6/20/13 Moana Nui 2013

On this installment:

We broadcast some of the panels for the Moana Nui two-day teach-in that took place in Berkeley, June 1 – 2.

The two-day event brought together 45 speakers, with 20 nations represented. Civil society organizers, educators, environmentalists, indigenous rights activists, from as far as Paupa New Guinea, and as close as occupied Ohlone land addressed military, trade, and resource issues affecting Asia, and Oceania.

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

• On Tuesday, June 25 at 6:30PM, join filmmaker Ben Wang, and producer Christine Kwon for a community screening of Breathin’: The Eddy Zheng Story. The free screening will take place at the New Parkway Theatre, out in Oakland. The film is in a draft form, so audiences are encouraged to provide crucial feedback that will lead to the completion of the project. For more information, click here.

• The Oakland Asian Cultural Center (OACC) invites you to meet their new Executive Director, Tamiko Wong, on Wednesday, June 26 at 5:30 at the OACC. Please also come out and experience what OACC and the surrounding Chinatown community have to offer in the arts, services, and opportunities. For more information, click here.

• Next Thursday, June 27 at 6:00PM,  join Kearny Street Workshop (KSW) in a Karaoke sing-off — Loud and Proud, a benefit for KSW’s historical APAture. Just in time for PRIDE, Kearny Street Workshop invites you to a raucous and rollickin’ Thursday night party to get your weekend started. Give your best (and worst) renditions of classics such as the Rainbow Connection. Enter your self, your bestie, or your entire office in a competition for prizes AND the prestige of being crowned KSW Idol for one unforgettable night. If you fancy, come in an outfit or costume that expresses your True Colors and go out in a Blaze of Glory. For more information, click here.

6/13/13 No Nukes! and Voices of Our Nation

Click here to download the audio.
First up, we discuss the decision to permanently shut-down the San Onofre nuclear power plant in Southern CA with Chizu Hamada. The shut down of San Onofre is being hailed as a major victory in the global antinuclear movement.

Then we’ll hear about Voices of Our Nation, or VONA, the nation’s only multi-genre conference for writers of color. On June 30, the VONA faculty will be holding a benefit reading in Oakland. A few of the writers that’ll be dropping wisdom will be Junot Diaz, Ruth Forman, Staceyanne Chin and Evelina Galang who joins us on APEX Express. Evelina Galang was named one of the most influential Filipinas in the United States by Filipina Women’s Network. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2004 Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Awards. She is also a long-time faculty member at VONA. We are also joined in studio by Melissa Rae Sipin, VONA alumna whose short story just one Glimmer Train’s fiction award.

We also dedicate tonight’s show to the APEX Express founding producer, Gina Hotta. May she rest in power. June 15th marks her birthday.

6/6/13 SPIRIT: A Panel on Queer APA Artists and Activists, plus Fire Dragon Love Sauce

This week, we welcome LGBT Pride Month with a show featuring queer voices.

Click here to listen to the audio archive.

Trinity Ordoña, Madeleine Lim, Amy Sueyoshi, and Stephen Funk. Photo by Kirstie Haruta.

First, we bring you excerpts from an inspiring panel of queer Asian American activists and artists organized last month by Queer Rebels. It featured conscientious objector and founder of Veteran Artists, Stephen Funk; filmmaker and founder of the Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project, Madeleine Lim; scholar, mentor and activist Trinity Ordona; and associate dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State, Amy Sueyoshi. Scholar Margaret Rhee moderated this powerhouse of panelists.

Fire Dragon Love Sauce

We feature Fire Dragon Love Sauce, the “official” hot sauce for gay marriage, which is created by Filipino and Colombian performance artist Gigi Otalvaro-Hormillosa and her partner Heather Cox Carducci.

Learn about our international reporting venture spearheaded by RJ Lozada.

Sta-Prest (1995)

We also hear music by queer punk band Sta-Prest and band off the Bindlestiff Studio CD.

Community Calendar
From June 5th to 9th, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts will host the now annual New Filipino Cinema 2013, featuring both the big-budget and underground. From questioning nuns to man-eating creatures with a taste for fetuses, you can check out all the films, including CAAMfest’s sold-out Harana. Tickets are $10, or you can see all you can until Sunday for $60.

This Friday and Saturday, at ODC, award-winning composer and musician Marcus Shelby and elder artist Flo Oy Wong bring us a musical gift titled Gwah Guy: Crossing the Street. Honoring Flo’s husband Ed Wong, who grew up during segregation, and fueled by Flo’s literary interpretation of the times, Shelby’s original music aims to inspire people to “eradicate the fear of our differences.”

Brought up not to cross the street from her Chinatown childhood home to West Oakland, Flo describes the project as a collaboration with “the African American community she had been taught to fear.” Celebrate her 75th birthday at this performance brought to us by the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center.

On Saturday, join the Chinese Historical Society of America Museum for their publication launch of Wing Nien Brand: A Story of Longevity. A new book by Connie Young Yu and Effie Hall Dilworth, the book chronicles the the early years of the first company to manufacture soy sauce in the U.S. and how they realized a dream of success.

The same day at the Oracle Arena, Deepak Chopra joins us for the Legacy of Health Symposium centering on children. Aimed at parents and professionals, it will provide tools, demonstrations, and resources to help educate caretakers on how to support the health, happiness, and well-being of growing youth. Sat. 7-6:30 p.m.

That night, Join 3rd i Films for an evening of drag, satire and comedy presented by Kareem Khubchandani and Anuj Vaidya. Bollywood Divas: Queering Desi Cinema includes a lesson in film by a drag queen professor and a performance exploring Bollywood vamp.

On Wednesday, June 12 from 8 to 10 p.m., KPFA API Radio Specials will be broadcasting the annual Philippine Independence Day Special on KPFA. Hear music and words from: the late, great painter and professor Carlos Villa, singer/songwriter Cynthia Alexander, the father of Filipino independent film Kidlat Tahimik, and much more!

Lastly, Kearny Street Workshop brings APAture back to the bay this October, featuring emerging Asian Pacific American artists in film, music, literature, performance, visual and experimental media. Think you’ve got the goods? Submit your work.

5/30/13 Stories of Resistance and Resilience — APEN Laotian Leader Lipo Chanthanasak, Poet Kosal Khiev, Moana Nui and Hopie Spitshard’s New Album!

To download this episode, click here.

This week we’ll be covering stories of resistance and resilience. Tune in to hear inspiring stories from the Southeast Asian community — first, the story of Lipo Chanthanasak a laotian member leader of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network who was recently honored at the White House as a Champion of Change.  Then, we bring back on air the voice and story of poet and ex-prisoner Kosal Khiev.

Photo credit: APEN
Photo credit: Kosal Khiev

We’ll also get a sneak preview of this weekend’s big Moana Nui teach-in in Berkeley — a two-day event covering militarism, globalization and the “Pacific Pivot”, with 45 speakers coming from 20 different countries!

And we play some tracks from Hopie Spitshard’s latest album “Sugar Water” which drops next week!

 COMMUNITY CALENDAR

• Friday, May 31st, 7-11pm at SOMArts Cultural Center (934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA 94103)
  Kearny Street Workshop presents KSW Runway: Celebrate Your Body. An alternative fashion and music show that pays homage to the creativity and plurality of the Bay Area. For one night only, SOMArts’ Bay Gallery will be transformed into a street fair, replete with battling models, live performances, a DJ, food stalls, vendors, prizes, and surprise guests.  APEX contributor Robynn Takayama will be co-hosting!

• June 1st & 2nd at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School (1781 Rose Street, Berkeley)
  Moana Nui: Peoples of the Pacific — Confronting Militarization, Resource Theft, Globalization and America’s “Pacific Pivot” The International Forum on Globalization (IFG), in collaboration with a broad range of Asian, indigenous and small-island peoples of the Pacific, and activists from countries throughout the Pacific Basin, will present a two-day series of public events in Berkeley with panels and events focused on responding to some of the greatest threats ever to face Pacific peoples.
• June 5th at 8pm at Brick & Mortar (1710 Mission St, SF)
  Hopie Spitshard’s “Sugar Water” Album Release Party

5/9/13 Youth voices, “Growing Up Asian in America,” Rod Daus-Magbual and PEP.

To download this episode, click here.

On this weeks show:

It’s the KPFA 2013 Spring Fund Drive, so for the hour consider contributing to truly independent media by calling 1-800-439-5732 or 510-848-5732, or online at kpfa.org.

As a thank you gift for becoming a member of KPFA (amount TBD), you’ll be receiving Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country: Kids’ Letters to President Obama.

Winners of Asian Pacific Fund’s writing contest, “Growing Up Asian in America.” (L to R, back row: Divya Prakash, Nikhita Gopisetty, Joshua Ko, Kavya Padmanbhan, Alex Yang, Jasjit Mundh. L to R, front row: Amelia Ny, Emily Yang, Elisabeth Kam.)

This week we hear some amazing youth voices and from youth educators.

We’ll be sharing with you some of the winning essays from the Asian Pacific Fund’s Growing Up Asian in America essay contest.

Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP) at ISEED (Institute for Sustainable Economic, Educational, and Environmental Design)

Rod Daus-Magbual, Ph.D., Associate Director of Curriculum at PEP

In the studio, Rod Daus-Magbual, Associate Director of Curriculum at Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP) in the studio with us, and for the hour, we’ll be discussing youth and education:  From the work that PEP does to inspire their students, and be inspired by them, to more ethnic studies courses in high schools, to building the next generation of teachers–the terrain is vast and there’s a lot to cover.

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

• On Friday and Saturday, May 10 and 11, Queer Rebels present SPIRIT: A Century of Queer Asian Activism. From the Asian avant-garde to 1960′s activists, Angel Island poets to Slam champions, the Queer Asian Diaspora comes alive through performance, films, and a panel discussion in this three-part extravaganza.
  https://www.facebook.com/events/187766414706008/
  

• On Saturday, May 11 A History of the Body, a new play by Aimee Suzara. A History of the Body brings together text, dance, and visual projections that explore themes of decolonization, and beauty when three Filipina women meet in a beauty salon. For tickets: 
  http://www.eventbrite.com/event/5679044174/efblike
  

• The Crumbles, an indie rock slice-of life feature and winner of the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the 2012 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (now CAAM Fest), screens at the Roxie Theatre on Saturday at multiple times. The cast and crew will be in attendance.
  https://www.facebook.com/events/448017581948589/
  

• Have you wondered what we do to bring you our show every week? Well on Saturday, May 11 at noon at the KPFA studio, APEX Express and the Unpaid Staff Organization of KPFA present Behind the Curtain: How Great Radio is Made. Learn how we produce our weekly magazine-style show and find out how you can join the APEX Express collective.
  https://www.facebook.com/events/166744520155666/
  

4/25/13: Bhi Bhiman.

On tonight’s APEX Express:

Click here to download show.

Bhi Bhiman (courtesy of artist)

APEX Contributor R.J. Lozada brings Bay area musician to the KPFA studios to share some of his music, and his background.

From R.J.:

I like Bhi Bhiman.

If you don’t know who he is, Bhi Bhiman is a bay area musician who sings folk and blues, not in a kind of new form either, he relies on traditional elements of the form: fingerpicking, and familiar melodic lines that can be traced back to Mississippi John Hurt… true to the roots…. but there’s that twist: he’s Sri Lankan, Tamil, to be exact.

It’s his lyrical sensibility and a very assured musicality that I am drawn to, and I also think it gets him into audiences, especially white audiences, somewhat unsure if he’s real….I can somewhat imagine folks in the audience saying, “did he just sing what I thought he sung…?”

But that’s not entirely what Bhi is about. While my experience with him has been from this perspective, Bhi often aims to be wholly inclusive, he’ll rib you, but you’re still part of the family.

COMMUNITY CALENDAR:

- 4/26 Sita’s Chaat House/Fundraiser for Kearny Street Workshop

https://www.facebook.com/events/488226997899465/

This Friday at 8:00PM. Join Kearny Street Workshop for a night of loving laddu and licking up lassis. Reserve your spot at this cozy North Oakland Home for the first ever Little Oakland Chaat House. Ticket price is inclusive of five-course dinner by Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik and print by Imin Yeh. All proceeds benefit KSW! RSVP on facebook to learn the location!

- 4/26 – 4/28 SF Global Vietnamese Film Festival

https://www.facebook.com/events/582589258426275/

The San Francisco Global Vietnamese Film Festival (April 26-28, 2013) is a biennial film and video showcase centering Vietnamese filmmakers in Việt Nam and the diaspora—a international vision reflecting a transnational reality. The San Francisco Global Vietnamese Film Festival (SFGVFF) is the first and only festival of its kind in the Bay Area. With an Opening Night Gala ($10, 7:30-10pm, 4/26) at Artists’ Television Access (992 Valencia St), the SFGVFF runs from 2:30pm to midnight each day, April 27-28, 2013, at the historic Roxie Theater (3117 16th Street) built in 1909 in the Mission district of San Francisco. The festival expects over 2,000 attendees.

4/18/13: Itliong-Vera Cruz Middle School, North Korea Conversations

To download show, click here.

Filipino American Youth showing unity in renaming their Union City school to Itliong-Vera Cruz Middle School (Photo from Bayani Art)

APEX Contributor Kiwi brings us sounds from the youth movement that successfully renamed a Union City school to Filipino Farmworker Leaders, Larry Itliong and Philip Vera Cruz.

APEX Hosts Karl Jagbundangsingh and Marie Choi bring us a special edited rebroadcast from our sister station and show, Asia Pacific Forum (www.asiapacificforum.org).

“Bomb North Korea before it’s too late” was the title of a recent New York Times op-ed.  As the drumbeat of war crescendos on the Korean peninsula, we bring together leading experts and activists to discuss what’s really happening – from the failure of the past twenty years of denuclearization talks, to the deleterious impact of decades of sanctions on the people of North Korea.  Nodutdol, a New York City-based grassroots organization that works for peace and demilitarization of the Korean peninsula, teams up with APF to produce this timely roundtable.

 

Guests

• Christine Hong is an assistant professor of Asian American literature, Korean diaspora studies, and critical Pacific Rim studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is a coordinating committee member of the National Campaign to End the Korean War, a steering committee member of the Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea, and a member of the Working Group on Peace and Demilitarization in Asia and the Pacific.
• Gregory Elich is the author of ‘Strange Liberators: Militarism, Mayhem, and the Pursuit of Profit’. He is on the board of directors of the Jasenovac Research Institute and on the advisory boards of the Korea Policy Institute and the U.S. chapter of the Korea Truth Commission.
• Tim Shorrock is the author of “Spies for Hire.” He is a writer and commentator on US foreign policy, national security and intelligence, as well as East Asian politics. His work has appeared in Harper’s, Mother Jones, The Nation, and Salon.

Our only source of information on human rights in North Korea is testimonies of defectors and former detainees. Is this skewing our concept of the ground realities? We are told the only possible solution to human rights violations in North Korea is tougher sanctions – what humanitarian relief manager Ken Isaacs calls “starvation as a foreign diplomacy tool.” Betsy Yoon of Nodutdol guest-hosts the second-part of this roundtable discussion – a critical rethinking about human rights in North Korea.

Guests

• Christine Hong is an assistant professor of Asian American literature, Korean diaspora studies, and critical Pacific Rim studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is a coordinating committee member of the National Campaign to End the Korean War, a steering committee member of the Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea, and a member of the Working Group on Peace and Demilitarization in Asia and the Pacific.
• Paul Liem is on the board of directors of the Korea Policy Institute, has been active on Korean peninsular issues for four decades and has visited North Korea in three different decades. He was a writer for The Korea Bulletin and editor of The Korea Commentary, and has assisted in sending delegations of progressive religious leaders, including members of the National Council of Churches, to North Korea.

As tensions mount on the Korean peninsula, largely missing from the public discussion are the voices of progressive Korean Americans. Here are voices of Korean Americans from across the country – discussing their views on the threat of war in Korea and their desire for peace and reunification. Danny Kim helped to produce this segment.

Thanks to Doug Hong, Debby Cho, Sarah Ahn, Sooyoung Lee, Kyung-hee Lee, Miriam Ching Yu Louie, Katie Hae Leo, Sunyoung, Hae Won, Gonji, Marie, Lindsey, Judy, Jeanne, Io, Hyejin, Eugene, Rev Tong-kyun Kim, Doogi Kim, Heng-gil Han, and Taehyun Kim for participating.