Clara Hsu is a Chinese American poet born in Hong Kong. She is a mother, piano teacher, traveler, actor, translator, poet, playwright, purveyor of Clarion Music Center (1982-2005) and Executive Director of Clarion Performing Arts Center (2016 to present). Clara received the Jefferson Award for public service in 2021. She is the current recipient of San Francisco Arts Commission’s Arts Impact Endowment Grant and San Francisco Artist Grant (2023-2024).
Published works include a book of short stories, Babouche Impromptu and Other Moroccan sketches (2008), a full-length book of poems, The First to Escape (2015), two audio CDs, Voice Pictures I & II (2016) and a complete translations of Lao-Tzu’s Tao-te Ching (2017) with each verse paired with a Clara Hsu poem.
Published poems (to name a few) can be found in: New Millennium Writings (2012), Sounds of Harbor (translations of Clara’s work into Dutch and German), The Jung Journal (translations of Chinese poet Yu Xingqiao’s poems), The Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal, various anthologies by Silver Birch Press and the internet journals Cha, Poetry Pacific and The Tower Journal.
Clara gave featured readings at various Bay Area venues and benefits. Her performances include “Lunation” with Bill Mercer and classical Chinese poetry with guqin master David Wong. For seven years Clara hosted the Poetry Hotel Salon in San Francisco and with John Rhodes co-hosted the San Francisco Open Mic Poetry Podcast TV Shows (2009 to 2016).
In 2019 Clara wrote, directed and produced her first intergeneration play, Love on the Magpie Bridge. Her second children’s play, The Piano, a Play-Movie (2020) was selected to screen at the 2021 International Children’s Film Festival Seattle. In 2022, her third play, Neil Armstrong at the Moon Palace was selected by the Los Angeles Asian Film Awards. Clara continues to write short plays for her children’s theater program at the Clarion.
In 2021 Clara wrote, directed and produced Gai Mou Sou Rap as a call against Asian hate crimes. The Rap went viral on YouTube and was later featured in Steve Harvey’s Steve On Watch Facebook show. Clara’s second music video, Glammas Wrap (2022) was featured in Mario Lopez’s Access Daily TV show (February 2023). Snacking Kids Rap (2023), a children’s music video featuring Clara’s theater students at Clarion Performing Arts Center, will be screened on March 8, 2024 at the DisOrient Asian American Film Festival .
Other national appearances include That Lunar Cheer (produced by AARP), and a PBS arts + culture primetime documentary series, The Express Way with Dulé Hill, launched worldwide on April 23, 2024.
DragonBeard, a play written in Cantonese with English subtitles, premiered on August 9, 2024 followed by a run of six sold out shows at Clarion Performing Arts Center in San Francisco Chinatown, and a full cast stage reading at the Koret Auditorium at San Francisco Main Library.
