tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52146422024-03-08T03:34:40.415-05:00down on the brown side.one in a million brooklyn browns.Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.comBlogger683125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-39417154091917744212011-05-11T23:44:00.004-04:002011-05-15T22:42:25.829-04:00(API* Heritage 2011) Post #5:Association for Asian American StudiesI am trying really hard not to make this the month of cynicism about the community. There's enough dark in the world; no one wants more grim for the sake of darkness. But beyond the day to day work where theory and practice occasionally work together but often challenge one another to fist fights, the rest of Professional Asian America seldom strikes the right note for me anymore. <br /><br />I suppose a humble person wouldn't feel like they know more than a lot of the jokers out there claiming to be the voice of, the historian of, the advocate for these communities, but I'm not quite that humble man. Of course, academics and scholars get a very special kind of ire from the activisty crowd (unless they are one and the same, as some marxist, revolutionary phDs have been known to live out their fantasies by managing and governing nonprofit organizations that they claim espouse those values).<span id="fullpost"><br /><br />By finding fault in scholars and their very specific areas of interest and specialization, activists in the "APA" space often deflect similar criticism that could fairly be levied against them: privilege, disconnect, ego, distraction from the "real" community. commodification of community struggle for personal profit/fame/career/eccentricity, missing the forest for the trees, whatever.<br /><br />The Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) is having its 2011 Conference on Asian American Studies. The <a href="http://aaastudies.org/2011/schedule/2011%20AAAS_Program_Schedule%204.21.11.pdf">line-up of papers and speakers</a> is quite extensive, but of course, in perusing the titles of some of the work and topics, you almost feel like you are at the gateway to a thousand of Calvino's invisible cities. Each more remarkable and unbelievable than the last. I don't even understand some of the titles, let alone what might be discussed there. But does that make what these folks have committed their life work to do wrong? I can't really speak to that. It was not my path and I have come across some really obtuse "community scholars" but in the same breath could name some phenomenal scholar-activists. <br /><br />Maybe scholars face a healthy dose of envy to go along with all the other emotions hurled at them. It isn't easy living on nonprofit salaries. Even if some of those lowly staffers don't want to admit that they have other ways to guarantee the standard of living they were expecting before going into nonprofit land.</span>Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-20469342937283480512011-05-04T20:30:00.002-04:002011-05-04T20:30:00.140-04:00(API* Heritage 2011) Post #4: Advancing... NothingI am so tired of hearing groups use the phrase "advancing justice" or "advancing equality" as their catch phrase for what they do in the "social justice" space. In Asian America, this equates to towing the model minority line: speak in your turn, don't ask for anything more than the bigger children, and be polite about the crumbs you get. <br /><br />I don't get the "good enough" mentality. The assumed role of these groups and individuals as brokers who "deal" away the maximum benefits that the community can hope for in their low level policy meetings to show that "we know how to sacrifice, so please give us this little thing" is just sickening. They have no power, but they still have more opportunity than any of the real folks who they claim to represent. Our community needs more than piddling "advancement" of rights and pushback on the attacks against us. <br /><br />We need folks who know how and are willing to use all the pieces on the board, not just be/the pawns. We need a peoples' agenda.Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-61134972276813726022011-05-03T22:38:00.000-04:002011-05-03T22:50:11.819-04:00(API* Heritage 2011) Post #3: Vapors of Community in Asian American StudiesAsian America, I like to say, is on the fringe of a margin in American public consciousness and life. The big open secret is that it is hardly in the consciousness of most Asian Americans, which in a way, is very different from all other major communities of color in the United States.<br /><br />African Americans - despite the systematic dismantling of the leadership and heart of the community over the decades - still have a shared history of slavery, the fight for freedom, and the many struggles for equality and self-determination. Even though they do not comport cleanly with the narrative put forward by American mainstream, at least these histories and stories are in some imperfect way part of the American consciousness, and most definitely part of the African American experience. There is power and strength in that.<span id="fullpost"><br /><br />For Native Americans, even if all members of the tribes do not believe in the militancy of some groups like AIM, nor do they all have the same experience, there is knowledge and deep understanding about their position as peoples struggling and charting their paths in and around modern America. Latinos have a range of experiences that have to compete with the master narrative of the long and more complicated one that the Mexican American community has, but uniform and non-particular anti-immigrant sentiment has given at least some common history of struggle to these communities.<br /><br />Think about it: activism, history, anything that binds individuals their actions and their accomplishments for self and community together into some kind of narrative is not part of the shared knowledge or "orientation" to the community that most Asian Americans have. We hang onto the vapors of a movement that seems eons old. And in a coalition community that has changed in so many ways since the early 70s, I wonder if it would even be possible to create something coherent and useful as a "movement" moving forward.<br /><br />It is a lot of work to be conscious and try to quilt together any kind of meaningful narrative for APAs. In a lot of ways, we are more a community without much of a history than one with a long, deep history as is often posited by the canonical discourse of APA Studies and others who need that narrative to exist for them to have jobs and some meaning to their choice of work.<br /><br />One could argue that Asian America as it could exist has only lived in our imaginations, and in the rare arts and organizing spaces over the past 10-15 years, including informal arts spaces, deliberate cultural work, and college campuses. It's not too far to say that Asian America is often better formed and represented in the student movements to create the programs than in the eventual programs themselves.<br /><br />Why? Because the folks who can lead these programs have often had to trim down their understanding and scope of engagement with communities in a very specific way to get through the academic obstacle course and be credentialed enough to stand up and be counted for a position leading a fringe program that most departments don't believe in. Add to that the myopia that is almost inherent in academia and is perhaps more present still in Asian American Studies, AND the fact that many of these folks are not practitioners or when they were as students or young community workers there was little in common with now, and you end up with very limited understanding of what is needed and representative now.<br /><br />Students pushing for APA studies eventually feel that they don't have a connection to what happens once a program is created and the program is not engaged enough with the students to understand what they were hoping for. The programs are not only cut off from the communities that had once demanded ethnic studies, but they are actually often cut off from the activist students at the same campus who have inherited the framework from their organizational ancestors and feel confused, hurt, shut out from their vision of an inclusive and representative program where they could finally see themselves in the curriculum.<br /><br />What a sad state of affairs.</span>Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-34540206272069052192011-05-02T23:06:00.001-04:002011-05-03T22:45:56.568-04:00(API* Heritage 2011) Post #2: Osama Bin Laden and Asian AmericaMost non-Desi or non-Arab Asian Americanists would either downplay or completely miss the relevance of the title of this piece.<br /><br />With the kick-off of our month, we get the news that Osama Bin Laden was killed by a covert special operation by the U.S. military. I haven't spoken with Asian Americanists around the nation, I don't know what people are thinking. Perhaps people are <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/nyregion/amid-cheers-a-message-they-will-be-caught.html?ref=us">out in the streets</a> "partying" like some of mainstream America (murder is not my choice cause for celebrations). Perhaps they are indifferent. <br /><br />But most of conscious and progressive South Asian America is NOT doing that. People are worried, scared, unclear on what this means, realizing that the global is the personal again, and might become even more and very directly so if things go the way people are bracing for. Last night soon after the news broke, I received a series of text messages from a Pakistani American friend with whom I have had an ongoing dialogue about how complicated community politics are and how lacking mainstream and even ally efforts to speak to or gloss over these issues can be. The friend was troubled by the blood lust, and very conscious of the geopolitical ramifications of the details as they were being released.<span id="fullpost"><br /><br />It is not good for Pakistani Americans that he was found far from the "caves" in the North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan where he was rumored to be. This is all complicated by the mounting pressure in Pakistan to understand the role of the central government and domestic intelligence agency in this, as well as assert sovereignty despite what seems like collusion to U.S. state-sponsored terrorism in their own land. Meanwhile, India is faithfully rattling the "harboring and assisting" argument to garner a better foothold in the face of its arch-rival's dominant strategic position in the everWar against Terrorism.<br /><br />I suppose you can try to argue that that is "over there" politics that should not trouble us so much as Americans, with the lines in the sand drawn by traditional Asian Americanists (removed from the internationalist and radical roots of the Asian American Movement) against transnational concerns. However, that is not the reality for South Asians in the United States; our communities are inextricably linked and tuned into homeland politics, culture, and changes in a way that feels different from many other communities in Asian America. And besides, this news has real world impact for South Asian American community work as well, as the internal politics and neo-nationalism flare up in migrant communities when things at this scale happen. <br /><br />And of course, there is tremendous fear of backlash, reprisal or copycat attacks in the U.S., and unending suspicion (from the thin strata of Americans who can discern the difference between Pakistani Americans and their amorphous global enemy in the "war on terror"). FB status messages of "be careful" and "best to stay inside" made their way on many of my Sikh and Muslim friends' pages. While our compatriots celebrate, we have to take cover for fear that their rejoicing could end up in an "accident" with our name buried below the non-ironic headline with words like "unfortunate" and "mistake" rather than "murder" or "innocent."<br /><br />Does mainstream Asian America see or realize any of this? Shouldn't it?<br /></span>Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-64558566691592280452011-05-01T22:18:00.004-04:002011-05-01T22:42:04.669-04:00(API* Heritage 2011) Post #1: Again?Yeah I'm back this month, <a href="http://brownout.blogspot.com/search/label/api%20heritage">two years later</a>. I guess there's something compelling, like a train wreck, about revisiting a place that I abandoned and making the commitment to try to write here once a day for the whole month. I find it a useful exercise to see if I can sustain. Clearly I was not able to do that the first time I tried to write a daily post in honor of "Asian Pacific American Heritage Month."<br /><br />I read something and it reminds me of this space. I see some folks still rolling out the same tired stories and snapshots of history as the whole of our community's existence, and it makes me think of this space. More than add to the noise, I want to hear and share stories. Here's <a href="http://usordinarypeople.blogspot.com/">an example</a> of someone doing that through photos and long-form interviews. The community's voices are far more important than ours. That said, I'll see what I can do to make this year interesting.Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-8483891083239587312011-04-22T22:10:00.007-04:002011-05-01T22:17:12.367-04:00Ambition.I've seldom thought of my gigs as parts of a "career" as such. I don't really think out my next move as much as most people from my peer group seem to do. I'm here, I'm trying to do the best I can, something happens and I move on, but it takes me a while. I'm not afraid of change, just not planning for it in short intervals. <br /><br />I am fast approaching an age where I can't think of myself as young anymore. It is a little shocking - you live with yourself from day to day and know there are changes, but when you take the long view backward, you realize 20 years have gone by since this or that memory.<span id="fullpost"><br /><br />This means that it's time to think more about what I want the rest of my time in this work to look like, I suppose. But for me, I'm ready to have people with a deeper skill set and the requisite love for the community take leadership and move the conversation forward. I'm not going anywhere, but I don't have delusions of being the next greatest anything. I think it's freeing, actually. Suspending the ego and ambition as best we can without sacrificing drive and passion for the work might be the only way to grow old in work such as this.<br /><br />I much better understand the idea that many have put forward about a shift in priorities when you have a child. At this point, while it's not true that nothing else matters or that my passion for some of the work is still strong, I feel a different sense of purpose when I'm conscious about the role I play for this little one. There will be a hundred amazing organizers, writers, lawyers, workers who I can look at and say, if I did something or many things differently, perhaps I could have achieved what they did or will. But my little boy will only have one father, however I play that role.<br /><br />And that's quite a difference - striving to be better than the best in everything in the outside world, or striving to be the best you can, which is all your little one will know, inside your unit. </span>Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-28282989998894488612011-04-22T07:54:00.003-04:002011-05-01T22:17:42.675-04:00The Death of So Called Political Power: They Want Our Land<a href="hthttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giftp://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/blacks-migration-to-suburbs-will-have-big-impact-on-congressional-redistricting/2011/04/21/AF7gBTLE_story.html?hpid=z2">WaPost A-1 story today</a> talks about the dilution of black influence/majority districts with black flight/sweep out of urban centers around the nation. All this talk about gentrification and the future of "chocolate cities" doesn't take into account the human element. African Americans, especially, but also Jews, Chinese communities, and a range of others have a history of being restricted from living where they choose, later or directly as a result choosing to create their own communities.<br /><br />Then they began losing those communities through class segregation celebrated as "integration" when people left the city for affluent suburbs, new valuation of the land they settled on as populations shifted and "center city" became a target with cross hairs on their properties (witness Chinatowns throughout this land), generations of new immigrants bought the American dream of integration and suburbia while turning away from co-ethnic cohesion that protected their predecessors amidst such animosity.<span id="fullpost"><br /><br />Not to mention the fact that people aren't stupid: it is clear that some communities get better services, better schools, better quality of life. Those are places that are "integrated" (read, less than 30% POC). And that means the enclaves aren't where it's at. The cynicism/realism is that people of color with the privilege of mobility have to go to where the good stuff is at, because it's not going to come to our people, and we're not going to be able to create it ourselves without political power (or will, in this largely dormant period for massive domestic community action).<br /><br />So if you read this article, the whole situation feels like a terrible spiral: community folks of color live in close proximity to one another, then move out because they can or they have to (depends on the city and level of gentrification/rising costs) realizing that they don't have the political power with whatever power they have amassed over these painful 40 years to actually make things significantly better for urban communities of color. they move to the 'burbs, and they have a better quality of life but that of the folks they leave behind gets worse as the numbers decrease, and we end up with people throughout who have less elected political power than before. <br /><br />And this doesn't even begin to address the complex issues these communities face on the daily in the suburbs. </span>Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-10166608517561477222011-04-17T23:43:00.002-04:002011-04-17T23:58:14.699-04:00What Now?It has been so long since I came to this site and shared anything beyond an apology for not writing here. I enjoyed writing here, and though there were only a few folks who came through, it felt like something small and manageable. Of course, many of us who share in some way long for a larger audience, and perhaps the advent of indiscriminate and mass sharing via Facebook and Twitter (and Tumblr, Posterous, etc.) makes blogs feel that much more old fashioned. There was a point when I didn't really read many blogs anymore, either. <br /><br />The internet has become something different from what it once was for many of us in my generation. I lived on sites and message boards, and comment archives for some sites. Now, I'm in and out quickly, though the internet seems to hum in the background in my work, personal, and waking life in a way much like music, passing in and out of my primary zone of attention, but never for very long. With that, so too have gone blogs and other forms of serialized (or random) writing.<br /><br />If I had the ability, I would create a site with a few trusted folks who I know would add something interesting when they have time. I would send it to people much the way I share links or start email discussions with a curated group of friends - in the interest of sharing, interacting, gaining something from that interaction.<br /><br />In the years where I have fallen quiet on this site, I have not been writing elsewhere - not on another website, not in a personal weblog or journal account, not even in long form. And my letter writing, which was already haphazard at best, has been reduced to occasional birthday cards. I long for the time - but more importantly - the discipline to write regularly, honestly, and in a way that seeks and debates truth, community, this thing of life that passes so quickly. I am less interested in cataloging the acts that intervene between entries and more interested in exploring where I've been and where I'm going (as well as where "we" have been and where "we" are going) through a community of trust.<br /><br />Part of me feels like there was an opportunity for that with this site or some successor that I could have built with friends years ago. I'm still interested. I still think about and try to live this "Asian American" thing, and the years have made me feel not more skeptical about these ideas of community, but more interested in exploring the nuances of this little sliver of the American experience in which I have invested my hopes, dreams, blood, sweat, and tears.<br /><br />How to do that is my next big challenge. If there's anyone out there, I welcome your thoughts.Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-50803358002501687742010-02-25T21:05:00.004-05:002010-02-25T21:09:32.671-05:00Time and CyclesThe more things change, ya'll. Four years, almost to the day, that I <a href="http://brownout.blogspot.com/2006/02/future-and-loss.html">posted this</a>, I've lost my last living grandparent. My other grandmother. I have been writing more regularly, both for work and for a private project, but I miss this space. There's likely no one out there anymore, but I can't believe it has been four years since that post.<br /><br />Ain't no time to waste, ya'll. I won't be writing a lot here about this, or perhaps anything at all, but these lives we live across cultures and with families and generations split across continents - you know you're supposed to feel something specific because that's what society tells you. So what happens when you don't? Or when what you feel is related to other unexplained losses that you've experienced but still not processed? Is it too self-centered to explore that pain when something else is more immediate?Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-45025495294268574092009-11-21T13:54:00.002-05:002009-11-21T14:09:35.391-05:00Growing UpI've been thinking a lot lately. The silence on this site, sadly, doesn't mean that I'm writing a lot elsewhere right now, and that's been getting me down. I was in a rare funk for a bit, which my partner noticed. She mentioned her concern to me, but I didn't know what was going on. <br /><br />I don't seem to really tackle these feelings head on - often they are fleeting, but I've been told, particularly by my live-in better half that I have a tendency to focus most on what's immediately in front of me. I denied for a while, but you know? When I look back on my years of work, of experiences, of failures, triumphs, WTF moments, and friends who have gradually fallen off of my map, I realize that there's more truth there than I wanted to admit.<span id="fullpost"><br /><br />So I'm thinking more, and I'm trying to figure out what is most important. The internet eats up hours, stressing about things we can't change in a day at work and otherwise takes up mental and emotional space, and time keeps on ticking. Effective people stay focused, even if not with a tunnel-vision that makes the journey just a means rather than an end. I have the confidence to recognize my voice is unique, important, maybe even funny sometimes. But sometimes we get too caught up in the paths not taken, enit?<br /><br />I've had a blessed life, all things considered. It's funny though - when do you turn the corner and accept that some of the things you imagined of yourself will not come to pass? When do you give yourself the really hard look and say "this is where I'm at, this is where I'm going, and all the rest were options that I didn't choose"? I've always been the youngest in a group - and the transition to the oldest in a group seems odd to me. <br /><br />Of course, seeing people who make later-in-life decisions gives me good hope, so I am coming to terms with "middle-age" in a new way. Funny as that sounds, I think it's a good thing. Dawdling on minor dream tributaries that were passing thoughts as a clueless post-teen is a waste of time. <br /><br />I have shit to do.</span>Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-48496461941998212362009-09-10T22:26:00.003-04:002009-09-10T23:09:19.554-04:00Framing is Everything: Where is the Immigrants' Rights Movement Now?You know - the thing that irks me far more than Wilson's outburst last night? It's that the actual policy point that is being hammered again and again, both by the right wing fringe and mainstream conservatives AND the liberal media establishment (Keith Olbermann and the rest of them) as well as the spin doctors for the dopey Democrats, is that "illegal" immigrants are not going to get any kind of Federal subsidy for healthcare.<br /><br />On the policy point, this means they may be forced to make decisions between breaking the new law because they didn't know or they can't afford the coverage, if maintaining healthcare coverage becomes mandatory through health reform, or paying full rates for health care coverage and not having money to send back home to their families, or not paying rent, or not feeding their families. The backwardness of this proposition, which is just an extension of wrongheaded policy decisions made as part of the 1996 Welfare Deform legislation, boggles the mind. <br /><br />You know, if we have to outline who shouldn't get any government money for health care premiums, I would suggest it should be Federal income tax-evaders. But make sure we're clear: that would be people who actually have to pay taxes and don't, rather than just assuming that includes all undocumented folks. Because so many undocumented immigrants don't make a lot of money, those who do not file tax returns could be <i>saving</i> the Feds money by not claiming their Earned Income Tax Credit as very low income families.<br /><br />But the biggest loss here is that democrats, liberals, "progressives" - they are all just willing to blindly accept that it's okay to leave out the undocumented in this debate. Sure! They aren't going to vote, they aren't going to donate, so let's scapegoat and toss them around as the political hot potato that we can all agree to ignore (or worse, talk about as if we're harder on them than the crazies on the right).<br /><br />The "immigrants rights" people should be burning buildings down at this point. But I don't know if liberal white women do that kind of thing. So will the real immigrants' rights movement please stand up? There are people impersonating you, waiting quietly and patiently in the wings as the healthcare fiasco winds its way through the legislative halls until they can get a chance at gazing upon their icon and selling off large pieces of the movement as part of a "coordinated strategy on comprehensive immigration reform"... or at least their thinly veiled audition for coveted positions within the Administration. This anemic "movement" has no real vision, no real balls to take on the Administration the way that the right does every step of the way. <span id="fullpost"><br /><br />Dare I say it: they could learn something from the self-proclaimed "progressive caucus" of the House that is claiming that no health reform bill without a public option will be acceptable. They will likely be shut down (the President conceded more to the other side of the aisle than members of the "progressive caucus" last night, folks), but at least they finally said something. Will immigrants' rights folks do the same to stand up for our communities? The world waits to find out... or perhaps most sadly of all, they don't even know that this is an issue.<br /></span>Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-56703998290843883622009-09-07T14:07:00.002-04:002009-09-07T14:28:26.883-04:00New Blue Scholars EP: OOF!Hey folks. So it's been a summer since I posted. Took some time off from the hectic life and reflected a bit. More time reading, chilling with peeps, and cooking and less time in front of a screen is my goal. But even as I've grappled with what to do with this space, I realize that I want to keep some semblance of this space alive because it's been a minute since I started it (2003?!) and I still have to find the right spot to call home for new writing. So thanks to anyone who's still reading, and hopefully there will be something interesting here once in a while still...<br /><br />For now - the new Blue Scholars EP OOF! came out at the end of last month. Check it and stream below:<br /><br /><div><br /> <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="400" width="400" id="TSWidget6199" data="http://cdn.topspin.net/widgets/bundle/swf/TSBundleWidget.swf?timestamp=1252335791" bgColor="#000000"><br /> <param value="always" name="allowScriptAccess"/><br /> <param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"/><br /> <param name="quality" value="high"/><br /> <param name="movie" value="http://cdn.topspin.net/widgets/bundle/swf/TSBundleWidget.swf?timestamp=1252335791"/><br /> <param name="flashvars" value="squality=HIGH&autoplay=false&pid=XK80M00Y&widget_id=http://cdn.topspin.net/api/v1/artist/793/bundle_widget/6199?timestamp=1252335791&theme=white"/><br /> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"/><br /> </object><br /></div>Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-47176827436018303522009-06-22T18:33:00.003-04:002009-06-22T18:48:19.608-04:00A Reason to Question Prez Obama's Departure from BushI heard this on Democracy Now this morning. Check <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/22/headlines#17">this link for the details</a>.<br /><br />Did you hear his comments this week (perhaps it was today?) about the plight of the Uyghur detainees who have been released after 7 years of detention (without any charges, and now without any apology), can't return to China for fear of persecution, yet are not being allowed to settle in the U.S., but are being pushed to Palau?<br /><br />President Obama: “Nick at Nite has a new take on an old classic: Leave It to Uyghurs. I thought that was pretty good.”<br /><br />Yeah - pretty good if you're not one of the Uyghur detainees, whose lives have been destroyed by racist, Islamophobic, xenophobic American policy that crosses a lot of different disciplines from Homeland Security, the "War on Terror", immigration and asylum policy, and the list goes on.<br /><br />Dear Prez: I was kind of coming around a bit too, but this is really awful. Joking about the plight of people who have been completely fucked by the U.S. is really uncouth, uncool, and unlikely to win my confidence that you are different from McCain's "bomb bomb bomb Iran" comments.Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-85457158103996118912009-06-11T02:27:00.002-04:002009-06-11T02:35:09.225-04:00API* Heritage Post #FinI didn't give up on the posts: I just felt like the navel-gazing wasn't getting me anywhere, particularly without much dialogue on the site. Life has gotten incredibly busy through work (again) and just <b>life</b>. I think I have yet to find that balance folks talk about, but it's a healthy thing to always wonder if you've found it, I guess.<br /><br />It was a crazy Heritage month this year: Al Robles and Ron Takaki left us last month. While they weren't perfect, they gave us different views, different benchmarks by which to measure our own lives in this work. I think the personal stories that people have started to share about their lives and what they did to touch people has been the most striking. And with more personal loss that we've just found out about, I realize that much more how even little things can really connect you to someone, and make losing them, in whatever way, that much more of a shock.<br /><br />I'm kind of at a standstill again regarding my energy for this space. But it's hard to let go.Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-22956149023298543722009-05-23T11:23:00.003-04:002009-05-23T11:41:57.816-04:00API* Heritage Post #20: RegenerateI really don't know what else to write about at this point. I feel like a curmudgeon in this space, partially because I can't get as specific as I'd like to, and then because I am actually hopeful about a lot of things, but again, the specificity makes me want to find another place to add these stories to our crazy kitchrie of a community.<br /><br />Honestly - one thing I've been thinking about a lot is the need for more storefront/flexible community spaces. As our people continue to get pushed further and further from urban centers, it is so easy to lose sight of their unique histories and stories, which really are critical parts of what make each city. <br /><br />Without geographic residential hubs, the lives of folks who live in the 'burbs but spend many of their working hours turning the wheels that keep the city going are lost. Even the sense of ownership of the city is lost, particularly as middle-class and white folks flood back into cities displacing the immigrants and low-income folks who lived there before.<br /><br />So we need our own spaces. We need at least some kind of marker, beyond staid museums and exhibits: living, breathing spaces that are open to community, that take community needs and dreams and work them into something.Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-72933359811491065292009-05-19T20:33:00.004-04:002009-05-20T22:18:50.958-04:00API* Heritage Post #19: Destroy and RebuildI think all of the national APA nonprofits that have been around for more than 10 years should take 2010 to reevaluate their existence and purpose. I think they should be forced to reboot. The community needs it. They, like most peecees running windows, have grown fat, useless, obsolete. There isn't an ounce of fire in them - they push the same damn papers back and forth, meet in the same damn circles of contacts, tow the same damn line. Well, I. Ain't. Havin'. It. <br /><br />I just wrote about the love in my last post, but I'm really down on these jokers. What do they bring to the conversation, I mean, really? If you've been doing the same time for more than 5 years, it's time to think: what am I getting from this, what else could I be doing, and you know - what am I keeping others from doing here?Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-87994273367857922792009-05-18T19:32:00.003-04:002009-05-20T20:33:55.825-04:00API* Heritage Post #18: FamilyYeah - it was a great idea while it lasted. But can we really force ourselves to write about community every day? Or even to think about it in that same old way? Today's post - I think I've just got to keep it close. I love talking about this work, and doing what I can, but sometimes it's easy to get carried away on that front and forget altogether who and what is most important. <br /><br />The work will always continue, and you know - that Springsteen line about being afraid that we're not that young anymore? I think I'm finally feeling that regarding those days of just hanging out with people and building community over long dinners and longer drinking sessions afterwards. I have a lot of ideas for the future, but I'm also looking inward - if you don't have that peace at home, and that strength that comes from either quiet time alone or with the one(s) you love, you are missing something fundamental and cherished by the very people you are fighting with/for.<br /><br />So don't forget your loved ones. The struggle continues tomorrow, as long as you wake up whole and warm with love. Because though the profiteers who bleed our community for their egos, their ever-rising ambitions, will never acknowledge it, it is the combination of relentless love and fearless struggle that will carry this beyond press releases and inside conversations.Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-91800923592156162012009-05-17T23:33:00.000-04:002009-05-19T13:43:35.532-04:00API* Heritage Post #17: Cornershop's New Video by Prashant Bhargava<span style="font-size:85%;"><i>This year, in an actual attempt to really observe <a href="http://bostonprogress.org/">API*</a> Heritage Month, I'm trying to put up a post a day about what that means to me. Click the tag for <a href="http://brownout.blogspot.com/search/label/api%20heritage">API* Heritage</a> to get the whole series.</i></span><br /><br />Rather than bore you with my missives into the ether, check this out. Via Cornershop's <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogs.myspace.com/cornershop">Myspace blog</a>:<br /><blockquote>Well before the current interest in India as a different locational source for film, Chicago's award winning Grafitti artist turned award winning Film-maker and Designer Prashant Bhargava put together his film Patang -- this feature length drama is set during the jubilant atmosphere of India's largest kite festival. Luckily for us he also did a video for "The Roll Off Characteristics"</blockquote><br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bLgueesvGxk&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bLgueesvGxk&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">You can catch Bhargava's short film </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Sangam</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> on Netflix View Instantly, and get onto the Facebook fan site for Patang, which is due out at either the end of this year or beginning of 2010. Support our arts, ya'll.</span></div>Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-67490333157198528622009-05-16T11:13:00.003-04:002009-05-17T12:15:46.047-04:00API* Heritage Post #16: Solidarity and Disaggregation of Data<span style="font-size:85%;"><i>This year, in an actual attempt to really observe <a href="http://bostonprogress.org/">API*</a> Heritage Month, I'm trying to put up a post a day about what that means to me. Click the tag for <a href="http://brownout.blogspot.com/search/label/api%20heritage">API* Heritage</a> to get the whole series.</i></span><br /><br />Often with API* activists and advocates, we speak about common experiences where there may not be many - our discussions of solidarity are really that: not shared histories but analogies of struggle that we can bring to bear in whatever work we're trying to do together now. It's not that our people have the same histories and therefore our struggles are the same: it's that in the stories of the Manongs from the I-Hotel, there are themes and experiences that we can learn from, examples that we can use to build for the future.<br /><br />Where we go wrong is when we overlook the differences, the uniqueness of Asian and other immigrant community experiences and try to create some kind of meta-narrative where there is none. Vast and discriminatory backlogs in visa processing affect many Asian communities, and offer an opportunity for common stories that bind, but the plight of Filipino American veterans, JA internees, Cambodian deportees, Thai sweatshop workers, and Bhutanese refugees are different from one another.<span id="fullpost"><br /><br />We, the privileged, can and should find ways to weave stories together to tell stories that are more complex than the 30-second elevator speech: we must find ways to build stories with layers and branching examples that build a narrative (even if it is non-linear) that better captures the multiplicity of experience rather than the simple reduction of this diversity into general bullet points. <br /><br />While it will not be easy, if we don't do this, we definitely can't rely on the outside world to even begin to understand these complexities, nor to adequately capture the differences. People generally agree that there are big concerns with aggregation of data about our communities into "Asian" or "Other" without data about individual groups. Getting disaggregated data (quantitative and qualitative) is just step one; step two is making sense of that data, then reconfigure and arrange it to both emphasize unique communities and experiences and to find themes and patterns that can facilitate understanding, solidarity, and joint action for shared concerns.</span>Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-9565633994881907532009-05-15T17:22:00.004-04:002009-05-16T22:34:53.653-04:00API* Heritage Post #15: Beginning<span style="font-size:85%;"><i>This year, in an actual attempt to really observe <a href="http://bostonprogress.org/">API*</a> Heritage Month, I'm trying to put up a post a day about what that means to me. Click the tag for <a href="http://brownout.blogspot.com/search/label/api%20heritage">API* Heritage</a> to get the whole series.</i></span><br /><br />There are so many nonprofits in our communities and yet so many needs and possibilities still unmet and untapped. Here and there, I've alluded to an interest in breaking free of the nonprofit-industrial complex, partially because I think there's often such a weird aura of privilege (without acknowledgment) that surrounds these groups. And it's just so. much. talk.<br /><br />At the same time, I feel like we're often limited by just thinking about the dollars we can raise through foundations, corporations, and government - all tethered in some major way to capitalism or militarism because where else will they get the money (or the guilt) to contribute to groups? Private and public grants are the opiate of the organizers, I'd say - the money keeps us going, but it also keeps their hands on our throats, fully limiting the possible ways that groups can truly focus on what is needed for their communities: social change that moves far beyond catch phrases and happy hours.<span id="fullpost"><br /><br />But how to start something that focuses on community before institution building? And how do you know whether you're the right person/group to start it, or if it's the right priority? I've been telling folks to ask these questions lately when they want to start a new group - and also to ask whether 501(c) anything is really what they want. The institutionalization and professionalization of this work has moved us all rightward.</span>Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-46389327509258174362009-05-14T22:49:00.003-04:002009-05-16T17:22:27.831-04:00API* Heritage Post #14: Preserving HistoryIt's funny how we have to search for our collective histories in the dusty corners of second-hand bookstores (which is where some of the old-timer API* literature heads first found John Okada's classic novel "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-No_Boy">No-No Boy</a>"), or in the fading stories of elders and first generations of immigrants (like the <a href="http://asianartsinitiative.org/oralhistory/index.html">oral history projects </a>that have documented in pieces what early life for Asian immigrants was like), on the falling walls of the first immigrant detention centers (<a href="http://www.aiisf.org/">poetry carved into the walls </a>on Angel Island), or even by <a href="http://www.mocanyc.org/">dumpster diving in Chinatowns</a> to preserve original signs from the and artifacts from the roots of our communities here.<br /><br />We're always forced to look to the margins, and nowadays, with the cannonization of "Asian American History" and "Asian American Experience" by the academic elite, we sometimes have to look to the margins of these margins to find real stories, real talk, real struggles. So much of what people do - everyday struggles, victories, cultural evolutions, micro-movements, are lost in history. The act of documenting is in itself an act of filtering and valuing different things, casting aside and away some things or keeping them in boxes because a linear narrative is easier than the complex and often contradictory one to write and to use for whatever purpose we have in mind.<span id="fullpost"><br /><br />But what's lost in that process? How many moments, connections, and transformations don't make it into the books? It's not simply about the need to see yourself or the things you know in these historical accounts of times we've been through, but because the personal stories, the small steps, are what future generations can latch onto: the big movements and red-letter-days are few and far between. As they've said over and over about the Civil Rights movement, for example, it took a lot more than the iconic, memorialized moments (what broke the camel's back: one straw or the thousand that came before it?) to create what happened. <br /><br />In our inability to really take the time to capture these things, and because every day is potentially full of moments worth documenting, are we building the stories to carry the next generation forward, or just singular narratives that simplify what has really happened in our time? Living in the margins (of the margins) do we run the risk of losing the complexity and varied intersections of these times in API* communities and community building altogether?</span>Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-11103473748762753842009-05-13T22:25:00.000-04:002009-05-14T22:29:28.218-04:00API* Heritage Post #13: The Next GenerationJust when you think you can lose hope for the new generation of students coming up through colleges and graduate schools, the summer interns begin at your organization, and you realize that there are still folks with that fire in their belly for community work.<br /><br />Our first intern started this week at my workplace, and she fit right in. Her personal story is one thing, but to see that a young person has so much energy, enthusiasm, and even the sheer will to learn is a really encouraging thing. I know friends who have become embittered about the excesses of young people, or even their disinterest or entitlement (I'm sure I've written about this here too). But I definitely feel like that's only one piece of the puzzle: there's hope out there. And it may be all the hope our community really has, if most of my generation is bitter now.Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-15843579081776875262009-05-11T23:50:00.006-04:002009-05-13T23:00:32.854-04:00API* Heritage Post #11 & 12: Jean Shin and Hope for Asian American Art<span style="font-size:85%;"><i>This year, in an actual attempt to really observe <a href="http://bostonprogress.org/">API*</a> Heritage Month, I'm trying to put up a post a day about what that means to me. Click the tag for <a href="http://brownout.blogspot.com/search/label/api%20heritage">API* Heritage</a> to get the whole series.</i></span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/04/08/arts/shee_span1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 600px; height: 221px;" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/04/08/arts/shee_span1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://brownout.blogspot.com/2009/05/post-9-unravelled-asian-american-arts.html">Saturday's post </a>gave a tiny piece of context for a little review I wanted to share about artist <a href="http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2009/shin/">Jean Shin's show </a>at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which I got to check out while in DC yesterday. First, Jean Shin came to the U.S. with her folks from Korea when she was 5. They settled in the suburban Washington area, and she eventually moved to NYC to pursue her career as an installation artist.<br /><br />She has been featured in a number of different places in New York and around the nation, but this is (to my knowledge) her first significant show at a Smithsonian space. Smithsonian = free, so I made an effort to get to the city and check this one out.<br /><br />Basically, this show is remarkable. I strongly recommend it to anyone who is in DC or planning on visiting there at some point before the show closes in late July. I'm hoping to go down to the show again before it closes, and definitely want to check out more of her work in the future - there are some permanent installations in NYC, actually.<span id="fullpost"><br /><br />Jean Shin takes ordinary items, amasses huge quantities of them, and does something quite interesting with them as part of an installation piece. Her thoughtfulness, her connection between the work, place, relationships is really fascinating, and while the work may seem initially abstract / "modern" (in the pejorative sense that people often use for art created principally for the sake of the artist), there's a lot more going on there.<br /><br /><i>Everyday Monuments</i> is the piece that's new for the Washington show. She collected more than 2,000 athletic trophies from residents of Washington DC, which she and her staff painstakingly modified one at a time, removing signs and indications of the sport, and replacing the props held by the figure or the implied motion with something that represents an unheralded job or occupation. Where once there was a hockey stick, there is now a broom or a shovel. A football player's pigskin is replaced with a book. Trays of food and drinks, garbage cans, plungers, tires, paint brushes replace balls and other implements of sport, and fill empty hands that were supposed to represent the second after a free throw was made.<br /><br />Taken one at a time, the pieces are interesting, funny, and innovative. Taken all at once in the context of Washington, a city filled with stoic monuments to people and times that sometimes mask the full scope of loss, complexity, and the many people who make any movement/moment in history, the work is revelatory. The title, "Everyday Monuments," and the deliberate placement of the work within a scale representation of the National Mall make the artist's intentions clear: she is highlighting the unsung heroes of our society, their labor building the foundation for all other great acts to follow. The fact that she and her staff had to physically alter the figures, sometimes removing limbs or torsos, is also quite symbolic of the transformation and losses that laborers often endure, which are often not fully evident when you just look at them (i.e. the very specific condition of immigrant laborers, who often perform their demanding jobs with torn and still raw familial and other connections that they have left behind to work, usually without much choice).<br /><br />Why is the work so compelling? Because Jean Shin is a very thoughtful artist, and the scale and ambition of her work is extraordinary, even though multiple pieces fit into a relatively small gallery space. Another piece explores the interconnectedness of the Asian American arts community in 5 or 6 cities through a physical "mapping" of relationships by threads linking sweaters arranged on walls that have been donated by more than 200 other API* artists in the cities where the piece has been exhibited. The use of physical space and the direct engagement with the API* community immediately frames her sensibilities as directly linked to<br />the "community" even if all of her work does not derive solely or directly from those links.<br /><br />It's probably this fact that leads me to believe that in many ways, this imagined, fractured community we still talk about is most evident, seems most real to me, in creative and arts spaces, where the communal is personal, and where both inform the political, but the discourse between the three and the outside worlds are seldom simple or just reduced to the uncritical space of "solidarity" amongst people. Even work that is not politically radical often explores boundaries, borders, definitions, and complex questions of belonging, heritage, and even worldview in ways that our political discourse and movement building have not been able to do since these conversations began more than 40 years ago.</span>Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-18262381547982912352009-05-10T21:17:00.003-04:002009-05-10T21:48:18.893-04:00API* Heritage Post #10: Thanks MomI wasn't able to spend this Mother's Day with my mom, and frankly, I've not been able to spend as much time with Mom as I should over the past couple of years. As I talk about "API* Heritage" this month, I realized that I should first think about my personal heritage, and what I've received from my Mom and family.<br /><br />Rather than go on here, I'm just going to say "thanks, Mom." All that I am able to write or pontificate about, all the space that I have for myself to question and reevaluate where I am, and what this imagined, fractured community is, is because you've given me that space. You haven't pushed me to do more than be happy, and to do the best at what I can in whatever I care about. You stress trying to be a good and honest person over blind passion for some kind of cause, but you understand when I go a bit overboard. You've given me tools, but I'm still learning how to use them.<br /><br />Regardless, thanks mom. Even if I can't talk about all these little things that take up space in my head with you, you forgive my many faults, you listen and even repeat some of the things that I tell you, and you don't ask much from me at all, though you really could. The heritage that I don't question, and that which I am proudest of, comes directly from what you've given and taught me over all these years.Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5214642.post-42758826136011347082009-05-09T23:19:00.006-04:002009-05-10T20:35:09.480-04:00API* Heritage Post #9: Asian American Arts and the Movement<span style="font-size:85%;"><i>This year, in an actual attempt to really observe <a href="http://bostonprogress.org/">API*</a> Heritage Month, I'm trying to put up a post a day about what that means to me. Click the tag for <a href="http://brownout.blogspot.com/search/label/api%20heritage">API* Heritage</a> to get the whole series.</i></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3601/3462886942_fc5f9a3f31.jpg?v=0"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 334px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3601/3462886942_fc5f9a3f31.jpg?v=0" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />My <a href="http://brownout.blogspot.com/2009/05/post-7-snake-dance-of-asian-american.html">post</a> about "The Snake Dance of Asian American Activism" a few days back didn't really get into the authors' discussion of Asian American arts in the movement. I thought some of their reflections on cultural work and the movement were quite good, actually.<br /><br />One section in the book, labeled <span style="font-style: italic;">Art and Culture: The Making of Asian America</span> discusses how cultural work gave a popular to some of the ideologies behind the early AA Movement mobilization such as self-determination, the "common person's role in making history," and other specific historic references. There was a point, which is also well-documented in Tad Nakamura's touching portrait of the life of Chris Iijima in <a href="http://asongforourselves.blogspot.com/">A Song for Ourselves</a>, when artists and cultural workers had to decide between representing and exploring collective personal histories of our people, and moving into work that looked inward (best captured in a quote in the book on page<br /><br />I've had a long love affair with Asian American cultural work. Artists and cultural workers who are deliberate and thoughtful about their histories, our collective inheritances, and what world it is in which they live have been able to create powerful, lasting work that is not just propaganda on the stage, page, or track, but actually brings to light an experience, no matter how personal or individual it may seem, that comprises another patch in the quilt of Asian America.<span id="fullpost"><br /><br />Cultural workers can create spaces for community members to engage with questions of identity, belonging, community, and in/justice in ways that a speech, a manifesto, or a rally can never do. And by re/appropriating traditional cultural forms, from sampling filmi songs to using korean drumming at a rally for racial justice, Asian American cultural workers are able to bring together elements of the familiar and the new to many generations of community members at the same time. This is both a personal observation and something that the authors of Snake Dance brought up as well.<br /><br />But it's when folks are lazy about "political work" that I get annoyed. While I like some overtly political/ideologically driven work, I think the worst example of rants masquerading as cultural work come in the spoken word arena - where there is often nothing artful about the framing of a piece that just seems hollow, angry, and gimmicky. Regular readers know how much I like some of the Fil-Am emcees who have been writing and living incredible work in the past 10 years - <a href="http://prometheusbrown.com/blog/">Geo</a>, <a href="http://bamburants.blogspot.com/">Bam</a>, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.myspace.com/kiwi">Kiwi</a>, <a href="http://www.kobasounds.com/">Koba</a>, and the list goes on. I think the <a href="http://asianweek.com/2001_06_01/feature.html">Two Tongues </a>crew were really powerful because they were able to really write and not lose creativity while being clear about what they wanted to get across.<br /><br />This post was actually the lead up to a show I just got to see at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, but I'll leave that for tomorrow's post at this point. Stay tuned!</span>Ragehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10310102856263393174noreply@blogger.com0