Monday, August 22, 2011
MARVELS AND MONSTERS: Unmasking Asian Images In U.S. Comics, 1942-1986 Exhibition



Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University in collaboration with the NYU Fales Library & Special Collections presents--MARVELS AND MONSTERS: Unmasking Asian Images in U.S. Comics, 1942-1986 The William F. Wu Collection at NYU Fales Library & Special Collections

Opening Reception and Talk with William F. Wu and Curator Jeff Yang 

Thursday, May 26, 2011 | 6:00PM-8:00PM

Over four decades that included some of the most turbulent times in our nation's history, science fiction author and cultural studies scholar William F. Wu painstakingly gathered an archive of comics distinguished not only by its size and reach, but by its scope: It is perhaps the world's only, and certainly the largest, collection of comic books featuring images of Asians and Asian Americans. Marvels and Monsters draws from this important collection, recently donated with the help of A/P/A Institute to the NYU Fales Library & Special Collections.

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Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Enemy Alien: Confrontation with detention regimes of past and present.


As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 arrives, Alwan for the Arts is presenting a screening of Enemy Alien (outreach/education version, 60 minutes) followed by a discussion of the film's themes of shared struggle between Muslim and Japanese Americans in the face of wartime xenophobia and racism, and how this solidarity can inspire an effective response to the massive expansion of immigrant detention and deportation which has continued from 9/11 to this day.

Enemy Alien, a first-person documentary, is the gripping story of the fight to free Farouk Abdel-Muhti, a gentle but indomitable Palestinian-born human rights activist detained in a post-9/11 sweep of Muslim immigrants. Told through the eyes of the filmmaker, the grandson of Japanese Americans interned during World War II, this documentary takes on unprecedented intimacy and historical resonance. 

As the filmmaker confronts his own family legacy of incarceration, his involvement in the current struggle deepens. Resistance brings consequences: In retaliation for organizing a massive protest from inside detention, Farouk is beaten and locked in solitary confinement, and his American-born son Tarek is arrested in a counterterrorism investigation into the documentary itself.


A project of Life or Liberty
Directed by Konrad Aderer

Thursday, September 8
7:00pm
16 Beaver Street
Manhattan, NYC
 
(via http://enemyalien.org )
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Saturday, August 13, 2011
Workshop - How Asian American Sexuality As Portrayed In popular Media?


Community Service Learning Project Workshop of the Chinatown Health Center on Asian Americans in the Media.  AAAC partnering with CBWCHC to develop a multimedia project created by the student interns to develop interns' understanding of the "Model Minority" myth, how it connects to health disparities, and how these concepts can be effectively expressed through art.  

The workshop looked at how Asian American sexuality as portrayed in popular media and found examples of Asian Americans in the media that work against these portrayed images/messages.  

The public exhibition and reception will take place on Tuesday, August 16th, 5:30PM - 9:00PM at Red Egg Restaurant, 202 Centre Street, NY.



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Friday, August 12, 2011
no image


Nearly 15 million Americans claim Asian descent, and a new art exhibition at one of America's premier art museums explores the Asian-American experience and identity. The BBC's Jane O'Brien reports from Washington.
Roger Shimomura was born in Seattle at the start of World War II. When Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941, he and his family were taken from their home and sent to an internment camp in Idaho.
They had lived in America for three generations - but the US government saw them first as Japanese and considered them a threat. Now, he is one of seven artists exploring the nature of Asian-American identity in a groundbreaking exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC.
"Far too many American-born citizens of Asian descent continue to be thought of as only 'American knock-offs,'" he writes in the introduction to his paintings, which focus on the challenges of being different in America. He confronts stereotypes through self-portraits, placing his own likeness at the centre of popular cultural images.


My Call to Arms . Tam Tran. Digital print, 2009
'Humour And Rage'
Shimomura takes the iconic 19th Century painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware, for instance, and substitutes his own face for the president's.

"There's a tension here between belonging and being outside that is essential to the Asian-American experience. In this work, Roger proclaims quite loudly that he is an American. His art is in a sense a kind of response to the experiences that he has felt living as an eternal foreigner.""When I look at this picture I see both the humour and the rage that is at the heart of his work," says curator Frank Goodyear.
That theme is mirrored in the work of 38-year-old CYJO, a self-described Kyopo - the Korean term for ethnic Koreans living abroad. Born in Seoul, raised in the US state of Maryland and now living in Beijing, she photographed more than 200 people, mainly from America's Kyopo community.
The scale and format of each portrait is identical - full length against a white background - a style that is in direct contrast to the subjects themselves, who share very few physiognomic features and reflect their differing social and cultural environments in the way they dress.


According to Konrad Ng, director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific Program, such depictions force viewers to confront their preconceived notions of what it means to be Asian American.


American vs. Japs 2 . Roger Shimomura. Acrylic on canvas, 2010 
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Thursday, July 21, 2011
Exhibition: Report From Japan by Go Nakamura, Canna Sasa, & Hiroaki Sasa


“Report from Japan” by Go Nakamura, Canna Sasa, Hiroaki Sasa

Location: Graphite. 38 Marcy Ave, Brooklyn, NY
Exhibition: July 29th - 31th, 2011

Opening Reception: Saturday, July 30th, 6pm-9pm



An exhibition 'Report From Japan' at Graphite. features works of photographers Go Nakamura, Canna Sasa, and Hiroaki Sasa, video artist's photographs and videos they had captured while providing volunteer work in Japan. The opening reception will follow with a talk by the artists. This is the report from the experiences at the scenes with real photos and videos images that are barely shared to us in NYC.

Canna Sasa, photographer and her husband Hiroaki Sasa, video artist  went to the Tohoku area in Japan to do volunteer work from May 15-29, 2011. 


For more information go to..
Report From Japan's Facebook
Graphite
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Wednesday, July 13, 2011
"Growing Peace" - Indira Johnson's fields art project in Oregon, IL

Bird view of "Growing Peace"
Walking through "Growing Peace"


Indira Freitas Johnson is an artist, cultural worker, and activist based out of the Evanston, Illinois. Though she has resided in the States for well over two decades, Indira has continuingly kept close ties with her homeland, India. She uses a wide array of mediums for her creations, her materials often being derived from multiple sources ranging from discarded man-made items to the recycled and more organic. Her subjects often ponder the origins of South Asian values and ethics, spiritual development, and issues of social justice and humanitarianism. “The influences of my mother, a social activist and my father, an artist and a follower of Gandhi have been predominant in my life and art,” she writes, “I continue to deal with the same issues that have preoccupied me for the last two decades - the growth towards a spiritual existence as an individual and as part of the human continuum.”

Her most recent work is with the Fields Project of Oregon, Illinois, where she created a five-acre field sculpture titled Growing Peace. It is in this work that Indira contemplates the power of human perspective and its relationship to the process of finding peace within civilization. Her design, "Growing Peace" was meant to imprint the earth, inviting observers to become participants in our shared goal for peace. Indira employed the foot, a symbol that continues to dominate her work as the primary motif in "Growing Peace". She believes it's power lies in its universality and we stand and walk without feet, which gives us stability and grounds us to the earth. This is Indira's statement of her concept:
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Friday, June 24, 2011
"Asian Pacifically New York: The Photography of Corky Lee"

"Asian Pacifically New York: The Photography of Corky Lee" Exhibition at Queens Museum of Art
On view : June 25th - August 14th, 2011




Set inside the Queens Museum of Art’s magnificent Panorama of the City of New York, this exhibition presents the artist’s long-term commitment to documenting the experiences of Asian and Pacific Islander American communities of New York. These communities comprise 12% of the city’s population,  who are perhaps seen but not well understood. By capturing the geographically, culturally and linguistically disparate communities under a pan ethnic-framework, Corky Lee hopes to highlight a political solidarity and shared identity forged in the American and New York contexts. These contemporary images challenge centuries-old ideologies and representations, and thus becomes instrumental in reconstructing and redefining a population that will continue to flower as engaged citizens and take their rightful place in America. With the understanding that the 10th anniversary is close at hand, some images will hone in on issues of immigration and post-9/11 experiences. Drawing on the diasporic impressions, Corky also includes an image of the detained Chinese artist, Ai Wei Wei from 1989 during pro-democracy protests.

There are 18 of the 36 photographs spanning Corky's 40 years of work on QMA's website. Additional photos will be projected across the 9,335 sq. ft. 3-D display during the reception.

This exhibition is an extension of QMA’s Partnership Gallery program.

Exhibit is made possible by contributions from the Confucius Institute of Stony Brook University, Asian/Asian American Research Institute of CUNY, OCA-Long Island and Asian American Center of Stony Brook.

QMA will provide a free shuttle bus at the #7 train, Willets Pt. (Citi Field) to the museum between 2:30 & 6PM. By LIRR, the stop is Mets-Willets Pt. The walk from the station is approximately 10 minutes. Head towards Unisphere & QMA. There is limited free parking. 

QMA is open late on Fridays until 8PM during July & August.



Corly Lee's Bio:

Corky Lee is a New York based photographer whose subjects frequently depicts concepts of Asian American assertion and awareness in the social and public life of New Yorkers and indeed, of all Asians in the US. As a second generation Chinese-American, Corky grew up in Queens during the Civil Rights era. He has been described as the “undisputed unofficial Asian American Photographer Laureate,” with his work depicting pinnacle moments such as the events following the Vincent Chin murder and the 1975 protests at City Hall. In addition, Corky’s skills have been employed by a variety of media outlets, including Time Magazine, the New York Times and the New York Post. His photographs, spanning over a forty year period, are currently being displayed at the Queens Museum until August 14th in an exhibit titled, “Asian Pacifically New York: The Photography of Corky Lee.”

Corky exhibited at the AAAC in November 1994 in Photography and Community: AAAC Annual. He served as curator for the exhibition, Not Your Chop Suey Chinatown: Eight Photographers selected by Corky Lee in December 2002. He was also part of The AAAC Story, Spring of 2002 – a collaboration with Asian/ Pacific/ American Studies Program at New York University - a critical review of the Arts Centre's work to date with one hundred artists from AAAC Permanent Collection.

“Who has not heard one of Corky’s stories? At the drop of a hat he can cite what was happening at the moment a photo was taken, even those long ago. We recognize Corky as a community photographer. Let’s also recognize him for the flip side of his work, as the, ‘undisputed unofficial Asian American Historian Laureate’.” - Bob Lee



For more info. please visit: http://www.queensmuseum.org/
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Tuesday, June 7, 2011
The Second Annual Japanese Heritage Night at the New York Mets to benefit Japan Relief Efforts


This year Japan has been hit hard by the tragic events that occurred in March. Much still needs to be done and Japanese Heritage Night has the potential to be a significant fundraising event. A portion of each ticket sold through our group will go to Japan relief efforts. The more tickets are sold, the more the Mets will donate. 

Japanese Heritage Night facebook page

Recent fund raising for Japan event by AAAC: To Japan With Love

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Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Kim Loo Sisters Screening on May.31, 2011

The film screening of Kim Loo Sisters: Portraits In Four Part Harmony was held on Tuesday, May 31th 2011 at the Houston Street Center at University Settlement. A discussion/q&a of the film with the director Leslie Li was followed after the screening.

For more information, see press release.



Discussion with the author and filmmaker Leslie Li
Discussion with the author and filmmaker Leslie Li
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Friday, May 27, 2011
Six NYPD Officers Arrested a sixty-year-old man in Columbus Park

News from: NYPD Officers Responding in Columbus Park

The old man was beat down with blood on his face by six strong NYPD officers

Everyone,

We should have a community meeting to chastise the police.  This kind of action cannot be tolerated if our community is to acquire its lungs and grow its capacity to assert itself. As Chinatown, as New Yorkers, Asians with a different musical heritage, for our elders to come out this way marks a change in our community's mentality - if we dont defend their right to do so who will?  Its their sense of self that's changing and if they feel the need to flex muscles such that we all hear their growing pains then we should recognize whats changing in Chinatown.  We have all been guilty of being too quiet, which gets us no where in a democracy where learning how to compete is essential.
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Thursday, May 5, 2011
The New Museum Festival of Ideas Responds to AAAC

Festival of Ideas for the New City is a major new collaborative initiative in New York involving scores of Downtown organizations working together to harness the power of the creative community to imagine the future city and explore ideas that will shape it. http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/
 Keynote Address: Rem Koolhaas, May. 4
 Keynote Address: Rem Koolhaas, May. 4

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32nd Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Festival 2011

DATE: SUNDAY, MAY 8TH, 2011
LOCATION: UNION SQUARE PARK
E 17th Street between Broadway & Park Ave
12pm - 6pm


Organized by the Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans since 1979, this annual festival is the longest running and largest event celebrating Pan Asian heritage on the east coast. This year’s festival centers on the theme of the journey that Asian Pacific American ancestors have taken to bring us to this moment. It celebrates not only the value of families, but also our heritage which make us proud to be Asian Pacific Americans. More than 20,000 visitors are expected for an impressive line-up of performances, fun activities for children and adults alike, and savory samples of Asian cuisine. Asian Ameircan Arts Center will proudly present six of our Asian traditional folk artists for the event.

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Thursday, April 21, 2011
Under Attack by Chinese Hackers, Change.org Asks Supporters of Ai Weiwei to Tweet Sec. Clinton for Help



Despite a highly sophisticated Chinese cyber attack on Change.org, the world’s fastest-growing social action platform, the U.S. State Department has yet to condemn the attack.
Chinese hackers temporarily brought down Change.org earlier this week after more than 90,000 people in 175 countries endorsed an online call for the release of internationally acclaimed Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, an increasingly outspoken critic of the Chinese government.

 (photo via Hollywoodreporter)



The ongoing cyber attack is targeting Change.org, the world’s fastest-growing social action platform. It follows the viral success of a Change.org petition calling for Ai Weiwei’s release by leading global art museums, including the Guggenheim Museum, New York, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Tate Modern, London, as well as the Association of Art Museum Directors.
Change.org issued a formal request for urgent assistance to both the FBI and U.S. State Department’s Bureau of East Asian Pacific Affairs within hours of the attack. But the U.S. State Department, has yet to issue a public condemnation of the attack, despite worldwide coverage of the attacks, including in The Guardian, Reuters, Mashable, El Mundo, Bloomberg, AFP, Yahoo Newsand Al-Jazeera.
We need your help! Please join us in calling on the U.S. State Department to publicly condemn the attacks by tweeting this:
This aim of this online attack originating in China is to prevent the lawful, democratic organizing of American citizens.
“Change.org is about empowering anyone, anywhere to start, join, and win campaigns about the issues they care about, and we do not intend to stop this campaign or the hundreds of other Change.org campaigns because of this attack,” said Ben Rattray, the founder of Change.org. “We need your support. Please ask the U.S. State Department to condemn the attacks on Change.org by Chinese hackers.”
The U.S. government’s reaction to previous Chinese attacks on U.S. companies like Google is to investigate and condemn them.
“Change.org is experiencing an ongoing, highly sophisticated denial of service attack originating in China which is clearly in response to the viral success of a campaign by leading global art museums to free China’s most famous artist,” Rattray said. “In the past, the U.S. State Department has aggressively gone to bat for U.S. companies attacked from hackers in China.”
Change.org is the world’s fastest-growing platform for social change — growing by more than 400,000 new members a month, empowering millions of people to start, join, and win campaigns for social change in their community, city and country.

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