SOUL-SEARCHER FINDS POETRY IN A KARAOKE BAR

by Amy Carlson Gustafson

St. Paul Pioneer Press - Thursday, October 13, 2005

When he's singing karaoke in English, Ed-Bok Lee likes to channel Elton John doing "Your Song." In his first book, the slam poetry champion channels an assortment of characters whose songs mostly go unsung.

"Real Karaoke People" (New Rivers Press $13.95), a collection of poems and prose, is full of outcasts, dreamers and pretenders. The title poem is a look at people longing to take on a new identity, even for just a few minutes on a karaoke bar stage.

"On a spiritual level, people go to karaoke like they used to go to confessionals — to get things off their chests," says Lee from the attic space he rents off Lake Street in South Minneapolis. "In every small town and in every big town, there's always a bar with a karaoke.'

Lee, who was born in North Dakota, spent his preschool years in Seoul, South Korea. After kindergarten, he returned to Fargo. He moved to the Twin Cities at 17 to attend the University of Minnesota. It was during this time that Lee says he felt "lost."

"I just got overwhelmed," he says. "I hadn't seen most of the United States, so I just loaded up my car and got out of the Midwest."

Traveling around the States, Canada and Mexico in his Mercury Bobcat, he spent time in dozens of cities from Tijuana to the Florida Keys. He also ventured across the globe to areas including Korea and Kazakhstan. It was during his travels that he began to write.

"I found that I would never really feel like I was a native of one place," he says. "But I found what I was looking for in the writing. I feel like it's the only thing that has been constant in my life. Wherever I go, I will write."

Lee went on to study at Berkeley, Kazakh State and Brown University (where he earned an MFA in creative writing). Now in his early 30s, he splits his time between the Twin Cities and New York City, and when he's not working on poems or plays, he teaches at-risk youth and the elderly how to use writing as a form of personal exploration.

"I really believe everyone hs gripping stories about their childhood and beyond," he says. "I believe that writing is a way to make sense of the past."

Like a real karaoke bar, "Real Karaoke Poeple" shines a spotlight on a diverse collection of voices — immigrants, pre-pubescent adolescents, an ex-porn star. Lee says he finds himself constantly telling the stories of those who fall under the radar, including Asian-Americans.

"Art can show you the interior of another person's life and soul, if only just for few minutes," he says.

Saturday's launch party for "Real Karaoke People" features live karaoke prior to the reading. Lee says he prefers to sing karaoke at the two Asian-style karaoke rooms inthe Twin Cities — Kumok's in Stadium Village and Do Re Mi in Eagan — where people can rent private rooms with their friends and choose from thousands of songs in a variety of langauges, including Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, English and Spanish.

It's in these cozy rooms among familiar faces wehre Lee takes on Radiohead, David Bowie and Korean-langauge songs ("I sing better in Korean"). but as far as Lee is concerned, the quality of the performer or the choice of song isn't what's most important.

"I would take soul over perfection any day of the week."

EXCERPT FROM "REAL KARAOKE PEOPLE"

"real karaoke people
don't make it to church very often.
or the gym. they don't play the trombone
or violin,

they practice no art, no deception.
real karaoke people
don't even know what age they are,
or they would never get up there;

they don't know their class or race,
at last while they're singing... ."

Amy Carlson Gustafson can be reached at agustafson@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5561