HNA 2007
Lenard D. Moore, Bob Moyer, and Dave Russo organized Haiku North America 2007 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
This was the first Haiku North America conference in the South. We had over 50 presenters from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Japan. Special guests included Sonia Sanchez, Kalamu ya Salaam, Tara Betts, and Derrick Brown. Presenters include many of the best haiku poets writing in English, including Cor van den Heuvel, Alan Pizzarelli, William J. Higginson, Penny Harter, George Swede, Lenard D. Moore, Randy Brooks, John Barlow, Jim Kacian, A. C. Missias, Roberta Beary, Stanford M. Forrester, and many others.
Archived version of the Web site for HNA 2007 (some links will no longer work)
Haiku: Art of the Short Poem
Haiku: The Art of the Short Poem by Tazuo Yamaguchi is the first feature-length film about the small but intense world of haiku in English. It is based on interviews at the Haiku North America 2007 conference in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Some of the poets at the conference, like Sonia Sanchez, are well-known for their free verse and other kinds of poems. Other poets, like William J. Higginson, are well-known in haiku circles. Yamaguchi blends his interviews with many different poets into a tapestry of ideas and passions about haiku in English.
A Haiku North America conference is basically a gathering of people whose lives have been changed by haiku. Several poets in the film describe their first encounter with haiku by the Japanese masters—how something in these poems flashed across oceans and centuries and touched them in a profound way. Other poets describe the need, in the words of Sanchez, “Not just to learn the form, but to transform the form.” Another layer in the film is Yamaguchi’s own perspective, that of a Japanese-American whose family photos often show haiku on scrolls in the background; a performance poet who has won titles in national head-to-head haiku competitions; a videographer who has spent most the last decade capturing poetry on film.
Robert Hass once said of Japanese haiku, “What is in these poems can’t be had elsewhere.” Listen to these poets as they search for what can be expressed with haiku in English.
Brooks Books Web page for Haiku: The Art of the Short Poem: http://www.brooksbookshaiku.com/haikufilm/
Movie Trailer for Haiku: The Art of the Short Poem: http://www.youtube.com/poemstudios
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