mastermind behind the mail art publication Night Mail. Originally broadcast on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation