Chinese poet visits SRU
SLIPPERY ROCK — Although they came from different backgrounds — China, Illinois and Pennsylvania — those who gathered near the town pavilion this week shared a common bond. All appreciate art that celebrates freedom.
Slippery Rock University leaders and dissident Chinese artist and poet Huang Xiang met behind Images Unlimited Photography on South Main Street to dedicate three new pro-democracy paintings by Xiang.
"Dry Bones," "A Promise to Meet in This Life" and "Sky" were done as part of SRU's April 18 to 29 Kaleidoscope arts festival. Huang, who was repeatedly imprisoned in China for his political beliefs before he fled to the United States in 1997, worked for three days on the acrylic pieces he painted on the back of the photography studio.
William Williams, SRU provost, thanked Huang for his bold avowal of democracy.
"We were pleased to bring this extraordinary artist and political visionary to campus," Williams said. "His art celebrates the ideals of democracy and challenges all people to consider the importance of human rights.
"His work is a reminder that our community is global and that our actions and creations are moments in eternity."
Huang recited his poems in Chinese, and his wife, Zhang Ling, acted as his translator.
Born in 1941, Huang began writing poems in the 1950s. He was imprisoned for 12 years in China.
In 1965, he was sentenced to three years of hard labor for counterrevolutionary activities, primarily writing, reading and discussing civil rights. He also served four years in prison for leaving one province and seeking employment in another without permission.Fearing another arrest, he and his wife fled China and were granted asylum in the United States. They settled in Pittsburgh, where Xiang is the resident artist for City of Asylum/Pittsburgh, a nonprofit organization that supports exiled artists."A Promise to Meet in This Life" recalls his first impressions of Pittsburgh's Three Rivers. "Sky" compares the sky to a body of water. "Dry Bones," which he wrote in prison, talks of love, hate, mourning and all the earth's creatures."His work is inspired by the great Western thinkers and artists in tandem with Eastern philosophy and poetry," said Rachela Permenter, SRU professor of English and arts festival chair. "His art is an attempt to connect us to his Eastern tradition and infuse us with the inspiration he receives from Western thinkers."Tim Leary, a 1970 and 1974 SRU graduate, owns Images Unlimited Photography.He said, "I want people to see that this is a sleepy little town with an international connection. His work is interesting and his life and art speak volumes."Gordon Ovenshine works in the public relations department at Slippery Rock University.
