The PowerLeeGirls Miko Lee and Jalena Keane-Lee present “The Story Before” we talk with 3 APA artists at very different places in their careers. We ask them about how they got to present day where they are sharing skills with the next generation, creating innovative theatre, and talking about arts, activism and progressive change. Featuring APA artists: educator/filmmaker Bhwain Suchak, playwright and professor David Henry Hwang and filmmaker Alex Chu.
Deepa Varma from the San Francisco Tenants Union talks about the effort to repeal the California Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act. She brings us breaking news from the state Housing Committee.
And we talk with the people involved with Barangay Broadside, an art and activism project in San Francisco’s SOMA Pilipinas Cultural District.
Tonight, we’re looking at movement building and legislative change that is mounting in the new year. But if you take a bird’s-eye view, we’ll see that the repression has been year’s in the making. Whether we’re talking about the increase in higher education tuition, the dramatically increasing rents throughout California, or the forced displacements of communities there has been resistance through people powered solutions.
College 4 All
The first to join us is Celi Tamayo-Li. Born and raised in SF, Celi is the field organizer at San Francisco Rising where they’re focus is on “youth” which is defined as up to 30 years old. Celi taught history at Hilltop High, SF’s school for teen parents, and was the campaign manager for Vote 16 (a measure to lower the voting age to 16 in SF), which only lost by 2 percent. Celi talks about SF Rising’s College 4 All campaign.
Deepa Varma
Our next segment is hope for housing in the new year with an effort to repeal the Costa Hawkins Act. Our guest is Deepa Varma, the executive director of the San Francisco Tenants Union. Deepa has worked as an organizer, litigator and activist on social justice issues including women’s rights, public benefits, criminal justice reform and immigration. She was a tenants rights attorney in New York and at San Francisco’s Eviction Defense Collaborative. She helped to train a new generation of eviction defense lawyers in San Francisco to enforce the tenant protections we have in the city, and to provide last minute litigation support for tenants in housing court.
YOHANA getting down! Photo by Anth Bongco.
Finally, we we are joined by artist Colin Kimzey and Claire Amable, the youth health coordinator at SOMCAN or the South of Market Community Action Network. Colin and SOMCAN were awarded $3,000 from Southern Exposure’s Alternative Exposure grant to “invigorate and transform the San Francisco Bay Area arts community”. The project is called Barangay Broadside and it pays for silk screen workshops at the South of Market Community Action Network.
Tonight, we head back to school and look at some amazing programs preparing young people to engage in the fight for justice.
WALC hiking up Yosemite’s Mist Trail towards Nevada Falls
APIENC’s POP Camp, a training camp for LGBT, API high school youth
ACT4CUSD speaking at the Cupertino Union School Board
First we hear from high school teachers Rachelle Urzua and Jody DeAraujo. They work with the Wilderness Arts and Literacy Collaborative, a small learning community that teaches high school curriculum through a lens of environmental stewardship.
Then we speak with Sammie Ablaza Wills from API Equality- Northern California, an API LGBTQ organization in San Francisco training and building a youth-led movement.
And we’ll hear from Medha Asthana with ACT4CUSD who is working to make sure public schools in the South Bay have comprehensive sex education that covers important things like consent and uses inclusive language around gender expression and sexual orientations.
Community Calendar
On Labor Day, there’s a strike and march in Oakland in support of organized labor. Fast food workers in 300 cities and in the UK will be on strike to demand a liveable wage. Meet at 1330 Jackson St, Oakland Monday morning.
On Tuesday, the Parkway Theater screens “And Then They Came for Us.” The documentary features actor and activist, George Takei and many other Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during World War 2. This screening includes a post-show discussion.
Tonight on Apex Express Mother/Daughter hosts Miko Lee and Ayame Keane-Lee spoke to Yvette Felarca from By Any Means Necessary about taking direct action out into the streets and stopping the Trump ICE raids. More information about an upcoming immigration forum is listed in the calendar below.
We spoke to Michelle Lee, curator of Shifting Movements, Art inspired by Yuri Kochiyama, which opens with a big celebration tonight at SOMARTS Cultural Center and runs through May 25. Shifting Movements is part of the 20th Annual United States of Asian America Festival. Some of the art pieces are shown above, but go check it out in person to see how amazing the work is.
Mari Nakagawa interviewed punk band Aye Nako who hits the Bay Area tonight and tomorrow night.
Poet Yujane Chan came into the studio and performed her erasure poem derived from her formal immigration papers. Ayame, also a youth poet, chatted with Yujane about her inspiration and process. Yujane performed this as part of Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam in April.
Miko spoke with award winning filmmaker Felicia Lowe’s about her latest work Chinese Couplets which is her personal tale about the Chinese Exclusion Act. They also discussed the big Rally for Inclusion that is happening this Saturday in Portsmouth Square Chinatown to acknowledge the 135th anniversary of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Find out more about the Rally and how to take action page here.
Venue: SOMArts Cultural Center, Main Gallery, 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco. Exhibition Dates: Tuesday through Friday from 12-7pm, and Saturdays from 12-5pm. Closing Reception: Thursday, May 25, 2016. 6-9pm.
Li Miao Lovett, member leader of AFT2121 and City College academic counselor
Li Miao Lovett, a member leader of AFT 2121 at City College of San Francisco, talks about their stand-off with the administration and the strike vote 92 percent of their members recently passed.
Vincent Pan from Chinese for Affirmative Action talks about a bill they are supporting for FREE public higher education in California!
And Rex Halafihi, a student at San Francisco State University, talks about their efforts to support Ethnic Studies and ENHANCE it with the addition of Pacific Islander Studies, separate and distinct from Asian American Studies.
We also learn what it means to be a reconciling church, or a church that welcomes all sexual orientations and gender identities. We talk with Lauren Quock with the Network on Religion and Justice about the upcoming Reconciling Sunday at Wesley United Methodist Church in San Jose.
Aileen Suzara and Members of Sama Sama Cooperative
In honor of Filipino Heritage Month, we celebrate the new crop of leaders who are bringing fresh approaches to community problems, with grassroots and inclusive strategies. Join us for our show on “Filipino Innovators.”
Through the lens of radical health, we will be speaking with Sustainable Foods Educator and Eco-Chef Aileen Suzara whose research at U.C. Berkeley and interactive “Sariwa” workshops are focused on tackling food related disease in the Filipino Community through the exploration of precolonial diets.
Through the lens of radical parenting, we’ll be speaking with the parents and students of Sama Sama Co-op, a newly launched and member led summer program that explores Filipino culture, traditions, arts, ecology and language immersion.
Community Calendar
Saturday, November 1; 8:00 PM
Kearny Street Workshop Fundraiser
Sub-Mission, 2183 Mission St., San Francisco
Music lovers and arts supporters, you can do both at once by going to Kearny Street Workshop’s Hardcore Punk Benefit this Saturday at 8 p.m. at Submission in San Francisco’s Mission District, just a few blocks from BART. Local bands singing in English and Tagalog rock the stage for the nation’s oldest multidisciplinary API arts organization. More details are available at kearnystreet.org
Saturday, November 1; 7:30 PM Totally Radical Muslims Volume 3 Zine Release Party!
Solespace, 1714 Telegraph, Oakland
$5-10 Door
Saturday, November 1; 7:30 PM
Hyphen Revolutions Issue Release Party
111 Minna, San Francisco
Join Hyphen in celebrating the release of our R/Evolution issue, where we push the boundaries of conversations surrounding identity, solidarity, history and community. Come engage with social justice leaders and advocates at an event full of pride and passion. Don’t miss this chance to celebrate the new R/Evolution with your community! Buy your tickets and the R/Evolution issue at www.hyphenrevolution.eventbrite.com
November 6-9, and 15 Thirdi South Asian Film Festival
The premiere annual South Asian film festival in the U.S, the San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival (SFISAFF) has brought the cinematic heritage and culture of South Asia to Bay Area audiences for more than a decade. Presented by 3rd i Films, the oldest South Asian media arts organization in the U.S., the festival promotes diverse images of South Asians and catalyzes change through independent film. http://www.thirdi.org/
On tonight’s APEX Express, tune in for a spotlight on South Asia – learn more about the newly launched Bangladeshi initiative at the Center for South Asia Studies at UC Berkeley in a discussion with Sanchita Saxena, the Director of the Center. Then, listen to an important discussion with Vidya Sri and Darakshan Raja, authors of a critical report titled Voices From the Frontline: Addressing Forced Marriage in the US, on the disturbing phenomenon of forced marriages in different communities in the US, including South Asian communities. Vidya Sri is a survivor of forced marriage and founded an organization to address and end forced marriages; Darakshan Raja is a researcher focused on criminal justice interventions. Plus music from Beats for Bangladesh, and community calendar.
The existence of community-based, community-run institutions are critical now more than ever, as gentrification and displacement plague cities across the country. Tonight we celebrate two institutions who have decades of serving Bay Area communities – City College of San Francisco and Suigetsukan Dojo in Oakland.
The struggle to save CCSF has been ongoing over the past couple of years. Currently, CCSF is gaining traction in its struggle to maintain accreditation and promote high quality, low-cost, accessible education. Salima Hamirani speaks with students Matthew Martinez and Kerri Ann Navarro-Borja, and professor Vike Palaita of the Save City College of San Francisco Coalition to get the latest updates on the campaign, and to hear why they’re encouraging as many as people as possible to enroll in City College classes this semester.
Girl Army. Photo credit: Suigetsukan.
Youth/kids training. Photo credit: Suigetsukan.
Suigetsukan is a non-profit collective martial arts dojo in Oakland that teaches and trains in the traditional Japanese martial arts of Jujutsu, Aikido, and Japanese Sword. With so many martial arts training halls and dojos in the Bay Area – what makes Suigetsukan such a special place? Ellen Choy hears from Mike Esmailzadeh, Rebecca Wong, and Aiko Yoshitani about why this 23-year-old community institution has created a place many of their students call home.
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.
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/
APEX Express is a proud member of Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality, or AACRE. AACRE is a network of Asian American social justice groups with shared values that are working to create positive change.
APEX Express is a proud member of 
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