3/15/12 SFIAAFF, Micropixie, and Jeremy Lin(sanity)!

This past week, San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival coalesced the community through the moving image. Robynn Takayama offers a short commentary about what the festival means to her. (Check out APEX Express collective member R.J. Lozada’s film, Among B-Boys)

The festival continues through this weekend and there’s a film you’ve got to catch. It’s called In the Family and Robynn also brings us an interview with Patrick Wang, the film’s director.

We also have an interview by Preeti Shekar with Micropixie aka MPX who performed at the festival’s DIRECTIONS IN SOUND club night.

Finally, the Shaolin B-Boy talks to his dad and cousin about a basketball-based disease that hit the nation in February and has a special effect on Asian Americans. They call it, Linsanity!

Community Calendar

• Are you a green card holder interested in becoming a U.S. citizen? As a U.S. citizen, you can live in the United States and can travel outside the United States without worrying about being deported or being denied entry, and can more quickly and easily be reunited with family overseas. Citizens also gain the right to vote, to serve on a jury, to apply for government jobs and certain government benefits. East Bay Naturalization Collaborative is holding a free Citizenship Workshop on Saturday, March 17 at Chabot Community College in Hayward.  Attorneys will be available to help eligible immigrants fill out the application for U.S. citizenship, answer questions and provide resources for you.  All participants must register in advance. For more information and to register, please call Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach (APILO) at 510-251-2846.
• The Balboa Theater in San Francisco hosts the Bengali Film Festival from March 16-20. Featuring contemporary and classic Bengali-language films, the festival will also spotlight Nagmoti — a film from the early 1980s by the now legendary musician, ethnomusicologist and filmmaker Gautam Chattopadhyay.
• In the Family screens on Saturday, March 17 at 8 pm at the Pacific Film Archive Theater.
• On Tuesday, March 20, Movie Night at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center brings us Thai film, Tears of the Black Tiger. According to IMDB, “With its loud acting style, exuberant sets and stunning shots in pastel colours, this Thai cult film is as much a parody as an homage to the Western and the romantic tearjerker.”

6/9/11 Toxic Nail Salons, Deportations, and Healing

For this week:

Thanks to Making Contact, Guest Producer Pauline Bartolone and Correspondent Momo Chang take us into the toxic truth about nail salons, they talk to nail salon workers, medical experts, and policymakers on the move to safeguard workers’ health, and help salons go green.

APEX Producer Robynn Takayama explores the details and issues regarding the unique, yet universal, deportation case of Cambodian American Andrew Thi.

APEX host, R.J. Lozada brings in Hip-Hop artist, RJ Sin (pictured above), who’ll be sharing his music and information about the benefit party for Cambodian Community Development, Inc.

Community Calendar:

Youth Music Benefit for the Japan Multicultural Relief Fund
Sunday at the Starry Plough Pub in Berkeley.The Japan Multicultural Relief Fund assists underrepresented groups effected by Japan’s earthquake and tsunami. The project was conceived and organized by the Bay Area youth music duo, Bayonettes and other youth musicians! From the ages of 13-25, these young musicians are a diverse lot. Indie Rock, Jazz/Psychedelic Rock, and Folk, their cover tunes and originals will inspire you. Come support the efforts of these giving young, budding musicians while helping those in need! For more information visit their facebook event page

Laced with Tradition with Tattoo Artist Melissa Manuel
Opening Reception: Friday, June 17, 2011
(Exhibit runs June 17-August 20)
6:30-10:30pm
Join Manliatown for an evening of music, food, and body art! San Jose/Bay Area native Melissa Manuel will be present to dialogue about and share the body art which she has masterfully created. This event features live music from Dj Krucial.
Show up and show off your tattoo(s)! Find out more about Melissa Manuel at melchon.blogspot.com, and Manilatown.org

Rizal150: Bay Area Artists and Institutions Commemorate
150th Birthday of Philippine National Hero Dr. Jose Rizal
The American Center of Philippine Arts (ACPA) and a collective of Bay Area Filipino American artists today announced a collaboration and exhibit to celebrate the life and legacy of Philippine National Hero Jose Rizal who was born 150 years ago this June 19, 2011. The exhibit will be held at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center from June 20 to August 31 kicking off with a dinner celebration and fundraiser for the ACPA and the Filipino American Coalition for Environmental Solidarity (FACES) on Saturday, June 18. For more information to buy tickets to the dinner or to make a contribution, please go to philippinearts.org/rizal150.htm or http://rizal150.eventbrite.com/

The “spirit of Wisconsin” – working people standing up for their unions, their rights and their fair share of society’s benefits – is coming to the Bay Area on Saturday, June 18th at the 3rd Bay Area Troublemakers School at Laney College in Oakland. This School, sponsored by Labor Notes, brings together a collection of vibrant, engaged, curious and activist members of unions, worker centers, and community-based pro-labor organizations to share struggles, learn together about economic forces shaping our world, and kindle inspiration and solidarity. Workers from the Chinese Progressive Association and Filipino Community Center will be presenting workshops on the Campaign to End Wage Theft. Don’t miss it! For more information on workshops, schedules, and registration for the Troublemakers School, please go to www.labornotes.org/bayarea, call (510) 542-9436  or email schools@labornotes.org.

5/5/11 Grace Lee Boggs

Grace Lee Boggs and Michael Hardt discussed themes from Grace’s new book “The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-first Century”. This was at the “Asian American Movement Building Conference:Out of the Margins”, held at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in late March.

The book was released last month and co-authored by Scott Kurashige. You can find out more about the book and order it at GRACELEEBOGGS.COM You can also find links there to her weekly newspaper column to the Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership.

The pledge gifts include the full presentations by Grace Lee Boggs and Michael Hardt and the question and answer period. [CD-audio; DVD-video]

Recordings from Rob Yanagida, a supporter of the Boggs Center and long-time Bay Area activist.

Hosts: Karl Jagbandhansingh, Marie Choi, and Ellen Choy.

4/7/11 Police Brutality in Oakland; Hopie Spitshard

This week we bring you another packed show featuring powerful community voices:
Police Brutality in Oakland: While we continue to heal from the murder of Oscar Grant, Oakland youth of color continue to be targeted by racial profiling and police brutality. This week we bring you a dynamic interview with Sarn Saechao, a Mien youth and high school student and member of AYPAL, to speak on his experience with racial profiling, his thoughts on the Oakland gang injunctions and what him and other Oakland API youth are doing to combat injustices in their hood. Also, we bring you sounds from February’s “People’s Hearing on Racism and Police Violence,” featuring community leaders Eddy Zheng and Rachel Jackson.

Hopie Spitshard: We sat down for a special interview with Hopie Spitshard, a young hip hop artist originally from the Philippines and San Francisco-raised. As the inaugural segment of a series we’ll be collecting of interviews with API womyn in hip hop, this week we bring you an intimate look at who Hopie Spitshard is, and what has inspired her to blaze through hip hop’s boundaries and stay grounded by family, culture and what’s real.

Community Calendar:

From Thursday, April 7 to Saturday, April 9, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts presents Samoan choreographer Lemi Ponfasio’s Tempest Without a Body. www.ybca.org

On Friday, April 8 and Saturday, April 9, Karl Evangelista and the Grex Quintet perform their special blend of jazz at the Bayanihan Community Center in San Francisco. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=172259806154392

On Saturday, April 9, author Cecilia Gaerlan reads from her debut novel, In Her Mother’s Image.  Her book chronicles the story of a family’s ordeal during World War II in the Philippines and the fall of Bataan.  www.asiabookcenter.com

Sunday, April 10, join the Bay Area Committee to Stop FBI Repression’s contingent at the anti-war rally in Dolores Park, and call-in on April 12 to support activists like Anh Pham in resisting the FBI’s harassment of activists.  www.stopfbi.net

Next Thursday, April 14, four Asian American rock bands perform at the Submission Gallery in San Francisco for Ring the Alarm, a benefit for communities in the Philippines. Entry is $5-8.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=137342599672988

Women for Genuine Security screen Living Along the Fenceline, a film featuring the stories of 7 women who live alongside US military bases, on Thursday, April 14. http://www.genuinesecurity.org/actions/livingalongfenceline.html

On Saturday, April 16, API musicians, dancers, and performers come together for Japan Restart, a benefit concert for the Northern Japan Earthquake Relief Fund.  japanrestart.eventbrite.com

11/4/10 Racial profiling today and remembering Fred Korematsu

Hosts Ellen Choy and Karl Jagbandhansingh.

2/18/10 Fund drive show tribute to Richard Aoki

This week we take a look into the politics of community activist Richard Aoki, one of the first members of the Black Panther Party later holding the title of Field Marshall, in the new documentary of his life ‘AOKI.’

Hosts Amit  Pendyal and Karl Jagbandhansingh.