2/8/18 Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: Responses to Anti-Immigrant Mentalities

APEX Contributors (left) Geraldine Ah-Sue and Eunice Kwon interview Buena Vista United Methodist Church members (right).

Tonight’s show is on immigration. We’ll share Asian American community responses that counter today’s anti-immigrant policies and narratives.

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VietUnity at Oakland’s 2017 May Day protests

Artist Flo Oy Wong in front of her work.

First, we’ll hear an interview with two members of Buena Vista Methodist Church, a historically Japanese American church that’s providing sanctuary for undocumented families.

Then we’ll speak with Leslie Tran from VietUnity, and Danny Thongsy from Asian Law Caucus about their current work in deportation defense for Vietnamese and Cambodian immigrant communities.

And last we’ll hear about the artwork of Flo Oy Wong. Her art uplifts the lives of paper daughters — women who forged documentation to come to the US after the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Community Calendar

Eastwind Books of Berkeley is hosting a book talk with Myles A. Garcia on his anthology of essays on the Filipino-American experience. The event is at Eastwind Books this Saturday at 3pm.

Oakland Asian Cultural Center is hosting a concert to celebrate Black History Month and to commemorate the Day of Remembrance, a day to remember the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans during WWII. The concert will feature the Asian American Orchestra and the Voices of a Dream ensemble and will be on February 18th at 7PM.

VietUnity is partnering up with QTViet Cafe again for the 2018 Intergenerational Feast of Resistance on Saturday, April 7th. The intention is to celebrate and share the foodways and recipes of our families and/or loved ones as a pathway to organizing and creating a cultural healing hub.

In an effort to better understand San Francisco’s local arts ecosystem, ensure equitable distribution of resources, and pursue solutions to affordable housing for artists and cultural workers, the San Francisco Arts Commission has issued a brief 10-minute survey. If you are an artist or cultural worker, help the Arts Commission help you by taking 10-minutes to complete the survey. Visit sfartscommision.org for more info.

Apex Express with Dolores Huerta & Peter Bratt

“I learned to use chopsticks when I was seven,” says our guest Dolores Huerta about growing up in diverse Stockton, California. Join us on Apex Express to hear Host Miko Lee and guest contributor Jalena Keane-Lee interview the legendary activist Dolores Huerta and filmmaker Peter Bratt all about the new documentary “Dolores“.

Dolores shares her experiences with intersectionality and community development. She talks about the Dolores Huerta Foundation which trains community activists and her struggle with making the film that features much of her personal life including interviews with many of her 11 children.

Peter Bratt talks about adding the human side to Dolores Huerta’s remarkable life. The film, produced by musician Carlos Santana, has been having sold out screenings throughout the Bay Area.

 

 

 

 

6/8/17 Artist Activist Changemakers

 

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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

 

 

 

5/4/17 Immigration and Activism

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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.

Community Calendar

May 4 -June 11, United States of Asian America, various locations

May 4 Aye Nako at the Luckyduck Bicycle Cafe located at 302 12th Street in Oakland.

May 5 Aye Nako at the STUD located at 399 9th St in San Francisco.

May 4-25, 2017  Shifting Movements: Art inspired by the life of Yuri Kochiyama

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.

May 6, 2017 noon Rally for Inclusion, Portsmouth Square, Chinatown

May 6, 2017:  Asian Pacific Heritage Festival, Asian American Alliance of Marin

May 9, 2017  Immigration Forum and Community Meeting, Bay Any Means Necessary 6-8pm, Manzanita Recreation Center, 2701 22nd Ave., Oakland, CA 94606

May 16 Asian American Bar Association presents – Lessons from Mass Incarceration

 

 

4/13/17 All About The Periods…..

 

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Tonight we talk about a subject that over half of the world has to deal with monthly, but is still considered taboo. Tonight we are talking periods with Asian American women. Hosts Miko Lee and Tara Djorbji talk to Amrita Saigal the founder of Saanthi Pad, eco-friendly pads for women in India.  We hear from New York Congresswoman Grace Meng on her Menstrual Equity Bill which will eliminate the tax on period supplies and provide pads to homeless and incarcerated women, and Boston-based activist Nadya Okamoto who at 16 years of age founded Period, a Menstrual Movement an organization providing period supplies to homeless women.  Learn more about the Saanthi Pads and Period, a Menstrual Movement here:

 

Community Calendar:

April 15 1-4:30pm the Tax March San Francisco Civic Center, San Francisco

April 15 & 16 50th annual Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival in SF J town

April 18 at 07:00 PM Showing Up for Racial Justice presents Anti-Racism Educator Tim Wise at First Congregational Church of Oakland

April 29 The Hidden History of the Japanese-American Community in South Berkeley. Led by Jill Shiraki

 

 

 

 

 

2/16/17 Thi Bui, Art Shibayama and Moazzam Sheikh

We’ll be in conversation with author Thi Bui about her debut graphic novel, “The Best We Could Do,” which offers a haunting and intimate portrayal of one family’s journey from war torn Vietnam. Then, we’ll hear from the lead petitioner seeking justice for the Shibayama brothers, who continue to demand that the US government be accountable for its ongoing failure to provide redress for war crimes perpetrated against them as children during World War II. We will round out the hour in conversation with contributors of the newly released South Asian American Issue released by the Chicago Quarterly, guest edited by Moazzam Sheikh, who explains that “The new South Asian American writer is a wild beast.” We’ll delve into that wildness. We have all that and more, so tune it.

More information about the Campaign for Justice for Shibayama Brothers case here.

Information about the petition in support of the Shibayama Brothers here.

 

Download the show here.

 

 

2/11/16 Brown Is the New White, Zika Virus and Reproductive Rights, Match4Lara

Tune into APEX Express on Thursday, February 11 at 7 p.m., when we talk with Steve Phillips, author of Brown is the New White, about how people of color in the United States are a progressive majority.

Download the audio by clicking here.

Then, we discuss the Zika Virus. The World Health Organization has issued warnings across Asia and the Americas. We look at how governments in Latin America are responding to the epidemic by issuing recommendations for women not to be pregnant. What could this mean for women globally? How do reproductive rights and access to birth control fit into the epidemic?

Finally, we are in conversation with Sujitpan Lamsam and Carol Gillespie, organizers from the Match4Lara campaign about the challenge of finding donors for multiracial people in need of bone marrow transplants.

Sujitpan Lamsam, Lara Casalotti’s aunt

Asian American Donor Program Executive Director Carol Gillespie

We also have tickets to give away to Dr. Israel performing tomorrow night at Dub Mission. Listen to APEX Express.

6/25/15: Spotlight on Burma and Allied Media Conference Report Back

Rohingya refugees in the Nayapara camp. Photo by Ruben Flamarique/Austcare.

Download the audio by clicking here.

Tune in tonight to learn about the terrifying plight of Rohingya Muslims in the Buddhist state of Burma or Myanmar. Preeti Shekar talks to journalist and Burma expert, Sufyan bin Uzayr, and Bay-Area-based Burmese immigrant activist and feminist, Nwe Oo, about how this state-sanctioned massacre is unfolding even as Nobel Peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyii has been widely criticized for her shocking apathy on the issue.

We also feature a quick update on the Allied Media Conference that took place last weekend in Detroit, Michigan, including highlights from a powerful network gathering of Asian American activists called Igniting a Model Minority Mutiny which had a goal to collectively reflect and work on dismantling the model minority myth and internalized anti-Black racism in our communities, and be better allies for #BlackLivesMatter.

The Battle Over Twelfth Street

 

 

We’re giving you an overview of the City of Oakland sale of public land to a private developer and why residents and organizers are fighting it because the parcel is still being contested. Which means YOU can get involved.

Interviews with:

Christine Cherdboonmuang – East Lake Communities for Justice

Monica Garcia – East Lake Communities for Justice

Sydney Fang – East Lake Communities for Justice, APEN, and Asians for Black Lives

Xan West – Black Seed

Lucy Saephan – Long time East Oakland resident.

And sound taken from the public video of the City of Oakland Planning Commission Hearing.

https://soundcloud.com/salima-hamirani/the-battle-over-the-12th-street-parcel-in-oakland

5/14/2015 – Fund Drive and Yuri Kochiyama’s Birthday

Click here to download the audio.
We have a fund drive show tonight and we’re going to be paying tribute to Yuri Kochiyama who passed away last year. May 19th would have been her 94th birthday and we wanted to celebrate her life with some of our favorite Yuri pieces. Donations to KPFA get you Yuri’s memoir: Passing it On.

Join us at 7pm on KPFA 94.1 FM.

Yuri Kochiyama print by Melanie Cervantes with Dignidad Rebelde

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Until May 23rd is RECLAIMING OUR ROOTS: APA arts activism  from the 1960s on. at the Kearny Street Workshop. This event brings KSW to the very street from which it takes its name, bringing the past and the present together through a multidisciplinary presentation of literature, music, and visual art. 

On March 16th and 17th, Live Oak Park in Berkeley hosts the Himalayan Fair. Both days start at 10 am and run until the early evening. All donations and raffle proceeds received this year will support efforts to send aid to Nepal after now, two devastating back to back earthquakes. They will also host a prayer each day of the Fair to remember the people of Nepal. 

Next Wednesday, join the Teach in to Free West Papau in Oakland or in SF on Thursday, May 21 at 518 Valencia Street at 6 pm for Free West Papau as we think about the questions “What does self-determination look like for West Papua and other indigenous peoples? How does the struggle for West Papua’s independence connect with other third world liberation movements?” we learn about its history and its struggle.

Also next Thursday May 21st from 7 to 8:30 pm join us for the opening of The State of the State: Contemporary Filipino/American art in the Bay Area at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.