Arts Briefs
December 22, 2006
AsiaAlive: Favorite Art Projects Of the Year
EVENT: Asian Art Museum’s AsiaAlive
DESCRIPTION: All ages, ongoing drop-in interactive program featuring live artist demonstrations and hands-on activities. Send a New Year’s greeting using images from the Hidden Meanings exhibition or make jewelry.
DETAILS: Free with museum admission, Dec. 26-30, 12-4 p.m., Samsung Hall & North Court, Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin St., San Francisco.
CONTACT: (415) 581-3500, www.asianart.org
Tea Bag Pin And Hat Making
EVENT: Berkeley artist Patricia Bulitt leads fun hands-on activity
DESCRIPTION: Registered participants create tea bag pins and paper hats as wearable art for the next day’s tea party. Sign up now for both workshop and tea party to experience Bulitt’s magical, storytelling tea.
DETAILS: $5-17, Dec. 29, 12-4 p.m., Education Studio, Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin St., San Francisco.
CONTACT: (415) 581-3666, awyckoff@asianart.org, www.asianart.org
Jay Kuo’s ‘Homeland’
Homeland, the first musical written and composed by a Chinese American about Chinese Americans, debuted at Magic Theatre, Fort Mason Center in San Francisco.
Lyricist and composer Jay Kuo quit his job as a lawyer to follow his passion for musicals.
Homeland is a story about two star-crossed lovers — a native son from rural west Texas and the daughter of Korean immigrants — who struggle to survive the battle for the hearts and minds of America, where race, religion and values collide.
Homeland is a musical in the traditional, grand style, with romantic ballads, stirring anthems and a full orchestral score. The limited engagement hopes to confirm the show’s appeal and also continue to develop the piece before its full commercial launch in 2007. More information on the show can be found at www.homelandmusical.com
Singer Vienna Teng Strives for Balance
As the overachieving eldest child of Taiwanese parents who both work in the high-tech industry, it almost went without saying that Vienna Teng would attend Stanford University, then take a job as a software engineer in Silicon Valley.
But she chucked it all, packed up her car and started traveling across country, singing her songs and playing piano in clubs and coffee shops. Even Teng was surprised when she started attracting a national spotlight, appearing on National Public Radio and The Late Show with David Letterman.
“I started out thinking it wasn’t relevant,” she says of her ethnicity. “By the sheer nature of it being unusual, it got noticed. … It feels like an unfair advantage, but it’s an advantage I can’t disavow.”
Teng’s latest releases include Waking Hour and Dreaming Through the Noise.
Rappers Ring In Hmong New Year
Hmong rappers were featured at the Hmong New Year festivities held recently at the Caldwell County fairgrounds in Lenoir, N.C.
The New Year festival, traditionally held after the harvest season in late November, celebrates millennia-old Hmong culture with dancing, music, games and food.
Paul “L.P.” Yang, 20, doesn’t see blending rap music with the ancient culture as a conflict. Instead, Yang said he’ll rap about the Hmong people of Laos helping U.S. forces during the Vietnam War or about the hardships they endured in fleeing persecution after the battles ended.
“It’s a way to introduce people in the rap community to my culture,” he said. “The older Hmong don’t understand it, but the youth do.”
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