On-site Programs
Wednesday, April 167:00 pm Theatre, Film Screening, “Moral Debt: The Postwar Battle of the Veteranos” by Martin Rossetti
During World War II, over two hundred and fifty thousand Filipinos were inducted into and fought on behalf of the United States armed forces. Following the end of the war and the independence of the Philippines, the United States Congress passed the Rescission Act of 1946, effectively denying the Filipinos eligibility for naturalization in the U.S. Today, over sixty years later, the Filipino veterans (Veteranos), are still struggling to be seen as equals in the eyes of the U.S. government. Through interviews with politicians, activists, and the Veteranos themselves, this documentary tells the story of sacrifices made, loved ones lost, and hardships endured by the Filipinos as a result of their entanglement in WWII. We celebrate the pride and loyalty these men and women exhibit, even in the face of betrayal and racism, and hope that by telling their story, we can move the country to settle a debt overdue.
Martín Rossetti grew up in the world of filmmaking and has worked in many capacities, from production assistant to director, to writer and producer. Working in both the television and film industries for many years, he has been working on projects from around the world including the United States, Argentina, Mexico, and South Korea. Martín got his training from the prestigious school of Broadcastiat San Francisco State University receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2007. In his final year of school, he got his big break with a grant from SFSU to direct and produce his first documentary, “A Moral Debt” which has received awards including a National Award of Merit which will be given by the current Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco in May 2008. SInce producing “A Moral Debt,” it has been a non-stop roller coaster ride with the founding of a production company with four other partners; Vivo Media Group, where they have been producing music and corporate videos as well as writing for future political documentaries. Website: http://veteranosdoc.com
12:00-1:30 pm Literary Reading: Linda Furiya, "Bento Box in the Heartland: My Japanese Girlhood in Whitebread America” (Seal Press, 2006)
While growing up in Versailles, an Indiana farm community, Linda Furiya tried to balance the outside world of Midwestern America with the Japanese traditions of her home life. As the only Asian family in a tiny township, Furiya¹s life revolved around Japanese food and the extraordinary lengths of her parents went in gathering the ingredients needed to prepare the meals. As immigrants, her parents approached the challenges of living in America---and maintaining their Japanese diets----with optimism and gusto. Furiya, meanwhile, was acutely aware of how food set her apart from her peers: She spent her first day of school hiding in the girls’ restroom, examining her rice balls and chopsticks and long for a PB&J. Author Linda Furiya will read excerpts from her book and discuss her experiences with assimilation and racism. Her reading will be followed by a Q&A, and book signing. Her book will be available for purchase. Learn more about her at http://www.lindafuriya.com.
12:00 - 3:00 pm Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies Directors Workshop
12:00 - 1:20 pm Part I: Development for Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies Programs
Monika A Pandya, Assistant Director of Development for College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, UIUC, has experience with fundraising and development for the Asian American Studies Program at University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. She will provide an hour-long workshop about development, with an emphasis on Asian American and Pacific Islander programs and communities; and how to build a positive and productive relationship with development officers.
1:20-1:30 Break
1:30-3:00 Part II: Roundtable: Best Practices for Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies Directors
Kent Ono, former director, UIUC
Josephine Lee, former director, University of Minnesota
Edward J. Park, director, Loyola Marymount College, CA
Facilitator: Karen J. Leong, director, ASU
We know that there is great diversity among AA/PI/S centers, programs, and departments nationally, and that API faculty can be only affiliates, joint appointments, or on loan, in addition to being core faculty. Nonetheless we all face similar questions within these diverse contexts about faculty development and mentoring, program development, and curriculum development. This roundtable will facilitate discussion and brainstorming among participants about issues common and specific to our particular institutions.
3:00 Evaluation and discussion of continuing workshop in 2009 AAAS meeting
5:00 (Not confirmed): For those who want to continue discussions, perhaps meet in the hotel lounge for happy hour.
4:30 PM – 6:00 PM Film Screening: Who Killed Vincent Chin?
A screening to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the landmark documentary by Christine Choy and Renee Tajima-Peña chronicling the brutal killing of a Chinese American by two white men in the Detroit area. Who Killed Vincent Chin? has served as a foundational text for Asian American Studies and has played a central role in raising awareness of the problem of anti-Asian violence. Through its documentation of the national Justice for Vincent Chin movement, the film has introduced thousands of student and community activists to the concept of panethnic community organizing.
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM Panel: Re-reading Who Killed Vincent Chin?: Voices From Detroit
Chair: Scott Kurashige, University of Michigan
Discussant: Renee Tajima-Pena, Independent Filmmaker
Frank H. Wu, Wayne State University
Detroit and the Death of the American Dream
Grace Lee Boggs, Independent Scholar
From Civil Rights to a New Concept of Citizenship
Scott Kurashige, University of Michigan
The Chin Case and the Politics of Urban Space
Touching the lives of thousands of viewers and inspiring a generation of Asian American activists, Who Killed Vincent Chin? demonstrates in powerful fashion the Asian American community’s relationship to the struggle for civil rights. This panel featuring three presenters who live in Detroit, study the city, and are connected to a range of multiracial political organizing activities will highlight how greater attention to the issue of place can enhance the meaning of the Vincent Chin case for scholars and activists in the twenty-first century. While Detroit often functions as a symbol of American economic woes and racial scapegoating, this panel will deepen our perspective of Detroit’s multiracial history and politics. To link our campaigns for racial justice to a movement for social transformation, Asian Americans must understand and confront the social crises stemming from deindustrialization, extreme racial segregation, and urban abandonment that have ravaged Detroit and other “rust belt” cities.
5:00-6:00 pm Literary Reading: Don Lee “Wrack & Ruin”
Don Lee will read from his new novel, a farcical comedy called Wrack and Ruin (April 2008, W.W. Norton). It returns to Rosarita Bay, the town in his first book, Yellow, and is about two brothers, Lyndon and Woody Song. Lyndon was once a famous sculptor in his youth, but walked away from the art world to become a Brussels sprouts farmer. Woody was once a financial planner, but squandered all of his clients' money, including their parents', and is now a fledgling movie producer. He visits his brother over Labor Day weekend and wreaks havoc on his life. Don Lee is the author of the novel Country of Origin, which won an American Book Award, and the story collection Yellow, which won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction. He recently received the Fred R. Brown Literary Award from the University of Pittsburgh. Formerly the editor of the literary journal Ploughshares, he now teaches creative writing at Macalester College in St. Paul.
9:00 pm – 1:00 am HIPHOPISTAN: South Asian Hip Hop Showcase and After Party
HIPHOPISTAN, a showcase featuring national and international South Asian hip hop artists, highlights new diasporic expressions of politics, art, and community that emerge across linguistic, national, and ethnic boundaries. Asian youth across the globe have adopted this particular expression of black popular culture to voice their understandings of their world and to locate themselves within it. The hip hop show features six MCs representing Los Angeles (Chee Malabar), New York (Abstract/Vision), Boston, and Malaysia, followed by an afterparty with DJ Rekha spinning hip hop, bhangra, and reggae music. The show and afterparty, held at the McCormick Center, are open to the public.
Friday, April 18
10:15-11:45 pm Midwest Writers Showcase
Readings by Midwest writers Susan T. Layug, Bryan Thao Worra, and Timothy Yu
12:00-1:30 pm Visual Arts Showcase - Visual Identity: School of the Art Institute of Chicago
The multimedia performance and installation, organized by Korean students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, will explore the comprehensive identity of participants by presenting conceptual and experimental new media artworks. The concept of identity can be viewed and characterized by the notions of territory and boundaries, which can be figuratively translated into visual objects of lines and strings. This show provides the internally and externally or domestically and internationally divergent perspectives of ethnic identity defined by and exhibited in diverse media such as TV, film, and video, while questioning various Asian and American viewpoints.
12:00-1:30 pm Round Table/Brown Bag: South Asian Hip Hop
South Asian Hip Hop artists from the previous night's event, Hiphopistan, will be on hand to discuss their music, art, and craft. Meet these artists and hear their views on how they see themselves, their politics, and their chosen form of expression.
12:00-1:30 pm Film Screening: Center for Asian American Media presents WET SAND
Filmmaker Dai Sil Kim-Gibson explores the aftermath of the 1992 LA Civil Unrest in her film WET SAND. Her groundbreaking 1993 documentary SA-I-GU stands as one of the crucial texts to offer a Korean American perspective on the events surrounding the Los Angeles riots – an invaluable discussion tool for promoting better understanding of the socio-political factors that played into one of the grimmest moments in United States race relations. With WET SAND, Kim-Gibson revisits Los Angeles to learn what changes have occurred since then, only to discover that living conditions have deteriorated and that few remedies have been administered to the communities most stricken. Through interviews with a multi-ethnic set of first-hand witnesses, this essential follow-up probes deeper into the racial and economic issues that not only shaped the climate of 1992 Los Angeles, but continue to affect all Americans today.
5:30-7:30 pm Theatre: A-Squared Theater Workshop presents a staged reading of excerpts from "The Wind Cries Mary" by Philip Kan Gotanda
A reworking of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, The Wind Cries Mary explores timeless themes of power and gender politics set against the backdrop of San Francisco’s rock scene and the Civil Rights Movement. Philip Kan Gotanda transforms Ibsen’s “Hedda” into “Eiko,” a Japanese American woman of vast gifts and intelligence burdened by the constraints of gender and tradition in 1968.
A-Squared Theatre Workshop is a new Chicago-based collective which aims to create an artistic environment of risk taking and growth for Asian-American theater artists. A-Squared will produce The Wind Cries Mary in the summer of 2008. For more information, visit
http://myspace.com/asquaredtheaterworkshop.
12:00-1:30 pm Literary Reading: Kali Plomin, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Sugi Ganeshananthan and Desilit
DesiLit is pleased to present three South Asian diaspora stories of love and marriage. Sugi Ganeshananthan will be reading from her debut novel, Love Marriage
12:00-1:30 pm Film Screening: Eric Byler
12:00-1:30 pm Round Table/Brown Bag: Chicago Asian American Arts featuring Tatsu Aoki’s Asian American Jazz Festival
Off-site Programs
April 17 – 19, 2008Japanese American Service Committee
Current Exhibition
Origins of Now: ReBuilding Community
An exhibit on the resettlement of Japanese Americans in Chicago
Now on display from April 17 to April 19, 2008
JASC Community Center
4427 North Clark Street
Chicago, Illinois
www.jasc-chicago.org/Directions.html
Thursday - Friday 10am - 4pm, Saturday 9am - 12pm
For additional information or to host an exhibition please contact: JASC
Legacy Center, legacy@jasc-chicago.org, 773.275.0097 ext. 222
Origins of Now Exhibition & Performance Series is supported in part by the
National Endowment for the Arts, Illinois Arts Council, Illinois Humanities
Council, National Endowment for the Humanities, Illinois General Assembly,
Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation, Japan Foundation of
New York, Linda Murakishi Whitted and Donald and Lisa Sloan. Special thanks
to Southport Recording for use of title "Origins of Now.”
JASC 4427 N. Clark St. Chicago, IL • web www.jasc-chicago.org • phone
773.275.0097
March 10 – April 25, 2008
Everyday Runway: Asian American Street Fashion Exhibit and Fashion Show C33 Gallery, Columbia College Chicago
33 E. Congress Parkway 1F
Hours: 9 am - 7 pm Monday - Thursday and 9 am - 5 pm on Friday
Nowadays, the cutting edge of fashion often emerges from "the street". Although Europe is still looked upon as the fashion center of the world, more and more people including fashion designers and even pop star Gwen Stefani are drawn to Japanese street fashion for its fast-forward, bold and creative mix of East and West, high and low, couture and homemade and everything that comes in between. Join us as we take a photographic journey through the streets of Asia and America and meet the people who have embraced, remixed and continued to influence the global fashion today. Through photographs, garments, accessories, videos, fashion magazines and the illustrated personal stories, this exhibit aims to provide a snapshot of the fast-changing look of street fashion in Asia and America while reflecting on the formation, display and performance of Asian urban aesthetic and youth identity and its influence on American popular culture.
Lucky 13
Gene Siskel Film Center Gallery
161 N. State Street (at Randolph)
Hours: 10am-8pm daily
Triskaidekaphobia aside, “Lucky 13” features works by 13 Asian American artists who have interpreted and drawn inspiration from the number 13 in ostentatious celebration of the 13th anniversary of the Foundation for Asian American Independent Media’s Asian American Showcase.
Master Spotlight: Tony Award Winning Playwright David Henry Hwang
Musical: “Flower Drum Song”
April 16, 2008
Conaway Center
1104 South Wabash Avenue
For more information visit: http://www.colum.edu/asianartsandmedia/
Ticketing Information:
Columbia College Ticket Center
312-344-6600
Thurs, April 17
Jennifer 8. Lee, author of Fortune Cookie Chronicles
& Patrick Rosal, poet and author of My American Kundiman (winner of the Association for Asian American Studies 2008 Book Award)
6:00 PM- 8:00 PM
Free Food
Jane Addams Hull-House Museum
University of Illinois at Chicago
800 South Halsted
Did you know there are more Chinese restaurants in the United States than McDonalds, Burger Kings and KFCs combined?? Join us for a conversation with New York Times reporter Jennifer 8. Lee, author of a fascinating new book that explores the origin and evolution of Chinese Food in the US. Learn about the cultural roots of General Tso’s Chicken, the unique bond between Chinese food and American Jewry and the trafficking of illegal immigrants into kitchen servitude.
A reading with Patrick Rosal, the author of two full-length poetry collections, Uprock Headspin Scramble and My American Kundiman. His electric narratives and portraits mix the personal with the political and give expression to a compassion that permeates even the most morally ambiguous situations. Modeling poems on the kundiman, a song of unrequited love sung by Filipinos for their country in times of oppression, he professes his conflicted feelings for America, while celebrating and lamenting his various heritages. His work has been honored by the annual Allen Ginsberg Awards, the James Hearst Poetry Prize, the Arts and Letters Prize, Best of the Net among others.
For more information, see hullhousemuseum.org
Thursday, April 17 - Saturday, April 19
HipHopistan, the "Land of Hip Hop", features performances, discussions and workshops with artists Abstract/Vision, MC Kabir, Chee Malabar, Yogi B & Natchatra and DJ Rekha over three days (April 17-19, 2008) in Chicago, Illinois. This event hopes to explore the linguistic and pan-ethnic expressions of various South Asian and South Asian-American Hip Hop artists.
More Information: http://hiphopistan.uchicago.edu
Schedule:
:: Thursday, April 17, 2008 ::
9pm to 1am in Pullman Room, Hyatt Regency, McCormick Place, Chicago
Performance by artists Abstract/Vision, Kabir, Chee Malabar and Yogi B & Natchatra. Afterparty with DJ Rekha.
Admission: 18+ (cash bar). Free for students (with ID) and AAAS conference participants. General Admission is $10. Tickets at the door. Capacity is extremely limited. You should RSVP to mallick@uchicago.edu to reserve either a free or paid ticket [please indicate your affiliation].
:: Friday, April 18, 2008 ::
6pm to 8pm at Judd 126, University of Chicago [5835 S. Kimbark Ave, Chicago, IL 60637]
Public Discussion with artists Abstract/Vision, Chee Malabar and Yogi B & Natchatra.
Moderated by Dr. Kaley Mason [Department of Music, University of Chicago]
Admission: Free, but you must RSVP to mallick@uchicago.edu [dinner will be provided].
:: Friday, April 18, 2008 ::
8pm to 11pm in Laboratory School Cafeteria, University of Chicago [5835. Kimbark Ave, Chicago, IL 60637]
Performance by artists Abstract/Vision, Chee Malabar and Yogi B & Natchatra
Admission: All ages.
Advanced tickets: $3 for High School Students (with ID), $5 for University Students (with ID) and $10 General Admission.
At the door: $5 for High School Students (with ID), $7 for University Students (with ID) and $12 General Admission.
Purchase tickets online: http://www.ticketleap.com/Member/Event.aspx?event_id=26C4E7D6-DEFA-41DE-8D9F-DDDF5949A2F
:: Saturday, April 19, 2008 ::
11am to 1pm in 108 Harris Hall, Northwestern University [1881 Sheridan Rd., Evanston, IL]
“Putting Theory to Practice: The Art of Rhyming and Spinning” Hands-On Workshops
Admission: Free [lunch will be provided].
See http://hiphopistan.uchicago.edu for full schedule.
HipHopistan is sponsored by the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, the Chicago Opera Theater, and the Association for Asian American Studies.
Contact and Media Inquiries: Samip Mallick [Tel: 773-702-8635; Email: mallick@uchicago.edu
8:00 pm Feature Film as part of the 13th Annual Asian American Showcase presented by the Foundation of Asian American Independent Media (FAAIM) and the Gene Siskel Film Center.
161 N. State Street (at Randolph)
For the latest details visit www.faaim.org or www.siskelfimcenter.com
FAAIM’s mission is to promote film, video, and other media by and about Asian Americans, and to support the artists who create them and educate communities – Asian American and mainstream, local and national – about Asian American history and issues.
All Day Film Screenings: 13th Annual Asian American Showcase presented by the Foundation of Asian American Independent Media (FAAIM) and the Gene Siskel Film Center
161 N. State Street (at Randolph)
For the latest details visit www.faaim.org or www.siskelfilmcenter.org
Saturday, April 19
Association for Asian American Studies Awards Ceremony and Banquet
Featuring Tatsu Aoki and the MIYUMI ensemble
http://www.miyumiproject.com/
Location: Three Happiness Restaurant
2130 S Wentworth Ave
Chicago, IL 60616
(312) 791-1228
7:00PM-10:00PM
Cost: $5/person for 10-course banquet
The Association for Asian American Studies invites you to the closing banquet and awards ceremony. Community, Lifetime, and Book Awards will be given. Tickets will be available at on-site throughout the duration of the conference.