Monday, January 2, 2012
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Meeting on November 18th. Occupy Wall Street has developed an additional organizational structure called “The Spokes Council,” and because the general assembly—the major entity by which OWS functions—cannot do everything in a timely manner (too many meetings, not everyone can attend), this council has reps from every group under OWS. Currently, there are over 135 groups, with each group identifying their spokesperson. There are certain rules mandating that spokespeople must change for every few meetings so more people have an opportunity. However, other people from the group are encouraged to come with the spokes to these meetings—three to four times a week. Additionally, every group might have any number of sub-groups—fifteen sub-groups are not unusual. This is just an idea of how extensive OWS is!


Civil Rights Elders share torch on November 20th. On this day, an organization of civil rights elders came to OWS in solidarity, voicing that they did not want to pass the torch—but rather share it—with OWS. A large gathering of people attended the events that day. They were enthusiastic to be mentored by these leaders who had accomplished so much and had so much experience with grassroots organizing. These civil rights leaders were also people of color, showing the transition that OWS is going through in understanding the importance of the inclusion of people of color. The speakers at the moment are the two individuals in the far center of the picture, the woman in red and the man in white.  

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Protestors were forced to leave Foley Square on the night of November 15th.
I received a text message at around 1:15 saying that it’s an emergency and that the park was being raided by the police. Living in Chinatown, I did not know what to do. It took me a while to come to my senses and e-mail the press and anyone I could to let them know this was happening.  I finally got out of the house around an hour afterwards and biked down Worth St. and immediately saw that it was blocked around Centre St by a squadron of about twenty-five police vans, their red lights all on as if an extraterrestial had landed. I turned around and went and went another route to get into Foley Square, only to see that a lot of people had been marched from Zucotti to Foley Square. By the time I took this picture,a  lot of people had been led away and only the cops had been standing there. From here, I tried to get closer to the park.



Here is a sign that is the favorite of Naomi Klein, who mentioned this when she was interviewed on WNYC by Brian Laer (?). It is because of this and other indicators that she realized that this is not simply another movement, but something much more fundamental than that—recognizing and seeing the shift in culture that is taking place.
Having taken pictures of many signs during many evenings over many days, I finally came across this one. It was created by an Asian American— a Filipino fireman who lives in Brooklyn. This phrase is written on both sides of his poster and he carries it around on his bicycle. It struck me that a) he’s an Asian American and b) that he’s a fireman, a member of a team that sacrificed so much ten years ago.

These OWS demonstrators had been cornered by the police and were shouting slogans every once in a while. It was pretty hard to get anywhere near this whole area.
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Thursday, December 22, 2011
Flora Choi: Daeng'gi Kimchi Factory at Cuchifritos


Flora Choi: Daeng'gi Kimchi Factory at Cuchifritos
presented in collaboration with The Richard and Mica Hadar Foundation
 
Exhibition Dates: December 22, 2011 - January 15, 2012
Performance Dates: Dec 22, 5-7pm; Dec 30, Jan 6 & Jan 13, 3-4pm
Location: Cuchifritos gallery at the Essex Street Market, 120 Essex Street, New York, NY 10002


The Richard and Mica Hadar Foundation, in collaboration with Cuchifritos Gallery and Project Space, is pleased to announce Daeng’gi Kimchi Factory, an installation by Flora Choi, from December 22, 2011 to January 15, 2012. In her performance/installation, Choi substitutes chopped-off daeng'gi braids (a traditional Korean hairstyle worn by adolescent girls) for cabbage, and makes her own version of Kimchi. Choi confronts the male-dominated traditions of the past and investigates the state of women in Korea today. Her installation will be accompanied by live performances on December 22 (5-7pm), December 30 (3-4pm), January 6 (3pm-4pm), and January 13 (3pm-4pm).
 
Flora Choi is an installation and performance artist. Her current work investigates Korea’s cultural traditions and societal constructs. She holds a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), and lives and works in Queens, NY. She has most recently shown her performance work at the annual art festival Art in Odd Places, which hosted her piece Upbraiding Tradition along 14th Street in Manhattan. Choi is a Richard and Mica Hadar Foundation Scholar, and is currently part of the foundation’s group exhibition I Live/ I Love running from December 27, 2011 through January 7, 2012 at Second Space Gallery, in which she is showing work that derives from her Upbraiding Tradition performance piece. The show is curated by a team of Hadar mentors, including video and performance artist Bill Beirne, independent curator Erin Donnelly, and educator Beth Rosenberg.
 
The Hadar Foundation art committee selected Choi for a solo show due to the strength of her artistic vision and her ability to present a solo project of significant scope. One of the foundation’s goals is to offer more in-depth support to an artist of promise.You may view Choi's work at www.florachoi.com.

For more information go to Cuchifritos website.
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Wednesday, December 14, 2011
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PRESS RELEASE



Contact: 
Robert Lee 212.233.2154
Karanja Gaçuça 646 675 9324
Alexandra Boonekam 646 538 1193
aaacinfo@artspiral.org 




March for Danny Chen - OWS Supports the Chinatown Community

At an American Army base in Kandahar Province of Afghanistan on October 3rd 2011, Private Danny Chen was found dead in the living quarters of the army base where he was stationed with an alleged gunshot wound below his chin. 
The US military has informed his family, a 19 year old from Lower Manhattan’s Chinatown, in NYC, that he had been beaten by superior officers and subjected to racially motivated taunts prior to his death. The military has said they are continuing their investigation. Danny Chen was laid to rest on October 13, and the family still has not received any report or explanation for their tragic loss. 

This is one of a number of recent cases of hazing in the military that has led to the deaths of Asian Americans while in service in the US military. Without strong advocacy, such cases are rarely covered adequately, except in the local press. This parallels a major problem that is now receiving attention, of bullying in schools and colleges that can have a lasting impact on young people lives. This question has now been taken up by an Asian American Initiative in the White House. 

The members of Occupy Wall Street (“OWS”) takes this opportunity to join with Asian Americans and the Chinatown community to march for justice for Private Danny Chen on December 15, 6pm.  Starting at the Army Recruiting Center at 143 Chambers St and marching to Columbus Park, members and supporters of Occupy Wall Street as the 99%, wish to demonstrate that the concerns and issues of all the diverse neighborhoods of New York City are part of what is real and important to all who are part of the OWS family.  Particularly for Asian Americans – the broad diversity of Asians in the United States, who have often been forgotten when the questions of justice and inequity are raised, OWS affirms our rich cultural diversity as assets, and wants to emphasize, that the differences of race and culture will not impede, but rather enhance the broad coming together of people for justice and change. 

OWS supports the Chinatown community’s demand for a transparent investigation, and the goals of justice for Private Danny Chen. The army and the US military must make clear what affirmative steps they are taking to integrate, support, and protect its soldiers.       
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Saturday, December 3, 2011
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
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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