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BRECHT FORUM
122 West 27th Street, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10001
Tel. (212) 242-4201
Web: http://www.people-link.com/brecht
Advocating a moral and ethical politics that privileges
social justice, this class will look at the openly anti-
Asian policies in the 19th Century U.S. that stand in
sharp contrast to the "model minority" stereotype that
arose in the 1960s. This later stereotype serves as
a means of further social control of Blacks. The class
will discuss this history and how strict identity
politics can undermine the long-term well-being of
Asians in favor of short-term interests.
Professor Vijay Prashad is assistant professor of International Studies at Trinity College and author of the forthcoming Untouchable Freedom: A Social History of the Balmikis of Dehli.
Sliding scale: $15/$25.
FORBIDDEN WORKERS
- Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American Labor
by Professor Peter Kwong
BOOK PARTY / DISCUSSION?
Thursday, February 19, 1998 - 7:30 PM
Despite heated debates on immigration policy, there is little understanding of why millions of people come to this country, what their condition of life is, once they have reached our shores, and what they really mean for our economy. Author Peter Kwong uses the case of Chinese illegal immigration to shed light on these crucial questions.
Peter Kwong is Chair of the Asian American Studies Program at Hunter College. He is author of The New Chinatown and has produced several award-winning documentaries, including "Snakeheads: The Chinese Mafia and the New Slave Trade."
Sliding scale: $6/$8/$10
A STORY OF SOLIDARITY -
African Americans Align with Filipinos
by Dr Rene Ontal
BLACK HISTORY MONTH SERIES
SLIDE SHOW AND DISCUSSION
Tuesday, February 24, 1998 - 7:30 PM
Filipino activist, film-maker and write Rene Ontal will show his slides on the involvement of Black soldiers who sided with the Filipino guerillas during America's cruel war on the Philippines from 1899 to 1902. Ontal is working on a screen play about David Fagan, a Black soldier who gained reknown among the Filipinos.
Sliding scale: $6/$8/$10.
| The Asian American Writers' Workshop (AAWW) is a not-for-profit literary arts organization dedicated to the development, creation, and dissemination of Asian Asian American Literature. We are the home of the Asian Pacific American Journal, Asian American Bookseller, the most comprehensive Asian American bookstore in the world, Ten, the Asian | American literary arts magazine and publisher of Asian American books.
For more information please contact us at 37 St. Marks' Place, New York, NY 10003, please call us at (212) 228-6718 or e-mail us at aaww@panix.com. Be sure to visit out website for all the latest literary news at: http://www.panix.com/~aaww. |
*Poetry Workshop Jennifer Fumiko Cahill Monday, March 23 to April 20 Every Monday for 5 weeks. 7pm-9pm $125. Spend five weeks in a supportive and comfortable environment to create poetry. Share work with other workshop participants and get feedback. Requirements: Open to every level of experience.
*Short Fiction Workshop
Sharbari Ahmed
Tuesday, March 10 to April 14
Every Tuesday for 6 weeks. 7pm-9pm $125. 10 max.
This six-week writing workshop will help you acquire the tools to create
your own voice in writing short fiction. The emphasis of the course
will be on sharing work with others and learning to effectively critique
other's work. Requirements: Open to all levels of experience. Students
must submit a one-page (double-spaced) writing sample and a brief
description of current writing projects.
Screenwriting Workshop
Michael Kang
Tuesday, May 19 to June 23
Every Tuesday for 6 weeks. 7pm-9pm $125. 10 max.
For any writer who has wanted to write a screenplay -to those who are
working on their 17th draft of their “Wedding-Banquet-in-a-submarine”
epic period piece, this six-week course will focus on developing the
screenplay in pragmatic terms and sharpening the thematic elements of an
Asian American perspective in a safe and supportive environment. The
course will also explore the practical issues involved in script writing
as well as the positions and possiblities available for an Asian
American filmaker. Participants should have a draft of a script by the
end course. Requirements: Please submit a brief paragraph of prior film
experience. No prior film experience necessary.
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FILIPINO-AMERICAN WRITERS READ IN THE AFTERMATH OF COLONIALISM AND
IMPERALISM
The hot season is surely upon us,
The season of mad dogs and thunder and lightning.
With eyeballs burning
In copper-kettled heat,
Who will proclaim now the sun's benediction
On a land that sickens with sun?
Under a bamboo grove a mud-cast carabao
Wallows in coolness . . .
--1940, Angela Manalang Gloria
MAD ALEX Arts Foundation is pleased to announce a Philippine Centennial
reading curated by Eileen Tabios. Featured readers include Gina
Apostol, Bino A. Realuyo, Reggie Cabico, Nick Carbo, Caroline Cheng, Luis Francia,
Eric Gamalinda, Jessica Hagedorn and Lara Stapleton.
The reading will begin
at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 12, 1998 at Poets House, 72 Spring Street, Third Floor,
New York
City.
(Entrance fee is $5.)
Most of the featured readers have appeared in three important
anthologies of Filipino and Filipino-American literature: Brown River, White Ocean
(Rutgers University Press); Returning a Borrowed Tongue (Coffeehouse); or
Flippin':Filipinos On America (Asian American Writers Workshop). Collectively,
these writers also represent several awards from the United States and the
Philippines, including the National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Prize;
the Witter Bynner Foundation Poetry Grant; New York State Foundation of the
Arts Poetry Award; Likhaan, Best of Philippine Poetry; Manila Circle National
Books Award; Palanca Memorial Award in Poetry; and Scribners' 1997 Best of the
Writing Workshops.
The reading will be hosted by Tabios who is editor of the literary
journal, THE ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN JOURNAL. Between each reader, Tabios will
present a vignette related to the events of 1898 when the Philippines declared
Independence from nearly 400 years of Spanish Colonialism, birthing the
first republic in Asia, La Republica de las Islas Filipinas. 1898 also marks
the beginning of the end of the Filipinos' struggle for national
independence and sovereignty. In this same year, the United States came to the
Philippines to begin a war that's been called the "First Vietnam." After their
military victory, the United States also won on the cultural and linguistic
terrain in their colonizing efforts. The English they spoke spread across the
Philippines, becoming the preferred language for education,
administration, commerce and daily living--thus, the reference among some Filipino
writers to English as a "borrowed tongue," though "enforced" tongue may
be more accurate. This reading, therefore, will be unique in presenting an
opportunity to reflect on how Filipino writers have come to write in
English.
MAD ALEX Arts Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit organization that
sponsors two of New York City's most important reading series: "MAD ALEX Presents"
and "Devotional; Writers' Restrospectives." It is in its fifth season,
autumn through spring, of presenting emerging, mid-career and established
artists whose material is language -- including a number of Asian American
writers and poets. Through its readings, MAD ALEX continues to radicalize the
concept of the live reading -- while carrying on a tradition that runs from the
campfire to the coffee house.
For more information, call (212) 693-0405.
