The PowerLeeGirls Miko Lee & Jalena Keane-Lee, talk about our future and the ELECTION. Next Tuesday November 6 is Election DAY! Voting is important and we are speaking today with folks about issues that matter. We welcome filmmaker PJ Raval, activist Saru Jayaraman, activist Tram Nguyen and filmmaker Reena Dutt. They will be dropping knowledge about trans rights, workers rights, and gun violence.
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.
The recent elections in India are touted to be a political and historical watershed moment. The landslide victory of the BJP, the right wing Hindu fundamentalist party caught everyone by surprise, including the BJP themselves. How do we make sense of these election results? What does it mean for a “new India”? What are the bloody histories and sordid realities underlying this victory that the Indian media and some sections of the Indian public would like us to forget, move on and start over, lured by promises of development and jobs in a post-globalized India?
Tune in at 7 pm PT to KPFA 94.1 FM for a discussion on APEX Express, with journalist and author Dionne Bunsha, activist Biju Mathew and sociologist Shiv Visvanathan share their reflections on the Indian elections.
Farmers and organizers from Hacienda Luisita protest the distribution of lands in front the House of Representatives in Manila. Photo courtesy of R.J. Lozada
Land is life. When Spain forcefully took and claimed land from the Philippines in 1521 they created a sociopolitical climate that would birth long-standing systems of oppression, manifesting in everything from political infrastructure to psychology to cuisine. Among the remnants and ghosts of colonization is HaciendaLuisita. The farmlands that belong to natives long before the Spanish were taken, and ended up in the hands of the family of the current President Benigno Aquino III, since the late 1950s. R.J. spent some time with farmers of Hacienda Luisita to learn what agrarian reform can really look like.
Flordia Sibayan, or “Pong,” is the chair of AMBALA, the farmworkers union at Hacienda Luisita. She and about 50 farmers and organizers camped out in front of the offices Department of Agricultural Reform. They’re protesting the lottery system, and other divide and conquer tactics to disrupt the movement for genuine agrarian reform. Photo courtesy of R.J. Lozada.
COMMUNITY CALENDAR
On Saturday, August 31st at 7:30PM at the Solespace in Oakland, RAMA presents this months installment of Go! Ohana, featuring musicians Ben Ahn, Cynthia Lin, hosted by Tim Huey, and Leila Ramanculova. http://www.facebook.com/events/185431461636494
On Thursday, September 5th at 6:00PM, Undocu-Health: Healthcare and the Undocumented — this event at the Asian Resource Lobby in Oakland will feature a talk regarding the Affordable Care Act otherwise known as Obamacare, and the undocumented community. http://www.facebook.com/events/203747449792250
On Friday, September 6 at 7:00PM, the “Ordinary Guy,” Afro-Filipino Joe Bataan, will be at the I-Hotel in San Francisco for a meet and greet! http://www.facebook.com/events/574934042570084/
Contributor R.J. Lozada compiles different stories from the bay, the country, and around the globe. Every month, a moment, a story-either read on your facebook feed, heard in your conversations, or viewed on broadcast. You’re invited to tune in, and a take an hour to reflect on 2012.
This past month we saw incredible shows of grassroots power across the country. On this week’s APEX Express, we hear stories about how grassroots efforts both led major relief efforts for immigrant communities in the aftermath of Sandy, and helped gain major wins for API communities in the 2012 elections. Including interviews with:
Helena Wong, Executive Director of CAAAV in New York City speaks on how CAAAV was able to respond with major relief efforts after Hurricane Sandy, and provide language-accessible support on-the-ground when the City failed to do so.
Christina Samala, Director of 18 Million Rising, speaks on surprising API voter statistics and offers her post-election reflections from an API perspective.
Emily Lee, from CPA Action Fund, and Timmy Lu, from APEN Action Fund, break down how grassroots power won major victories in SF’s Supervisor elections and in California’s proposition races.
And as always, host Ellen Choy brings great musical breaks, including some exciting new joints!
PLUS: we’re giving away one pair of tickets for a lucky listener to see one of Kidlat Tahimik‘s rare film screenings in the Bay Area! Don’t sleep – listen in!
Infographic produced by 18 Million Rising for the 2012 elections.
Phonebanker for APEN Action Fund. Photo credit: APEN.
Post-Sandy relief efforts at CAAAV in NYC. Photo credit: CAAAV.
APEX Contributor Marie Choi got on the phone with organizers and residents from around the Bay Area to bring us a highlights this week’s local races in Oakland, San Francisco, and Berkeley, and highlights from the elections.
APEX Contributor Preeti Mangala Shekar talks with South Asian activist and Hyphen correspondent Nadia Hussain about the national implications of an Obama win.
APEX Contributor R.J. Lozada talks with Bobby Tuazon, Evita Jimenez, an Dr. Manalastas from the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG), sponsored by BAYAN USA, who traveled from the Philippines to talk about Philippine voting and share some observations about U.S. voting just days before the elections.
Reflection on the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami with updates on the floods in Thailand and the typhoon in the Philippines
Ellen Choy talking about the OccupyMovement, with a focus on the Bay Area
Alex Tom of the Chinese Progressive Association, taking about Occupy, what Ed Lee’s mayoral win means to the Chinese community, and the unrest seen in Wukan, China
Continued discrimination against the Muslim American community in New York and on the media
An update with Anh Pham, her grand jury trial, and her response to the NDAA of 2012
Lisa Chen of Asian Law Caucus talking about the California Dream Act and what campaigns they’ll work on in 2012
Bernadette Ellorin of BAYAN USA looks at the issuance of the arrest warrant for former General Jovito Palparan and the calling of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to trial for human rights abuses
Matthew Ledesma‘s commentary which challenges Manny Pacquiao‘s masculinity
National Film Society, a new media studio co-founded by filmmakers Patrick Epino and Stephen Dypiangco in Los Angeles
And Irene Kao, executive director of Hyphen, talks about independent media and its important role in challenging what the mainstream has put forth including Tiger Mom and Wesley Yang’s interpretation of Asian male-ness
Tonight on Apex Express, we highlight the documentary film, Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority. This film by Kimberlee Bassford explores the political life of Patsy Takemoto Mink, an Asian American woman who battled racism and sexism and redefined American politics. Mink was the first Asian American woman and woman of color in the United States Congress. She entered the 1972 presidential primary, making her one of the first women to seek the nation’s highest office.
The Director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program Franklin Odo says in the documentary, “Patsy Mink offers a phenomenal political story, because she was so outside what you would expect of a woman, of a Japanese American, and of a member of Congress. She was truly a force of nature.”
Tonight we interview members of Asian American Theater Company about their world premiere of “Macho Bravado.” This play is about a Korean American soldier returning home from fighting abroad, in his quest for love, identity, and masculinity.
And finally we have Apex producer Robynn Takyama interviewing director Anne Misawa and associate producer Connie M. Florez about their documentary, State of Aloha, currently being screened at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.
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.
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