Tag: wide-american-earth

Catch Nisei Widows Club at East West Players starting on November 7th!

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NWC

The Japanese American National Museum is pleased to support East West Players as a community partner for The Nisei Widows Club: How Tomi Got her Groove Back.

The third installment of The Nisei Widows Club comic trilogy follows the lives of a group of widowed Nisei (second generation) women who only have each other in the face of loss and the search for love in their golden years. Tomi loses her only son to a heart attack at the early age of 45, and the other widows gather around her during this time of grief. Hilarity ensues when they embark on an unforgettable trip to Hawaii, which unleashes the cougar in all of them at a hula retreat.

“The ‘Nisei Widows Club’ have really struck a humorous chord with the community, even though the story centers around loss,” says Tim Dang, Producing Artistic Director of East West Players. “This newest story will feature even more laughter demonstrating the strength of these senior citizen women in times of adversity.”

The production brings back the original four “Nisei Widows”—Takayo Fischer as Sumi, Emily Kuroda as Hana, June Kyoko Lu as Betty, Jeanne Sakata as Tomi. EWP introduces Tui Asau as the object of their desire—Kimo the hula teacher.

Traci Kato-Kiriyama and Johnny Kwon give powerful performances in the Gallery Performance, Our American Voice
Traci Kato-Kiriyama and Johnny Kwon give powerful performances in “Our American Voice”

JANM has a long history of partnership with East West Players—from hosting play readings presented by EWP, to our current collaboration, Our American Voice, a two-person show exploring six diverse stories of Asian Pacific Americans that is performed inside the exhibition gallery in conjunction with the I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story exhibition which was created by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.

This dynamic gallery performance stars Traci Kato-Kiriyama and Johnny Kwon portraying both historic and fictional characters, including Gordon Hirabayashi, Katherine Cheung (the first licensed Asian American female aviator), and poet Carlos Bulosan.

If you haven’t seen it already, you have one last chance to see Our American Voice this Saturday, October 26 at 1PM! Be sure to check out the exhibition, I Want the Wide American Earth, before it closes on Sunday, October 27.

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WORLD PREMIERE
The Nisei Widows Club: How Tomi Got Her Groove Back
By Betty Tokudani
Directed by Amy Hill

November 7 – December 8, 2013

Preview Performances:
Thursday, November 7 – November 9 at 8pm
Sunday, November 10 at 2pm
All preview seats are $21, $16 for students.

Regular Performances:
November 14 – November 29: Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm
November 30 – December 8: Thursdays through Saturdays at 8pm, Saturdays & Sundays at 2pm

David Henry Hwang Theater
at the Union Center of the Arts
120 Judge John Aiso Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012.

For more information please visit www.eastwestplayers.org

A Carlos Bulosan Centenary Celebration at JANM

Esther Shin Leave a comment

Carlos Bulosan

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Join us for a special Carlos Bulosan centenary celebration at JANM!

“The Writer is Also a Citizen,” is a FREE event, and will take place on Sunday, October 27, 2013 at 2PM in the Tateuchi Democracy Forum.

Carlos Bulosan (1913-1956) was a poet, novelist, essayist, fiction writer, and labor organizer who left the Philippines at age 17 to look for work in the U.S. What he found was racism, low-paying jobs, and a brilliant and unexpected literary career.

In conjunction with the closing of the exhibition, I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story, whose title is taken from one of Bulosan’s poems, five Filipino-American writers—including poet Barbara Jane Reyes (Diwata, For the City That Nearly Broke Me) and playwright and novelist Noël Alumit (Letters to Montgomery Clift)—will read from Bulosan’s diverse body of work and from their own in celebration of the centenary of this seminal writer, worker, and citizen. Also featuring Rachelle Cruz, Giovanni Ortega, and Chris Santiago.

Carlos Bulosan
Carlos Bulosan

Don’t miss this celebration of Carlos Bulosan’s legacy, and the closing of the exhibition, I Want the Wide American Earth.

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If you haven’t seen the exhibition already, I Want the Wide American will close on October 27, 2013, so be sure to catch it before then!

Also, if you haven’t had a chance to watch Our American Voice, the special two-person performance presented in collaboration with East West Players, the final two performances will be on Saturday, October 19 & Saturday, October 26 at 1PM. One of the six stories included is an excerpt from ALLOS by Giovanni Ortega which presents the story of Carlos Bulosan.

For more information on the exhibition, visit janm.org/wide-american-earth.

Don’t miss an exciting reading of “Hannah and the Dread Gazebo” on October 17!

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An actress performing in Hannah and the Dreaded Gazebo © Playwrights Foundation
An actress performing in Hannah and the Dreaded Gazebo © Playwrights Foundation

 

East West Players and JANM proudly present the Writers Gallery Reading of the Jiehae Park’s award-winning play, Hannah and the Dread Gazebo.

Playwright and performer, Jiehae Park © Ma-Yi Theater Company
Playwright and performer, Jiehae Park © Ma-Yi Theater Company

In this play, Hannah receives a FedEx box with two things: a 100% bona-fide-heart’s-desire-level wish and a suicide note. Hannah tracks the package back to Seoul, where her grandmother recently jumped from the roof of her retirement home onto the wrong side of the Demilitarized Zone. They’ll need North Korea’s permission to retrieve the body, but Kim Jong Il just kicked the bucket, and things in the DMZ are even stranger then they seem.

 

If Hannah and the Dread Gazebo sounds like your kind of show, don’t miss this FREE reading at 7:30PM on Thursday, October 17th!

*****

About the Playwright: Jiehae Park is a playwright and performer in NYC. She is the 2013-14 Princess Grace Playwriting Fellow, as well as a current Dramatists Guild Fellow and member of the Soho Rep Writer-Director Lab. Her second full-length, HANNAH AND THE DREAD GAZEBO, won the 2013 Leah Ryan Prize for Emerging Women Writers and was developed at the Bay Area Playwrights Festival and Ojai Playwrights Conference. The script was also a finalist for the O’Neill Playwrights Conference and Abingdon’s Chris Wolk Award. Her first play (and undergraduate thesis), HAPPY MOON DAY, HOLLY WOO, was a finalist for the Wolk Award and placed third in the East West Players/Irvine Foundation’s GOT LAUGHS competition. She served two years as co-artistic director of title3, a Los Angeles company dedicated to new works by women, and has been a mentor for the O’Neill’s Young Playwrights Festival. Proud member: Ma Yi Writers Lab, AEA, SAG-AFTRA. As a performer: NYTW, La Jolla Playhouse, Collection of Shiny Objects, Studio Theatre 2ndStage (DC), Young Playwrights Theatre (DC), REDCAT (LA). MFA (acting), UCSD/La Jolla Playhouse and BA (general theater shenanigans), Amherst College.

About the Director: Jennifer Chang‘s recent work includes Lady Windermere’s Fan (LA Weekly Pick of the Week), Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them (Ovation Nomination: Best Ensemble), and will be directing Fortinbras by Lee Blessing at the USC School of Dramatic Arts in the Spring of 2014. She is a founding member and Co-Artistic Director for the award-winning Chalk Repertory Theatre (Ovation Award, Best of LA 2013 – LA Weekly). As an actor, she has been on stages across the US, from our local EWP and South Coast Rep to theatres in New York City, Minneapolis, Philadelphia etc. She has appeared in numerous national commercials, Indie Films, and TV shows like Two and a Half Men, Parenthood, NCIS:LA, Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, amongst others. Jennifer Chang received her BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and her MFA from the UCSD/La Jolla Playhouse program.

For more information on this event, visit: janm.org/events

For more information on East West Players, visit: eastwestplayers.org

*****

Jennifer Chang is also the director for Our American Voice, the special two-person show exploring six diverse stories of Asian Pacific Americans. Performed within the I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story exhibition gallery space, it is presented in partnership with East West Players. Free with Museum admission.

Only 2 more chances to see this show: Saturday, October 19 & Saturday, October 26. Both begin at 1pm and are approximately 45 minutes.

For more details >>

I Want the Wide American Earth’s promotional video is released!

Esther Shin Leave a comment
JANM's 2013 interns celebrate the end of a great summer internship!
JANM’s 2013 interns celebrate the end of a great summer internship!

Every summer the Getty Foundation organizes a Multicultural Undergraduate Internship program in Los Angeles that aims to encourage greater diversity in the professions related to museums and the visual arts. This year JANM hired three interns—Kelly in Media Arts, Cindi in Production, and myself, Esther, in the Curatorial department.

For the majority of the summer we worked separately, but for the last few weeks, we worked together to produce a final collaboration project which would culminate in a promotional video for the exhibition, I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story.

Media Arts intern, Kelly, searches for artifacts on JANM's database.
Media Arts intern, Kelly, searches for artifacts on JANM’s database.

As the exhibition  takes a sweeping look at how Asian Pacific Americans have shaped and been shaped by the course of U.S. history, we decided to interview Asian Pacific Americans of different ethnicities, backgrounds, and occupations on a variety of topics. Our central question was “What do you want from your America?”. We also asked each interviewee to finish the sentence “I am…”. We got a wide array of answers that allows any viewer to appreciate the cultural, historical, and social diversity among Asian Pacific Americans.

Cindi and Esther are guided through JANM's artifacts by Collections Manager, Maggie Wetherbee.
The interns are guided through the Collections Department by JANM’s Collections Manager, Maggie Wetherbee.

For footage we used photographs from the exhibition itself, and made stops around Downtown Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo and Chinatown. We also visited our own Collections Department at JANM to photograph artifacts and photographs that were relevant to the exhibition. It was an exciting day because we saw how expansive our Collections Department is, and we got to personally handle artifacts!

A shot from Wong Fu Productions' "10 Year Anniversary" clip.
A shot from Wong Fu Productions’ “10 Year Anniversary” clip.

We were also granted permission from Youtube stars including, fitness instructor Cassey Ho from Blogilates, singers David Choi and Clara C, and Wong Fu Productions for our preview clip. Although we did not use all of these clips for our final video, we were able to get exciting experience communicating with professionals, and were able compile more than enough footage so that we had many options while editing our video.

Check out our final video to see who’s footage and interviews made it into our collaboration project!

Curatorial intern, Esther carefully handling a "Justice for Vincent Chin" pin from the 80s.
Curatorial intern, Esther, carefully handling a “Justice for Vincent Chin” pin from the ’80s.

 

It was a time-consuming project, but it was also a great experience because we were able to collaborate with each other, appreciate each of our talents, and examine how different departments come together to produce a project. For us, this experience reinforced the fact that museums, including JANM, are not made up of individuals working separately, but rather, individuals working and collaborating together to produce something great!

 

Cindi, JANM's 2013 production intern, designing a event flyer.
Cindi, JANM’s 2013 production intern, designing an event flyer.

If you haven’t seen it already, I Want the Wide American Earth is on display at JANM until October 27th. Also, be sure to catch Our American Voice—a special two-person show starring Traci Kato-Kiriyama, and Johnny Kwon (also the narrators of our final video), exploring six diverse stories of Asian Pacific Americans. This special performance was produced in partnership with East West Players, and will be performed at 1pm in the exhibition gallery every Saturday for the duration of the exhibition.

Photos by: Kelly Gates, and Esther Shin.

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For more information on I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story, visit: janm.org/wide-american-earth.

 

Don’t miss our comics-themed Target Free Family Saturday!

Esther Shin Leave a comment

Marvels & Monsters: Unmasking Asian Images in U.S. Comics, 1942-1986

Zap! Pow! Bam! Sounds like our comics-themed Target Free Family Saturday is coming up!

Visit JANM on October 12th from 11AM – 4PM to celebrate the opening of the exhibition, Marvels & Monsters: Unmasking Asian Images in U.S. Comics, 1942-1986, with comics-themed crafts and activities!

Superhero cape & mask making
Make your own superhero cape and mask!

 

JANM has planned an action packed day!

From assembling your own popcorn snack with Kidding Around the Kitchen, to making your own superhero costume and capturing it in a photo booth, there are activities planned for kids of all ages and interests. You’ll even be able to watch vintage Japanese anime at its earliest roots from the 1920s and 1930s!

Make sure to catch a special Marvels & Monsters Gallery Talk at 11:30am by Jeff Yang, the curator of the exhibition. You won’t want to miss Jeff Yang share special insight into the creation of Marvels & Monsters!

 

jeff wnyc
Join curator, Jeff Yang, for a special Gallery Talk on the exhibition, Marvels & Monsters!

There will be an interactive activity shortly after the Gallery Talk where you can “Build a Hero” at 12PM, or “Build a Villain” at 2:30PM.

Jeff Yang will lead the audience in collaboratively creating an ORIGINAL comic book super-character who’ll be drawn in real time by comic artists from the Secret Identities and Shattered anthologies! There will also be a book signing after each of these sessions!

Batman Caricature by Cartoon Slinger
Batman Caricature by Cartoon Slinger

Don’t leave the Museum before getting a chance to turn yourself into a comic-book character with a caricature drawn by Cartoon Slinger! (*for children only, line ends at 2:30pm)

Make sure you top off your day by teaming up with your buddies to take down villains in superhero video games brought to you by Game Truck!

Read More

I Want the Wide American Earth – Opening Party Photos

Esther Shin Leave a comment

On Friday, September 13, the Japanese American National Museum threw an opening party to welcome our newest exhibition, I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story. Created by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, I Want the Wide American Earth explores the rich, and deep-rooted history of Asian Pacific Americans in the United States.

This event was open to the public and attracted hundreds of visitors, including locals, and travelers from different states. Free food from Aloha Cafe and drinks from Ito-en and the Mighty Boba Truck were served throughout the reception, while exciting performances filled the evening.

From previews of Our American Voice in the exhibition gallery presented in partnership with East West Players, to powerful numbers by YouTube stars, DANakaDAN + Crew Love, to the comical performances of The Fung Brothers, it was an evening of enlightenment, reflection, and entertainment.

The evening began by celebrating the opening of an exhibition, but it soon became a night to celebrate the history, accomplishments, and the exciting future of Asian Pacific Americans.

Check out these pictures from the opening party! (Click on the photos to see them larger)

Photos by: Tsuneo Takasugi, Richard Watanabe, and Richard Murakami.

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If you haven’t seen I Want the Wide American Earth yet, stop by the museum to view the exhibition before it closes on October 27th. If you didn’t get a chance to watch Our American Voice, East West Players will be performing every Saturday at 1:00PM throughout the run of the exhibition. For more information on the exhibition: janm.org/wide-american-earth

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marvels-monsters-signature-500pxMarvels & Monsters opening next week!

Don’t miss our next exhibition opening event! Marvels & Monsters: Unmasking Asian Images in U.S. Comics, 1942-1986 will be at JANM from October 12, 2013 – February 9, 2014, but we’ll be celebrating early on Thursday, October 10 from 6PM – 9:30PM. 

Traveling to JANM from the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, Marvels & Monsters will illustrate how evolving racial and cultural archetypes defined America’s perceptions of Asians through a selection of images from comic books representing four turbulent decades.

This preview reception will be hosted by the JANM Young Professionals Network and is free and open to the public! Get a sneak peek at the exhibition and check out readings of the winning short scenes from the “Marvels & Monsters: Unbound” Showcase!

For more information on the exhibition: janm.org/marvels-monsters

Visit the Japanese American National Museum for FREE on Museum Day!

Esther Shin Leave a comment

Screen Shot 2013-09-24 at 12.04.13 PM

Bring yourself and a friend to the Japanese American National Museum for free! On Saturday, September 28th, JANM will be participating in the Smithsonian Magazine’s “Museum Day Live!” A ticket will provide free admission to one person, plus a guest.

In the spirit of Smithsonian Museums, who offer free admission everyday, Museum Day Live! is an annual event hosted by Smithsonian magazine in which participating museums across the country open their doors to anyone presenting a Museum Day Ticket… for free.

The Japanese American National Museum is a proud Smithsonian Affiliate Museum, and excited to be a part of Museum Day Live! When you come on Saturday, check out I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story, an exhibition of banners created by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, on view through October 27, 2013.

Here are some rules and guidelines to ensure an enjoyable and smooth museum visit:
–       Only an official Museum Day Live! ticket is eligible for free entry. Official tickets can be requested through the Museum Day Live! website: www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/ticket/
–       One ticket per household, for two people.
–       A ticket will gain entry to only one of the participating museums, excluding parking and special events and exhibits.
–       If the museum reaches capacity, the museum has the right to limit the number of guests until space becomes available.

See you on Saturday!

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For Museum Day Live! FAQs:
www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/Museum-Day-Faqs.html#ixzz2Z97wd51P

View the list of museums that are participating by using this link: www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/venues/

For more information on the Smithsonian magazine: www.smithsonianmag.com/?ref=logo

Our American Voice

Emily Leventhal Leave a comment

Our American Voice program coverJoin us every Saturday at 1 p.m. for Our American Voice, a two-person show exploring six diverse stories of Asian Pacific Americans, held every Saturday at 1pm in the gallery.

Created in partnership with East West Players for our new exhibition I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story, the performance is directed by Jennifer Chang and features Traci Kato-Kiriyama and Johnny Kwon in the six pieces written by D’Lo, Vivian Keh-Hue, Giovanni Ortega, Jeanne Sakata and Ova Saopeng, and Judy Soo Hoo.

Each piece is a slice in the life of an Asian Pacific American. Overall, they come together to form a larger picture representing the worlds of vastly different people, spanning decades and ethnicities, but ultimately united by their experience of being Asian in America. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to see the work of talented writers and actors come alive in an intimate setting!

Here are brief synopsis for the 6 pieces:

TAKING FLIGHT (excerpt) by Judy Soo hoo
Katherine Cheung defied family tradition and crossed racial lines to become the first licensed Asian American female aviator in 1932. During the 1930s, Cheung barnstormed across California, and her fame as a stunt pilot led to an invitation to join Amelia Earhart’s Ninety-Nines, an all-female flying club.

FORGOTTEN HOMELAND by Ova Saopeng
Lao-American siblings Soukki and Joy, refugees from the Vietnam War Era, must confront each other about a return trip to their homeland of Laos. How will they reconnect with a homeland that has long been forgotten and is so far away?

ALLOS (excerpt) by Giovanni Ortega
When young ALLOS arrives in the United States we witness his journey to find employment as well as acceptance amid the hardships of the Great Depression and bigotry of our past.

DYING FOR LOVE by D’Lo
An immigrant Sri Lankan nurse shares her conclusions on love and loneliness in America.

HOLD THESE TRUTHS (excerpt) by Jeanne Sakata
At Seattle’s University of Washington during WWII, following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a curfew is announced for all people of Japanese ancestry requiring them to be in their homes by 8PM. Gordon Hirabayashi, a Nisei student at the University, reluctantly obeys the order until one night when he rushes back to his YMCA dorm—and suddenly has an epiphany that stops him in his tracks.

DUTY AND DESIRE by Vivian Keh-Hue
In the midst of the trendy Koreatown club scene, an unexpected reunion occurs between childhood friends Penelope and Chester. While quick to judge one another regarding their choices in life, both characters find themselves driven by values common to the Korean American experience, having to navigate the rift between duty and desire.

Performance Dates:

Premiere at the I Want the Wide American Earth Opening Party
Friday, September 13, 2013 • 6:30PM – 10:30PM

Performances held in the exhibition gallery at 1PM each Saturday:
September 14 • September 21 • September 28
• October 5 • October 12 • October 19 • October 26

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I Want the Wide American Earth tells the story of Asian and Pacific islanders in America through a series of 30 evocative banners accompanied by a selection of artifacts chosen from the collections of the Japanese American National Museum and the Riverside Metropolitan Museum. I Want the Wide American Earth runs from September 14 to October 27, 2013.

For more information about the exhibition, visit janm.org/wide-american-earth

Selecting Artifacts to Accompany “I Want the Wide American Earth”

Emily Leventhal Leave a comment
So many artifacts to choose from!

One of our upcoming exhibitions, I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story, takes a sweeping look at how Asian Pacific Americans have shaped and been shaped by the course of our nation’s history through 30 banners of poignant text, photographs, and art.

To put a personal touch from JANM on the Smithsonian traveling exhibition, we chose to complement the banners with some items from the Museum’s extensive collections. Since we have over 60,000 unique artifacts, documents, and photos in our permanent collection, it was a tough choice!

As a summer intern, I was given the (amazing!) opportunity to select these artifacts. There were several qualifiers—the artifacts would have to be both relevant to its banner’s content and interesting, whether visually or content-wise. My first step was to read through the exhibition text to get a better sense of the exhibition as a whole, then to list them out along with a brief summary and relevant information (keywords, dates, people, etc.—anything that might help narrow down artifacts). I sent the document to our Collections Associate, who searched the collections database and returned a pretty extensive list of potential artifacts. From there, it was a matter of selecting one or two for each banner and then pulling them to take a look. We also collaborated with the Riverside Metropolitan Museum to loan a few items from their historic Chinatown collections.

I don’t want to give away too much (you’ll have to come to the show to see all of the artifacts), but you’ll be able to see a really striking article written in the 1940s by the chairman of the California Joint Immigration Committee. The article, after being submitted to a national magazine, was passed around by the Japanese American Citizens League’s Equality Committee as a reminder of the challenges faced.

What I find interesting about the article is the blatantly offensive language—featuring lines such as “Because of their unassimilability and the impossibility of competing with them due to their low standards of living, Japanese immigrants have never really been welcome in the United States.” Of course I was previously aware of such anti-Japanese sentiment (how could I not, after touring Common Ground: The Heart of Community), but seeing it literally spelled out for me made an abstract concept truly hit home.

See this artifact and more in I Want the Wide American Earth from September 14 ‐ October 27, 2013! Check the exhibition page for more details.

I Want the Wide American Earth Opening Party

Emily Leventhal Leave a comment
JANM-WideAmericanEarth-1a35013v
Japanese American laborers at Tule Lake War Relocation Center, Tule Lake, California.
Photo credit: Library of Congress

Opening Party
Friday, September 13
6:30PM-10PM
FREE!

Whether you rep the 626, can’t get enough of boba, or just really love Asian Pacific American history, come out to the opening party for I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story!

The opening party will have loads of great entertainment and treats. YouTube comedy and music stars The Fung Brothers and DANakaDAN will be performing live, along with music from DJ Tony. We will also be debuting a new two-person show, Our American Voice. The show, presented in partnership with East West Players, explores diverse stories of Asian Pacific Americans. And if you get peckish between performances, head on over to the Mighty Boba Truck for a delicious drink!

Through a Smithsonian traveling display of 30 banners of poignant text, photographs, and art, I Want the Wide American Earth takes a sweeping look at how Asian Pacific Americans have shaped and been shaped by the course of our nation’s history.

Check out the exhibition page for more info.

 

(Video from: The Fung Brothers)

Thanks to the Smithsonian and exhibition sponsor W.K. Kellogg Foundation; public programs sponsors: MetLife Foundation, Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles, and Los Angeles County Arts Commission; and media sponsors: Angry Asian Man, KSCI-TV LA-18, and The Rafu Shimpo.