1/6/11 Cancún, Li Miao Lovett, and the Sushi Cal Band

A report back from the Cancún Climate Change Conference, Li Miao Lovett on her book In the In the Lap of the Gods and the Sushi Cal Band.

10/28/10 Third I Film Festival, And She Said, and the Data Center

On today’s show, we bring you highlights of some wonderful progressive events happening this fall in the Bay Area.

We begin by showcasing the 3rd i’s Annual San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival. Meet local film makers who will be screening their films at this exciting film festival happening next month in San Francisco.

We also discuss a special alternative Indian dance performance with women’s poetry called “And She Said” that will premiere in the Bay Area next month.

And finally, we feature activists from Data Center, a grassroots research justice group based in the Bay Area to talk about their work and an upcoming fundraiser.

4/22/10 Environmental Justice in China and South Asian American Poetry

Hou Valley factories that are clouding the valley with pollution. Photo by Xui Min Li

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Tonight we have international and local guests to discuss China’s waste disposal crisis, including growing protests in China this past year to oppose the construction of waste incinerators, as well as China’s role on the issue of climate change.

Guests include organizers with the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives: Huiying Zhang from China and Gigie Cruz from the Philippines, and Xiu Min Li, the China Program co-director at Pacific Environment.

Also, in celebration of poetry month this April, Preeti Mangala Shekar sits down in discussion with Pireeni Sundaralingam, Summi Kaipa and Neelanjana Banerjee, about their co-edited anthology of contemporary South Asian American poetry titled Indivisible. Find out how this incredible collection, the first of its kind, was created over a period of several years of poetic partnership.

3/11/10 A Village Called Versailles and Burma Human Rights Day

Still from A Village Called Versailles

We speak with the Leo Chiang, director of the newly released documentary film, A Village Called Versailles. In the New Orleans neighborhood called Versailles, a tight-knit group of Vietnamese Americans overcame obstacles to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina, only to have their homes threatened by a new government-imposed toxic landfill. This film will be featured at the SFIAAFF.

Also, members from the Burmese American Democratic Alliance join us to talk about the 10th annual Burma Human Rights Day.

And Jennifer Kim talks about her self published book “Waiting for Appa,” which explores a Korean Woman’s immigration story as she deals with the death of her father.

Listen:

3/4/10 “The Rape of Nanking” by Iris Chang

In her landmark volume “The Rape of Nanking,” Iris Chang gave a groundbreaking account of the atrocities perpetrated by the invading Japanese army on the civilian residents of Nanking, China, beginning in late 1937.

Hosts Miss Renee and Karl Jagbandhansingh.

Poetry in the Kitchen and Heritage Month

By Gina Hotta

Stories were cooked up and poetry was shared in OACC’s kitchen. Youths and young adults put their pens to paper on the large steel prep table. Garlic and soy, the sharp smell of vinegar and fish sauce, lemon grass and the smoothing blanket of coconut milk, the tastes and smells of Iu Mien, Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Korean and Samoan lives co-mingled together. It was May 2000 and people were prepping for the Heritage Month Showcase at OACC. And swirling around it all, you’d see poet-trickster Al Robles leading “Poetry In the Kitchen” giving gentle guidance by Talking Story where cooking and sharing meals loosened tongues and the unlocked the creative mind. Co-teacher Penina Taesali would cajole semi-precious pieces of word-art from youths like Richard who would conjure up images of Cambodia on tree-staved streets of East Oakland. The Hipster, Fil-Am Wordster, Poetry-in-the-Kitchen teacher Al Robles has passed on. But his spirit is still alive in May where poets, cooks, drummers and dancers again put their food, words and stories on-stage for Asian Pacific Heritage Month at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center.

Talk Story–the idea of sharing story and food–is the Hawaiian Way, was Al Robles’ way, is something that tries to find its home at OACC. Out of the always morphing “South Asian-Asian-Filipino-Pacific Islanders”, out of competing identities, communities and classes, some time is given over for youths, artists, their families and friends to sit together, eat together and shine on-stage in the auditorium. And this happens in some way each May, during Asian Pacific Heritage Month at the Center.

In May 2000, it was the metal and brass percussion rhythms and the dance of princesses and warriors of the Southern Philippines performed by students of Danny Kalanduyan’s kulintang class. A 70 foot dragon wearing tennis shoes looped and swirled across the auditorium floor carried by students of Corey Chan. Students of Asian Pacific Islander Youth Promoting Advocacy and Leadership (AYPAL) gave a reading of their written works that came out of Poetry in the Kitchen. In 2009, AYPAL once again performs for May’s Heritage Month. Also on-stage is the Korean dance-drumming of Kyoungil Ong, the Sahiyar Dance Company, DowneFx and performances by Jay Loyola. There’s a women writers showcase night, Mosque in Morgantown is on-screen, arts and crafts-making and more.

Back in 2000, with coconut in one hand and cleaver in the other, Al Robles would whack the nut just so, opening it with a crack. Around him in the kitchen, students wrote stories of mothers and fathers at work all day (and night), where language and food is a tie to an old home left behind. Taro was baked in OACC’s ovens while mango, papaya and pineapple were carved and plated for the audience of families and friends. In May 2000, students and artists shared and served food for OACC’s Heritage Month Showcase. And each May, in different ways, they’ll do so again.

(Apex Express is a media sponsor of OACC’s Heritage Month.)

Kaya Press Pushes Expectations for API Literature

By Gina Hotta

An Asian American, Vietnam Veteran cop walking a Chinatown beat in the 1970s was a good enough story for Sunyoung Lee. So was one about an un-finished tattoo by a Samoan author whose works challenge Margaret Mead’s version of island life. Leave the Chinese American mother-daughter relationship stories for the big publishers, let them have the Asian food books. Sunyoung Lee might be interested in these offerings if, and only if, there’s a twist to them. Lee is the managing editor of Kaya Press, a publisher of Asian American and Pacific Islander writings from the diaspora. She also does just about everything else for Kaya to keep it going. Yet, for a small press there’s an admirable list of awards given to its authors including the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for “Where We Once Belonged” by Samoan author Sia Figiel as well as Pen and American Book Award winners. And, with Lee’s recent move to Berkeley from New York, there’s the new challenge of being farther from the center of the US publishing world along with the old challenges that still remain.

Lee says that the themes found in Kaya’s books are too far outside the parameters of what large publishers think will sell as Asian American writing. “We want to push the expectations of the reader,” says Lee. “We’ve published poetry by Koon Woon who writes about being homeless in Seattle. That’s certainly not the immigrant success story that the big publishing houses look for. Ishle Park writes about the hardship of working class life and hip-hop influences.” Although it’s been hard to keep going, it’s not the first time that Kaya has risen to a challenge. Back in 1998, the Asian financial crisis kicked off a major one for Kaya. The founder of Kaya was from Korea and wanted to publish primarily works from that country. When the financial crash dried up her funding, Lee and former managing editor Julie Ku laid themselves off and went on un-employment. Later, a re-focus on Asian Pacific/ diasporic literature and culture emerged. Lee and Ku continued to work as volunteers. Ku eventually had to leave Kaya. Lee continued to forge on.

“My parents ask me ‘What are you doing working for no money?’ But I firmly believes there’s a tangible benefit to what I’m doing.” In New York, Lee was constantly on the go as a media and community activist. “I asked myself how many more seven hour meetings, five days a week can I go to?” With a degree in literature, Lee decided to make Kaya Press her political work, her focus. Lee leans forward, a tension and tremor in her voice. “People live and die based on a metaphor from something they read. It has the power to change the way people think and to change lives. The dirt and grit and reality of it all.”

Kaya’s logo mirrors its sensibility. The disembodied tiger head looks as if it could have come from a Korean brush painting–but not the smoking cigar that hangs from the big cat’s mouth. Kaya’s aesthetic also bursts through the cover of Ed Lin’s “This Is A Bust”, their latest offering. Bold letters announce the title. It sits over a shot of Chinatown by noted photographer Corkey Lee taken “back in the day”. Storefronts populate the picture: a theater marquee displays “The Story Of A Refugee” and next to it is the Cuban Chinese Benevolent Association.

The quality of writing also rises to the top of what Lee looks for. She talks about Ed Lin’s recent reading at Eastwind Books. “People have a very positive response to Ed because he’s able to articulate this experience that the audience hasn’t heard before, or doesn’t expect to hear.” Even though Lin’s characters might not speak English–like restaurant owner Willie Gee in “This Is A Bust”–they aren’t hindered by singsong dialog, a style Lin believes reflects an outsider’s view of a character’s reality. When Lin reads from “This Is A Bust”, his voice turns to a hiss as Willie Gee spills out words of disdain for his striking employees who have disgraced him. It’s all in fluent English and leaves no doubt that Gee’s a buffoon, but one driven by the all too human weakness of ego and greed. It’s this kind of writing and presentation that have created a loyal following for Kaya Press over the years.

As Lee acclimates herself to the Bay Area, she also looks for grants and donors while working a part-time job in order to support Kaya. But for Lee, “the drive, the reason for Kaya to exist is to inspire, to bring out other peoples’ existence completely–in the totality of it–and to make sure that opportunity always exists.”