Aw Pi Kyeh: “About 300 of my Cartoons were Censored in my Life.”
Aw Pi Kyeh (APK) chose this pen name because it means ‘loudspeaker’ in Burmese. His cartoons dare to shout out loud about the military junta that rules Burma. In 2007 he was banned from publishing inside Burma after he supported monks in their peaceful protests during the Saffron Revolution. Following that, colleagues who even mentioned his name in an article were suppressed.
The Irrawaddy is the river the most well known and the longest inBurma. It flows along from north to south. It begins where the two rivers Mayka and Maylika meet at the north of Burma at the Kachinstate. The visitors love to see the rencontre of the two rivers. Wecall it ‘MyitSon’ (le rencontre de deux rivieres). This place alwaysattracts people so much.
The Irrawaddy flows north to south, so it passes many towns and manyplaces along streaming. I have little chance to visit ‘MyitSon’. But I have many chances to see the river Irrawaddy when I visit the countries which are near Irrawaddy. My grandmother always pointed the Irrawaddy when we were closed to see it. ‘Look, you see the river flowing there! It is called the river ‘Irrawaddy’.’ I looked what my grandmother was pointing, the river was very wide and never ending flowing. Under the sunshine the surface of the river was as shine as gold. If we saw the river Irrawaddy at the night, the river seemed flowing silently and the surface of the river as glow as lightening under the moon lit night.
Long time ago, we, the whole family travelled many regions of Burma especially middle part. Mandalay, Sitkaing, Monywa were mainly visited. We spent many days to visit pagodas there. Sometimes we stayed at the cottage or lodging of our grandparents’ native friend. Sometimes we stayed at the monastery.
(Left: the old cover of “Three Years Under the Japs;” it had “Published by KHIN MYO Chit, 24 Zabuzi Street, SANCHAUNG” and “printing at THE ROYAL STATIONARY, 408-410 Dalhousie Street, RANGOON” written on the back. The addresses are now hard to find. They contain the old memories of our grandparents, despite the fact that they lived in the place for only a year or two. Right: The new cover of the book in 2011.)
“A day in Phyu Phyu Thin’s life start with a phone call in the morning. She then tends to her patients and helps them out according to their needs. In spite of all her hard work, she does not look tired at all. In fact, she is graceful and smiling with whatever work she has to do.”
I start my writing since 1996 at the AtwayAmyin monthly magazine. AtwayAmyin(thought) magazine is like Readers Digest magazine. It contains about 30 articles published monthly.
I have now 7 books published in Burma. All are in Burmese. My published books contained about Science, Science and Technology, history of planes, Myself, Translations of my grandmother’ books, dictionary of mathematics and so on.
On Thursday, August 18th 2011, Oakland Digital Arts & Literacy Center (ODALC) hosted the first meeting between the Burmese Community and Daphne Kwok, Chair of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders. This historic gathering in downtown Oakland was part of the White House Initiative for positive change in the AAPI community.
Bones Will Crow: An Anthology of Burmese Poetry | Sampsonia Way Magazine
James Byrne
James Byrne is an editor and co-founder of The Wolf poetry magazine. He has worked for the Poetry Translation Centre in London and has translated poetry from the Middle-East and the Balkans. For The Wolf he has published the work of Burmese poets Zawgyi, Saw Wai, Hyma Ein, Manorhary and Phone Thet Paing. Byrne recently lived in New York City from 2009-2011, where he was an Extraordinary International Fellow at New York University. His most recent collection is Blood/Sugar, published by Arc in 2009.
By Assistant Association for Political Prisoners (Burma)
August 8th 2011
Twenty three years ago today, on 8 August 1988, hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of Burma demanding an end to the suffocating military rule which had isolated and bankrupted the country since 1962. Their united cries for a transition to democracy shook the core of the country, bringing Burma to a crippling halt. Hope radiated throughout the country. Teashop owners replaced their store signs with signs of protest, dock workers left behind jobs to join the swelling crowds, and even some soldiers were reported to have been so moved by the demonstrations to lay down their arms and join the protestors. There was so much promise.