The Machines In Our Brains (Feature) East or West: Re-Igniting the Debate Ten Years Later (in National News) APA Representation Maintained on the Board (in Bay Area News) Ultimate Diversions: 2002 Gamer’s Gift Guide (in Business) Wushu Tries to Infiltrate the Olympics (in Sports) San Francisco Singer-Songwriter Brings Her Talents to a Boil (in A&E) Emil Amok: The Global Joe Public Speaks (in Opinion)

The Hope is in the Writing

Last week’s fundraiser for Hyphen, the nation’s newest pan-Asian Pacific American magazine, made it obvious that our community is eager and waiting for a new independent media voice. Locus, Japantown’s basement art space, was packed to the doors with local artists, writers, journalists and supporters, all swilling down drinks and schmoozing to their best ability. Hyphen staff say that they expected the 150 plus people to come through, but what they didn’t expect was the amount of money that people were willing to throw down. The bid went up to $400 on a home-cooked Spam meal for goodness sake, proving that people are hungry for a magazine that promises “to be a cowboy for Asian America,” as they say in their mission statement.

Speaking of Locus, I was first introduced to publisher, writer, editor and subversive thinker extraordinaire V. Vale there about two years ago at a zine expo. This week, we tracked him down in his North Beach apartment/office and tried to get him to tell us how to save the world. His punk rock ideology and thought-provoking books are so extraordinarily relevant today that I had a major outburst mid-interview when I insisted that there MUST BE something that could be done to battle the corporate giants that have taken over the planet. Sadly, there are no easy answers. In fact, Vale said that this is the worst time of crisis in American history that he remembers. Is that scary or what?

Interestingly, a recent ladies luncheon I attended gave me the one priceless commodity that is becoming more and more scarce these days. Organized by long-time AsianWeek social columnist Carolyn Gan in honor of her 30 plus years of writing, I was expecting this event to be full of socialites who were one step removed from the community. Instead, I found myself surrounded by pure APA legacy, like the first Chinese American woman dentist in Chinatown and a number of other women who filled me with pride. Carolyn spoke to us about how she began writing because she was tired of the portrayal of APAs in the media, and how she continues to do so today for the same reason.

With all these voices making sure that we will be heard, perhaps there is some hope after all.

— Neela Banerjee