KUOW
On Asian America: A YouTube Conversation
On Asian America is presented in partnership by KUOW, Humanities Washington, Spokane Public Radio, and Northwest Public Broadcasting. KUOW's Community Engagement Producer Kristin Leong and On Asian America special guests Dr. Tabitha Espina, Dr. Douglas S. Ishii and Joe Kye will take your questions and comments about the series for a live moderated discussion.
Get in touch with KUOW's Community Engagement team about this series:
Web: https://www.kuow.org/engage
Email: engage@kuow.org
Phone: 877-304-7190
Learn more about KUOW's live events:
https://www.kuow.org/events
ON ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES SERIES:
Over 6,600 incidents of anti-Asian assaults have occurred in the last year, with over 2,800 of those incidents reported in March 2021 alone — a 164% increase over the same period last year. Despite the recent surge in anti-Asian hate crimes, discrimination against people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent living in the U.S is nothing new. Furthermore, the ways that different groups experience this hate is far from homogenous, contrary to the dominant “Asian American” narrative. Join us for a virtual discussion that explores the modern experience of being Asian in America. How are gendered stereotypes and the myth of the “model minority” impacting the everyday lives of Asians in America? What is like to be part of the Asian community in rural eastern Washington? How do we talk about the “Asian American Pacific Islander” experience while also honoring the diversity of cultures that the term is meant to encompass?
This replay of On Asian America is the culmination of Asian and Pacific Islander journalists, scholars, artists and community members sharing their stories in answer to these questions and more.
GUESTS:
Kristin Leong is KUOW’s Community Engagement producer. She is the founder of RollCallProject.com, an international TED-Ed project humanizing the culture gaps separating students and teachers. Her portrait series HALF: Biracial + Bicultural in America was nominated for USA Today's Outstanding Academic & Intellectual Endeavor Award and as a senior in college The New York Times called her a “graduate already in the driver’s seat.” Her weekly newsletter ROCK PAPER RADIO (RockPaperRadio.com) recently launched a national multimedia project fueled by artists of color calling for Asian and Black solidarity. Leong is Chinese and white and originally from Honolulu, Hawaii.
Dr. Tabitha Espina is assistant professor of Rhetoric and Composition at Eastern Oregon University. She has published her work in College English, Composition Forum, Race and Pedagogy Journal, Asian Studies, Humanities Diliman, Pacific Asian Inquiry, Oregon Humanities, Humanities Washington and Micronesian Educator. She has presented throughout the continental US and in eight countries. Espina is a third-generation Filipina proudly from Guam.
Dr. Douglas S. Ishii is assistant professor of Asian American Literature and Culture in the Department of English at the University of Washington, Seattle. He teaches and writes about the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and citizenship in North American literature and media by Black and Indigenous artists and other artists of color. Ishii’s forthcoming book, Something Real: Asian American Arts Activism and the Racialization of Sophistication, explores politicized Asian American arts activism from the Asian American Movement (1968–1977) to the present. He is a fourth-generation Japanese American who was raised on a fruit farm and is a recent arrival to Seattle.
Joe Kye is a singer, composer, violinist-looper and TEDx speaker. Drawing upon his immigrant upbringing, Kye’s layered performances weave together storytelling and a unexpected mix of musical genres from classical to hip hop. His melodies, vocals, and narratives uplift and empower listeners, while exploring complex themes of Asian American identity. Kye has opened for Yo-Yo Ma, rapper Warren G, and senator Bernie Sanders; and he has been featured on NPR. Kye was born in Korea and was raised in Seattle.
SOURCES:
https://kuow.org/stories/on-asian-america-aapi-identities-and-experiences
https://kuow.org/stories/attractive-for-an-asian-man-a-photographer-reframes-asian-american-masculinity
https://kuow.org/stories/on-asian-america-sex-gender-and-the-exotic-other
https://www.humanities.org/on-asian-america-aapi-experiences-and-identities/
