Summer Edition 2023 | Asian American Life

[Music] thank you hi I'm ernabel demillo welcome to Asian American Life today I'm at the Queen's Museum in Fresh Meadows Corona Park thousands of visitors come here every year to check out the cool exhibits and artwork like the one behind me a floor-to-ceiling mural by the artist Christine Sun Kim [Music] laughs coming up I'll take you on a tour of the museum store which displays many of the items featured on our show I'll have that story but first here's a look at what's ahead on our show sing along with Clark on stage plus we dive right into the best seafood market in town preserving the sports of shirom Korean wrestling and 20 Summers celebrates art and music now on Asian American Life foreign stops in any museum is the museum gift shop and this one inside the Queens museum has a very interesting story behind it oh I love your store so happy you're here Christine jean-jake is the proprietor of the Queen's Museum gift shop by the August tree where every item every knick-knack has a story to tell even the cookbooks immigrant stories so the story of food not us you know just cooking but the story of a family through food and where local Queens artists have found a place on the shelves we have this math professor from Queens College his name is Christopher hanosa so he makes all these earrings with a program called Mathematica and then he 3D prints them so now I've partnered him with a Filipino manufacturer of lamps so this is we're going to turn these into legs jean-jake can't hide her excitement for her gift shop and the people behind the product She carries maybe because it was a long road to get here rewind to 2013 soon after immigrating to Queens from the Philippines jean-jacquet an industrial designer and a friend Billy dogillo decided to start an online gift store hoping to entice Filipinos abroad to buy American Goods nobody bought but my mom and my high school best friend so so um we but we realized there was people in the local area they started buying and they liked the merchandise that we had so 15 days after opening their online shop they shifted their Market to local New York buyers but it was still tough finding customers the August trees pop-up store became a long time fixture at the Queen's night summer Market until a phone call from the markets organizer he called us and said you know the Queen's museum is looking for a new store owner would you be interested so definitely definitely the August tree opened inside the Queen's Museum in October 2019 and just as they were finally making a profit the pandemic shut it all down in New York a ban on crowds of 500 or more Broadway dark concert halls and museums set to close fortunately for jean jacket the museum was one of the first institutions to reopen during lockdown well museums and cultural institutions are now allowed to reopen in New York City we were able to open our store the thing was no nobody else was open so everybody just came here they went shopping for books and uh since the store is very tiny we had we were only allowed to let two people in at the time so we had the long line it was so nice you know we actually um took pictures of people lining up for the star since then we've been thriving and growing jean-jake and dogillo also run the recently opened unisphere Cafe where they serve coffee featured on our show nguen coffee in fact when browsing you may notice several items featured on Asian American Life yes and then all the adult books yes including some of the books we featured on the show yes yes we met because you're a big fan of Asian American Life yes we're really really big fans because the show you know makes you feel like oh it's they're seen feeling seen and belonging are important themes for jean-jake she gives back by helping other entrepreneurs during the pandemic she helped immigrants impacted by covid start businesses by hosting Zoom workshops called hecho local some of the attendees turned their passions into products which she now carries in her gift shop her name is Talisa Almonte her art will go now on on those products wow so that's our news local and so we're showcasing all these like really great artists making them visible yes yes yes I think it's a teacher in me yeah I feel the need but not this teacher but you're like a cheerleader oh yeah yeah I'm ernabel demillo for Asian American Life it's a place where dreams are born and stars are made where the Music of the Night can ignite a career on stage or screen and for Clark mantilia it's a desire that was calling him from half a world away home is in the Philippines I came from Cebu it's in the middle of the country so home is where I Started Loving musicals and doing Cedar yeah home is where it all started Clark says he started in Community Theater back home at the musical theater wasn't overly popular in Cebu despite having an undergraduate degree in computer engineering five years into that computer career he still yearned for the stage I started my YouTube channel back in 2016. I did I experimented on a lot of things when I started the channel I started with a cover song with musicals so and then I alternated both content type of content with Duets and then the covers but somehow the duet versions got picked up by a lot of people so then I decided to just focus on that and so Clark created his YouTube channel Clark on stage where he invites visitors to sing along the channel has over 380 000 subscribers and over 100 million views from people singing with Clark some even posting their own covers the success of the channel in some part has to be due to the high production value and personable on-camera accompaniment from Clark and his talented vocals it's kind of different how I did it I kind of like elevated it somehow to make it more interactive I put on my face where I saw another video which they only just showed lyrics and that's fine but I wanted to do something different and make it different and while for some Clark's channel is a whole lot of fun and perhaps some singing in the shower Clark was surprised to learn that his channel has helped other aspiring performers reach their goals and land leading roles in major Productions Haiti sound got a national tour right the first person who played eurydice Morgan she actually reached out to me on Instagram and told me that she booked the role using uh by practicing using my videos it feels so nice and validating that I kind of help people um go and live their dreams I guess but the success of his YouTube channel wasn't enough during the pandemic Clark decided to take a small leap of faith board a plane and make his way to New York City he studied the New York Film Academy where he spent the year honing his craft Clark didn't just come to New York to learn he also came here to perform so when he decided to bring his YouTube channel to don't tell Mama we were there to capture the big night in the cramped confines of a New York City Cabaret Clark was about to spread his wings and his talent audience members were asked to write three songs on slips of paper place them into a bowl and they were randomly chosen to see who would get to sing with Clark a challenging evening for any performer not knowing which song was next or how capable his duet partner would be but the talent for the evening was off the hook it felt surreal you know because being a Filipino you would think that Filipinos would enjoy more of my content or like my audience the Filipinos as well but funny enough when I started the channel I have more us audience than the Philippines audience so it felt surreal and at the same time I felt happy like I get to meet people who are enjoying my content or the things that I do online in addition to don't tell Mama Clark has also performed at 54 Below in Green Room 42 hopefully just the beginning of a very long and productive performing career I'm Andrew falzone for Asian American Life I'm kyung Yoon at the aqua best fish store on the Lower East Side and you know I just learned something useful that it takes about seven years for a lobster to grow one pound so that means this friend is probably over 50 years old and a fitting tribute for a store that spans Generations [Music] now okay what's a safe way to say hello to him like um I always grab a phone if you want to grab it by yourself you grab it from the bottom so they be careful meet Stephen Wong a second generation Seafood expert and owner of aquabest an unassuming Seafood Market on the Lower East Side that has an impressive variety of fresh fish oysters crabs and yes the lobsters this is a male and this is a female the man long knows his lobsters having had to learn the ropes from an early age after his father passed away in 1987 leaving his mother to run the business by herself I am the youngest of four so she had four kids we were very very poor when my father passed away she brought us into the family business where everyone had to help out so even uh at eight years old during elementary school after school I would actually have to help um you know pack Lobster or pack conch and help out the family today aquabest is the largest purveyor of lobsters in New York supplying premium Seafood to New York City's top Michelin star chefs and hundreds of other restaurants and customers in the Northeast being a child of hard-working Chinese immigrants Stephen says he's proud to be a bridge between cultures and generations I'm American I'm a chinese-american I have Chinese values and cultures I have American values and cultures but I'm able to bridge these things together because if you think about the restaurant industry it's not just American it's not just French it's not just Italian but they all come from different parts of the world and we all have the same story they're like hey I want to do something Western here but I want to bring something from back home I think this is where like we can Bridge these things together and I think that's an advantage that I have before the pandemic aquabest only sold Seafood to restaurants but after covet hit and the restaurants closed they made a decision to keep their doors open for ordinary customers early pandemic for the first 90 days I never closed one day out of the shop not one day not during the riots not during early pandemic and I would actually open the store early just for senior citizens to become shocked the New York Times included Stephen in its photo essay of New York City service workers who kept the city going during the darkest months of lockdown and what we didn't think about was fishermen still needed a fish to make money but consumers still needed products to eat so we kind of like combine them too and we open up to the public Steven shared with me some expert tips on how to tell if fish is fresh there is probably three things that you need to know um one is you look at the ice it's really clear on and there's this puffy right oh not sunken not sunken okay um number two is you're gonna touch it you can't touch it and it's a little firm it's not mushy yep and the third is always about smell and Steven's advice for the Next Generation it's whatever you do always aim to be the best I'm kyung Yoon for Asian American Life when you talk about sports from South Korea most people think of Taekwondo but one man is making it his mission to teach and promote the lesser-known traditional national sport of shirum using only Sapa sand and strategy these opponents are practicing the ancient form of Korean wrestling called shirum which dates back thousands of years to the fourth Century the draw of the energy between the crowd with my opponent and a feeling the sand it's unlike any other martial art and even though it may look like the Japanese sport of sumo wrestling shitum is decidedly different taking place in a sand pit where competitors face off wearing a cloth belt around their waist and thighs called Sapa the objective is to bring any part of your opponent's body above the knee to the ground not by overpowering them but rather out balancing them according to Mr sang young Kim who has spent the last 30 years teaching and promoting shirum in the United States foreign there's no punching there's no kicking there's no chokes it's purely the form of balance and very gentleman way of transcending someone's energy to another which effectively means wrestlers don't use brute force a method that appeals to even the most seasoned mixed martial artist I love how it's just the like camaraderie everyone's so like happy and kind like we're all and you take someone down you lift them back up and you rub their the sand off their back and you give them a big hug and it's always like the whole crowd is smiling it's a very good atmosphere different than a lot of you know Combat Sports that I've been a part of the unique form of folk wrestling is thought to have developed in ancient Korea when bare hands were the only weapons to help people survive against predators later shinum was used in military operations and then became a popular Pastime with tournaments being held at holiday celebrations and festivals in 2018 shirum was added to the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage lists which seeks to protect and preserve cultural Treasures a mission directly aligned with Mr Kim's a lot of you know Korean Americans will go without any cultural background or traditional take backs but through this sport he wants everyone of every nation to know that hey we have a traditional sport in Korea be proud of it no matter what your cultural background is this is ours but we'll teach you regardless over the past decades Mr Kim has spent considerable time and money trying to preserve the sport of shirum teaching at his church in Great Neck Long Island and its summer camps as well as competing in tournaments and performing at festivals throughout the city drawing new interest in this ancient art form nowadays more and more the younger people's fascinated with the shirom's ideas you have to think a little bit differently because you start with the grip which is very different than Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or Judo where you have to work your way into getting the grip a grip that Mr Kim hopes will hold on to a new generation of shitam fans culturally in our background since back 5000 years ago this was always the highlight of any Fall Festival that Rush that's Resurgence of energy is what he wanteds to send off to everyone who is interested in Cheatham if you are interested in shirom Mr Kim and his students will be competing at the Korean American sports festival at the end of June four Asian American life I'm Susan Jun [Music] I'm Vivian Lee thousands of years ago poetry bound the earliest humans together in spoken form even in today's Digital World poetry has a purpose that's according to one of cuny's own a poet who's being recognized with an honor many poets dream of after leaving raxruha after Crossing Mexico with a coyote Rhythm and sound are gateways to meaning for poet and distinguished Professor kamiko Hahn after reaching at midnight that Baron New Mexico border a man and his daughter looked to Antelope Wells for Asylum and were arrested when I was a little girl my mother would read stories to me and I loved the sound of the words after forms read in Spanish to the Mayan speaking father after a cookie but no water after the wait for the loan bus I was enamored by The Power of Words and the playfulness of words after boarding after the little girl's temperature spiked she suffered two heart attacks vomited and stopped breathing art should be a given in one's life I think the point of life is stimulation and after food and shelter I think human stimulation is oftentimes art as one of four new chancellors elected to the academy of American poets this year kamiko Hahn will be an ambassador for poets and their art she's published 10 collections of her own poems earned fellowships from the Guggenheim foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts and for 29 years has taught at Queen's College currently teaching creative writing and literary translation in the MFA program as a former board member of the Poetry Society of America the ones responsible for putting poetry in New York subway cars she wants to use her new position with the academy to bring more poetry into people's frenetic lives there is self-awareness involved and self well let's say self-connection and connecting the self to the outer world as well the one she reads here from her collection foreign bodies offers that connection she wrote it after reading a news article the coroner examined the failed liver and swollen brain then Jacqueline's chest and head were stitched up and she returned to Guatemala in a short white coffin to her mother grandparents and dozens of women preparing tamales and beans to feed The Grieving writing for people who have otherwise been marginalized is really a political Act and giving my students an opportunity to express themselves is for me as a political act as well Han also studies and teaches zuihitsu a form of writing from 10th Century Japan when Han says a golden age of literature flourished thanks to women neither poem nor poetic essay and meaning running brush the zui hitsu is characterized by a lack of structure found in Western poems Han published her own book of zuihitsu the narrow road to the interior when I was a young woman and just really starting out there weren't a lot of published Asian American Writers uh there weren't a lot of Asian American teachers for that matter being an Asian-American poet and teacher has meant that I'm also a model I'm a mentor and for students who are not Asian American I'm someone who is different as part of their diverse increasingly diverse community and that's really really important to me April is National poetry month and Han says she's inspired by the oh Miami poetry festival's use of mundane objects parking tickets rooftops grocery store items to Showcase poetry if you look up and read a poem on the subway you are connecting with someone who you don't know and that connection makes you reflect turning the banal into something extraordinary one word at a time for Asian American life I'm Vivian Lee singer-songwriter Julianne saparidi's no no boy project is unlike anything you've heard before folk songs about the Asian American Experience I caught up with Julian saparidi in Provincetown Massachusetts where he is an artist in Residence at 20 Summers an Arts organization run by a CUNY film professor [Music] Julian saparidi has a PHD in Asian American history but instead of publishing pages of an academic paper he turned his dissertation into discography with a series of songs about the Asian American Experience what the no no boy project is all about kind of is using folk songs to to reveal these histories that a lot of us never learn about he had to join the war instead of just like the three people on my dissertation committee now I'd go on tour and get to put out music and share all this history with people is one of a handful of Asian American artists in residency recipients at 20 Summers a non-profit that imagines a more Equitable future by incubating original work in this historic Barn in Provincetown Massachusetts welcome to the Hawthorne bun this space was built by Charles Hawthorne in 1907 as the Cape Cod School of Art Alice gong is the program director at 20 Summers which attracts artists from New York City and around the country well we were talking about our residents this year I'm like why don't we get some Asian Americans artists here maybe they'll be inspired to be in the same room this is a No-No boy it's concerts later on tonight CUNY film Professor Aziz aisham is 20 Summers executive director one of the reasons why Julian's work really spoke to us was that his work is is absolutely beautiful the songs are absolutely moving and touching and they're unlike anything you've ever heard before [Music] sapporita incorporates field recordings from historic sites and oral histories from individuals into each of his songs uh you know he doesn't just sing love songs and breakup songs he sings songs about kind of Untold Stories of Asian American history brought back 45 s from Paris in 65. it's operita grew up in Nashville Tennessee his mother a painter who fled the war in Vietnam after her grandfather was killed by a grenade in their home she's out in 68 and she doesn't see any family member again for a decade never sees her dad again [Music] while attending Berkeley College of Music He toured with an indie rock band in his early 20s burnt out from the road he moved to Wyoming where his education about Asian American history took root while learning about the 1885 Rock Springs massacre in which 150 white miners killed 28 Chinese workers and the Heart Mountain relocation Center where 14 000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II and what really got me into it was I saw this picture of a jazz band that formed at that Heart Mountain detention center and as a musician Asian American Musician I never really saw myself especially not an old black and white photos of like pop musicians growing up so that was like a lineage for me the Georgie gawa Orchestra which formed at the Heart Mountain relocation Center and then toured outside the prison camp throughout Wyoming during World War II is a subject of this No-No Voice song despite being behind barbed wire brought their instruments put on dances for people and really persevered and made the most out of such a horrible situation can you give the world a Twist saparidi says his time at 20 Summers is a respite from touring with the weighty subjects of his songs and a chance for him and his wife and co-producer Emilia Halverson to work on their new album for Smithsonian folkways including a song about the first Asian Americans who visited Oregon in 1603 17 years before the Pilgrims landed here in Provincetown Massachusetts I do want folks like myself like those Asians in the middle of the country to hear these songs be like maybe if they do feel not a place of belonging they can hold on to some of this but you know it's also for just like the good people who raise me those like white Republicans who raised me in Tennessee those Red Staters too right using history that's a big part of the project using these songs as a trojan horse as a teacher you know I can go to a Cowboy Bar a church and play some folk songs and I got you man we're talking about immigration at the bar after the show no no boy is on tour this summer playing at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in DC on July 6th for Asian American life I'm Rainer Ramirez that's our show for now be sure to visit the Queen's Museum and of course the gift shop and if you want more information on our show be sure to follow us on Facebook Instagram and Tick Tock at Asian American life and watch July 4th are special on the 70th anniversary of the Korean Armistice between Korea and the US that's right here on CUNY TV I'm ernabel demillo we'll see you next time [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: CUNY TV

Views: 461

Keywords:

Id: sUCedFgobtI

Length: 29min 0sec (1740 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 07 2023