Kevin So at East Meets Words Open Mic
We were caught without good recording equipment at this month’s East Meets Words open mic, but when ChunFai asked me if we were recording and I had to dejectedly tell him we were not, I was prompted to make a rough recording with an iPhone, which accompanies this post as a podcast! The quality is reasonable and gives you a feel for Emily’s high-spirited hosting and the vibe of Kevin’s music. If you like what you hear in this podcast and don’t have some (or all) of Kevin So’s music already, you’ll love the tracks you can find on Kevin So’s website and iTunes.
Since the entirety of Emily’s wonderful intro for Kevin wasn’t recorded, Emily kindly gave us typed version of that intro…
Intro by Emily P. Lawsin
My name is Emily Lawsin and it is a great honor to be able to introduce you to tonight’s East Meets Words featured artist, Kevin So. I first met Kevin in 2002, when I lived in Detroit and we were organizing the Vincent Chin 20th Year Remembrance. For those of you who don’t know, in 1982, Vincent Chin was a 27-year-old Chinese American who was beaten to death with a baseball bat by two white former autoworkers on a street in Highland Park, Michigan, just outside of Detroit. The two men who murdered him were sentenced with only probation (never spending a full day in jail) and a mere $3700 fine (“the price of a damn used car”, as I say in one of my poems). The case sparked the Justice for Vincent Chin movement, led by the Detroit-based American Citizens for Justice (ACJ), which brought nationwide attention to the issue of hate crimes and anti-Asian violence.
If you want to learn more about Vincent Chin, you should read Helen Zia’s book, Asian American Dreams (which devotes a chapter to Detroit and the Chin case) and watch the Academy-Award nominated film, “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” by Christine Choy and Renee Tajima. Another film on what today’s generation knows about the case entitled “Vincent Who?” has been recently released too.
In 2002, with students, ACJ, and community members, we organized a 3-day “Rededication to Justice” event in Detroit, as part of a nationwide 20th Year Remembrance for Vincent Chin. It was a total grassroots effort, with a Friday-night film screening, a Saturday civil rights teach-in, and a Sunday Pilgrimage to the gravesite. The teach-in culminated in a Saturday night “Stand up for Justice: Poetry and Performance” event, highlighting Asian American and local Detroit performers, which I also hosted.
When we were organizing the event, we received an email from this guy I had never heard of, who said he wanted to come out to perform for the event, and his name was Kevin So. I told him that it was a totally grassroots effort, that we really didn’t have any money to pay performers, that we were all doing this out of love. He said that was cool, that he believed in the cause, and wanted to be there. At the time, Kevin was living in Texas or New York or Boston (I can’t remember), but it wasn’t like he was right next door, so he traveled a really long way for the event. I mean, he got on stage like a one-man band, brought his guitar, his harmonica, and all his gear (you’ll see). The house was packed that night and all of the performers did a special poem or song in honor of Vincent and Lily Chin.
For the finale, Kevin brought all the performers — like 20 of us — on stage and just rocked the house. To this day, I have never seen another performance like that; it was phenomenal and full of energy. That night, as a way of “giving back”, I bought ALL of Kevin’s CDs and because I teach Asian American Studies, I often play them in class and tell this story, so others can learn about him too. (I don’t play artists who don’t “give back” to the community, that’s just how it goes.) Kevin just told me that another one of my colleagues who teaches Asian American Music also plays his songs in class, which I think is great and another extension of the rewards of “giving back” (so you should all “give back” and buy some of his merchandise tonight too).
Photo courtesy of Emily P. Lawsin. Special thanks to ChunFai, Emily and Eugene.
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