AAS 1101: Imagining Asian America

Hmong Minnesota Student Association presents "Heritage Day: Crossroads in Time" Cultural Show
Saturday 11/22, 12:00-4:00pm
St. Paul Student Center Northstar Ballroom

"Come and enjoy the festivities that Heritage Day has to offer. Our theme is Crossroads in Time, the past, present, and future of the Hmong. It serves as a peace binding connection between our elders and our youths. Come and celebrate the rich culture and history of the Hmong people with us." [play, music, dances, clothing show]

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Department of African American and African Studies and the Institute of Advanced Studies

Wednesday, November 12, 2008 4:00 PM

Cost: Free and open to the public!

Room 125
Nolte Center for Continuing Education
Minneapolis Campus

This roundtable discussion will be one of several events leading up to the fortieth anniversary of the peaceful protest efforts that forced the University to establish a Black Studies unit on campus. The panelists will examine several competing narratives about the events surrounding the January 15, 1969 occupation of Morrill Hall. Organized by Walt Jacobs, professor of African American & African Studies, the panel will include Rose Brewer, Keith Mayes, Yuichiro Onishi and John Wright of African American & African Studies, as well as Alisha Volante of the History department.

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Here is a link to Kalia's lyric documentary on vimeo, "The Place Where we were Born"

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Please come and help us celebrate our first ever CD release, /*¿Nation
of Immigrants? */- a compilation of spoken word and performance poetry
by Minnesotan Indigenous, immigrant, adoptee, refugee, and people of
color - that seeks to explore, challenge, and explode the blanket-term
"nation of immigrants". We gave preference to Minnesota artists that do
not have their own CD out yet. It is really a spectacular
collection, educational, thought-provoking, and inspiring, and it's just
in time for the gift-giving season!

And did we mention there will be free food? The CD will be on sale for
$10 and there will be some short performances by some of the featured
artists.

Help us celebrate Minnesota poets and political art! And spread the word...

**

*/¿Nation of Immigrants? Minnesota spoken word artists and poets
question the world/*

A CD featuring spoken word artists* *and poets* Robert Karimi, Marcie
Rendon, Juliana Hu Pegues, Tatiana Ormaza, Ibe Kaba, Khalid Adam, Preeti
Kaur, Bobby Wilson, Lorena Duarte, Ka Vang, Ed Bok Lee, Tish Jones,
Diego Vazquez, Christy Namee Eriksen, and Charlotte Albrecht*.

Produced by the Loft Literary Center
Curated by Bao Phi, Associate Program Director, Equilibrum: Spoken Word
at the Loft
Recorded, Engineered, Mixed and Mastered by Antonio Del Rosario
Original CD Cover Art by Ricardo Levins Morales
Graphic Design by Douglas Kearney

CD Release Party
Saturday, November 22, 8 p.m.
Featuring short performances by featured artists
At the Loft, 1011 Washington Avenue South
Free.
Food and beverage provided at reception following performances

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Questions to Consider

How did the U.S.’s involvement in Southeast Asia lead to the forced migration of Southeast Asians to the United States?
What distinguished the different “waves” of Southeast Asian refugees?
What is the difference between an “immigrant” and a “refugee?”
How did the U.S. regulate refugee migration?
How did Southeast Asian refugees adapt to America? What challenges did they face and how did they cope with them?
How did class, gender, and age affect how refugee families adapted and viewed America?

Posted by erikalee at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Questions to Consider
Why has it been so difficult for Asian Americans to be fully represented in U.S. electoral politics?
Where have they been successful?
What are recent Asian American voting patterns?
How do the McCain and Obama campaigns appeal to Asian Americans?
What is the media representation of McCain and Obama on Asian American-related issues?
What is the role of race in this presidential election?

LECTURE OUTLINE
The “Last Bastion” (Helen Zia)
-Political empowerment for Asian Americans has been a "stubborn hurdle"
-Asian Americans are still susceptible to charges that they are “not really” American
-1996 Campaign Finance Scandal

Links
"An Interview with Ling-Chi Wang" (1996 Campaign Finance Controversy) April, 1997, PBS
Peggy Orenstien, "Mixed Messenger: What it means to have a biracial candidate running for president," New York Times, March 23, 2008
Stories related to John McCain's "Gook" comment during the 2000 presidential election
Jerry Kang, "Obama and Ozawa," National Law Journal, March, 2008
"New Senator Makes History," (Mee Moua), Minnesota Public Radio, January 30, 2002
Asian Americans for McCain-Palin
Asians Americans for Barack Obama
Irwin Tang, author: "Gook: John McCain's Racism and Why It Matters."
John McCain’s visit to Little Saigon,(CA) Jan., 2000 and support from Vietnamese Americans
Asian Americans for Obama (video)
Maya Soetoro-Ng’s appeal to AAPI communities
"Obama and Race on the Range," MPR, October 21, 2008
"Volunteers for Obama Face a Complex Issue," NY Times, October 14, 2008
"For Some, Uncertainty Starts at Racial Identity," NY Times, Oct. 14, 2008
MN McCain Rally: "He's an Arab" October 10, 2008

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Intent of the 1965 Immigration Act
-Demonstrate American democracy and civil rights during the Cold War
-No re-opening of the "floodgates" to new immigration
-Goal to increase immigration from Europe
What the Law Did
-Abolished the restrictive national origins system
-Gave priority to "family reunification"
New Immigration
-Unintended Consequences: Immigration from Asia and Latin America
-International and Domestic Factors
-Post-1965 Chinese, Filipinos, Koreans, South Asians
-Why They Come (U.S. immigration policy, global economic restructuring, rapid economic development in Asia, increasing U.S. political, economic, and military involvement in Asia)
-Demographics

Questions to Consider:
What was the intent of the 1965 Act?
What did it do?
How did it affect Asian immigration?
Who are the new post-1965 immigrants from China, Korea, South Asia, and the Philippines?

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Lecture Outline
Roots of the Asian American Movement
-Legacy of Asian American resistance during the era of exclusion
-Rise of the 2nd and 3rd American-born generations
-Social Protest and Liberation Movements of the 1960s and 1970s
Pan-Asian American Ethnicity
-Recognition of commonalities and similarities of experiences across all Asian immigrant groups
-Proclaimed themselves “Asian Americans” - implied that they were both Asian and American
-Asian American pan-ethnicity promoted to encourage community cohesiveness, activism, and political empowerment
“Third World” Coalitions
-"Internal Colonialism" - discrimination against peoples of color in the U.S. connected to each other and directly linked to the condition of oppressed peoples of the “Third World” (Asia, Africa, Latin America).
-Anti-war movement: war in Southeast Asia was a racist war
Third World Liberation Front Strike, San Francisco State University, 1968-1969
Legacies of the Asian American Movement (Education, Politics, Law/Policy, Communities, Arts)
What is the role of Asian American Studies today?
-Glenn Omatsu: “Re-envisioning the Mission of Asian American Studies in Our Communities”
-Today’s paradox: unprecedented number of students in Asian American Studies classes, but their learning is not being connected to communities off campus
-Question: What is the role of students to share their knowledge with others and to play a critical role in their communities?
Models for K-12 Teaching

Questions to Consider
What were the roots of the Asian American movement?
What were the movement’s goals?
What is pan-Asian American ethnicity?
How relevant are the goals of the Asian American movement today? (Omatsu)
How might Omatsu’s framework for Asian American Studies in communities apply to your group’s K-12 outreach project?

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Equilibrium: Spoken Word at the Loft presents
KAY BARRETT and LETICIA HERNANDEZ
with special guest SHÁ CAGE
and DJ Trinidad

Saturday, October 11, 8 p.m.
At the Loft Literary Center, Open Book
1011 Washington Avenue South
Suite 200
Minneapolis, MN 55415
$5/$3 for students and Loft members

More information: www.loft.org

Raised in the American south, Shá Cage has been one of MN's premiere Spoken Word artists for years achieving national and international recognition for her performance and writing. Crossing genres as a spoken word poet, playwright and professional actor; her work has taken her all across the Unites States, London, Canada, Croatia, South Africa and more.

Kay Ulanday Barrett is a spoken word performer, poet, speaker, and martial artist who connects life as a Filipina/Pinay-Amerikan Queer navigating struggle, resistance, and laughter in the U.S. Kay was recently published in We Got Issues! a Young Woman's Guide to Living a Bold, Courageous, &
Empowered Life edited by Rha Goddess & JLove Calderón, Mother Tongues edited by C.C. Carter, and Kicked Out brought by HomoFactus Press. Kay has founded Gabriela Network's National LGBTQ Caucus and is currently membership director of APIA womyn's interdisciplinary theater ensemble Mango Tribe, and Kay's self-published chapbook, for^in was proudly released 2006.

The daughter of a Salvadoran family, Leticia Hernandez was born in Los Angeles and now lives and writes in San Francisco. Over the last ten years, she has featured at venues such as Yale University, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts , the Nuyorican Poets Café, The Guild Complex, Highways, and Taller
Puertorriqueño. In 2000, she was part of a delegation of artists and activists that traveled to El Salvador to perform, dialogue, and exchange with various communities throughout the country.Since receiving the William Carlos Williams Prize from the Academy of American Poets in 1996, her writing has appeared in various literary journals, newspapers, and anthologies. For over sixteen years, Leticia has worked as an educator and youth advocate throughout California. Currently, she is Executive Director of GirlSource in San Francisco.

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Beyond the Pure: Readings by Writers of Color
Thursday, October 9, 7 pm
Intermedia Arts, 2822 Lyndale Avenue South

Celebrate the re-launch of Beyond the Pure: Readings by Writers of Color as
it moves to its new location at Intermedia Arts! Co-curated by Carolyn
Holbrook and Julie Bates, and featuring IBé, BAO PHI, and SUN YUNG SHIN,
this is guaranteed to be a night to remember! This event is free and will
be followed by a reception in the Intermedia Arts gallery.

IBé was born in Guinea, and grew up between Sierra Leone, Chicago, St.
Cloud, and the Twin Cities. Quite naturally, he lives in the Middle of the
Atlantic…with a mailing address in Minneapolis, MN. Among others, he
writes about the African Experience, both in Africa and in America. Bridge
Across Atlantic, his first collection of poems, is a small dose of these
stories.

Bao Phi has been a performance poet since 1991. A two-time Minnesota Grand
Slam champion and a National Poetry Slam finalist, Bao Phi has appeared on
HBO Presents Russell Simmons Def Poetry, and a poem of his appeared in the
2006 Best American Poetry anthology. He has performed in venues and schools
across the country, from the Nuyorican Poets Café to the University of
California, Berkeley. Currently he continues to perform across the country,
remains active as an Asian American community organizer, and works at the
Loft, where he creates and operates programs for artists and audiences of
color.

Sun Yung Shin is a 2007 Bush Artist Fellow for Literature and author of the
collection of poems Skirt Full of Black (Coffee House Press 2007);
co-editor of Outsiders Within: Writings on Transracial Adoption; (South End
Press 2006) and author of Cooper's Lesson (Children's Book Press 2004), a
bilingual Korean/English illustrated book for children. She's currently
working on her second book of poems with the working title The Invisible
Choir and a memoir of her immigration and naturalization. Her website is
http://www.sunyungshin.com/

Beyond the Pure: Readings by Writers of Color is part of The Carol Connolly
Reading Series, Minnesota’s first and only ongoing series of public
literary readings whose mission it is to provide a platform for writers
historically excluded from traditional literary settings.

More info at:
http://www.intermediaarts.org/literary/calendar#beyondthepure

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Inclusion for Some
--Repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Laws
Why were Japanese Americans Interned?
"Military Necessity"
--War Hysteria
--Racial Prejudice
--Lack of Political Leadership
How did Japanese Americans Respond?
--Legal Challenges
--Service in the U.S. Military
--Draft Resisters

After the War
--Resettlement
--Redress Movement

Questions to Consider
How was World War Two a watershed for Asian Americans?
How did it bring inclusion for some and exclusion for others?
What was the government’s rationale for interning Japanese Americans?
What were the diverse ways in which Japanese Americans responded?

Links
Jerry Kang, "What 12-7 has to Teach about 9-11"
Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt's Report on Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast, 1942
“Gov. Olson (California) Wants All Japs Moved,” San Francisco News, 3/6/42
“Their Best Way to Show Loyalty,” San Francisco News, 3/6/42
Ansel Adams’s Manzanar photographs, collected at the Library of Congress

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LECTURE OUTLINE
"America is in the Heart"
Different Modes of Resistance
--Labor Activism
--Legal Challenges to Immigration Restriction
--Challenging Segregation
--Citizenship (Wong Kim Ark, Takeo Ozawa, Bhagat Singh Thind)
Carlos Bulosan - writing as a political act

Questions to Consider
How did Asian Americans fight for equal rights?
Why did they struggle for equality in the face of so much discrimination?
What did their challenges do for all Americans?

Links
"Ill and in Pain, Detainee Dies in U.S. Hands," New York Times, August 12, 2008
INS Records: Interrogation of Fong Wong, 1909
INS Records: Affidavit of Fong Wong, U.S. citizen, 1905
Chinese Exclusion Act, 5/6/1882
1924 Immigration Act
Ozawa v. United States (1922)
Bhagat Singh Thind biography

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Readings and Links

Continue reading "Sept. 24: Asian Exclusion in the Americas: Angel Island" »

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Reading:

Finish Paik Lee, Quiet Odyssey

Takaki, Chap.9 (“Dollar a Day, Dime a Dance: The Forgotten Filipinos")

Continue Bulosan, America is in the Heart

On-line:
"Filipino Tragedy Continues," The Philippine Review, 1931

Emil Guillermo, "America was in the heart, but the FBI was in his life," SF Chronicle, October 8, 2002

LECTURE OUTLINE
--Spanish American War
--America in the Philippines ("The White Man's Burden")
--Emigration
--Labor and Communities
--Filipino Independence and American Exclusion

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Reading:
Continue Lee, Quiet Odyssey
Begin Bulosan, America is in the Heart

On-line:
Report of the Governor of Washington Territory, 1886

"Asiatic Coolie Invasion," c. 1905

LECTURE OUTLINE
What is an "Oriental?"
Forms of Anti-Asian Sentiment
Different Images of the "Oriental"
--coolie
--pollutant/deviant
--"Yellow Peril"
--"model minority"
--"gook"
Race Relations in the U.S.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
What is the relationship between images, stereotypes, and racial violence, and discrimination?
What, when, and where did anti-Asian campaigns occur?
Why were Asians the targets of so much discrimination?
What form did this discrimination take?

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