Support Generosity // #keepTNfree

Tuesday Night Project's fundraising campaign, KeepTNFree, has been extended for another two weeks: 

Keep TN Free has been extended with a special challenge to folkds 35-and-under: To encourage you to donate (and get into the mindset of giving), any contribution you make will be effectively tripled by an elder community member! Your $15 can become $45! Just leave your age in the notes when you donate online! 

Last year, I wrote the following testimonial:

My involvement with TN as a performer, volunteer, co-stage manager, and co-producer 2008-2012 made an indelible mark on me. I would not have spent five years living, learning, loving, and growing in Los Angeles if I had never met the ever-expanding Tuesday Night Project family.

1st & 3rd Tuesday Night Cafe may seem to run like a well-oiled machine, but behind the scenes, the process is deeply human– there is a strong commitment to openness, trust, transparency, integrity, and self-care. While I worked with TNP, the organizations that populate the Asian American community in LA (and beyond) became more than institutions: they became faces, stories, friends. Tuesday Night Cafe is part of a collection of stories that begin long before the first show in 1999 and stretches out far beyond Aratani Courtyard. I feel blessed to have been a part of that story, and I hope that many more will get the same opportunity for years to come, whether as an audience member, volunteer, performer, or staff member. 

If you love Los Angeles, if you love outdoor spaces, if you love community-building, if you love music, if you love poetry, if you love theatre, if you love spam musubi and Sapporo on a warm summer night, please donate.

Additionally, here are a few things I learned as a co-producer and stage manager with TNP 2009-2011:

1. How to properly tape cables. Always across, never parallel. 

2. The joy of Fugetsu-Do strawberry mochi with crunchy peanut butter filling. Until these, I was a creamy peanut butter fan. I've seen the light. Oh, how I yearn for these soft little pillows. 

3. There were spaces which I got to watch in their beginnings, in their growth, and in their blossoming: Break the Silence Open Mic in Long Beach. OUTspoken Sessions. Common Ground OC. 

4. Places that I got to know because of Tuesday Night Cafe, Tuesday Night on Tour, and the interconnectedness of people doing work in the Asian American community in and around LA: Aratani Courtyard. Señor Fish. Lost Souls Cafe (gone now). Remy's On Temple. A house in Gardena. GoGo Boba (also gone now). Oiwake. Monrovia Library. Scripps College. Renato's Coffee. Cafe Metropol. Cafe Dulce. Rascal's. Las Galas. Fugetsu-Do. East West Players. Visual Communications. Equal Action. There is so much love in Los Angeles, I am overwhelmed. 

5. What I witnessed most and try hard to carry with me: the spirit of generosity-- so much of it and all the more beautiful for how natural it seemed for so many people to give of themselves, to give their time, their attention, their sweat, their monetary support, their creativity, their art, their food, their laughter, their willingness to connect. It is that generosity that made me fall in love with Los Angeles. That generosity is necessary to survive in a city like Los Angeles.

I donated to Tuesday Night Project this year because I know how important it is to have spaces which help anchor people to one another, in real time, in shared space. TNC was and still is that kind of space for me, wherever I am in the world, and I hope that it will continue to be that for others. 

So many sweet memories. (From TNP's website. Info's from 2010-- they need donations to help update it!)

Time-Lapse is Not Just for Nature Shots

It's also for LA Asian American arts communities making a natural habitat in front of a church converted into a theater and arts center. Beautiful time-lapse photography of the June 5th Tuesday Night Cafe, from set-up to clean-up, by Ant Barrerra of Fistic Soul (a.k.a. long-time TNC sound engineer a.k.a. cool dad a.k.a. stylish downtown resident):

If you look closely at the sidewalk on the left, you can see me zip in and park my bike 'round 8pm, and zip out again at 9pm to catch the last Gardena 1X home. 
TNC still feels like home, though it's been nearly a year since I ran around as Stage Manager/Co-Producer. Such a magical, intimate space (intimacy and cliquey-ness can be mistaken for each other; when I first arrived, I observed it as the former and thought Cool, a place where people don't act like strangers and have obvious history/chemistry with one other). 

Here is a terribly incomplete list of some of the folks currently making the magic happen and where they putter on the internet! Go look! I do. Often...maybe too often?

• Audrey Kuo
• Cara Van Le
• Quincy Surasmith
• Susan Diep
• traci kato-kiriyama
• Chris Hanh
• waxstyles
• Sean Miura
• Dustin Hamano
• Belinda Vong

14th Season of Tuesday Night Cafe Kicks off April 3!

It's April! That means 1st&3rd Tuesday Night Cafe is starting back up again, which is good news for all those who have gone through the winter pining for the intimate, (mostly) outdoor, art+community space that's been gracing Aratani Courtyard since 1999. 

I first started going to TNC in 2008 and I spent a great deal of time with Tuesday Night Project from 2009 until last year when I started Public Allies. I attended my first TNC wearing my Empowering Women of Color Conference 2008 "Decolonizing creativity" shirt (another event in 2008 that was pretty formative for me).

Los Angeles really wouldn't have been the same if I hadn't stepped into Lost Souls Cafe and up to the mic that night. I'll be stopping by at least the beginning of the show. I look forward to seeing the new faces and new energies that both grace the stage and manage it.

Three Year Swim Club at East West Players

I saw the play last Friday. LA Downtown News makes a relevant point about the actors-- it was hard to believe they were teenagers, but their acting made up for that and the graceful hula-swimming was a treat to watch.

Saturday and Sunday are already sold out (this is after they added a Saturday matinee last week) and Friday is on its way! If you haven't gotten your tickets yet, get them now!

This story of Asian American athletes opened at around the same time that The Jeremy Lin Show debuted. Fun coincidence!

Budgeting for Indulgence // Good Coffee in Little Tokyo

In my first few months of working at East West Players, I bemoaned a lack of good coffee in Little Tokyo. A few months after that, I decided to try out the new coffee shop that took over the space that used to be a Cefiore yogurt shop. And I could no longer claim that there was no good coffee in the neighborhood. 

At first, I sort of scoffed at the idea of fancy LA Mill beans being used in what I think of as a humble Southeast Asian concoction of Cafe du Monde ground coffee with chicory, but Cafe Dulce's Vietnamese Iced Coffee is absolutely wonderful (as Tien noted on her LA Weekly blog, probably the best in Los Angeles proper). At $4.50 after tax, its definitely a once-a-week-or-less indulgence, but one well-worth budgeting for. 

Jar o' goodness sweating

Since I'm more of a sipper than a gulper when it comes to coffee, I bring my own jar so that I can screw on the cap (which I've checked to ensure non-leakiness) and stick it in my backpack as I bike around. Of course, the jar sweats a bit, so I put the jar inside another bag to keep the rest of my things from getting damp. Reminds me of those good ol' days bringing my Pom Wonderful glass to Lost Souls Cafe.

Dayshots: From J-Town to Gardena // Biking

It's only about 13 miles from Little Tokyo to Gardena, so a few weeks ago, I decided to bike home from East West Players. 

Once upon a time, I saw a cool building and thought that something cool was going to come of it. I was wrong. Three years later, the building is gone. Completely gone.

 A few blocks down, I saw Ghandi.

 Los Angeles needs more pocket parks. This one on South Broadway is not as nice as the little park on Venice & Hope, but it reminded me of the park in Paris where I sat to eat a delicious falafel pita.

I stopped here to drank some water. It was a hot, hot day. Chatted for a minute with a woman about what tough times these are, then got on my way again. 

There is still so much to see and learn of Los Angeles, even after four years.

In Which I Yell A Lot // J-Town Summer Sessions is Saturday!

I don't often post photos or video of myself here. I'm making an exception because J-Town Summer Sessions is this Saturday and maybe if you're amused (and not frightened off) by my frantic yelling in this video, you'll buy a ticket to the concert and support one of downtown LA's longest-running free public arts spaces.

This posting is belated since Tuesday Night Cafe was last night and the 2-for-1 special is over, but I hope that this demonstrates the lengths to which we will go in order to get people to come and make this a great concert for the artists who are performing, vending, and live-painting. 

Online ticket sales end on Thursday, but you can also get tickets at the door for $25 ($20 for students/seniors). Kids 12 and under are free! With Mista Cookie Jar there, it's going to be a family-friendly affair. Even with Higashi selling beer. ;n)

Can you spare $20 for 7 months of art+community in Downtown?

Tofu & Cookie at Tuesday Night Cafe // Free Public Art

I help curate the performers for TNC and I'm excited that we were finally able to get Audrey Kuo on the bill! But the fates toy with me, and I'm not sure whether I'll be able to make it. It's going to be such a good show, and with Mista Cookie Jar, it'll be extra kid-friendly, too. 

TNC Tonight: Comedy, Cocks, Opera, Poetry

It feels like forever since the last time I heard The Fighting Cocks play. I think it was November, at applesauce's farewell party. (And oh yeah, the frontman is also The Park's Finest bbq master & TNC Resident Host Johneric Concordia.)

This is also going to be the last time in a while that I'll get to hear Mary Rose's sweet soprano live since she's going off to grad school in Santa Barbara. Ah, so much is changing.

Also, along with the tide of theatre that has come to Los Angeles this month (including the 3rd National Asian American Theater Festival & Conference) came Laos In The House from the Midwest. 

Too much good stuff, as is always the case in LA. 

Gardening Schemes with Colorish Dreams // 1st&3rd Tuesday Night Cafe

My friend A'misa (artist, writer, and creator of Colorish Dreams) and I have been sharing our growing dreams and schemes-- from future claimed public spaces to throwing all sorts of seeds into the moist earth to see if they grow. She and her mother have been incredibly successful with their saved seeds. Particularly cantaloupe seeds.

baby melons

She gave me this little pot of half a dozen seedlings (which I have no idea where to plant), and has a bunch more that she's trying to find homes for. We're on the lookout for a good spot for a guerrilla melon patch.

As for me, I have at least four dozen chamomile sprouts that I foolishly sowed into an egg carton. I have plans for places to plant them, but I doubt I'm going to find enough homes for them. They don't take much care, though, once they get established, and apparently even flourish with a little bit of neglect.

just-sprouting chamomile 

So we're going to bring our extra seeds and little seedlings to the next Tuesday Night Cafe and share them with any takers. I'm sure there are seed bartering/exchanging events around LA, through the Seed Library of Los Angeles and the like, but it's always nice to be able to incorporate new things with old stand-bys. And, there's going to be music, poetry, live art, vendors, and general community goodness at TNC. So why not add some living green things, too? Not sure where we're going to put them, but we'll figure it out.

Guerilla plant exchange/giveaway
1st&3rd Tuesday Night Cafe
Aratani Courtyard
120 Judge John Aiso St, 90012
Show starts at 7:30 so come by at around 7:00 to check out what plants make it to Little Tokyo.

Tonight: 1st&3rd Tuesday Night Cafe - I'm reading!

Tuesday Night Project is in its 13th Season of putting on this free public art event! And I'm proud to be a part of it, on-stage and off.

If you haven't been to this yet-- why not?

1st&3rd Tuesday Night Cafe

Aratani Courtyard at the Union Center for the Arts

120 Judge John Aiso St.

90012

7:15pm

FREE

Cure for those Empty Storefronts--AUTO FREAK: a j-town pop up shop

It's been nearly a year since traci and friends were invited to use a space in Little Tokyo Mall that once housed a car accessories store called Auto Freak. traci, along with alfie numeric, phloe, and keiko agena (with plenty of help from friends and partners) worked hard to clean out the dusty, musty, fluorescent-lighted space and transformed it into an art gallery/poetry shop/greeting card store/writing workshop space for one glorious month last summer. There was music, laughter, writing, poetry, and pizza with mochi.

AUTO FREAK: a j-town pop-up shop was a place full of wonder and magic and community tucked into a corner of Little Tokyo Mall (that structure on 3rd & Alameda that . Check out the awesome sign (which the management did not let the ladies keep even after they had worked so hard to clean out the space and meticulously place those letters on the sign:

As I walk around Little Tokyo-- and, pretty much everywhere-- I notice all these storefronts sadly gathering dust, barren save for signs with names and contact information of their real estate agents, who are sitting in an office or walking down a street or driving in a car somewhere that is not this neighborhood, and I wonder why artists, writers, community groups-- people who need spaces, aren't allowed to just do something. traci and friends paid for electricity out of pocket and through donations from patrons.

I challenge property management companies to invite the community into the spaces. To invite poetry into these spaces! How lively, how revolutionary, that would be. How about poetry and art instead of another yogurt shop or hip(ster) clothing store?

New Ceramic Art Gallery on 1st Street!

While wandering around Little Tokyo waiting for the Hope & Memory Service at the Japanese Cultural & Community Center, I found a bright green wall and open door under the old boarded-up game shop sign (you know, the one that says "Outer Heaven"). 

Meet Lilia:

Meet lovely ceramic art:

I kept coming back to those faces. I'm trying to think of what I can give up for a few weeks in order to save the dough to buy one of her lovely pieces. Good to set artful goals. In addition to her own work, she also has pieces from friends in South Africa available. 

I loitered there watching her work and chatting for about an hour. Only one couple came in during that whole time. Come on, people! She's getting her sign this weekend and her opening will be in a few weeks. I love new discoveries, especially when they resonate with ideas I've been toying with for a while. I've been thinking about taking a ceramics class for over a year now. Material art is sort of foreign to me since I'm so used to the work-anywhere medium of writing. Hmm, there's always papier-mâché...

More on Venier Gallery soon, like the address and opening date. For now, wander down First Street and look for the bright green wall. You can't miss it.

Tonight's TNC Focus on Immigrant Rights & the DREAM Act at Señor Fish

The 2nd-to-last Tuesday Night Cafe of the 2010 season will be a collaborative night with APALC, JACL-PSWD, APALA, UCLA Labor Center, IDEAS, NAKASEC, KRC, DREAM Team LA/The DREAM Is Coming

Since the rain arrived, we will be at Señor Fish on 1st & Alameda instead of at our usual Aratani Courtyard. Señor Fish has been such a great friend to TNC. Come, have a taco and a beer and a lot of good energy.

1st&3rd Tuesday Night Cafe

7:30PM at Señor Fish (1st&Alameda)

October 5

 

The rainy season arrives and Tuesday Night Cafe gets tucked away for a few months while Tuesday Night Project will continue to dream and scheme and work-party. 

It's amazing how much a part of my life the Tuesday Night family and work have become in just two and half short years. At least, it seems short. This group of people and the philosophy/mission of ART+COMMUNITY is undeniably one of the main reasons I love this city. 

When I was away at the beginning of 2009, I had no idea that this community would become so much a part of my life. Things happen so fast, and so beautifully. 

Spend Earth Day-time with CSU, Earth Day-night with TNP

Community Services Unlimited, Inc. is an organization I volunteered with in 2008 at their Thursday produce stand. This Earth Day, they're holding their 2nd Annual Earth Day South LA Event! 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media contact: Neelam Sharma
(310) 780 0426, Neelam@csuinc.org

Spanish Media Contact:
Denise Burger, (323) 627-4782, d.burgher@sbcglobal.net

Information: (323) 299 7075 or www.earthdaysouthla.org

EARTH DAY SOUTH LA

SAT, APRIL 17, 11AM-6PM

SOUTH LOS ANGELES GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATIONS,

SCHOOLS, AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS COME TOGETHER TO CELEBRATE EARTHDAY AND TO EXPLORE THE THEME OF WATER 

The 2^nd Annual EARTH DAY SOUTH LOS ANGELES EVENT, Saturday April 17^th 2010 from 11am to 6pm will be at Normandie Avenue Elementary School, 4505 S. Raymond Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90045. A growing movement in South Los Angeles area has serious momentum and is being expressed through the arts, workshops, and food culture.

Presented by CSU Inc, SOL Foundation and the Normandie Avenue Elementary School, EDSLA over a hundred artists will participate in performances and ceremonies of Music and Dance, Community Mural, Graph Art Pieces, Recycled Art Exhibit and Fashion Show, and an Art Sale. Local food will be showcased with recipe demos, food vendors and produce for sale. Information tables will showcase the work of our partners and other community organizations.

Earth Day South LA (EDSLA) will include performances by Aceyalone of Freestyle Fellowship, Mystic, La Santa Cecilia, Asklyn Atkins, 2Mex, Rifleman, Dyane P, Buyepongo, Caribbean Dynamics, LA Samba Kids and the Normandie Avenue Elementary School Student Orchestra. Dance features the World Famous LA Breakers, Just Wanna Step and Bharata Natyam.  The event will begin with a gathering call from the Freedom Sounds Korean Drumming and an opening ceremony by Azteca Dancers.  A featured project will be the Southern California Library’s Sounds of Justice presented by Jeremy Sole (KCRW) and Kaos Network Beat Cypher Collective.

Normandie Avenue Elementary will be beautified with live graffiti art by Cre8, Duce, EnkOne, and Jeyd curated in collaboration with I.C.U. Art and a Community Mural, Art Sale, Recycled Art Exhibit and Fashion Show curated in collaboration with Liliflor Collective. A Hip Hop Poetry Room will feature an Open-Mic and workshops from BessKepp, NHS Poetry Club and the Get Lit Players. A mini EDSLA Film Festival will show films that reflect the work for a sustainable community, for example, A Drop of Life and The Power of Community. Workshops include Composting, Fruit Tree Pruning, Yoga, Capoiera, Healing With Herbs, Son Jarocho Dance, Recycled Art, How to Start a Food Not Bombs Chapter, Bike Safety and Maintenance and African Drumming. Also on offer will be activities for kids and a local fruit pick.

“Beyond organic” local produce will be featured in cooking demos by chef Gino Campagna (star of Kitchen Kids on AOL.com), Chef Jason Michaud of Local, Sirena Pellarolo from East Side Café and Lisa Nunez Hancock and youth of U R What U Eat. Produce will be available for purchase at the South Central Farmers booth. Pure fruit smoothies, iced herbal/fruit teas, tamales and salads will be on sale.

Our Partners include Councilmembers Jan Perry and Bernard Parks, Bike Oven, City Year, Caracol Marketplace, Community Build, Eastside Café, Food Not Bombs, Hunger Action Los Angeles, Garden School Foundation, Hip Hop Association, I.C.U. Art, LA Conservation Corps, Kaos Network Beat Cypher Collective, Lilliflor Collective Studios, NAES Environmental Club, SOL Cooperative, South Central Farmers, TreePeople, USC Student Activists for a Beloved Community, Southern California Library, and WORKS USA.

We are proud to offer this high quality event in the community, FREE for the community.  There is a suggested donation of $5+ to help cover the costs of the event, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds nor for not making a donation.

Together we envision an annual Earth Day event where community residents in South Central come together in a safe environment to have fun, celebrate our foods and cultures, learn about and participate in sustainable practices, and connect with each other and organizations working to make positive change in our neighborhood.

I won't be able to make it to the Earth Day celebration as I'll be with my parents, thanking them for the gift of life, but I hope that many people can make it out to Normandie Ave. Elementary to check out all the wonderful activities going on.

After spending the day with CSU & their partner organizations, come chill out in Little Tokyo with Tuesday Night Project at the Aries Party Fundraiser at Oiwake, 122 Japanaese Village Plaza, 8:45p-2a. $10 entry, $7 before 10:30p!

Tuesday Night Cafe 12th Season Begins!

Hello, springtime. That means the 1st&3rd Tuesday Night Cafe presented by Tuesday Night Project season is beginning again! Woohoo! Yes.

Parking's going to be insane, but Joe's on 2nd is only $4 after 4pm. Also, the Metro Gold Line now has a stop at Alameda & 1st. 


Seems like just yesterday we were getting ready for the TNC season opener at Remy's On Temple. Seems like just the day before that when I walked into a TNC for the first time at Lost Souls Cafe in 2008. How time flies.


If you can't make it out on a weeknight, come celebrate TNC's 12th season & Aries birthdays at Oiwake in J. Village Plaza on April 17th (which happens to be my actual birthday, too!).TNC's 12 years old --> TNC's a Tiger. Rahr. 

21+ only, $7 before 10:30p, $10 after. 

It's a fundraiser! A few bucks won't suck (to help keep one of DTLA's longest-running FREE public art spaces going), right?

Last Tuesday Night Cafe of 2009

TNC runs from Spring to Fall. Stock up on the goodness for the wet winter ahead!


120 Judge John Aiso (San Pedro, between 1st & Temple)
90012

Serve & Protect... Who?

On July 21st, after leaving a lovely evening at Tuesday Night Cafe and then Weiland Brewery, my friends and I spotted a man laying face up on the sidewalk next to a car. We were on Traction, off of Alameda, and the area being what it is, the thought did spring to mind that this man could have been a member of the Skid Row community, but when he didn't respond to our multiple calls of "Hey man, are you alright?" we decided that the right thing to do would be to try to find him some help.

Being three women, we were worried about our own safety and decided to request help from those employed by our tax dollars. When I called 911 from my cel phone to seek help, I encountered an automated menu. We realized that it would be faster to just track down the police officers who regularly "patrol" in front of Starbucks and Yogurtland.

We pulled up behind two police cars and pulled the officers, I'm not sure whether there were four or six of them, away from a conversation they were having with civilians. They were reluctant at first, saying "He's probably just drunk," but they got into their squad cars--without asking us exactly where the man was. We followed them to Alameda, where they harassed a man who was obviously homeless and sleeping until we yelled to them "Not him! The guy over there!" and lead them to the passed out man we saw.

It was already frustrating at that point. What happened next was infuriating.

The officers approached the man on the ground, and one of them yelled "HEY NACHO!"

From inside my friend's car, the three of us watched in shock as the officers then began to kick him. We could hardly believe what we were seeing and were frozen. In hindsight, I wish that I had found the wherewithal to get out of the car and intervene somehow. When the man finally got to his feet, my friend asked the officers whether they knew him and they all shook their heads "No." The man got up and began walking east on Traction and we left.

This deplorable treatment of a man, a human being, by officers of the law was something that I don't think any of us had ever witnessed first hand before. What's worse is the sense of disempowerment we had-- we didn't challenge the police, we didn't know how to stand up to their authority.

What shocked me further was that beneath my initial shock with the officers' exhibition of racism in calling that man "Nacho" and their violent treatment of him, I was not entirely shocked. I even attempted to rationalize their actions-- they're desensitized because they deal with this sort of thing every day-- before coming to my senses: no one should be kicked awake or be subject to racial slurs, whatever their economic or social standing, and an officer of the law should be trained not only to hold a weapon but to treat people with dignity.

What I Do These Days

I am an intern for TN KAT/the Tuesday Night Project, which has been around Little Tokyo for the last 10 years:



We're throwing a HUGE celebration on Saturday, July 18th in hopes of raising enough funds to produce an entire season of 1st & 3rd Tuesday Nights at the Cafe:


Hope to see many-a Downtowner there!

To Do in Downtown: TNC & Art Walk

A couple of events that are a must-go this week in Downtown:

The Tuesday Night Cafe season runs from February to October-- it starts indoors at Lost Souls Cafe when there is still a chill in the air, then moves to Aratani Courtyard, in front of the East West Players, for the remainder of the season.

The final show of the season is this Tuesday, October 7th at 7:15PM!

From TNC's Myspace Page:

The (sniff, sniff) Last Show of 2008

So it's October and with rolling tears we are sad that our next show on Oct. 7th is gonna be our last show of 2008. BUT...it's with a cheshire cat smile we are amped to say that it's gonna be the most kick-ass show of the season....damn....check out this line-up!!!

Paolo Espiritu
Jinah Kim
Oymun's 11
The Open Mic
18 Mighty Mountain Warriors
David Tran & Edren Sumagaysay
Sue Jin & Andrew Chiang
Jekai Soulspeak, the Fighting Cocks & Bambu

We'll be back at the courtyard next March to give J-Town a little more TNC. Just so your soul doesn't get rusty this winter, we got a few things lined up that you won't wanna sleep on. Stay tuned for a few parties and of course Midtones! Keep checking back here for more info! See yall soon.

Anyone interested in signing up for The Open Mic should get there by 6:45PM as there are only three slots open during each show.

This is a 10-year-old community event and this show is going to be insanely packed. Expect to stand unless you get there early!

---

Downtown Art Walk is on Thursday, October 9th! Come and walk around Gallery Row to see downtown come alive with pedestrians abound after 7PM (beyond Pete's Cafe and Banquette). I've been to only one Art Walk so far, but I am planning on checking this one out.

I stopped by Lost Souls Cafe this weekend and saw the artists of LA Fixed installing "The Metropolis," a series of works focused on bikes, their riders, and the places they ride (mostly in Los Angeles). The opening of the show was Saturday night. It's a pretty cool exhibit and worth a stop along the walk. Cruise down Harlem Place Alley off of 4th (between Main & Spring) to take a look.