IV. From the book Silk Poems

Jen Bervin’s book Silk Poems was originally published by Nightboat Books in 2017. The cycle of poems is written from the perspective of a silkworm, exploring the cultural, scientific, and linguistic complexities of silk written inside the human body. A selection of poetry from the book was translated into Chinese for the IPNHK festival in November 2019.

The Silk Poems exhibition at UMAG was scheduled to coincide with the 10th anniversary of International Poetry Nights in Hong Kong (IPNHK), an award-winning biennial poetry festival established by contemporary Chinese author Bei Dao. Gathering more than 50 world-renowned poets, musicians, translators and scholars, the IPNHK 2019 festival included poetry readings and lectures and musical performances under the theme of “Speech and Silence.” Events took place in Hong Kong and in ten different cities across China.