Miko Kuro’s Midnight Tea

Miko Kuro’s Midnight Tea — A Conceptual Art Project
Poet/Artist：Natasha Marin（Trinidad）

Time: 2011, 11, 26, 11:30pm-03:00am
Guest number：12 guests（reservation required）
Location：943 Space, A Zone, Loft•JinDing1919, North JinDing Shan Road No.15, Kunming, China
Reservation Tel: 0871- 5385159
Email: 943studiokm@gmail.com
More information: www.afurocreative.com  www.mikokuro.com

Project Introduction
Miko Kuro’s Midnight Tea is a conceptual art project created by poet and interdisciplinary artist, Natasha Marin. Since the project’s inception in 2008, Midnight Teas have been held in Greece, France, Canada, and the United States. This is the first time the Midnight Tea has taken place outside of the Western Hemisphere (North America and Europe). Mandarin translations of Marin’s poetry published by Yunnan University Press will be incorporated into this event. Although over 25 have taken place, each Midnight Tea is unique because of the guests who participate in creating this experimental, art ritual. Interested participants may find out more about the project online at www.mikokuro.com or www.afurocreative.com.

Artist Information
Natasha Marin is a formally trained poet, whose work has been published and translated into other languages and media including video, audio and site-specific installations. The Cities of Austin (Texas) and Seattle (Washington) have supported her work with cultural arts grants to create community art events like Miko Kuro’s Midnight Tea. Her recent work involves creating dynamic sites of genuine exchange and encounter. She believes that manifesting ideas is work that should be validated. She trusts her intuition and desire to connect others and creates sacred moments with the assistance of strangers.

Selection Poem – The Family Secret
1. My mother says she found
just one Trinidad dollar in my pocket.
The ink had printed a lonely red bird
onto my palm.

2. Four-year-old girls
need to be supervised. They have barely
thinned into girls—baby cheeks still turn
to moons when she sleeps. She is not a baby
except to her mother, who watches her sleeping
and aches to hold her
to her breast again.

Hours later she turned up at school.
We asked her where she had gone.
She lied.

To this day, we don’t know where she went.
Little girl. Disappeared. For hours.

3. Trinidad dollar red
red the color of her nail polish pinching red
red smiling red kissing red holding red
my hand red
my dress red
my scream crimson red
and curdling red red
red the color of my own blood red
red the color of my open wrists red
red the color of a fist through a window red
like red skin sliced away circumcision red
red the tight choke of color at my throat,
red the color of his breath at my forehead red
red the color of the weapon and the wound red
red the moon, red the flow, red the ebbing edge of red
red the exact color of the bison tracing red in ochre red in blood
red the color of caves, wombs, lips—red frills of memory
red earth gritty against your white teeth red
red like fire like rage like war like danger like warning red
the giant red blinking no no no no no no no of red
there is no red that red.

Pervious “Miko Kuro’s Midnight Tea” pictures:

photograph of MKMT: