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June 22 - 28, 2001

Community Calendar
Announcements and Events for the Community
GM Buyout: Takeover of Daewoo ignites protests and violence
(in National News)

Fighting for Their Jobs: Oakland teachers union leaders claim unfair firings
(in Bay Area News)

Backstage with Gedde Watanabe: He sang for his veggies
(in A&E)

Voices from the Community: Cecilia Chung welcomes you to San Francisco Pride Week
(in Opinion)

A regional roundup of events of special interest to Asian Americans

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Electronic Art Seeks Partner The Center for Electronic Art is offering three scholarships for low-income youth and is seeking a partner from the Asian American nonprofit community to help select winners. The Center is a nonprofit school teaching individual classes and certificate programs in Web design and production, animation, and print design. Each scholarship covers full tuition in a CEA certificate program. Recipients must be high school graduates between the ages of 18 and 25, and be able to demonstrate past services to the community. Recipients will be required to use their new skills by volunteering in the nonprofit sector once they have finished their coursework at CEA. Applications (available on the Web at www.cea.edu/support/scholarhip.html) are now being accepted. Completed applications should be sent to: Scholarships, Center for Electronic Art, 250 4th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. Scholarships will be awarded by CEA’s Digital Bridge Advisory Committee, which is composed of representatives from SFMOMA, Galleria de la Raza, OICW, Opnet, and a yet-to-be-determined partner from the Asian American nonprofit community. The Center is also seeking help from individuals and other nonprofit agencies to continue developing the scholarship program. Call 415-512-9300 or visit CEA’s Web site (www.cea.edu) for more details. Deadline: June 30.

The Media Fund The National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA) is pleased to announce new deadlines for the Media Fund. Open call for Production Funds ends Aug. 24. This round of funding is for applicants with public television projects in production and/or post-production phases. Projects in research and development or script development phases need not apply. Awards will average $20,000 to $50,000. Exceptions may be made. Open Door Completion Fund has no deadline. This round of funding is for applicants with public television projects in the final post-production phase only. A full-length rough-cut must be submitted. Awards average $20,000, and NAATA funds must be the last monies needed to finish the project and deliver the broadcast master. For more information, check out www.naatanet.org or contact the Media Fund department at 415-863-0814 x106 or mediafund@naatanet.org.


ARTS

Chushingura II: Story and Textile Art This exhibition at the Japan Information Center opens June l8 and features several quilted tapestries, as well as explanatory texts about an epic event of l8th century Japan, the revolt of 47 samurai. For three centuries, artworks of various kinds have been created about this legend. The current exhibit is created by Midori McKeon, Masahiko Minami, and Lois Lyles, professors at San Francisco State University, and by Hitomi Minami. The display can be viewed at the Japanese Consulate, Rm. 2200, at 50 Fremont Street in San Francisco. Exhibit hours are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., except for a lunchtime closing, noon - l p.m. daily. The exhibit, which is free and open to the public, runs June l8 - July ll. For more information, call Lois Lyles, SFSU, at 4l5-338-74ll.

Kimono Kinship The San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles presents Kimono Kinship, July 20 through Sept. 9 at the museum, 110 Paseo de San Antonio, San Jose. An opening reception will be hosted on Sunday, July 22, 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. The exhibition celebrates the art of the kimono by showcasing a small sampling of traditional and contemporary kimonos as well as kimono-inspired art in multiple textile forms. Admission is $4 general, $3 for seniors and students, and free to museum members and children under 13. For more information, call 408-971-7226.

Nature on the Grid The Gallery at Montalvo presents Nature on the Grid, an exhibition of the work of Kyoung Ae Cho. Korean-born Cho’s large-scale “quilts” incorporate pine needles, hair and wood. Cho meticulously arranges these found natural materials using the geometry of a grid to reveal both the order and flux innate in natural forms. The exhibition runs through Sept. 17, at the Gallery, 15400 Montalvo Road, Saratoga. For more information, please call 408-961-5800.

No Ghost, Just a Shell The Ann Lee Project was initiated by French artists Pierre Huyghe and Philippe Parreno when they purchased an anonymous manga “actress” from an agency that produces and sells such computer files for fictive characters. Calling her Ann Lee, the artists began bringing her to life in a series of computer animations. No Ghost, Just a Shell is an ongoing project in which the two initiators invite various artists to contribute new material to the series. The SFMOMA presentation features work by Huyghe and Parreno, as well as Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Rirkrit Tiravanija (to be confirmed). SFMOMA is located at 151 Third St., San Francisco. For general information, please call 415-357-4000, or go to www.sfmoma.org.

Zen: Painting and Calligraphy This exhibition at the Asian Art Museum opens June 27 and features 66 works created by Japanese monk-artists of Zen’s later days. The collection of works illustrates the Zen teachings that lie at the core of each artist’s search for inner spiritual discipline and outward peace and serenity. The museum’s Chong-Moon Lee Center is located in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. For more information, please call 415-379-8800, or go to www.asianart.org.


DANCE

Ethnic Dance Festival Tickets are on sale for the 23rd annual San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, which features 30 Bay Area dance companies. The last of three weekends of performances takes place at the Palace of Fine Arts, on Bay and Laguna Streets, San Francisco, June 23-24. Saturday and Sunday matinees begin at 2 p.m., and Saturday evening shows begin at 8 p.m. Each weekend is under the artistic direction of one of three stage directors: Jeff O’Connor, Barbara Damashek, and Ellen Sebastian Chang. For more information, visit www.worldartswest.org. Single tickets are $20, $25 and $30. Charge by phone via City Box Office at 415-392-4400.

Odissi Dance This is a rare opportunity to witness this sacred temple dance from the state of Orissa in Northeast India. Exquisitely lyrical, sensual and powerful, Odissi dance delights the senses and awakens an inner grace and presence of the divine. Dancers Sri Manoranjan Pradhan and Asako Takami will perform Friday, June 22 and Saturday June 23, at 8 p.m. at the Temescal Arts Center, 511 48th St. at Telegraph St., Oakland. Tickets are $12. For reservations, please call 510-654-3750.

The Geometry of Time On July 2 and 3 at 8 p.m. Flesh & Blood Mystery Theater presents The Geometry of Time: improvisations in free space at Noh Space, 2840 Mariposa St., San Francisco. Flesh & Blood Theater is committed to the improvisational style of butoh pioneered by Kazuo Ono and Akira Kasai. Tickets are $10-15 sliding scale. For reservations, call 415-621-7978.


EVENTS

Get Out of Camp Produced by the National Japanese American Historical Society, this interactive exhibit gives the audience an experiential overview of what World War II was like for Japanese Americans using replicas, photographs and music. The exhibition is on display through July 31, and is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Mondays through Fridays, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. (NJAHS Gallery, 1684 Post St., San Francisco, 415-921-5007)

Godzilla West Presents: Friday Night Live Godzilla West presents Friday Night Live, a fresh new open-mike venue featuring Asian Pacific Islander monologists and comedians, as well as spoken word artists, musicians and dancers. The vision is to create a nurturing space where artists of any medium can come to express and create. The open mike takes place on the first Friday of every month at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center. For more information, call 510-208-6080. (388 9th Street, Suite 290, Oakland)

Junglee Juice: A Weekend of South Asian Performance and Film Asian American Theater Company presents Junglee Juice: A Weekend of South Asian Performance and Film from June 21 - 23 at New Langton Arts, 1246 Folsom St. (between 8th and 9th), San Francisco. The weekend will begin Thursday night with spirited South Asian erotica from Ginu Kamani, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Abha Dawesar, Sandip Roy Chowdhury and Allan de Souza. The program continues on Friday with a staged reading of the new play Living Om: A Tragic Comedy About The HIV/AIDS Care Industry, written and directed by Joel Tan and Ginu Kamani. The weekend will conclude on Saturday with Desi Shorts, a night of short films, featuring the work of Aparna Malladi, Madhurika Jain, Tony Sehgal, Nina Davenport, Hima B and Eliza Barrios. For more information and reservations please contact AATC @ 415-440-5545, or go to www.asianamericantheater.org.


FILM AND VIDEO

Born in the Bay Area Locus 1640 Post in conjunction with the National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA) presents Born in the Bay Area, a narrative and experimental short film program that showcases Bay Area Asian American film by such established and award-winning filmmakers as Arthur Dong and Emiko Omori, as well as works by emerging filmmakers like Corey Ohama and Michael Arago. The program will take place at Locus 1640 Post on Wednesday, June 27 at 8 p.m. Running time is approximately 89 minutes. Suggested donation is $5. For more information, please visit www.locusarts.org, or please call Julia Kim at 415-269-0698 or Chi-hui Yang at 415-863-0814 x 110.


MUSIC

Center of Sound Festival #2 After a highly successful Center of Sound Festival#1 with Chicago’s Fred Anderson Trio with Tatsu Aoki and Hamid Drake, the Alliance of Emerging Creative Artists (AECA) will officially turn one year old with the arrival of Center of Sound Festival#2 on July 1 at 8 p.m. This year AECA features a solo Komungo (Korean 4th Century fretted-board zither) concert by critically acclaimed composer / musician Jin Hi Kim. Kim will perform both on acoustic and electric Komungo from a set of her compositions entitled, Komungo Muse and Permutations. Kicking off this year’s festivities will be AECA’s Co-Director, composer and saxophonist Jeff Chan. Jeff Chan’s Turn of the Century, featuring special guest Francis Wong, is an ensemble with percussionist/vocalist Donna Kwon, contrabassist Adam Lane and dancer/percussionist Dohee Lee. Ticket prices are as follows: $10 advance tickets, $12 general admission. For tickets, please call (510)208-6080. For more info, please call 510-208-6088.


READINGS AND LECTURES

Do The Ripe Thing! The Ripe Fruit School of Creative Writing celebrates its 10-year anniversary with juicy summer bash, Do The Ripe Thing!, Sunday, July 8, 2 - 6 p.m., at the SomARTS Gallery, 934 Brannan St., San Francisco. Ripe Fruit grad Priscilla Lee will be amongst the poets and writers reading at 2:30 p.m. The public is encouraged to join the creative mix via an open mike and spontaneous poetry murals available all afternoon. For more information, call 415-337-4369 or contact ripefruitwriting@aol.com.

Event with Critical Resistance The July 12 event features a reading from Critical Resistance to the Prison Industrial Complex, a special issue of the criminology journal Social Justice edited by the Critical Resistance Publications Collective. In the tradition of CR, the issue features writings by activists, academics, former and current prisoners. There will be readings and discussions with speakers Margo Okazawa-Rey, Gywn Kirk, Rene Poitevin, and Ellen Barry. The reading begins 7:30 p.m. at the Modern Times Bookstore, 888 Valencia St. at 20th St., San Francisco. Visit CR at www.criticalresistance.org

Melding Memory, Heritage and Passion On Sunday, July 1, 3 - 4:30 p.m., AECA in association with the Korea Society will offer a lecture/demonstration entitled, Introduction to Korean Music: Melding Memory, Heritage and Passion, presented by Jin Hi Kim. For musicians and music enthusiasts alike, this presentation will serve as a preface to the evening performance and offer the concert audience an opportunity to engage in dialogue with composer/musician, Kim, regarding Korean history and musical practices. She will also discuss contemporary issues surrounding music, culture, and the innovations in hybrid musical forms as well as Kim’s own compositional approaches for the traditional acoustic Komungo (4th Century Korean fretted-board zither) as well as the electric Komungo (MIDI computer-controlled) created especially for Kim in 1999. The lecture will include audio and video demonstrations as well as a slide show and a talk. A Q&A session follows. For more info, please call 510-208-6088.


THEATER

Texas R/evolution Theater Company presents the Northern California premiere of Judy Soo Hoo’s award-winning play Texas from June 16 to July 8 at Thick House, 1695 18th St. at Carolina St., San Francisco. Directed by Kelvin Han Yee, Texas is a darkly comic, Asian American view of the West. Steve “the college boy” (Samuel Sheng) comes to stay with two whacked-out brothers, Duke “the butcher” (Feodor Chin) and Danny “the kid” (Robert Wu), who live in a cramped trailer on the flats of Texas. During a night of vicious psychological and physical games, Steve learns the awful truth about the brothers and their secret past. He is ultimately forced to pit one brother against the other to escape their world. Tickets are $15-$18. For tickets, call 415-401-8081. For information, visit http://www.uescapemedia.com/work/texas or http://getit.at/texas.


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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

ARTS

American Families American Families by artist Momo Nagano, which commemorates the names of Japanese Americans who lived in a specific neighborhood of Los Angeles prior to World War II, when the U.S. government unlawfully forced them to leave their homes, will be on display at the Japanese American National Museum, 244 South San Pedro St., between 2nd and 3rd Streets, Los Angeles, through Oct. 7. For more information on American Families, call the Japanese American National Museum at 213-625-0414. For more information on Momo Nagano: Personal Visions, call the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center at 213-628-2725.

Munakata Shiko Through June 30, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art presents a retrospective of Munakata Shiko’s work. Shiko is considered one of the greatest Japanese artists of the twentieth century. He received the Imperial Order of Culture from the Japanese government, achieving a higher status than Living National Treasure. Receiving first prize at the São Paulo Bienal in 1955 and the Grand Prix at the Venice Biennale, Shiko was the first Japanese artist to receive international recognition in the post-war era. Through his work, he brought about the general acceptance in Japan of woodblock printing as a fine art; until his time, wood block printing had been considered a production craft. The exhibition includes 128 prints, calligraphy, paintings, and ceramics primarily borrowed from the holdings of the Munakata Museum in Kamakura, established as a foundation in the artist’s residence and studio after his death. For more information on museum programs, please call 323-857-6035.


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REST OF THE WEST

ARTS

Blue-and-white Japanese Porcelain Approximately 100 pieces of exquisite Japanese porcelain grace the gallery at the Seattle Art Museum in Hirado Porcelain of Japan from the Kurtzman Collection. The exhibition runs through July 8. Museum hours are Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., and on Thursdays until 9 p.m. (1400 E. Prospect St., Volunteer Park, Seattle)

Darkness that Plays With the Light Sumi and mixed paintings by Alan Lau will be featured in the main gallery at Francine Seders Gallery, 6701 Greenwood Ave. North, Seattle. The show links three bodies of Lau’s work, including one that explores “what the process of nature and bacteria do to perishables.” The show runs from June 8 to July 1. For more information, call 206-783-6593, or go to www.sedersgallery.

Signs of Fortune, Symbols of Immortality This installation of Japanese hanging scrolls, screens and textiles features works from the 17th - 20th centuries. Museum hours are Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., and on Thursdays until 9 p.m. (Seattle Art Museum, 1400 E. Prospect St., Volunteer Park, Seattle)

The Art of Protest A cross-cultural exhibition of works from Seattle Asian Art Museum’s collection that uses a wide range of media and visual imagery to make social comment, address political issues, and advocate for change. For more information, call 206-654-3100 (SAAM, Volunteer Park, 14th Avenue at East Prospect St.)


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EAST COAST

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Seeking Submissions for the Asian American International Film Festival The 24th Annual Asian American International Film Festival will be held in New York City at the French Institute/Alliance Française, July 20-28. It is currently seeking feature-length screenplay submissions for staged readings during the festival. A director and actors will be provided, and the performance is open to the Asian American creative community for discussion and critique. Asian Cinevision, the Asian American Arts Alliance and the Asian American Writer’s Workshop are co-sponsoring the reading. Please send a PDF, Word file or hard copy to: NaRhee Ahn, Panel and Workshop Coordinator, panels@asiancinevision.org or the Asian Cinevision offices at 133 West 19th Street, New York, NY 10011. For more information, call 212-989-1422.


ARTS

Fly to Freedom Museum of Chinese in the Americas (MoCA) announces the opening of its exhibition Fly to Freedom: The Art of the Golden Venture Refugees at the Smithsonian Institution, sponsored by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program under the leadership of Dr. Franklin Odo. The exhibition is housed in the Arts & Industries Building, 900 Jefferson Drive, S.W., Washington, D.C. The show consists of 25 selected works of folded-paper and papier-mâché art. Along with the paper sculptures, the traveling exhibit presents the background history of the Golden Venture story and the outcome of the refugees’ struggles. For further information, please call MoCA at 212-619-4785 or visit www.MoCA-nvc.org.

Mountains and Valleys, Castles and Tents A new exhibition featuring rare artifacts and documentary materials illustrating Tibetan society and history is on view for the first time in New York at the Paine Webber Art Gallery through June 22. Drawn from the unrivaled Tibetan collection of The Newark Museum, Mountains and Valleys, Castles and Tents explores the ancient culture of Tibet through artifacts and ornaments of the aristocracy, herders and traders dating back to the 13th century, as well as a documentary film and photographs from the early 1900s located at Paine Webber’s Corporate Headquarters, 1285 Avenue of the Americas, between 51st and 52nd Streets, New York City. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Free admission. For recorded information, call 212-713-2885.

NGC 6093 The first major New York installation by artist Hiro Yamagata, NGC 6093, is on view at the Ace Gallery New York, 275 Hudson Street. Combining laser-beam technologies with refractive surfaces and techniques, the artist makes use of the entire 25,000 square-foot gallery space to present his monumental exploration of the solar system’s impact on human existence. The installation changes several times during the course of the exhibition, offering a new and equally unexpected experience each time. For more information, please call Ace Gallery at 212-255-5599.

On Gold Mountain: A Chinese American Experience On Gold Mountain: A Chinese American Experience, an exhibition by the Autry Museum of Western Heritage and based on the acclaimed book by Lisa See, continues through Sept. 30 in the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building, 900 Jefferson Drive S.W, Wash., D.C. The exhibit is organized chronologically and thematically, beginning with the journey from China to America, continuing with Chinese labor in the 19th-century West, the adoption and repeal of the Exclusion Act, and the evolution of Los Angeles’ Chinatown. For more information, call 202-357-2700.

Point Arabesque The paintings of Charles Yuen inhabit an enigmatic world, one of indeterminate location suspended on the margins of imagination, full of intimations and innuendo, and meanings in flux. Point Arabesque is on view through June 23 at the Asian American Arts Center, 26 Bowery St., New York City. For more information, call 212-233-2154, or e-mail aaartsctr@aol.com.

Not on the Menu Not on the Menu: From Asian/Pacific Islander Roots to American Reality is an exhibit by Corky Lee of private and public moments of Asian American daily life. The show runs through Nov.30 at the Museum of Chinese in the Americas, 70 Mulberry St., 2/F, New York City. For more information, call 212-619-4785.


EVENTS

Worshipping the Ancestors Chinese opera, ghost story films, gallery talks, storytelling and activities for children complement Worshipping the Ancestors: Chinese Commemorative Portraits, an exhibition opening at the Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1050 Independence Ave., S.W., on June 17 and continuing through Sept. 9. Highlights of the exhibition include intricately detailed and brightly colored life-size portraits, textiles, jewelry, furniture and other Chinese objects used in the ritual of ancestor worship created between 1451 and 1943. For more information, call 202-357-2700 or 202-357-1729 (TTY) or visit www.asia.si.edu.


THEATER

The Laughing Women Dancer/choreographer Sin Cha Hong is recognized as one of the most influential contemporary artists in Asia. The Laughing Women, her newest dance-theater work, is presented by La MaMa E.T.C., June 21 to July 1. The evening-length solo work traces a mature woman’s life journey through contemplation, conflict, acceptance and, ultimately, laughter. Tickets are $20. La MaMa E.T.C. is located at 74A East 4th St., New York City. For tickets, call 212-475-7710.


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NATIONAL

ANNOUNCEMENTS

New Voices Award Lee & Low Books, the award-winning publisher of multicultural books for children, is pleased to announce the second annual New Voices Award. The award will be given to a children’s picture book story by a writer of color. The award winner will receive a cash grant of $1,000 and a standard publication contract, including an advance against royalties. An honorary award winner will receive a cash grant of $500. Manuscripts will be accepted through Sept. 30, 2001, and must be post-marked by that date. Submissions should be sent to: New Voices Award, Lee & Low Books, 95 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016. For details on eligibility, please e-mail info@leeandlow.com


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