i’ve
memorized
every
promise
that was
gave
on that
night
we were
told
we’d have
to go &
had better
learn
to
travel
light
across
a sea
that would
disappear
once
we’d reached
its
other
shore
&
there
we’d
wear
our hearts
inside
no longer
easy
for us
to find
for we
could not
yet be
beings
of
light
&
we
were
no longer
men
like
the ones
who
walked
before
innocent
of
wrong or right
Father oh
now i know
why
you
moved
so
far away
But your
poor mother
she
waited
for
your
return
till her
last
day
—
Dao Strom is a writer, artist, and musician whose work explores hybridity through melding disparate “voices”—written, sung, visual—to contemplate the intersection of personal and collective histories. She is the author of a bilingual poetry/art book, You Will Always Be Someone From Somewhere Else (Ajar Press, 2018), an experimental memoir, We Were Meant To Be a Gentle People + music album East/West (2015), and two books of fiction. Her work has received support from the Creative Capital Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Precipice Fund, Regional Arts & Culture Council, Oregon Arts Commission, and others. She is the editor of diaCRITICS and co-founder of the collective art project She Who Has No Master(s). www.daostrom.com
Roland Dahwen is a filmmaker whose work explores migration, race and memory. He is a recipient of the Oregon Media Arts Fellowship (2018) and an artist-in-residence in Portland Institute for Contemporary Art’s Creative Exchange Lab (2018). He is the founder of Patuá Films. His first feature film is forthcoming in 2019. www.patuafilms.com
Director: Roland Dahwen
Director of Photography: Edward P. Davee
Sound Recording: sidony o’neal
Mixing: Dao Strom & Jim Han
Mastering: Timothy Stollenwerk / Stereophonic Mastering