9/13/18: Celebrating India’s Historic Moment for LGBT Rights: Striking down of sec.377; Climate Change in South Asia & A Peek Into a Brand New Storytelling Podcast!

On this month’s South Asian spotlight, we celebrate India’s Supreme Court’s historic decision striking down Section 377, an archaic Colonial law that criminalized homosexuality. We talk to a feisty Desi lesbian couple  Priti and Mads about their new ice cream business, a venture that has helped them dream and live outside the box in many ways!

We also hear from Thanu Yakupitiyage from 350.org, about the ongoing climate actions in resistance to Governor Brown’s Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, and why climate change is also a South Asian issue; and the piece de resistance: a sneak peek into a brand new storytelling podcast by APEX Express’ Preeti Mangala Shekar!

9/6/18: Green Edition of APEX Express: Soumyaa Kapil Behrens on her new film; the Asian contingent at the climate actions and more!

Tune in to a special green edition of APEX Express, featuring a film from the San Francisco Green Film Festival, a film on whaling, and spotlighting the upcoming Solidarity to Solutions Week happening September 8 to 14.

We interview Soumyaa Kapil Behrens about her new film Nail House and Megumi Sasaki about her film Whale of a Tale. We also talk to Thuy Trang about the Asian contingent at the upcoming Solidarity to Solutions week, and the march on Sep 8!

 

6/14/18: The Story Before

Playwright David Henry Hwang

Filmmaker Bhawin Suchak

Filmmaker Alex Chu

 

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.  

More info on show themes:

Bhawin Suchak’s organization Youth FX

Bhwain’s film Outta The Muck

David Henry Hwang’s latest work Soft Power at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco playing through July 8, 2018

Alex Chu’s film For Izzy at Frameline42 playing Saturday, June 23 at the Roxie Theater

 

Other Calendar items

San Francisco Mime Troupe’s Seeing Red: A Time-Traveling Musical – July 4 -Sept. 9, 2017 – 59th Season

Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company, World Premiere of Leah Nanako Winkler’s Two Mile Hollow opening June 25th at Potrero Stage in San Francisco.

5/31/18: Storytellers Shaking Things Up

To end out the month of May PowerLeeGirls Miko Lee and Jalena Keane-Lee speak with storytellers who are making waves. We speak with An Excess Male Author Maggie Shen King. And hear from two of the culinary activists behind the Rooted Recipes Project. We talk with Heather White whose poignant documentary Complicit focuses on migrant electronic factory workers in China.

Calendar

Rooted Recipes at the United State of Asian America Festival 

Complicit San Francisco Documentary Film Festival
Roxie Tue June 5, 7:15pm • New People Cinema Sat June 9, 7pm

Eastwind Books upcoming events:

June 2nd, Saturday 6pm @ Oakland Asian Cultural Center Facebuddha: Transcendence in the Age of Social Networks Book Talk and Panel with Ravi Chandra

June 23, Saturday 1pm @ Oakland Asian Cultural Center Hawker Fare: Stories & Recipes from a Refugee Chef’s Isan Thai & Lao Roots Book Talk with Chef James Syhabout

​July 22, Sunday 3pm @ OACC Panel Presentation: Chinese Exclusion Laws and Being Muslim American in Post 9/11; Author Beth Lew-Williams, The Chinese Must Go: Violence, Exclusion, and the Making of the Alien in America ; Author Sylvia Chan-Malik, Being Muslim: A Cultural History of Women of Color in American Islam With Moderator Michael Chang, Lecturer Comparative Ethnic Studies, J.D. UCLA, Ph.D. Ethnic Studies, U.C. Berkeley

​July 28, Saturday 7pm @ OACC Book Talk with Vanessa Garcia, author of See You at the 7: Stories From the Bay Area’s Last Original Mile House

1/25/18 Writers and Filmmakers on Immigration and Organizing

Tonight on APEX Express, Powerleegirls hosts Miko Lee and Ayame Keane-Lee check in with documentary filmmakers and writers Mike Siv on Daze of Justice, Sahra Nguyen on Deported and Charles Vogl on New Year Baby and his latest book The Art of Community.
We hear the latest about immigration, deportation, storytelling and community.

Deported five part miniseries trailer
Deported screening in San Francisco January 31.
Filmmaker Sahra Nguyen
Daze of Justice trailer
Filmmaker Mike Siv
New Year Baby trailer
Producer & Author Charles Vogl

11/2/17 Iffat Fatima’s Blood Leaves Its Trail

Tara Dorabji and shivani narang feature Asian and Asian American filmmakers.

APEX Express interviews directors from the 15th annual 3rd i South Asian Film Festival. In addition hear from independent filmmaker, Iffat Fatima, about her recent documentary: Blood Leaves its Trail, which explores issues of violence and memory in Kashmir. We’ll also be in conversation with scholar and Kashmiri human rights activist, Huma Dar to discuss how she’s been targeted by Twitter and Facebook for exposing human rights violations in Kashmir. Listen here.

Community Calendar

• US Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy K Smith will be reading at CCA on November 3. That’s tomorrow. CCA calendar online for more info.
• Open Mic & Writing Workshop- Afro-House Berkeley, Date: Nov 10th – Poetry writing session will be led by CalSLAM from 4pm-6pm. The writing workshop will draw from the theme of reclamation of blackness and spaces, everyone is welcome to the open mic portion!
• palestinian youth movement – Building Solidarity against Militarization. Thursday, November 16 at 7 PM – 8:30 PM / East Side Arts Alliance: A Panel on Political Prisoners and Incarceration from Palestine, the US and the Philippines, with Sahar Francis of Addameer (the Palestinian Prisoner Support & Human Rights Association)
• Fall Events At Eastwind Books of Berkeley:
  • November 18, Saturday 2pm – The Discovery of Ramen: The Asian Hall of Fame – Children’s Story Hour with Oliver Chin
  • November 19, Sunday 3pm – The Chinese Typewriter: A History Book Talk w Author Tom S. Mulley
  • December 9, Saturday 3pm – Book talk featuring Barbara Jane Reyes, Janice Sapigao, and Veronica Montes (co-sponsored by {m}aganda magazine)

 

6/8/17 Artist Activist Changemakers

 

Download the show here

Tonight, on APEX Express, we talked with Asian American Artist Activist Change Makers. We spoke to San Francisco Mime Troupe veteran Keiko Shimosato Carreiro, data artist Brian Foo, singer Hollis Wong-Wear and filmmaker Jalena Keane-Lee. On behalf of my co-host Ayame Keane Lee and myself Miko Lee, we thank all of our Artist Activist Changemakers who joined us tonight. Keep creating, keep fighting, keep sharing your visions with the world.

More information on our guests work here:

Theatre Artist Keiko Shimosato Carreiro and the summer tour of the San Francisco Mime Troupe

Data Artist Brian Foo’s awesome website.  and his work with Data Driven DJ.

Singer and Poet Hollis Wong Wear spoken word and Flavr Blue.

Documentary Film maker Jalena Keane-Lee and her latest film The Construct.

 

Community Calendar

June 11, 10am The Construct at the Christopher Smith Rafael Theatre

Through June 12  – United States of Asian America Festival

June 17, 2017, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. – Soy and Tofu Festival, Event Center at Saint Mary’s Cathedral, San Francisco’s Japantown

 

 

 

2/16/17 Executive Order 9066

Photo by J.K. Yamamoto/Rafu Shimpo

To download the episode, click here.

Tonight, we reflect on the 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9066. Issued by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, this order forcibly removed 110,000 people of Japanese descent from the west coast to inland detention centers.

1/5/17 Micro Finance in India, and Hooligan Sparrow Documentary

Click here to download the audio.

On our new year spotlight, we look internationally at India and China exploring human rights issues and the complexity of micro finance.

Preeti Shekar talks with feminist author and academic Kalpana Karunakaran about her book: Women, Microfinance and the State in Neoliberal India. We examine how the politics of neoliberal economics impact women’s rights and organizing in India. They discuss how the Indian state, under the guise of fighting poverty and promoting women’s rights, manipulatively promotes micro finance among rural and poor women. We find that the reality on the ground is much more complex.

Chinese human rights activist Ye Haiyan, known as Hooligan Sparrow

Melissa Hung talks with filmmaker Nanfu Wong about Hooligan Sparrow, one of 15 films on the 2017 Oscar shortlist for best documentary. Wong follows Chinese human rights activist Ye Haiyan, known as Hooligan Sparrow, as she seeks justice for six girls who were raped. She organizes a protest but is arrested the next day. Upon release, Ye is harassed and tracked by the government. Wong herself becomes a target of intimidation tactics. She smuggled footage out of China in order to make this film. The film opens January 6 at the 4 Star Theater in San Francisco and screens January 9 at 7 p.m. at the the Roxie Theater.

Breathin’ the Eddy Zheng Story

Download the audio by clicking here.

Eddy Zheng and Filmmaker Ben Wang at the World Premiere of Breathin’ at San Quentin

Guest host Renee Geesler speaks with activist, immigrant, and former prisoner Eddy Zheng about Breathin’ the Eddy Zheng Story, the newly released documentary film by Ben Wang. Breathin’ documents Eddy’s 21-year journey through the California Prison system and his  eventual release.

The segment ends with a song by hip-hop artist Bambu about Eddy Zheng.