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Shuffled! is a weekly column appearing every Thursday (sometimes later in the day) here on BPRLive. Each week, we welcome a person from the APA community to share some thoughts about the music they listen to. Check out the Shuffled! archive for past articles.

Today’s Shuffler: Emily Lawsin

Emily P. Lawsin is a Trustee of the Filipino American National Historical Society, co-founder of the Detroit Asian Youth Project, co-author of Filipino Women in Detroit, 1945-1955, and Lecturer II in Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies, American Culture, and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan. An oral historian and spoken word performance poet originally from “SHE-attle”, Washington, she has appeared on radio and stage throughout the United States and Manila. For 2008-2009, she is living in the Boston area. You can listen to the Podcast of her East Meets Words September performance here or at www.emilylawsin.com.

Let’s hit Shuffle…

I am so honored to round out bprlive.org’s October Shuffles! I’ve been teaching Asian American Studies full time since 1994. For 15 years, every day, at the beginning of each class or workshop, I try to bring in some Asian American music or spoken word, because Asian American history and culture is so much more than memorizing trivia or using chopsticks.

Oftentimes, returning students start bobbin’ their heads to the beat, saying, “I love this, Auntie Emily! Who is it?” Then they engage in great discussions with their classmates about the last time they saw this artist or how Asian Americans are portrayed in popular culture. And we haven’t even begun class yet! Sometimes, students who were absent ask their classmates, “What did I miss? And what CD did she play?” When most of the students have arrived, I pass the album around and tell the students what I know about the artist. This Shuffle is similar to what I would say in class. Since October IS Filipino American History Month, I set my playlist to shuffle only my Pinay/Pinoy (Filipino American) tracks.

“We Are The Children”
A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle by Asians in America
Chris Kando Iijima, Nobuko Miyamoto, “Charlie” Chin

We are the children of the migrant workers
We are the offspring of the concentration camps.
Sons and daughters of the railroad builders,
who leave their stamp on Amerika.
We are the sons and daughters of the Chinese waiter,
born and raised in the laundry room.
We are the offspring of the Japanese gardener
who leave their stamp on Amerika.

Perfect lyrics for someone like me whose parents, uncles, aunties, and in-laws have all lived this experience. I love this song. All Asian Americans should have this as their anthem. It is from THE pioneers of Asian American music from the Asian American Movement. Ethnically, the artists are not Pinoy, but they sing well about us, so that’s cool. This album (originally released in 1973 and re-issued as a CD with liner notes in 1997) should be a required text in ethnic studies and social movement classes. It’s so inspiring that my daughter was born into the world to the sounds of a mixtape that included this “We are the Children” song and another (“Something About Me Today”) from the same album. (“Songs for Baby Mixtape” should definitely be another Shuffled! entry.)If you’ve never met or heard A Grain of Sand’s lead singer Nobuko Miyamoto or seen a Great Leap show, then you’ve never really seen intergenerational-multicultural-social-justice-themed artistic productions, now have you? What are you waiting for? Nobuko has been a long-time mentor and role model to many of us Asian American artists around the country. AND she still keeps it real in my old stomping grounds of L.A. Support grassroots community art. Buy the remastered CD at htp://www.greatleap.org.

“Bread & Butter“
Sugar Pie de Santo

When I first heard this song, I thought of an ex-boyfriend who dissed me in my previous life. Ay naku. Now, in this election year, I listen to it and think of George Bush, how “I trusted him with my money, now I’m laying out here in the gutter. . . But I’ve learned through time and experience, there’s a way out. There’s always a way for hope.” I want to send this song to Barack Obama, not just because of the line on hope, but because Sugar Pie de Santo is biracial like him too. [Oh, but if Barack Obama were Filipino, this would be a whole 'nother conversation!]

Sugar Pie is a pioneer jazz singer. From http://www.jasmanrecords.com: “Born Umpeylia Marsema Balinton of Filipino and African-American parentage, she was dubbed Little Miss Sugar Pie by the legendary Johnny Otis who signed her to her first professional contract in 1954.” “Umpeylia” is a DEEP Filipino name. It translates to “Bittermelon”, as in the bumpy green vegetable that Asians eat when we’re sick. “Sugar Pie” sounds so much better. As elderly as she may be getting, she still does flips and turns, in heels (or at least 10 years ago she did). It’s like watching a Filipina American Tina Turner shimmy all over the stage: amazing.

“All the Things He Was”
Novemberly: A Jazz & Poetry Lounge Act CD
Theo Gonzalves (with Al Robles)

Since we’re on the “Jazzipino” tip (as Charmaine Clamor calls it): I am a big fan of Theo Gonzalves, Al Robles, and the late Flip Nuñez and Bobby Enriquez, and this tribute song brings them all together. I met them through my cousin, Kearny Street poet Oscar Peñaranda, and the Filipino American National Historical Society. During this live performance,Manilatown poet Al Robles (an inspiration to all of us Filipino American spoken word artists) says a poem in honor of Flip Nuñez, the late jazz great, while Theo plays piano in the background. Legendary pianist Bobby Enriquez hadrecently passed away, so it made this event even more meaningful. I love hearing Manong Al say, “When I used to see Flip, he used to say: Are you coming from where you been?” So Pinoy. Theo is a musical genius AND an ethnic studies professor. He played music to pay his way through college and was musical director for many community-based theatre productions. See his expanded liner notes about his Novemberly songs on the Our Own Voice website.

While you’re at it, check out Theo’s new book Stage Presence: Conversations with Filipino American Performing Artists. I also like Theo’s band Bobby Banduria and listen to their “Brown Skin Lady” song when I need a little pick-me-up, but that didn’t come up in this Shuffle.

“Invitation”
Lisa Hunter

Let go of the foothold that held you so well
and ride on the wind of the story you tell…
You are perfectly loved, you are never alone.
You’re the bravest of travelers, always coming back home…

Lisa Hunter is a 3rd-generation Filipino-Polish-Italian-Irish American singer-songwriter and life coach, whose grandparents were one of the first Filipino American families to settle in Detroit in the 1930s. I first met Lisa over dinner with some mutual friends and she asked what I do. It was a week before our Filipino Women in Detroit book launching, so I pulled the book and a flyer from my bag and invited her to the event. She said “Oh, that is so cool. My Lola was in the Filipino Women’s Club.” I asked what her grandma’s name was, opened the book up to her picture, and said, “Is that her?” “Oh my god, there’s Lola!” she said. We developed a friendship, eventually interviewing Lisa, her mom, and her Lola again in the years that followed. A few months after the interview, Lisa’s grandma passed away. We were so blessed and lucky to have recorded her. With a grant from the University of Michigan, we commissioned Lisa to write songs for our Pin@y Performance Project, a multi-media performance based on interviews of Filipino American pioneers of Michigan. To open the live performances, Lisa adapted this song “Invitation” with the verse: “Come along with me now as we learn our Pinay/Pinoy history!” I can still hear our former UM students humming the harmonies on stage, while the rest of the cast (Paaralang Pilipino youth and elders) swayed in the background. Lisa also wrote another song called “Home”, about her Lola’s experience in Michigan (“This is not my home, not my sky, my mother is nowhere near…) I hope one day we can record it.

“Joe Metro”, “North by Northwest”, “Southside Revival”, and “The Ave”
Blue Scholars

Almost any song by the Blue Scholars tells the story of my youth growing up inSHE-attle. I’ve known George (a.k.a. Geologic of BS) for many years since his days with isangmahal arts kollective. He is truly a gifted poet and community activist; in that way, he is to Seattle what our friend Invincible is to Detroit. (See my blog on that.) I am so proud of how Geo’s representin’ my old ‘hood. You know when he says Beacon Hill and the “9-8 double 1-8″? Yup, yup, my old zip code. Other favorite lines: “The Southside is marchin’”. . . “where Carlos Bulosan told a story”—I mean, how many hip-hop songs are givin’ a shout-out to one of the greatest Filipino American writers of all time? It’s like a sequel to Bulosan’s America is In The Heart, describing the same Seattle streets 80 years apart.

On “Joe Metro” [as in, "How am I supposed to get there?" "You better get on Joe!" my sister would say], they rap about all the thoughts I used to have riding in the back of the #48 bus going to the UW (just like in the MTV video). Watching the video makes me homesick: a silver-haired woman and an old man with a baseball cap waiting for the bus could be mistaken for my parents, no joke. Geo even mentions Jose Rizal Bridge and Park that my father helped fight to have built.

Then there’s the song “The Ave”, or in non-Seattleites speak: University Way NE, a busy street that I hate ever since a doctor ran a red light, gave me whiplash, and totaled my first car, on The Ave & 45th. But when they mention “42nd”, where my old crib was in our APSU (Asian & Pacific Islander Student Union) days, oh, the flood of fond memories.

My only childhood sounds that are missing from these songs are the conga andkulintang beats from the Filipino Youth Activities Drill Team, but, hey, that’s sacred grounds for only FYA Kamahalmahalan to explore. “The Northwest fills the lungs ya’ll, you know the rest.” MAKIBAKA, my Blue Scholar brothas, Keep Fightin’ the Struggle! I’ll post my old poem “Seattle / SHE-attle / Personified” on my blog for you too.

Maraming Salamat/Many Thanks to BPR for letting me Shuffle! Mabuhay/Long Live Boston Progress!

Last 5 posts by shuffled

• Shuffled! North Star of the BROWNSTAR Revolution - December 10th, 2009
• Shuffled! Pen Khek Chear - November 25th, 2009
• Shuffled! Maanav Thakore - November 19th, 2009
• Shuffled! Jerry Ma - August 13th, 2009
• Shuffled! Tanzila Ahmed - August 6th, 2009

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