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.

4/11/13 Feeding the Masses and 25 Years of Asian Improv aRts

Prep for Banteay Srei Fundraiser

The People’s Kitchen

Sita Bhaumik in her kitchen.

Download the show by clicking here.

At this year’s Empowering Women of Color Conference at UC Berkeley, Kearny Street Workshop organized a workshop with Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik that provided examples and resources for combining your love of food and commitment to activism. Tonight’s show features three people who are feeding the masses:

• Sita organizes home-cooked dinners serving 50 or more people. This serves as a bi-monthly fundraiser for Leftwing, an anti-imperialist, community-based soccer club;
• Saqib Keval is founder of The People’s Kitchen, a five-year-old, sliding-scale, community restaurant project that does political education and grassroots mobilization through food service;
• And Elizabeth Sy is co-founder of Banteay Srei, which provides social support, healing arts, reproductive health education, life skills-building, and leadership development for young Southeast Asian women impacted by sexual exploitation. One of these strategies is to connect young women to each other and their elders through cooking. She also cooked for the Bike Down, an amazing three-day bike tour that raised money for Cycles of Change.

To start things off we talk with Francis Wong, co-founder of Asian Improv aRts which is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Asian Improv aRts 25th Anniversary Celebration at Yoshi’s. Photo by Walter Wagner.

Community Calendar

Want a taste of the tasty goodness Elizabeth Sy produces? Throw down $10 and get some homemade goodies while helping the Visibility Project–a national portrait and video project dedicated to  collecting the stories of Queer Asian American Women, Trans, and Gender non-conforming communities across the country!  $10 will get you a small jar of one of the following:

• soy butter crack (soy sauce and buttery goodness)
• cambodian corn sauce (corn will NEVER be the same, can also be used with other veggies)
• Sy stanky steak sauce (ginger/cilantro/fish sauce is perfect for any grilled meat or veggies)

Email: iheartfishsauce@gmail.com to put in your order!

Tonight was the world premiere of The River at ACT’s Costume Shop. Richard Montoya of Culture Clash collaborates with Intersection for the Arts resident theater company Campo Santo, and its co-founder Sean San José, to create this play that explores themes of identity, California and its people, and the many types of borders they encounter and cross. It runs Thurs-Sun at 8 p.m. until May 4.

Friday night, Narika hosts a “Happy Hour to Empower” at the Pork Store Cafe in San Francisco’s Mission District from 6 to 9 p.m. https://www.facebook.com/events/211510218973472/

On Saturday there’s Earthquake: The Chinatown Story, a series of programs at the Chinese Historical Society of America including a new exhibition, performance by Charlie Chin, and a book signing with Philip Choy.
https://www.facebook.com/events/567355709966065/

Later on Saturday, awarding winning poet, novelist, and playwright R. Zamora Linmark will be at the Bayanihan Community Center.
https://www.facebook.com/events/385708698203587/?ref=2

4/4/13 Hmong National Development Conference, Conversations about Gay Marriage and Marriage Equality with Lauren Quock, Yasmin Nair, and Stuart Gaffney

To download episode, click here.

On this weeks installment of APEX Express:

Contributor R.J. Lozada interviews Seng Alex Vang, Conference Co-Chair of the 16th Hmong National Development Conference. This years conference, themed The Journey Forward, is a three-day gathering of Hmong and their allies on three major threads: Education, Health & Wellness, and Economic Development. 

The United States Supreme Court is in the throes of two major proceedings in the Gay Marriage or Marriage Equality movement, Hollingsworth v Perry, and the legal challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA. In an effort to bring the complexity of the different conversations happening within the LGBTIQ movements regarding marriage equality, contributor R.J. Lozada has invited three speakers to shed some light on the subject.

(photo courtesy of Lauren Quock)

Lauren Quock is a queer third generation Chinese American artist and community leader. 

 

Lauren has been working with the Network on Religion and Justice for Asian Pacific Islander LGBTIQ People (NRJ, www.netrj.org) since 2004 and is currently the NRJ Coordinator. NRJ creates community and leadership development for API LGBTIQ people of faith and works to change the culture of silence around sexuality and LGBTIQ experiences in API Christian churches through education. 

 

Lauren is also an artist (www.laurenquock.com). Lauren appropriates industrial processes and materials to create Modified Bathroom Signs that challenge the gender binary and transform the public restroom from a site of anxiety and trauma into one of affirmation for queer people. 

(photo courtesy of Yasmin Nair)

From the author’s website:

Dr. Yasmin Nair is a Chicago-based writer, activist, academic, and commentator.  The bastard child of queer theory and deconstruction, Nair has numerous critical essays, book reviews, investigative journalism, op-eds, and photography to her credit.  Her work has appeared in publications like GLQ, The Progressive, make/shift, Time Out Chicago, The Bilerico Project, Windy City Times, Bitch, Maximum Rock’n’Roll, and No More Potlucks.   Nair’s writing and organising address issues like neoliberalism and inequality, queer politics and theory, the politics of rescue and affect, sex trafficking, the art world, and the immigration crisis.  Her work also appears or will appear in various anthologies and journals, including Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex, Singlism: What It Is, Why It Matters and How to Stop It, Windy City Queer: Dispatches from the Third Coast and Arab Studies Quarterly. Most recently, her work has appeared in the Lambda-nominated anthology, Gay Press, Gay Power: The Growth of LGBT Community Newspapers in America, edited by Tracy Baim.  Nair is a co-founder and member of the editorial collective  Against Equality; she contributed to their first book, Against Equality: Queer Critiques of Gay Marriage as well as the second, Against Equality: Don’t Ask to Fight Their Wars, and the third, Against Equality: Prisons Will Not Protect You.  She is also a member of the Chicago grassroots organisation Gender JUST (Justice United for Societal Transformation) and recently became its Policy Director (a volunteer position) and co-ordinator of the Chicago chapter of South Asians for Justice, a new group devoted to forging a radical South Asian-inflected political vision outside of electoral politics and Bobby Jindal. Nair was, from 1999-2003, a member of the now-defunct Queer to the Left.  Her activist work includes gentrification, immigration, public education, and youth at risk. 

John Lewis and Stuart Gaffney (photo courtesy of Stuart Gaffney)

Stuart Gaffney, Media Director and API Outreach Director with Marriage Equality USA  and also as a founder of API Equality Northern California.  From Huffington Post:

Stuart Gaffney and his husband John Lewis are leaders in the freedom to marry movement. Together as a couple for 26 years, they were two of the plaintiffs in the historic 2008 lawsuit that held that California’s ban on same-sex marriage violated the state constitution. On June 17, 2008, they married at San Francisco City Hall, surrounded by friends and family. Stuart and John are leaders in Marriage Equality USA, a national grassroots organization, and API Equality, a coalition targeting outreach and education to the Asian-American community. They have appeared extensively in local, national and international media. The focus of their work has been to foster connection between the general public and the lives of LGBTIQ people. Stuart is a graduate of Yale University and currently a Policy Analyst at the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies.

 COMMUNITY CALENDAR:

Saturday April 13, 3-6pm Poetry Reading: Brynn Saito, Pireeni Sundaralingam, and Debbie Yee Eastwind Books 2066 University Avenue, Berkeley

Friday, May 31 KSW Runway: Celebrate Your Body This alternative fashion show/underground concert/expo showcasing local APA talent in fashion, music, and art and celebrates bodies of all shapes, sizes, ages, abilities, genders, colors, and ethnicities. The event is a fundraiser for Kearny Street Workshop. SOMArts Cultural Center: 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco

3/28/13 Labor Issues, Legacy of Partitioning, and Bambu!

Terry Valen with NAFCON and FCC

Click here to download audio.

Tonight we have Terry Valen, president of NAFCON (National Alliance for Filipino Concerns) and director of the Filipino Community Center in San Francisco to talk about the struggle of migrant Filipino oil workers in New Orleans and the results of a fact-finding mission that was done there in February.

Emcee Bambu

Also, Apex crew member Tara Dorabji brings us an exclusive interview with Pakistani author Bapsi Sidhwa, sharing with us the legacy of the 1947 partitioning of India.

And last but not least, L.A Filipino Hip Hop artist BAMBU joins us to reflect about his last decade in music and talk about his new work.

Community Calendar

Saturday March 30^th 6pm
LAND IS LIFE: Communities Resisting Dispossession and Colonization Commemorating Palestinian Land Day

Dance, Poetry, and Speakers from different communities resisting occupation worldwide
The Women’s Building
3543 18th Street
San Francisco, CA

Friday March 29 and Saturday March 30 in SF
Bindlestiff Studio presents the World Premiere of Jeffrey Lo’s
A KIND OF SAD LOVE STORY

Bindlestiff Studio 185 6^th Street
TICKETS: http://sadlovestory.brownpapertickets.com/

Saturday April 13, 3-6pm
Poetry Reading: Brynn Saito, Pireeni Sundaralingam, and Debbie Yee

Eastwind Books
2066 University Avenue, Berkeley

Friday, May 31
KSW Runway: Celebrate Your Body
This alternative fashion show/underground concert/expo showcasing local APA talent in fashion, music, and art and celebrates bodies of all shapes, sizes, ages, abilities, genders, colors, and ethnicities. The event is a fundraiser for Kearny Street Workshop.

SOMArts Cultural Center: 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco

3/21/13: Reconnecting to (Home)Land — Political Exposure Trips, Vandana Shiva, and Pireeni Sundaralingam

Download the show by clicking here.

For this Spring Equinox episode of APEX Express, we honor our connections to land and our connections to our homelands! Including first-hand accounts from the Philippines and China, and powerful words from Vandana Shiva.

Bay Area delegates on a Philippines political exposure trip last December. Photo credit: Vay Hoang.

Philippines and China Political Exposure Trips!
In studio live will be representatives from delegations that went on two different political exposure trips, to two different homelands — Vivian Huang and Armael Malinis join us to speak on their trip to the Philippines and Lucia Lin and Calvin Miaw join us to speak on their trip to China.  We’ll have them all cozy together in the KPFA studio to share stories, songs, and have a cross-pollinating conversation about what political exposure trips mean for activists living in the US.

Vandana Shiva on capitalism, patriarchy, and the destruction of Mother Earth
We have a special audio excerpt of Vandana Shiva’s compelling interview on Democracy Now! last week.  She speaks on the violence on women and the violence on Mother Earth and on native seeds, and how they are intricately connected.

photo credit: wordandviolin.com

Writer Pireeni Sundaralingam at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) Conference
Tara Dorajbi caught Sri Lankan writer Pireeni Sundaralingam at the AWP Conference to talk about her poetry and how she connects the political context of her home country to her expression as an artist.  We’ll play the first half of the interview — stay tuned here on apexexpress.org for the full interview to be posted after the show!