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Young Filipino-American poet Malaya Timawa Dima'api lives in Oakland, CA. This poem is about his ever-shifting relationship to language, growing up.
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Piece Description
Young Filipino-American poet Malaya Timawa Dima'api lives in Oakland, CA. This poem is about his ever-shifting relationship to language, growing up.
4 Comments
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Review of Trading One Tongue for the OtherMalaya Timawa Dima'api creates a poetic masterpiece in Trading One Tongue for the Other. Through this carefully crafted poem, he conveys the struggles of growing up using different languages in different cultures. His artistic and simplistic verse gracefully captures the raw emotion he experienced as a child while growing up in a mix of cultural differences. He explores the power of language along with the challenges it creates when culture is compromised in a time of change. Dima'api's strong voice clearly and rhythmically aids the effortless flow which creates uniformity throughout the solemn piece. |
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Review of Trading One Tongue for the OtherPoetry is a hard proposition on the radio. It’s such an inherently conversational medium and sometimes, in trying to decipher the riddles of poetic language, you can be pushed away rather than pulled in—which radio, at its best, should do. Just the same, Dima'api’s poem is full of images that the listener can latch onto easily, and it’s personal and intimate enough to make you feel like you’re being addressed one-on-one, not orated to off a stage. Dima'api’s experience of balancing a new language with an old one feels suited to poetry—as well as poetry being spoken to you across the airwaves. |
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Ruth Yellowhawk
Posted on March 29, 2006 at 03:41 PM | Permalink
Review of Trading One Tongue for the Other
I appreciated the courage of this young man's voice as he looked at himself from a safe distance to tell his truth. If I were still a PD, I'd air it. As a listener I enjoyed it. I didn't listen to the cleaned up version