Thai American Wins Mr. Hyphen Crown
November 17, 2009
By Annie Chan and Angela Pang
OAKLAND – Cute and charming Thai American Pahole Sookkasikon was crowned Mr. Hyphen 2009 on Nov. 14 at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center and was awarded a $1,000 donation to the non-profit of his choice.
He decided to split the proceeds between two organizations he passionately believes in - the Thai-American Scholarship Fund and Helping Janet, in conjunction with the Asian American Donor Program.
Created by two Thai American youths—Johnny Vilakeo and Virada Chatikul, the Thai American Scholarship assists students of Thai heritage from Northern California with the costs of a college education and to encourage participation in programs that instill appreciation and knowledge of Thai culture.
Helping Janet, strives to find a bone marrow donor for Janet Liang, a 22 year old UCLA student who was recently diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (bi-phenotypic) while finishing her bachelor’s degree as an International Development Studies major and Education minor. Her story, was all too similar to Sookkasikon’s close childhood friend Michelle Maykin of Project Michelle, who past away this past July from Leukemia.
“Michelle taught us is that we have to continue fighting to increase the numbers of donors in the bone marrow registry and that our Asian American brothers and sisters need our help,” says Sookkasikon. “Michelle taught us to not give up so that we can save people like Janet.
“Winning Mr. Hyphen is important because it is a love letter to Janet to be strong,” he continued. “The money will be used to allow AADP to facilitate more bone marrow drives to give her hope.”
Sookkasikon is also a core member of Save the Thai Temple, a group of second generation Thai who spearheaded the fight to keep Sunday’s food offering service at Berkeley’s Thai Temple.
Mr. Hyphen is an annual competition recognizing men from the local Bay Area organization who strive to provide valuable resources and raise awareness of issues affecting the Asian American community. Organized by Hyphen magazine, the event emceed by Sri-Lankan American comedian D’Lo, included rounds of talent, Q&A and a fashion show. Six Asian American men represented non-profit organizations that spread the word about important issues such as education, arts, politics and more competed for the prize of $1,000 donation to their non-profit organization.
During the talent portion of the show, Leng Phe representing Tiny Toons Cambodia, had girls swooning, as he performed his sexy rendition of Marvin Gaye’s classic “Let’s Get it On.”
Danny Le, of APIA Spoken Word and Poetry Summit wowed the crowd with his poignant spoken word piece entitled, “Vietnamese Men Are Lovers,” claiming that their love is “hot like pho!”
Judges - journalist and activist Helen Zia, playwright Philip Kan Gotanda, and reigning Mr. Gapa 2009 Eric Yu, led a rousing round of Q&A.
When asked who he could have dinner with, dead or alive, Tony Douangviseth of Serve the People, answered Malcom X because “he is someone I want to be - for his commitment to people.”
During the fashion round R.J. Lozada representing Center for Asian American Media, and Amit Singh, of Sikhcess, looked dashing in designs by fiftyseven-thirtythree and Estrella Tadeo.
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