Tuesday Night Cafe: Art in the API community

For more information on Tuesday Night Cafe series and other events hosted by TN KAT, visit their website at: http://www.tnkat.org/

Photos: Imagined Futures Conference, Little Tokyo

This afternoon four of us at Pacific Ties attended the Imagined Futures Conference at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo.  It was a free one-day conference to inspire and network with Asian Pacific Islander American artists of all disciplines.

One of the keynote speakers was Eric Nakamura, co-founder and publisher of Giant Robot magazine, which focuses on Asian pop culture in the U.S.

Nakamura’s presentation was really inspiring.  We’re at an exciting point in time in which Asian Pacific Islander Americans are becoming more prominent in American culture, media, and politics.  Even though many are “under the radar” right now, Nakamura predicts that API artists and actors will be making headlines within the next few years.

Phil Yu of the popular blog Angry Asian Man spoke about the history and content of his blog and facilitated discussion among us participants.

Workshops included filmmaking, anime/comics, blogs/new media, spoken word/hip hop, fiction, and clothing.

Left to right: Ray, Evelina, Shirley, Phil Yu of the blog Angry Asian Man, and me.

Enjoying an early dinner of ramen in Little Tokyo after the conference.

– posted by Debbie Chong

L.A. Asian communities receive close to $500,000

In an announcement on Feb. 21, five Los Angeles Asian communities learned that they would be dividing amongst them approximately $500,000, which is to be used for the preservation of their history. The money comes from the National Park Service’s $250,000 grant that the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency will nearly match by $211,327.

Cecilia Estolano, head of the CRA, reported, “This grant provides funds that will help expand the efforts of the local businesses and residents to promote their unique heritage to a greater audience.”

The neighborhood groups that will be sharing this money are in Chinatown, Filipinotown, Koreatown, Little Tokyo and Thai Town.

- posted by Emily Ho

Mark your calendars! Little Tokyo walking tour on Sat, Feb 28

For those of us in the LA area, the Japanese American National Museum holds historical tours of Little Tokyo at the end of each month.  This month’s tour is on Saturday, February 28 at 10:15 am.

The website’s description of the tour:

Relive history and learn about present-day Little Tokyo with National Museum docents. $8 Members; $13 non-members, includes Museum admission. Comfortable walking shoes and clothes recommended. Weather permitting.

For more info on visiting the museum, click here!

– posted by Debbie Chong