RememberingVincentChin.com Postcard and Book Project
MulticulturalToolbox.com Raising our children with culture(s), languages, and pride
Ann Arbor Chinese Center of Michigan Lion Dancing Team and Lunar New Year's Traditions Presentations
UM Understanding Race Project University and Community Theme Year 2013
"Asian American Girl Power!--from Asian American Girls to Women to Badass" (currently in development with Disgrasian.com's Jen Wang and ThickDumplingSkin.com's Lisa Lee)
A recent study found that while African American women confront racists, Asian American women feed them bad-tasting jelly beans. Huh? In the (angry) conversations that followed (between trips to the store to buy more bad-tasting jelly beans), we realized that it is not enough to talk about race, and it is not enough to talk about gender, that there are all sorts of competing factors and forces and stereotypes and pressures all at work here, making it really hard to figure out how to be Asian, American, Asian American, girl, woman, daughter, partner, friend, mother, community member, leader,...oneself? Other studies show that young Asian American women have the highest rates of depression and suicide, as well as the lowest self-esteem. We don't even need to get into the scars of the Tiger Mother (but we will, gladly). Thus this Asian American Girl Power or Asian American Badass Training Session was born. Half empowerment, half hands-on practical strategies. Come meet leading Asian American women writers and thinkers who are tired of the BS and ready for the Badass. We will talk about Asian American identity, parental expectations, social stereotypes, body image, SEX (don't tell our parents), dating, friendship, mental health, leadership, and more. Boys and men are welcome to attend, too. Both racists and sexists will be given bad tasting jelly beans.
Jyoti Omi Chowdhury and Frances Kai-Hwa Wang reception and reading for “Boots of Spanish Leather” photography exhibit in Ann Arbor, Michigan, August 7, 2012
Kerrytown Concert House will be hosting an opening reception for photographer Jyoti Omi Chowdhury’s new exhibit, “Boots of Spanish Leather,” together with a reading by writer Frances Kai-Hwa Wang, on Tuesday, August 7, 2012, 5:00 to 7:00 pm. This exhibit will run through September 4. Kerrytown Concert House is located at 415 N. 4th Avenue, Ann Arbor, 48104. (734) 769-2999. www.kerrytownconcerthouse.com.
Jyoti Omi Chowdhury’s photography exhibits the equipoise between space and human identity. Most of his photographs were taken at various warzones and dictatorships, from Somalia to Burma. Instead of replicating and imitating the dire conditions that are part and parcel of human existence within these warzones, Chowdhury’s photography captures the levity, beauty, and randomness of people’s lives in these places. It is ultimately a homage to undying human spirit that refuses to wither even in the most desperate of circumstances.
He will be joined by writer Frances Kai-Hwa Wang who will read from her newest work, “Imaginary Affairs—postcards from an imagined life,” a collection of prose poems and short short stories which wanders across the landscapes of Ann Arbor, Berkeley, Kathmandu, Hawaii, and Asian America, and is described by author May-lee Chai as “a contemporary pillow book of sensual longing, heartache, erotic impulse, and wry wit…to be savored like dark chocolate on a moonlit night.”
Chowdhury and Wang will also discuss their latest collaboration which brings together their mutual fascination with landscape, light, space, identity, and human spirit, together creating dreamy and droll scenes that linger in the imagination, whether set in a Somali warzone or in a downtown Ann Arbor café.
Jyoti Omi Chowdhury was born in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, which in his opinion is infamous for torrential rain and back alley cricket. His formative years were spent daydreaming about women and soccer, under the cusp of a military dictatorship. He moved to the wilderness of the American prairies and western Canada for his university education, and eventually wound his way to Harvard. In between all this tiptoeing, rapidly developing wanderlust, he began to research and write on genocide, gender equity, war theory, and liberalism. During his PhD research and fieldwork, he found an outlet in photography. This will be Chowdhury’s third solo show, and his first in Michigan. His previous solo shows were in Boston and Berlin.
Frances Kai-Hwa Wang is a second-generation Chinese American from California who now divides her time between Michigan and the Big Island of Hawaii. She is a contributor for New America Media's Ethnoblog, Chicagoistheworld.org, PacificCitizen.org, InCultureParent.com. She was the arts and culture editor of IMDiversity.com Asian American Village for many years, and she wrote a column called “Adventures in Multicultural Living” for AnnArbor.com and AnnArborChronicle.com. She teaches writing and Asian Pacific American History and the Law. She is a nationally popular speaker on Asian Pacific American, multicultural, social justice, and social media issues. Check out her blog at www.franceskaihwawang.blogspot.com.
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