boston progress radio

photo credit: edward yim

As sung by the musician Mirah and visual artist Ginger Brooks Takahashi, “Doo wop doo wop doo wop . . . Tomatoes ripe, we eat them all/Tangly vines around our shoes/We conquer everything we do . . . Oh! September, where did you go?”

Okay, so I haven’t tangled my shoes in any tomato vines recently, but as leaves fall and the air grows chill, nature’s cycle does tug at my sentiments, making me nostalgic, and reminds us of change beyond wardrobe. For instance, the anniversary of September 11th allowed us to reflect on how much our political landscape has shifted since eight years ago and on how resilient and powerful community can be. As children and teachers begin a new school year and college students move away to relocate somewhere different, emotions and spirits whirl in the transience that pervades the month. But this time of year also reminds me of warmth, as we bundle up, drink tea, turn inwards, and seek the company of those willing to sort through the changes and bear the sometimes moody weather to be near each other.

September’s East Meets Words Open Mic featuring Adeeba Rana was no exception to the effects of the new season. The feeling of “community” that night was strikingly evident for a variety of reasons, starting with the turnout. Read more

 Adeeba Rana's spoken word set from East Meets Words! [27:10m]: Download

Tags: Open Mic.

While it is often dangerously presumptuous to judge situations that we are only witness to as opposed to participant in, I am going to take a brazen stab at interpreting what seemed like a slight but still harmful occurrence of racism, as a way to deal with the perplexed emotion ignited in me while witnessing it:

I’m sitting in Berklee’s Cafe 939 on Boylston Street, at the farthest corner table in the back room, jotting down some thoughts in a pocket-sized notepad as part of the “wants” list assigned to me for homework last week. The list is intended to put me in touch with my creative drive, by making me aware of “wants,” be they trivial or far-fetched. On the opposite end of the same room, a cohort of six or seven young men, likely to be first-year Berklee students, sit around a table casually hanging out and talking. As I pack away my belongings, I hear one of the three or four “white” dudes, who is sitting across from an Asian American guy and adjacent to a Latino-looking man, propose in a humored manner that the Asian Am dude should be <insert play on words involving “chink,” “DJ,” and “squints”> “’cause you know, your eyes are…” At this point, from the distant corner, I am looking at their table and observe that the Asian Am dude is not verbally responding, only smiling and hesitantly chuckling out of what seems like embarrassment—as if he agrees that his eyes are “squinty” and that, therefore, the joke is well-played. Most of the other guys chuckle happily as if the comments are only a form of well-intentioned, even helpful, cleverness; after all, the racially offensive dude is offering him what would be “funny,” “crowd-pleasing” artist name ideas. Then, the same “white” dude looks to his left and says to the Latino-looking dude, “And you can be Mexicant.”

As I’m walking out of the room, I want so badly to say to the whole table, “ISN’T that RACIST???” Read more

Tags: racism.

As you may or may not know by now, Boston Mayoral candidate Sam Yoon did not have enough votes this past Tuesday to move on to the November General Mayoral Election. He lost by a mere 2300 votes to the second-place finisher Michael Flaherty.

You also may or may not know that I actually had an opportunity to work full time for his campaign during the past three months. I actually got hired on the second Friday in July during East Meets Words Open Mic.

These last three months have been exhilarating and exhausting. It was more than I could ever dream for—being that close to the inner workings of the campaign and to the point where I was actually driving Sam Yoon around to the different neighborhoods in Boston.

Now I know I was pretty critical of him when I wrote about his missteps back in March 2009. He quickly learned from his mistakes and tried to build a positive message and platform for change.

Despite the overwhelming odds of unseating a Mayor who has been in office for 16 years, had over 2 million dollars to spend, and have about 22,000 city workers at his disposal, the Yoon campaign held it together, built a lot of positive momentum, and over 17,000 Bostonians believed in what he was saying and voted for him. That’s pretty much a basketball arena.

I grew up by leaps and bounds by going around the different neighborhoods of Boston and just listening to their stories whether they were jubilant or tragic. It was a classroom that was on the streets of Boston and not in some book and I got a good education out of it.

I don’t know what I am going to do now, but I still teach English at Federated Dorcester Neighborhood Houses, but we will see, Sam has a lot potential to do great things and who knows maybe he will run again for Mayor in 2012.

Tags: News.

Well, perhaps this ventures into AngryAsianMan.com territory, but I really have to wonder about this after my trips to East Asian countries where men seem to be deficient in or have significantly different emotional intelligence when it comes to social interaction, especially with women. Friends of mine and myself have observed that boyfriend-girlfriend and husband-wife dynamics in certain East Asian countries are quite different from those in Asian America. Of course, it depends on the people and the culture, but all the stories we’ve heard and observations we’ve made tend to reveal several patterns: guys and girls often do their own thing with their own groups of people (whether it be work colleagues or “the guys”), the extent to which couples communicate and then compromise seems low(er as compared with Asian Americans), the kind of emotional support they give or don’t give each other is still readily influenced if not guided by traditional gender roles.

Portrayals of Asian men in the media sometimes tend to reinforce this perception for me. You’ve got the reserved, stoic father, the workaholic, absent father, the austere disciplinarian father, the hot-tempered father, the guy with issues who feels unloved/unworthy of love and the bad-ass, cool guy. Then again, I don’t dabble enough in East Asian mainstream media to make any truly serious claims.

So maybe I’m just completely misinterpreting things, but if I’m getting this impression about Asian guys, I’m sure some other people are too. And to what extent do these perceptions then rub off Asian American guys? Are we sometimes perceived as being insensitive, workaholic dudes? Forget all the bunk perceptions Hollywood and TV have generated in the US; do East Asian norms and media substantially affect how we are perceived? And unless you’re living in California meeting Asian Am guys left and right who easily overturn these misconceptions, how are you ever going to find out Asian Am guys aren’t necessarily like Asian guys? What do you think? Please tell us in the comments!

Thank goodness Asian Am folks like Randall Park is unencumbered by all this and YouTubing it up.

Whoa, so I just found out that Sepia Mutiny is having a meetup in Boston. I don’t read Sepia Mutiny often, but when I do, I find the articles to be mostly engaging and thoughtful. Now is your chance to meet those fine folks and ask them about anything and everything. Based on the comments in the thread, there are going to be a ton of people there. So, if you love Sepia Mutiny and the brown people that write for the blog, go to Finale in Harvard Square on September 25, 2009 at around 5:30 pm.

Every so often, symptoms of withdrawal from Theatre Rice flare up; the craving for their amazing ability to fluidly blend the comedic and serious can render me despondent for minutes on end. Fortunately, there is succor, thanks to Brian Chan and YouTube. Brian’s latest recommendation is Randall Park’s THE FOOD series which spawns a whole new addiction itself. Will there be an episode 4?!

[Note: video contains strong language!]

Here’s an artist introduction by Charles Kim along with a downloadable mp3.

I’d like to introduce Sam Kang, or his stage name Geunjin (www.geunjin.com). He’s a talented singer/songwriter from LA. He sings, he raps, he arranges… like a good book, he holds your attention for pages.

I must admit… I am highly biased about the artist I’m writing about. Geunjin is a brother, friend and a musical soulmate (his words) of mine. We’ve played music together since high school, which also means we’ve known each other for a decade. It’s been a wonderful journey and privilege watching him grow as an artist. So I suppose you should take my words with a grain of salt… or just believe what I say because I’m speaking the truth anyways. Just kidding… but seriously.

His most recent album, Geunjin’s Place, is a memoir of sorts. From Koreatown to hopeful vistas of “home”, he takes you on an aesthetic journey through his upbringing, relationships and the present. The binding thread between these musical stories seems to be a dream he has for those willing to listen: “If I had one thing that could somehow come true, it’s to show you the dreams I’ve been dreamin’ for you.” Intertwined in these dreams are themes of identity, celebration of family and friends, and of course, pursuin’ that chérie amour. This album is an artistic culmination of his journey as a Korean-American trying to both make sense of the world and finding his home within it. Most of these songs were written after a recent trip to the motherland, Korea. I hope you are able to enjoy it and journey with him.

His music can be found at geunjin.com. His album is currently on sale… so cop it!
He’s also been writing a song a week this year… these can be found at youtube.com/geunjinmusic.

And one last thing… Wong Fu Productions is currently working on a music video for him… it’ll be released in September. Watch for it!

 East L.A. 1 [4:15m]: Download

Before switching a Suica out of my wallet for a Charlie Card, I got a look at the 1:1 Gundam. And marveled at my encounters with the Asian Americans/API*s I’ve met in this country that has lured us away from the countries our forebears came to and settled in. Over the years, I’ve gotten to know Korean Americans, Chinese Canadians, Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, Taiwanese Americans and Hapas who have been in Japan anywhere from a few weeks to half a decade. Enticed by some facet(s) of the culture, we’ve each ended up there discovering new worlds around and within ourselves and each other. With fellow expatriates of Asian America in Japan, I’ve found and embraced my latent karaoke urges, gazed upon gorgeous feats of contemporary origami, debated issues of Asian American representation in mainstream media, discussed the question of who gets to decide what is art, ate lots of tasty foods, expressed disgruntlement at a variety social norms and more.

The interactions we have of course aren’t necessarily unique to being Asian American/API* (as you can tell from the short list above), and in many ways there’s nothing tremendously different about Asian Americans and people of other nationalities in Japan. We’re all 外国人 there. But I can’t help but feel there’s an interesting multicultural dimension to our presence in that society. Sometimes we end up introducing Japanese people to not only aspects of American culture but also those of Chinese/Korean/some other Asian country as well as Asian American cultures. Perhaps there’s something oddly familiar about this for those of us who grew up bi-, tri- or generally poly-cultural, bringing together strands of different worlds within and around us.

I have to admit that I feel a strange giddiness when I meet Asian Americans in Asian countries. Somehow I feel less alone, thinking something along the lines like, “You too? You’re intrigued by some aspect of this Asian country and its culture? Drawn to something that may or may not have something to do with your heritage?” Maybe this is the way we end up manifesting our Asian fetishes.