Friday, November 18, 2011
Film Screening: "A Village Called Versailles"

A/P/A Institute at NYU presents
A story of community activism and environmental justice in post-Katrina New Orleans...
“A Village Called Versailles”

Film Screening and Talk with filmmaker Leo Chiang and Scholar Julie Sze, UC Davis













Winner of the Audience Award at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival and New Orleans Film Festival, “A Village Called Versailles” is filmmaker Leo Chiang’s feature documentary about Versailles, an isolated community in eastern New Orleans that has been settled by Vietnamese refugees since the late 1970s. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Versailles residents impressively rise to the
challenges by returning and rebuilding before any other flooded neighborhood in New Orleans, only to have their homes threatened by a new government-imposed toxic landfill just two miles away. The film recounts the empowering story of how this group of people, who have already suffered so much in their lifetime, turns a devastating disaster into a catalyst for change and a chance for a better future.

Following the film, Julie Sze, Associate Professor of American Studies at University of California at Davis and author of Noxious New York: The Racial Politics of Urban Health and Environmental Justice will be in conversation with Chiang about the broader issues of race and environmental justice covered in the film affecting Asian American communities.
Friday, Nov 18th
Cantor Film Center
36 East 8th Street
Theater 101
6:30PM-9:30PM

RSVP: Online Here or email apa.rsvp@nyu.edu, or Call 212-992-9653

Talk and demonstration is FREE and open to the public.

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Thursday, November 17, 2011
Free Screening of "Anna May Wong: In Her Own Words"

Date: Friday, November 18, 2011
Time: 8:00PM - 9:30PM
Where: Center for Remembering & Sharing, 123 4th Avenue @12 Street, NYC



CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing) presents “Anna May Wong: In Her Own Words,” a one-hour documentary by mutli-award-winning writer/director Yunah Hong. Ms. Hong will be present to introduce the film, discuss her efforts to get it aired on public television, and take questions from the audience following the screening. 
Screen legend Anna May Wong (1905-1961) was the first Chinese American movie star. She grew up in L.A., daughter of a laundryman, yet she courageously chose a life that was a radical departure from familial and cultural expectations. Her story is one of resistance—of pushing back against close-mindedness and claiming space. This she did with enough glamour, style and humor to hold her own with the greatest stars of her day. She is a great role model and inspiration to artists struggling against racism and stereotypes even today.
She first starred, at age 17, in "Toll of the Sea," a silent version of Madame Butterfly. Her best-remembered film is "Shanghai Express" with Marlene Dietrich. She made dozens of films in Hollywood, London and Berlin. She was glamorous; photographers flocked to take her portrait. She was worldly and articulate, with friends like Carl van Vechten, Evelyn Waugh and Paul Robeson. Yet she spent most of her career typecast either as a painted doll or a scheming Dragon Lady.
Director: Yunah Hong
Executive Producer: William Smock
Producer: William Smock
Cinematographer: Eric Lin, Liam Dalzell
Watch the trailer:

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Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Occupy Wall Street - Week of October 15th to 22nd

This is the second week we've been in Zuccotti Park.  It was crowded with people and tents, not much space to put the banner, so we hung it high above the artwork of an artist at the park.  A man and his son stopped by and help to hold the banner.



Mae Lee (on the right) and Bernice, Mae Lee's staff (on the left) holding the banner.

On the left, the African American man holding the banner is the artist who did the artworks presented below the banner.  
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Friday, November 11, 2011
Roundtable on status of community based organizations October 21st

A roundtable discussion took place on Friday, October 21, 2011.  It was hosted by NYU The Institute for Public Knowledge,  located at 20 Cooper Square, New York.  Guest panelists include John R. Killacky, Susan Cahan, A.B. Spellman and Sonia Basheva-Manjon was the moderator.  Panelists discussed the present status of community based organizations that came out of the Civil Rights Movement, and the impact that funding cutbacks are having on these small to mid-sized diverse cultural arts organizations.




Sitting in the middle are panelist John R. Killacky, A.B. Spellman, and Susan Cahan.

Cynthia Lee, former program director at MoCA gives her perspective to her many colleagues around the room. 
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Yellow Pearl's 40th and Kanako

The Yellow Pearl 40th Year Reunion was held at Project Reach 39 Eldridge St in NYC on the night of October 14th, 2011.  It was a wonderful and heartwarming evening with great company, great food, presentations and performances.

Participants in creating the Yellow Pearl graphic publication 40 years ago gathered to take a group picture.

Participants in Basement Workshop join together to take a reunion picture.


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POC meeting on October 19th



"We are the 99%" sign next to the American flag at the Occupy Wall Street demonstration. 

Participants at the People Of Color (POC) group meeting on October 19th in the 60 Wall Street atrium .

Speaker addressing issues to everyone at the POC meeting on October 19th.
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Occupy Wall Street - Week of October 2nd

An enthusiastic crowd at the Occupy Wall Street demonstration event held at Washington Square Park on October 8th.  OWS made a video about how General Assembly function.  This one in the park was an exceptionally large assembly where the process of consensus was displayed.  In the video,  unbeknownst to Bob Lee he was video taped and became part of the beginning and conclusion of the tape. 
One of the signs at Zuccotti Park.  Naomi Klein, the  author of the "Shock Doctrine" said in a radio interview on WNYC on October 6th that once she saw a poster from OWS that read "I care about you", she knew that people there were going deep.  That this occupation was not only about important issues, but it was about changing the underline culture of our society.  This poster, "Compassion Is Revolution",  reflecting a key Asian value, is an expression for AAAC of how our mission of promoting and examining the integration of Asian values, are entering the United States.  
This is the first People of Color (POC) group meeting that attracted so many people on Sunday, October 9th.
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The retirement party of Suki Terada Ports

  • November 11, 2011
  • 1

A retirement party for Suki Terada Ports was held on September 29th, 2011, at the Japanese American Association (JAA), located at 15 W 44th Street in New York City.

Suki Terada Ports has been a community activist since the 1960s. She founded the Family Health Project (FHP) in 1980 to raise awareness about the impact of HIV/AIDS on communities of color. Almost two hundred people attended the retirement party as Suki’s friends and colleagues spoke at the party in celebration of her achievements.  


 
 Suki Ports, Cobi Narita of Jazz center of New York (bottom middle), Soki Lee (bottom left), and their friends. 

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Saturday, November 5, 2011
Asian American Community March in Solidarity with Occupy Wall Street


On November 5, 2011, Asian American community members will again demonstrate support for the Occupy Wall Street movement. Community members will start their march at 1:30 PM in front of the Bank of America on Bayard Street and the Bowery and march together to Zuccotti Park on Broadway and Cedar Street in time to join the weekly meeting of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators at 2 PM.

Asian Americans have had a long history of involvement in movements to correct injustices in our society. The Occupy Wall Street movement is bringing much needed attention to the plight of many Americans who are struggling from the economic downturn and the increasing divide between the have’s and have not’s.

As 13% of the population, Asian American New Yorkers also have much to lose if we as a city and nation continue on this path where budget cuts are decimating safety net services. The Asian American community stands in solidarity to protect the most vulnerable in our society and call for fair share tax reform.

We want to take this opportunity and join with the remarkable people who have stood their ground and be part of the Occupy Wall Street. Join us, join the many individuals who will come to Zuccotti Park tomorrow at 2pm, and who have signed on to endorse this Call for Action!

The path of the march with the banner “Occupy Wall Street with Peace” will be from Bwoery to Worth Street onto Centre Street and Park Row, walking past City Hall Park to Broadway to our destination Zuccotti Park on Cedar Street. We welcome others to join the march from the start or anywhere along the route or at 2pm at Zuccotti Park.
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Monday, October 31, 2011
Army Pvt. Danny Chen Died of Unspecified Causes During Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanisatan

 

On Oct. 3, her son, Pvt. Danny Chen, was found shot to death in a guard tower on an American outpost in Afghanistan. He was 19 years old.
Three days after his death, a military official told Ms. Chen and her husband, Yan Tao Chen, that investigators had not yet determined whether the shot to the head was self-inflicted or fired by someone else.
But the official also revealed, the Chens said, that Private Chen had been subjected to physical abuse and ethnic slurs by superiors, who one night dragged him out of bed and across the floor when he failed to turn off a water heater after showering.
Since then, the military has given little information about its investigation to the Chens, immigrants who speak no English.
Via NYTimes
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Thursday, October 20, 2011
ArtReview Names China's Ai Weiwei Most Powerful Person In The Art World

  • October 20, 2011
  • 1
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei heads the 2011 edition of ArtReview’s Power 100, the magazine's tenth annual ranking of the contemporary art world’s most powerful players.

Only the second artist to top the list (after Damien Hirst in 2005 and 2008), Ai, who was arrested and imprisoned by the Chinese authorities for 81 days earlier this year, was ranked number one as a result of his activism as much as his art practice – both articulating a move away from the idea that artists work within a privileged zone limited by the walls of a gallery or museum.

Indeed the list, the most international to date, is marked by a number of practitioners – among them Cindy Sherman (7), Peter Fischli & David Weiss (28), Liam Gillick (32), Walid Raad (75), David Hammons (83), Christoph Büchel (88) and artist-filmmakers such as Steve McQueen (59) and Shirin Neshat (86) – whose work both enforces and questions the connection between art and life.

Alongside them, and at a time when funding is hard to come by outside the biggest commercial galleries, the list also highlights a group of agencies – among them Artangel (55), Townhouse (56), Creative Time (57), Outset (71) – that help facilitate the production of challenging art projects, as well as distribution agencies such as e-flux (5) that help provide these projects with an audience, and the thinkers (Boris Groys, 53, Slavoj Zizek, 65, Kaja Silverman, 95) who provide them with a context.
The list can be seen in full here, with the November issue of the magazine carrying full profiles, analysis, features, photography portfolios and commissioned artwork by Matt Mullican.
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Sunday, October 9, 2011
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Zuccotti park at Broadway and Fulton is the site of the Occupy Wall Street demonstration.  In the early afternoon it’s still very crowded and here and there are speakers and discussion groups.  This older gentlemen offered his own set of solutions.


 
Serious discussions and planning meetings seem to be constantly happening.  Behind this group is a performance artist in costume. 


 
Someone getting a haircut.  Maybe one of the organizing leaders? Maybe not?


 
In the middle of the park is an essential area where organizing efforts are sustained and maintained. 



An area for posters, many quite interesting and insightful, worth reading.  They reflect the tone, the energy and the outlook of those gathered here. 
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Friday, October 7, 2011
AAAC Artists Archive - Introduction and Demonstration

This is an AAAC event.

Time:  Wednesday, October 12, 4:oo p.m. - 6:oo p.m; 
           Thursday, October 13, 6:oo p.m. - 8:oo p.m.


Location: Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Community Center
                107 Suffolk St (at Rivington), New York, NY

An introduction and demonstration of 
the AAAC Artists Archive and its online site:
 ARTASIAMERICA



The contemporary art of the last sixty years by Asian American artists exhibited by Asian American Arts Centre will be accessed at this event, particularly during the talk by the curator/executive director Robert Lee.

The AAAC Artists Archive is a research and educational archive documenting the history of Asian Pacific American Artists in the United States since 1945 to the present. Focused on twenty six years of AAAC contemporary art exhibitions held in the Lower Manhattan, it is inclusive of American artists deeply influenced by Asia. Its online counterpart – Artasiamerica.org is a high-quality research tool as well as an innovative educational asset for college and high school students, educators, and community members.

Foremost, it features images of the art works of the artists themselves, with written material to support them. Together they enable a direct experience of the art of Asian American artists and the issues and questions of cultural diversity in America.

Web Sites: www.artasiamerica.org www.artspiral.org

No RSVP required. Sit is limited so please come early.


 
The painting of "Charlie Chan the detective" is by Roger Shimomura

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