'Die Hard' and 'The Crimson Kimono' Actor James Shigeta Dies - NBC News.com

thinking of James Shigeta. I taught flower drum song last semester. my article at nbc news.

'Die Hard' and 'The Crimson Kimono' Actor James Shigeta Dies - NBC News.com


UPDATE: And here's a great article by my friend Jeff Yang in WSJ:
How the Late James Shigeta Changed the Image of Asian American Men - Speakeasy - WSJ

UPDATE 2: And here's another great article by Hansi Lo Wang at NPR
James Shigeta 'Led The Way' For Asian-American Lovers On Screen : Code Switch : NPR

Leaders in Washington, Sikh Community Gather for First Langar - NBC News.com

My article for NBC News:

“While our community shares and represents America’s strongest values, including equality between the genders and economic classes and a belief in freedom for all,” said Jasjit Singh, Executive Director of Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), “Our neighbors still may not know us.”

Leaders in Washington, Sikh Community Gather for First Langar - NBC News.com

'Die Hard' and 'The Crimson Kimono' Actor James Shigeta Dies - NBC News.com

My article in NBC News Asian America:

“Every Asian-American male knows that feeling deep down when an Asian male actor is not only regarded as desirable, but actually gets to kiss the girl in the movies,” said playwright and actor Ken Narasaki, “and to know that James Shigeta did that over 50 years ago, before ‘The Walking Dead’ and before John Cho is kind of amazing.”

'Die Hard' and 'The Crimson Kimono' Actor James Shigeta Dies - NBC News.com

South Korean Robots Stand In For Real Baseball Fans - NBC News.com

My article for NBC News:

The fans of the South Korean Hanwha Eagles baseball team are so loyal that they continue to come to Hanbat Stadium to watch their team lose, game after game, year after year. Their devotion has led people to call them bodhisattvas or Buddhist saints for their long-suffering patience and compassion.

South Korean Robots Stand In For Real Baseball Fans - NBC News.com

World's Largest Hindu Temple Being Built in New Jersey - NBC News

Did you know there is a Guinness Book of World Records holder for the world's largest Hindu temple? My article for NBC News on the next world's largest Hindu temple, coming soon to Robbinsville, NJ:

World's Largest Hindu Temple Being Built in New Jersey - NBC News

HBO's 'Jonah From Tonga' Latest to Stir Brownface and Yellowface Debate - NBC News.com

Thanks for the shoutout, this is a nice wide reaching article, but the Seattle Mikado was preschool compared to this. Watch the video in the last Twitter post in the article of Chris Lilley's Jen Okazaki character. all sorts of wtf.

HBO's 'Jonah From Tonga' Latest to Stir Brownface and Yellowface Debate - NBC News.com

Film Captures Last Year of Composer, Activist Fred Ho - NBC News.com

My article on the new documentary film on "Fred Ho's Last Year" on NBCNews.com.

“His legacy of thought and art is a rich resource for anyone interested in social justice,” notes composer and activist Francis Wong, “He contributed to cross-cultural understanding and presaged the diversity and multiculturalism that we have today….He looked at African American music for inspiration and tied it all back to the origins of the US.”

Film Captures Last Year of Composer, Activist Fred Ho - NBC News.com

Shout outs from Seattle Mikado and more updates

Shout outs from Seattle re Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan Society's The Mikado re my article on NBC News Stereotypes in 'The Mikado' Stir Controversy in Seattle - NBC News

shoutout from Brendan Killey in Seattle in The Stranger
The Problem with The Mikado by Brendan Kiley - Seattle Theater - The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper

shoutout from Sharon Chan's follow up piece in the Seattle Times
‘The Mikado,' yellowface and seeing the Seattle show | Opinion Northwest | Seattle Times

shoutout and actress Erin Quill's EPIC fierce takedown
I have “A Little List’ too – buckle up. #TheMikado #Gilbert&Sullivan | fairyprincessdiaries

and those poor theatre people still don't know what hit them
Guest: ‘The Mikado’ is worth performing | Opinion | The Seattle Times

Update 7/27/14: And now Richard Lui brings the first and only television cameras into the theatre
Operetta under fire as racially offensive | MSNBC
Critics accuse opera of depicting yellowface | MSNBC  with Melissa Harris Perry

Update 7/28/14: From Mu Performing Arts in Minneapolis, how it can be done
Guest: Making ‘The Mikado’ without Asian stereotypes | Opinion | The Seattle Times

Shoutout in larger context of yellowface and brownface
HBO's 'Jonah From Tonga' Latest to Stir Brownface and Yellowface Debate - NBC News.com

UPDATE 7/28/14: Here are earlier articles and resources from earlier in the process, starting with Sharon Chan's opinion piece in the Seattle Times, Jeff Yang's thoughtful piece in CNN, protests from OCA and JACL, and radio interviews with the Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan folks, and more:
The yellowface of “The Mikado” in your face | Opinion | The Seattle Times
Opinion: Yellowface staging of 'Mikado' has to end - CNN.com
Real-life yellowface! Now playing in Seattle. | Angry Asian Man
Seattle Revival of ‘The Mikado’ Insists on Bringing Yellowface Back With It - COLORLINES
Undoing “Mikado”: Japan is not an imaginary place, and I am not a metaphor | Reappropriate
Yelp and Yellowface: Nikkei Protests and The Mikado in 2014 – The Seattle Star
» OCA Greater Seattle on ‘The Mikado’ / OCA Seattle
JACL Criticizes ‘Mikado’ Production in Seattle – Rafu Shimpo
Japanese American Citizens League Website

Dave Ross defends allegedly racist play 'The Mikado' - Blog Posts - MyNorthwest.com

'The Mikado' debate: Dave Ross vs. Seattle Times' Sharon Pian Chan - Local - MyNorthwest.com
The ‘Mikado’ controversy: A call for calm discourse | The Arts | The Seattle Times
‘Asian Blackface’ in The Mikado Stirs Controversy in Seattle - WQXR
Opera's Old-Fashioned Race Problem - Gwynn Guilford - The Atlantic
Why Evangelicals Should Care About 'The Mikado' Controversy If They Care About Reconciliation in the Church - Bo Lim | God's Politics Blog | Sojourners
It’s time to take the offensive yellowface of “The Mikado” off the stage | NIKKEI VIEW: The Asian American Blog - GIL ASAKAWA'S JAPANESE AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE ON POP CULTURE, MEDIA & POLITICS
Lodestone presents THE MIKADO PROJECT (Mar07)
The Mikado Project

And because that list was way longer and more depressing than I anticipated, let's watch a video and give The Mikado Project some love (available on DVD from Amazon):

This Asian-American Book Collection Is On the Move in Seattle - NBC News.com

My article about this great travelling APIA community library in Seattle, "API Flying Books" (that I'm totally going to steal elements of for a new project)

“The stories within our Asian and Pacific Islander American communities have long been invisible,” say co-founders Chen and Dizon, “We believe our communities can be empowered through reclaiming and rediscovering our own histories and narratives.”

This Asian-American Book Collection Is On the Move in Seattle - NBC News.com

How to Find Time to Write When You Have 11 Children « the open book

So she had 11 children, homeschooled them, AND made time to write? ok ok no more excuses...

I don’t have a daily writing routine like some writers: waking up at 5 am, going for their morning run, eating a cup of yogurt topped with homemadegranola, then sitting at their desk, with the picturesque mountainous view, and writing several pages of their next best-selling novel for 5 hours. Instead, my day begins with waking 11 excessively sleepy children, facing mountainous heaps of laundry, in between cleaning, cooking, homeschooling, and potty training. You get the point. So here’s how I steal prioritize my time for writing. When I homeschooled my children...

How to Find Time to Write When You Have 11 Children « the open book

A Campaign to Disaggregate Data and Ensure All Students Count - NBC News.com

My article in NBC News about the #allstudentscount rally for data today in Washington DC

The simple checkbox on the most forms, denoting "Asian" or "Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander," belies the diversity behind those labels -- ranging from"Mixed Filipino," and "Hmong American," to "Samoan," and "Chinese/Japanese." That's the argument of those backing the #AllStudentsCount movement.

A Campaign to Disaggregate Data and Ensure All Students Count - NBC News.com

The Writers’ Retreat - NYTimes.com

Beautiful.

The Writers’ Retreat - NYTimes.com

Study Debunks Myths Surrounding Sex-Selective Abortion Bans - NBC News.com

Fabulous study, very clear and well-laid-out. I am surprised how much people can just make stuff up  to further their own agenda (I look up and verify and double check everything!)

"We find that this legislation is based on myths and misinformation," wrote Professor Sital Kalantry."In fact, while sex-selective abortion bans have proliferated based on a supposed concern over Asian immigrant birth patterns, the reality is that Asian Americans tend to have more girls than white Americans."

Study Debunks Myths Surrounding Sex-Selective Abortion Bans - NBC News.com

John Cho Calls Casting Revolutionary, But Will He Get The Girl? - NBC News.com

I got to write about John Cho in NBC News! swoon :)

Bruce Lee never got the girl. Jet Li never got the girl. Lieutenant Sulu got a hug once, but that was a ruse in an alternate universe. Could John Cho leap the "romantic lead" hurdle?

John Cho Calls Casting Revolutionary, But Will He Get The Girl? - NBC News.com

When Defending Your Writing Becomes Defending Yourself : Code Switch : NPR

Great article by Mathhew Salessas in NPR

What happens when the workshop pits a person of color's lived experience against a white perspective of how that experience should read on the page? For a writer of color, the defense of one's work can quickly become a defense of the self.

When Defending Your Writing Becomes Defending Yourself : Code Switch : NPR

Asian American Writers' Workshop - Serve the People at the Bottom: Yuri Kochiyama

Great article by Scott Kurashige on Yuri Kochiyama in AAWW.org

Yuri’s indefatigable effort to build solidarity among all activists and oppressed people is what many will likely see as the hallmark of her legacy.

Asian American Writers' Workshop - Serve the People at the Bottom: Yuri Kochiyama

UHH Memoir Class extended to Aug 31

"Jumpstart your Memoir" at UHH class has been extended one class session to August 31. Yay!

Stereotypes in 'The Mikado' Stir Controversy in Seattle - NBC News.com

Seattle's Gilbert and Sullivan Society isn't the first to take on 'The Mikado' in modern times, but it's not also not the first to spark this sort of controversy. Performances around the country have drawn criticism and protests in recent years, including in New York (2004), Los Angeles (2007 and 2009), Boston (2007), Austin (2011), and Denver (2013)....

Actor Greg Watanabe is based in Seattle, and calls the Society's decision to produce the play in 2014 "willfully ignorant."

"It's astounding we have to keep relitigating this," said Watanabe. "The galling part is, the producer is aware there are racist elements and yet doesn't think it's relevant, isn't aware that people are offended and have a problem with it, or doesn't care, and then thinks casting no Asians in it is also totally fine."

Stereotypes in 'The Mikado' Stir Controversy in Seattle - NBC News.com

Population, Poverty Both Grew in This Asian American Community - NBC News.com

A new report by Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Orange County and the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance, “A Community of Contrasts: Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in Orange County,” looks at the contradictions found in America’s third largest Asian American community. There are nearly 600,000 Asian Americans and 19,000 Pacific Islanders in Orange County, growing at 41% and 17%, respectively.

Experts say as the community grows, so their needs, not just in California, but across America.

Population, Poverty Both Grew in This Asian American Community - NBC News.com

Can Jeremy Lin Restart Career Through Fresh Start with Los Angeles Lakers? | Bleacher Report

Quoted here as "NBC News' Frances Kai-Hwa Wang." I sort of like the sound of that. And with my quotes from Scott Kurashige and Karthick Ramakrishnan!

As NBC News' Frances Kai-Hwa Wang, notes, "Lin’s story has resonated with many Asian Americans across lines of ethnicity and gender, sports fan or non-sports-fan, immigrant or American-born, as evidenced by his loyal "Linsanity" fandom."

Can Jeremy Lin Restart Career Through Fresh Start with Los Angeles Lakers? | Bleacher Report

The Jeremy Lin Trade to the Lakers Makes Clear Business Sense - NBC News.com

Asian-American Twitter accounts were ablaze this weekend surrounding the news that Jeremy Lin had been traded from the Houston Rockets to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Jeremy Lin’s story has resonated with many Asian Americans across lines of ethnicity and gender, sports fan or non-sports-fan, immigrant or American-born, as evidenced by his loyal "Linsanity" fandom.

The Jeremy Lin Trade to the Lakers Makes Clear Business Sense - NBC News.com

Film Project Empowers Muslim Youth To Tell Their Own Stories - NBC News.com

The application for the Muslim Youth Voices Project asks, “What inspires you to tell stories?”

With a grant from the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art’s Building Bridges Program, the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) is launching a series of free, intensive, seven-day film-making workshops in six U.S. cities for Muslim youth aged 12-18 from all backgrounds.

Film Project Empowers Muslim Youth To Tell Their Own Stories - NBC News.com

Native Hawaiians to Federal Government: Give Us Back Our Kingdom - NBC News.com

My article and TWO photographs for NBCnews' new Asian America page! Native Hawaiians to Federal Government: Give Us Back Our Kingdom http://t.co/EA9ZfiTJaz/s/3F7

“The Kingdom of Hawaii was never a tribe,” Francis Moku Malani, Jr. testified at the Hilo hearing last week, “We are a sovereign nation.”

Native Hawaiians to Federal Government: Give Us Back Our Kingdom - NBC News.com

UPDATE: 320 mostly racist comments and counting against African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Puerto Ricans, Native Alaskans, Native Hawaiians, immigrants, poor people, losers in war, etc. (and a tiny handful of valiant Hawaiian history comments). but not one personal attack on me (yet). This is a new experience for me.

UPDATE: About a dozen positive emails about the article, again, no personal attacks, while the racist comments continue past 500. This is like some bizarro internet experience. Ha.

Jumpstart your Memoir tonight!

Jumpstart your Memoir tonight! at University of Hawaii Hilo 5pm! Bring a notebook and a pen. Bring me a soda for extra credit. Ha.

"Jumpstart your Memoir," Thursday at University of Hawaii Hilo.

Still looking for students for Thursday's 3 week class, "Jumpstart your Memoir," at University of Hawaii Hilo.

Parents Come Out To Support LGBT Kids In Multilingual Ads - NBC News.com

My second article in NBC News' new Asian American vertical. About some sweet parents "coming out" in PSAs as being proud of their LGBTQ kids.

In one video, Harcharan and Kamlesh Bagga speak directly to the camera in Hindi.

“I am proud of my son. I have always been proud of my son," says Harcharan, featured with his wife and son. "It is time to stand and support your children, my children, our children," says Kamlesh.

The entire family says the final line together: "After all, family is still family, and love is still love.”

Parents Come Out To Support LGBT Kids In Multilingual Ads - NBC News.com
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/parents-come-out-support-lgbt-kids-multilingual-ads-n149836

Crowdsourced Collection Takes on Diversity of Asian America - NBC News.com

My first article for nbcnews.com's new Asian America vertical. So excited to be a part!

Oh, and check out the beautiful photographs in the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center's A Day in the Life of Asian Pacific America exhibition curated by Adriel Luis and Eddie Wong with introduction by Helen Zia.

(I'm so excited about both!)

Crowdsourced Collection Takes on Diversity of Asian America - NBC News.com
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/crowdsourced-collection-takes-diversity-asian-america-n149611

Video: "Aunties at the Temple" for Obon season

Heading to the Obon Dance tonight! Check out this video of my prose poem/ creative non-fiction piece, "Aunties at the Temple," at the 41:29 mark.

Hawai'i: Deep Beauty and Volcanic Power | Ann Arbor District Library

A Day in the Life of Asian Pacific America 2014 | A Day in the Life of Asian Pacific America: The Love and The Moment

So excited to have TWO of my photographs included in the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center A Day in the Life of Asian Pacific America which opens today! Thanks Adriel Luis Eddie Wong Konrad Ng ‪#‎lifeAPA‬

http://smithsonianapa.org/life2014/love/
A Day in the Life of Asian Pacific America 2014 | A Day in the Life of Asian Pacific America: The Love

http://smithsonianapa.org/life2014/moment/
A Day in the Life of Asian Pacific America 2014 | A Day in the Life of Asian Pacific America: The Moment

Watch Video | American Revolutionary: Feature Films | POV | PBS

FULL-LENGTH video stream of American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs by filmmaker Grace Lee available now through July 30 on PBS!



Watch Video | American Revolutionary: Feature Films | POV | PBS

Netroots Nation 2014 NN14 Screening of "Vincent Who?" - and Discussion of Race in Detroit- Eventbrite

from Curtis Chin: VINCENT WHO? screening and panel on race in Detroit (aka Race and the City) Friday, July 18, 2014, 6:30 - 8:00 pm, Cobo Hall, Room #142 C. Attendance is free, but if you're not attending the Netroots Nation 2014 conference, you must REGISTER HERE.
http://www.eventbrite.com/e/nn14-screening-of-vincent-who-and-discussion-of-race-in-detroit-tickets-12013820661

NN14 Screening of "Vincent Who?" - and Discussion of Race in Detroit- Eventbrite

Kanaka Maoli to Feds: ‘Get Out of Our House! Go Home!’ - Civil Beat

Check this out...

Kanaka Maoli to Feds: ‘Get Out of Our House! Go Home!’ - Civil Beat

"Your car is stolen. The person who stole the car later apologizes and offers you a bicycle. Go back and tell your boss, ‘Give ’em back da car!’"

Press Release from Department of the Interior, with a schedule of all the public town hall meetings:
Interior Considers Procedures to Reestablish a Government-to-Government Relationship with the Native Hawaiian Community