Podcast appearances and mentions of jon jang

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists.   In this two-part series of Oakland Asian Cultural Center's “Let's Talk” podcast Eastside Arts Alliance is featured. Elena Serrano and Susanne Takehara, two of the founders of Eastside Arts Alliance, and staff member Aubrey Pandori will discuss the history that led to the formation of Eastside and their deep work around multi-racial solidarity.   Transcript: Let's Talk podcast episode 9  [00:00:00] Emma: My name is Emma Grover, and I am the program and communications coordinator at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center, known also as OACC. Today we are sharing the ninth episode of our Let's Talk Audio Series. Let's Talk is part of OACC'S Open Ears for Change Initiative, which was established in 2020. With this series, our goals are to address anti-Blackness in the APIA communities, discuss the effects of colorism and racism in a safe space, and highlight Black and Asian solidarity and community efforts specifically in the Oakland Chinatown area. Today's episode is a round table discussion with Elena Serrano, Susanne Takahara, and Aubrey Pandori of Eastside Arts Alliance.  [00:00:53] Aubrey: Hello everybody. This is Aubrey from Eastside Arts Alliance, and I am back here for the second part of our Let's Talk with Suzanne and Elena. We're gonna be talking about what else Eastside is doing right now in the community. The importance of art in activism, and the importance of Black and Asian solidarity in Oakland and beyond.  So I am the community archivist here at Eastside Arts Alliances. I run CARP, which stands for Community Archival Resource Project. It is a project brought on by one of our co-founders, Greg Morozumi. And it is primarily a large chunk of his own collection from over the years, but it is a Third World archive with many artifacts, journals, pens, newspapers from social movements in the Bay Area and beyond, international social movements from the 1960s forward. We do a few different programs through CARP. I sometimes have archival exhibitions. We do public engagement through panels, community archiving days. We collaborate with other community archives like the Bay Area Lesbian Archives and Freedom Archives here in Oakland and the Bay Area. And we are also working on opening up our Greg Morozumi Reading Room in May. So that is an opportunity for people to come in and relax, read books, host reading groups, or discussions with their community. We're also gonna be opening a lending system so people are able to check out books to take home and read. There'll be library cards coming soon for that and other fun things to come.  [00:02:44] So Suzanne, what are you working on at Eastside right now? [00:02:48] Susanne: Well, for the past like eight or nine years I've been working with Jose Ome Navarrete and Debbie Kajiyama of NAKA Dance Theater to produce Live Arts and Resistance (LAIR), which is a Dance Theater Performance series. We've included many artists who, some of them started out here at Eastside and then grew to international fame, such as Dohee Lee, and then Amara Tabor-Smith has graced our stages for several years with House Full of Black Women. This year we're working with Joti Singh on Ghadar Geet: Blood and Ink, a piece she choreographed, and shot in film and it's a multimedia kind of experience. We've worked with Cat Brooks and many emerging other artists who are emerging or from all over, mostly Oakland, but beyond. It's a place where people can just experiment and not worry about a lot of the regulations that bigger theaters have. Using the outside, the inside, the walls, the ceiling sometimes. It's been an exciting experience to work with so many different artists in our space.  [00:04:03] Elena: And I have been trying to just get the word out to as many different folks who can help sustain the organization as possible about the importance of the work we do here. So my main job with Eastside has been raising money. But what we're doing now is looking at cultural centers like Eastside, like Oakland Asian Cultural Center, like the Malonga Casquelord Center, like Black Cultural Zone, like the Fruitvale Plaza and CURJ's work. These really integral cultural hubs. In neighborhoods and how important those spaces are.  [00:04:42] So looking at, you know, what we bring to the table with the archives, which serve the artistic community, the organizing community. There's a big emphasis, and we had mentioned some of this in the first episode around knowing the history and context of how we got here so we can kind of maneuver our way out. And that's where books and movies and posters and artists who have been doing this work for so long before us come into play in the archives and then having it all manifest on the stage through programs like LAIR, where theater artists and dancers and musicians, and it's totally multimedia, and there's so much information like how to keep those types of places going is really critical.  [00:05:28] And especially now when public dollars have mostly been cut, like the City of Oakland hardly gave money to the arts anyway, and they tried to eliminate the entire thing. Then they're coming back with tiny bits of money. But we're trying to take the approach like, please, let's look at where our tax dollars go. What's important in a neighborhood? What has to stay and how can we all work together to make that happen?  [00:05:52] Susanne: And I want to say that our Cultural Center theater is a space that is rented out very affordably to not just artists, but also many organizations that are doing Movement work, such as Palestinian Youth Movement, Bala, Mujeres Unidas Y Activas, QT at Cafe Duo Refugees, United Haiti Action Committee, Freedom Archives, Oakland Sin Fronteras, Center for CPE, and many artists connected groups.  [00:06:22] Aubrey: Yeah, I mean, we do so much more than what's in the theater and Archive too, we do a lot of different youth programs such as Girl Project, Neighborhood Arts, where we do public murals. One of our collective members, Angie and Leslie, worked on Paint the Town this past year. We also have our gallery in between the Cultural Center and Bandung Books, our bookstore, which houses our archive. We are celebrating our 25th anniversary exhibition.  [00:06:54] Susanne: And one of the other exhibits we just wrapped up was Style Messengers, an exhibit of graffiti work from Dime, Spy and Surge, Bay Area artists and Surge is from New York City, kind of illustrating the history of graffiti and social commentary.  [00:07:30] Elena: We are in this studio here recording and this is the studio of our youth music program Beats Flows, and I love we're sitting here with this portrait of Amiri Baraka, who had a lot to say to us all the time. So it's so appropriate that when the young people are in the studio, they have this elder, magician, poet activist looking at him, and then when you look out the window, you see Sister Souljah, Public Enemy, and then a poster we did during, when Black Lives Matter came out, we produced these posters that said Black Power Matters, and we sent them all over the country to different sister cultural centers and I see them pop up somewhere sometimes and people's zooms when they're home all over the country. It's really amazing and it just really shows when you have a bunch of artists and poets and radical imagination, people sitting around, you know, what kind of things come out of it. [00:08:31] Aubrey: I had one of those Black Power Matters posters in my kitchen window when I lived in Chinatown before I worked here, or visited here actually. I don't even know how I acquired it, but it just ended up in my house somehow.  [00:08:45] Elena: That's perfect. I remember when we did, I mean we still do, Malcolm X Jazz Festival and it was a young Chicana student who put the Jazz Festival poster up and she was like, her parents were like, why is Malcolm X? What has that got to do with anything? And she was able to just tell the whole story about Malcolm believing that people, communities of color coming together  is a good thing. It's a powerful thing. And it was amazing how the festival and the youth and the posters can start those kind of conversations.  [00:09:15] Aubrey: Malcolm X has his famous quote that says “Culture is an indispensable weapon in the freedom struggle.” And Elena, we think a lot about Malcolm X and his message here at Eastside about culture, but also about the importance of art. Can we speak more about the importance of art in our activism?  [00:09:35] Elena: Well, that was some of the things we were touching on around radical imagination and the power of the arts. But where I am going again, is around this power of the art spaces, like the power of spaces like this, and to be sure that it's not just a community center, it's a cultural center, which means we invested in sound good, sound good lighting, sprung floors. You know, just like the dignity and respect that the artists and our audiences have, and that those things are expensive but critical. So I feel like that's, it's like to advocate for this type of space where, again, all those groups that we listed off that have come in here and there's countless more. They needed a space to reach constituencies, you know, and how important that is. It's like back in the civil rights organizing the Black church was that kind of space, very important space where those kind of things came together. People still go to church and there's still churches, but there's a space for cultural centers and to have that type of space where artists and activists can come together and be more powerful together.  [00:10:50] Aubrey: I think art is a really powerful way of reaching people. [00:10:54] Elena: You know, we're looking at this just because I, being in the development end, we put together a proposal for the Environmental Protection Agency before Donald (Trump) took it over. We were writing about how important popular education is, so working with an environmental justice organization who has tons of data about how impacted communities like East Oakland and West Oakland are suffering from all of this, lots of science. But what can we, as an arts group, how can we produce a popular education around those things? And you know, how can we say some of those same messages in murals and zines, in short films, in theater productions, you know, but kind of embracing that concept of popular education. So we're, you know, trying to counter some of the disinformation that's being put out there too with some real facts, but in a way that, you know, folks can grasp onto and, and get.  [00:11:53] Aubrey: We recently had a LAIR production called Sky Watchers, and it was a beautiful musical opera from people living in the Tenderloin, and it was very personal. You were able to hear about people's experiences with poverty, homelessness, and addiction in a way that was very powerful. How they were able to express what they were going through and what they've lost, what they've won, everything that has happened in their lives in a very moving way. So I think art, it's, it's also a way for people to tell their stories and we need to be hearing those stories. We don't need to be hearing, I think what a lot of Hollywood is kind of throwing out, which is very white, Eurocentric beauty standards and a lot of other things that doesn't reflect our neighborhood and doesn't reflect our community. So yeah, art is a good way for us to not only tell our stories, but to get the word out there, what we want to see changed.  So our last point that we wanna talk about today is the importance of Black and Asian solidarity in Oakland. How has that been a history in Eastside, Suzanne?  [00:13:09] Susanne: I feel like Eastside is all about Third World solidarity from the very beginning. And Yuri Kochiyama is one of our mentors through Greg Morozumi and she was all about that. So I feel like everything we do brings together Black, Asian and brown folks. [00:13:27] Aubrey: Black and Asian solidarity is especially important here at Eastside Arts Alliance. It is a part of our history. We have our bookstore called Bandung Books for a very specific reason, to give some history there. So the Bandung Conference happened in 1955 in Indonesia, and it was the first large-scale meeting of Asian and African countries. Most of which were newly independent from colonialism. They aimed to promote Afro-Asian cooperation and rejection of colonialism and imperialism in all nations. And it really set the stage for revolutionary solidarity between colonized and oppressed people, letting way for many Third Worlds movements internationally and within the United States.  [00:14:14] Eastside had an exhibition called Bandung to the Bay: Black and Asian Solidarity at Oakland Asian Cultural Center the past two years in 2022 and 2023 for their Lunar New Year and Black History Month celebrations. It highlighted the significance of that conference and also brought to light what was happening in the United States from the 1960s to present time that were creating and building solidarity between Black and Asian communities. The exhibition highlighted a number of pins, posters, and newspapers from the Black Liberation Movement and Asian American movement, as well as the broader Third World movement. The Black Panthers were important points of inspiration in Oakland, in the Bay Area in getting Asian and Pacific Islanders in the diaspora, and in their homelands organized.  [00:15:07] We had the adoption of the Black Panthers 10-point program to help shape revolutionary demands and principles for people's own communities like the Red Guard in San Francisco's Chinatown, IWK in New York's Chinatown and even the Polynesian Panthers in New Zealand. There were so many different organizations that came out of the Black Panther party right here in Oakland. And we honor that by having so many different 10-point programs up in our theater too. We have the Brown Berets, Red Guard Party, Black Panthers, of course, the American Indian Movement as well. So we're always thinking about that kind of organizing and movement building that has been tied here for many decades now.  [00:15:53] Elena: I heard that the term Third World came from the Bandung conference. [00:15:58] Aubrey: Yes, I believe that's true.  [00:16:01] Elena: I wanted to say particularly right now, the need for specifically Black Asian solidarity is just, there's so much misinformation around China coming up now, especially as China takes on a role of a superpower in the world. And it's really up to us to provide some background, some other information, some truth telling, so folks don't become susceptible to that kind of misinformation. And whatever happens when it comes from up high and we hate China, it reflects in Chinatown. And that's the kind of stereotyping that because we have been committed to Third World solidarity and truth telling for so long, that that's where we can step in and really, you know, make a difference, we hope. I think the main point is that we need to really listen to each other, know what folks are going through, know that we have more in common than we have separating us, especially in impacted Black, brown, Asian communities in Oakland. We have a lot to do.  [00:17:07] Aubrey: To keep in contact with Eastside Arts Alliance, you can find us at our website: eastside arts alliance.org, and our Instagrams at Eastside Cultural and at Bandung Books to stay connected with our bookstore and CArP, our archive, please come down to Eastside Arts Alliance and check out our many events coming up in the new year. We are always looking for donations and volunteers and just to meet new friends and family.  [00:17:36] Susanne: And with that, we're gonna go out with Jon Jang's “The Pledge of Black Asian Alliance,” produced in 2018.  [00:18:29] Emma: This was a round table discussion at the Eastside Arts Alliance Cultural Center with staff and guests: Elena, Suzanne and Aubrey.  Let's Talk Audio series is one of OACC'S Open Ears for Change projects and as part of the Stop the Hate Initiative with funds provided by the California Department of Social Services in consultation with the commission of Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs to administer $110 million allocated over three years to community organizations. These organizations provide direct services to victims of hate and their families and offer prevention and intervention services to tackle hate in our communities. This episode is a production of the Oakland Asian Cultural Center with engineering, editing, and sound design by Thick Skin Media.  [00:19:18] A special thanks to Jon Jang for permission to use his original music. And thank you for listening.  [00:19:32] Music: Life is not what you alone make it. Life is the input of everyone who touched your life and every experience that entered it. We are all part of one another. Don't become too narrow, live fully, meet all kinds of people. You'll learn something from everyone. Follow what you feel in your heart. OACC Podcast [00:00:00] Emma: My name is Emma Grover, and I am the program and communications coordinator at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center, known also as OACC. Today we are sharing the eighth episode of our Let's Talk audio series. Let's talk as part of OACC's Open Ears for Change Initiative, which was established in 2020. With this series, our goals are to address anti-blackness in the APIA communities, discuss the effects of colorism and racism in a safe space, and highlight black and Asian solidarity and community efforts specifically in the Oakland Chinatown area.   [00:00:43] Today's guests are Elena Serrano and Suzanne Takahara, co-founders of Eastside Arts Alliance. Welcome Elena and Suzanne, thank you so much for joining today's episode. And so just to kick things off, wanna hear about how was Eastside Arts Alliance started?   [00:01:01] Susanne: Well, it was really Greg Morozumi who had a longstanding vision of creating a cultural center in East Oakland, raised in Oakland, an organizer in the Bay Area, LA, and then in New York City where he met Yuri Kochiyama, who became a lifelong mentor.   [00:01:17] Greg was planning with one of Yuri's daughters, Ichi Kochiyama to move her family to Oakland and help him open a cultural center here. I met Greg in the early nineties and got to know him during the January, 1993 “No Justice, No Peace” show at Pro Arts in Oakland. The first Bay Graffiti exhibition in the gallery. Greg organized what became a massive anti-police brutality graffiti installation created by the TDDK crew. Graffiti images and messages covered the walls and ceiling complete with police barricades. It was a response to the Rodney King protests. The power of street art busted indoors and blew apart the gallery with political messaging. After that, Greg recruited Mike Dream, Spy, and other TDK writers to help teach the free art classes for youth that Taller Sin Fronteras was running at the time.   [00:02:11] There were four artist groups that came together to start Eastside. Taller Sin Fronteras was an ad hoc group of printmakers and visual artists activists based in the East Bay. Their roots came out of the free community printmaking, actually poster making workshops that artists like Malaquias Montoya and David Bradford organized in Oakland in the early 70s and 80s.   [00:02:34] The Black Dot Collective of poets, writers, musicians, and visual artists started a popup version of the Black Dot Cafe. Marcel Diallo and Leticia Utafalo were instrumental and leaders of this project. 10 12 were young digital artists and activists led by Favianna Rodriguez and Jesus Barraza in Oakland. TDK is an Oakland based graffiti crew that includes Dream, Spie, Krash, Mute, Done Amend, Pak and many others evolving over time and still holding it down.   [00:03:07] Elena: That is a good history there. And I just wanted to say that me coming in and meeting Greg and knowing all those groups and coming into this particular neighborhood, the San Antonio district of Oakland, the third world aspect of who we all were and what communities we were all representing and being in this geographic location where those communities were all residing. So this neighborhood, San Antonio and East Oakland is very third world, Black, Asian, Latinx, indigenous, and it's one of those neighborhoods, like many neighborhoods of color that has been disinvested in for years. But rich, super rich in culture.   [00:03:50] So the idea of a cultural center was…let's draw on where our strengths are and all of those groups, TDKT, Taller Sin Fronters, Black artists, 10 – 12, these were all artists who were also very engaged in what was going on in the neighborhoods. So artists, organizers, activists, and how to use the arts as a way to lift up those stories tell them in different ways. Find some inspiration, ways to get out, ways to build solidarity between the groups, looking at our common struggles, our common victories, and building that strength in numbers.   [00:04:27] Emma: Thank you so much for sharing. Elena and Suzanne, what a rich and beautiful history for Eastside Arts Alliance.   [00:04:34] Were there any specific political and or artistic movements happening at that time that were integral to Eastside's start?   [00:04:41] Elena: You know, one of the movements that we took inspiration from, and this was not happening when Eastside got started, but for real was the Black Panther Party. So much so that the Panthers 10-point program was something that Greg xeroxed and made posters and put 'em up on the wall, showing how the 10-point program for the Panthers influenced that of the Young Lords and the Brown Berets and I Wor Kuen (IWK).   [00:05:07] So once again, it was that Third world solidarity. Looking at these different groups that were working towards similar things, it still hangs these four posters still hang in our cultural, in our theater space to show that we were all working on those same things. So even though we came in at the tail end of those movements, when we started Eastside, it was very much our inspiration and what we strove to still address; all of those points are still relevant right now.   [00:05:36] Susanne: So that was a time of Fight The Power, Kaos One and Public Enemy setting. The tone for public art murals, graphics, posters. So that was kind of the context for which art was being made and protests happened.   [00:05:54] Elena: There was a lot that needed to be done and still needs to be done. You know what? What the other thing we were coming on the tail end of and still having massive repercussions was crack. And crack came into East Oakland really hard, devastated generations, communities, everything, you know, so the arts were a way for some folks to still feel power and feel strong and feel like they have agency in the world, especially hip hop and, spray can, and being out there and having a voice and having a say, it was really important, especially in neighborhoods where things had just been so messed up for so long.   [00:06:31] Emma: I would love to know also what were the community needs Eastside was created to address, you know, in this environment where there's so many community needs, what was Eastside really honing in on at this time?   [00:06:41] Elena: It's interesting telling our story because we end up having to tell so many other stories before us, so things like the, Black Arts movement and the Chicano Arts Movement. Examples of artists like Amiri Baraka, Malaguias Montoya, Sonya Sanchez. Artists who had committed themselves to the struggles of their people and linking those two works. So we always wanted to have that. So the young people that we would have come into the studio and wanna be rappers, you know, it's like, what is your responsibility?   [00:07:15] You have a microphone, you amplify. What are some of the things you're saying? So it was on us. To provide that education and that backstory and where they came from and the footsteps we felt like they were in and that they needed to keep moving it forward. So a big part of the cultural center in the space are the archives and all of that information and history and context.   [00:07:37] Susanne: And we started the Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival for that same reason coming out of the Bandung Conference. And then the Tri Continental, all of this is solidarity between people's movements.   [00:07:51] Emma: You've already talked about this a little bit, the role of the arts in Eastside's foundation and the work that you're doing, and I'd love to hear also maybe how the role of the arts continues to be important in the work that you're doing today as a cultural center.   [00:08:04] And so my next question to pose to you both is what is the role of the arts at Eastside?   [00:08:10] Elena: So a couple different things. One, I feel like, and I said a little bit of this before, but the arts can transmit messages so much more powerfully than other mediums. So if you see something acted out in a theater production or a song or a painting, you get that information transmitted in a different way.   [00:08:30] Then also this idea of the artists being able to tap into imagination and produce images and visions and dreams of the future. This kind of imagination I just recently read or heard because folks aren't reading anymore or hardly reading that they're losing their imagination. What happens when you cannot even imagine a way out of things?   [00:08:54] And then lastly, I just wanted to quote something that Favianna Rodriguez, one of our founders always says “cultural shift precedes political shift.” So if you're trying to shift things politically on any kind of policy, you know how much money goes to support the police or any of these issues. It's the cultural shift that needs to happen first. And that's where the cultural workers, the artists come in.   [00:09:22] Susanne: And another role of Eastside in supporting the arts to do just that is honoring the artists, providing a space where they can have affordable rehearsal space or space to create, or a place to come safely and just discuss things that's what we hope and have created for the Eastside Cultural Center and now the bookstore and the gallery. A place for them to see themselves and it's all um, LGBTA, BIPOC artists that we serve and honor in our cultural center. To that end, we, in the last, I don't know, 8, 9 years, we've worked with Jose Navarrete and Debbie Kajiyama of Naka Dance Theater to produce live arts and resistance, which gives a stage to emerging and experienced performance artists, mostly dancers, but also poets, writers, theater and actors and musicians.   [00:10:17] Emma: The last question I have for you both today is what is happening in the world that continues to call us to action as artists?   [00:10:27] Elena: Everything, everything is happening, you know, and I know things have always been happening, but it seems really particularly crazy right now on global issues to domestic issues. For a long time, Eastside was um, really focusing in on police stuff and immigration stuff because it was a way to bring Black and brown communities together because they were the same kind of police state force, different ways.   [00:10:54] Now we have it so many different ways, you know, and strategies need to be developed. Radical imagination needs to be deployed. Everyone needs to be on hand. A big part of our success and our strength is organizations that are not artistic organizations but are organizing around particular issues globally, locally come into our space and the artists get that information. The community gets that information. It's shared information, and it gives us all a way, hopefully, to navigate our way out of it.   [00:11:29] Susanne: The Cultural Center provides a venue for political education for our communities and our artists on Palestine, Haiti, Sudan, immigrant rights, prison abolition, police abolition, sex trafficking, and houselessness among other things.   [00:11:46] Elena: I wanted to say too, a big part of what's going on is this idea of public disinvestment. So housing, no such thing as public housing, hardly anymore. Healthcare, education, we're trying to say access to cultural centers. We're calling that the cultural infrastructure of neighborhoods. All of that must be continued to be supported and we can't have everything be privatized and run by corporations. So that idea of these are essential things in a neighborhood, schools, libraries, cultural spaces, and you know, and to make sure cultural spaces gets on those lists.   [00:12:26] Emma: I hear you. And you know, I think every category you brought up, actually just now I can think of one headline or one piece of news recently that is really showing how critically these are being challenged, these basic rights and needs of the community. And so thank you again for the work that you're doing and keeping people informed as well. I think sometimes with all the news, both globally and, and in our more local communities in the Bay Area or in Oakland. It can be so hard to know what actions to take, what tools are available. But again, that's the importance of having space for this type of education, for this type of activism. And so I am so grateful that Eastside exists and is continuing to serve our community in this way.   What is Eastside Arts Alliance up to today? Are there any ways we can support your collective, your organization, what's coming up?   [00:13:18] Elena: Well, this is our 25th anniversary. So the thing that got us really started by demonstrating to the community what a cultural center was, was the Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival, and that this year will be our 25th anniversary festival happening on May 17th.   [00:13:34] It's always free. It's in San Antonio Park. It's an amazing day of organizing and art and music, multi-generational. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful day. Folks can find out. We have stuff going on every week. Every week at the cultural center on our website through our socials. Our website is Eastside Arts alliance.org, and all the socials are there and there's a lot of information from our archives that you can look up there. There's just just great information on our website, and we also send out a newsletter.   [00:14:07] Emma: Thank you both so much for sharing, and I love you bringing this idea, but I hear a lot of arts and activism organizations using this term radical imagination and how it's so needed for bringing forth the future that we want for ourselves and our future generations.   [00:14:24] And so I just think that's so beautiful that Eastside creates that space, cultivates a space where that radical imagination can take place through the arts, but also through community connections. Thank you so much Elena and Suzanne for joining us today.   [00:14:40] Susanne: Thank you for having us.   [00:15:32] Emma: Let's Talk Audio series is one of OACC'S Open Ears for Change projects and is part of the Stop the Hate Initiative with funds provided by the California Department of Social Services. In consultation with the commission of Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs to administer $110 million allocated over three years to community organizations. These organizations provide direct services to victims of hate and their families, and offer prevention and intervention services to tackle hate in our communities.   This episode is a production of the Oakland Asian Cultural Center with engineering, editing, and sound design by Thick Skin Media. A special thanks to Jon Jang for permission to use his original music, and thank you for listening.   [00:16:34] Music: Life is not what you alone make it. Life is the input of everyone who touched your life and every experience that entered it. We are all part of one another. Don't become too narrow. Live fully, meet all kinds of people. You'll learn something from everyone. Follow what you feel in your heart. The post APEX Express – August 14, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Follow Cookie Online: https://otrstudios.com/founder https://www.facebook.com/cookiejmarenco https://bluecoastmusic.com/ https://www.instagram.com/bluecoastrecords If you've ever traveled all the way around the world in order to meet your neighbor, or learned a valuable life lesson by taking the long route, then this is the story for you. Over the past 4 decades, hidden away in the hills of my tiny hometown in Belmont, California lies OTR Studio. It's a full functioning ultra-high-definition recording studio that rivals any in the world. At the studio, Gold Record Selling Artists, Grammy Winning Musicians and Academy Award film companies come to work with one of the rare gurus of sound. It took me 20 years of living in New York to realize I had a world class haven at OTR Studio to record in my own home town. Some people play instruments, like how I play the cello and trombone, some find new ways to invent instruments like DJ Qbert and his turntables and some rare talents, create and play the studio itself. Cookie Marenco makes her vintage mixing board and her stacks of sound signal processing modules into her personalized instruments. Her sensitivity to sound, experience in mixing and ability to pull and produce the best performances out of many artists is akin to a concert pianist feeling the touch of the keys to bring the most precise and dynamically beautiful music into real life. There's a reason many music legends such as saxophonist Charlie Parker's drummer Max Roach, the pianists Brad Mehldau, Jon Jang, the late great Chick Corea and major companies like Lucas Films and Sony all come to Cookie to fine tune their recordings. I came to record the podcast interview and we ended up creating an entire album. It is my honor to learn and share in real time, the evolution of audio in the highest possible fidelity, with Cookie Marenco. If you enjoy today's episode, don't forget to hit the subscribe and like buttons, connect with us on IG, TiKTok and your favorite platforms to stream audio and video. We also have a Patreon page links in description, where you can subscribe to and support and receive exclusive content and merch including the album of chill out music we created at Cookie's studio called “Sweet Sleep Meditations”. You won't regret it. Welcome back to #UpgradeMe. It's a podcast about the never ending self improvement journey, ideas and life hacks to help you level up and the people who make it happen! Hosted by Dana Leong, a 2x Grammy Winning Musician, a US Music Ambassador and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. Support #UpgradeMe: https://www.patreon.com/UpgradeMePod⁠ Join our communities online at: https://www.Instagram.com/UpgradeMePod https://www.TikTok.com/@UpgradeMePod https://www.Facebook.com/UpgradeMePod https://www.Youtube.com/@UpgradeMePod⁠ ⁠https://www.soundcloud.com/UpgradeMePod⁠ ⁠https://x.com/PodUpgrade⁠ ⁠https://www.Linkedin.com/in/DanaLeong Subscribe to Upgrade Me: https://bit.ly/upgradeytsub Upgrade Me is sponsored by https://www.TEKTONIKmusic.org (Harmony Heals)

To close out Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, San Francisco-based saxophonist and longtime activist Francis Wong joins us to talk about the revolutionary power of music and art. He shares how he came to pick up a saxophone in the first place and how music, especially jazz, has played an important role in his activist work. We discuss the role of multiracial unity and collective power in art and the ongoing fight for social justice in this country. Francis shares about his album with legendary drummer Max Roach and the record label he founded with composer and pianist Jon Jang, Asian Improv Arts. We also play excerpts from Francis' extensive musical works. REFERENCES: Francis Wong - @franciswongsf Asian Improv aRts - https://asianimprov.org SONGS "Prayers for Melvin Truss" - https://asianamsmakingmusic.tumblr.com/post/55447694876/jon-jang-4-in-one-quartet-prayer-for-melvin “Pie Jesu" from Gabriel Faure's "Requiem" - https://youtube.com/watch?v=rnCKf1--leM "Meditation on Integration" - https://youtube.com/watch?v=rnCKf1--leM "Miyoshi Sketches" - https://youtube.com/watch?v=iBKV-B8Nf0c BACKGROUND INFO Chinese Exclusion Act - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act Joseph Pierce, Union Army Soldier - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_Pierce_Chinese_Union_Army_Soldier_In_14th_Connecticut_Infantry_Regiment.jpg Black Arts Movement - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Arts_Movement Erhu instrument - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erhu

In this episode, we take stock of major news headlines from the latest police violence in Minnesota to the onslaught of voter suppression in Georgia and around the country. We also discuss Republican attacks on transgender rights as a part of their strategy to instill fear among their constituents by “othering” trans youth. We end with a song called “A Prayer for Melvin Truss” by Jon Jang and Francis Wong and we offer it as a prayer for Daunte Wright, George Floyd and the countless others killed by police violence. References: Melvin Truss public outcry: https://www.queersiliconvalley.org/melvin-truss-story/ "Prayer for Melvin Truss": https://myspace.com/francis.wong/music/song/prayer-for-melvin-truss-107352505-120817040 George Floyd: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_George_Floyd Daunte Wright: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Daunte_Wright Virginia Delegate Marcia Price: http://www.delegatemarciaprice.com @PriceforDel95 #StopJimCrow2: https://www.stopjimcrow2.com Film HBO Documentary Exterminate All The Brutes: https://www.hbo.com/exterminate-all-the-brutes Will Smith And Antoine Fuqua Explain Why They're Pulling Emancipation Movie Out Of Georgia In New Statement: https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2565716/will-smith-antoine-fuqua-explain-pulling-emancipation-movie-out-georgia-statement Articles Vox.com // German Lopez – Police officers are prosecuted for murder in less than 2 percent of fatal shootings: https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/21497089/derek-chauvin-george-floyd-trial-police-prosecutions-black-lives-matter Brennan Center for Justice State Voting Bills Tracker 2021: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/state-voting-bills-tracker-2021 Congress Must Pass the ‘For the People Act’: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/policy-solutions/congress-must-pass-people-act#s1-sf Politico.com // Nolan D. McCaskill and Zach Montellaro – All Eyes On Georgia. Again.: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/04/georgia-voting-law-479002 NYT// Nick Corasaniti and Reid J. Epstein – What Georgia’s Voting Law Really Does: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/02/us/politics/georgia-voting-law-annotated.html NYT// Reid J. Epstein and Nick Corasaniti – Virginia, the Old Confederacy’s Heart, Becomes a Voting Rights Bastion: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/02/us/politics/virginia-voting-rights-northam.html Opinion: Roll Call // Sylvia Albert – Why Congress must pass HR1 and the John R. Lewis Rights Act: https://www.rollcall.com/2021/03/02/why-congress-must-pass-hr-1-and-the-john-r-lewis-voting-rights-act/ Washington Post // Michael Scherer – Zuckerberg and Chan to give another $100 million for local election administrators despite conservative pushback: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/zuckerberg-chan-elections-facebook/2020/10/12/0e07de94-0cba-11eb-8074-0e943a91bf08_story.html Washington Post // Todd C. Frankel – More than 100 corporate executives hold call to discuss halting donations and investments to fight controversial voting bills: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/04/11/companies-voting-bills-states/ Anti-Trans News 19thnews.org // Kate Sosin – Arkansas lawmakers override governor’s veto of youth gender-affirming care: https://19thnews.org/2021/04/arkansas-governor-vetoes-ban-on-gender-affirming-medical-care-for-youth/ Senior White House official: Any attempt to discriminate against trans kids is ‘against the law’: https://19thnews.org/2021/03/reggie-greer-transgender-day-of-visibility/ Advocate.com // Trudy Ring – Reggie Greer Named White House Senior Adviser on LGBTQ+ Issues: https://www.advocate.com/politics/2021/3/05/reggie-greer-named-white-house-senior-adviser-lgbtq-issues

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. PowerLeeGirls Hosts Miko Lee and Jalena Keane-Lee, a mother daughter team talk about issues in the API community.  What's spreading faster than coronavirus? Racist attacks against Asians. Tonight we discuss, Coronaracism. Guests include Dr. Winston Tseng from the Health Sciences and Ethnic Studies Departments of UC Berkeley and Cynthia Choi Co-Executive Director of Chinese for Affirmative Action. We talk facts, history, policy and what you can do to combat Coronaracism.   Community Calendar March 6 is opening reception for the  Reflections on Home exhibit at OACC. The show runs thru March 28. March 6 First Fridays at 945 ArtSpace in SF: featuring Jon Jang and Lenora Lee International Women's Day is March 8, at 6pm the Empowering Womxn of Color All Stars Night & Reception will be held at La Pena Cultural Center. We Are Here: Contemporary Art and Asian Voices in Los Angeles opens on Friday, March 13 from 6 – 8 pm and runs until June 14. March 14 is the 35th Annual Empowering Womxn of Color Conference at UC Berkeley. March 14 3pm Celebrate Women's History Month with Poetry Reading and Open Mic at EastWind Books in Berkeley. March 15 & 22 Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour March 21 11am-4pm Chinese Americans in Support of Tsuru for Solidarity Free Guided Arts Workshop – art making to close detention camps and ICE All of these events are wheelchair accessible. The post APEX Express – March 5, 2020 – Coronaracism appeared first on KPFA.

As jazz was born where cultures converged, it's not a surprise that it is the most adaptable form of music. An art form permeable since its very inception to musical traditions from other continents. This week we focus on the contribution of musicians that approached jazz and improvised music benefiting from the wider perspective afforded to them by the exposure to not only American culture but also the traditions of the places of origin of their families, which hailed from Asian countries like China, India, Iraq, Japan, Korea, Pakistan, the Philippines and Vietnam. The playlist features Susie Ibarra, Cuong Vu, Ben Kono, Amir ElSaffar, Fred Ho, Amirtha Kidambi, Edge, Peggy Chew, Rajna Swaminathan, Brooklyn Raga Massive, Vijay Iyer, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Rez Abbasi, Jon Jang, Jen Shyu, Tomas Fujiwara, Taylor Ho Bynum, Jon Irabagon, Miles Okazaki, Ha-Yang Kim. Detailed playlist at https://spinitron.com/RFB/pl/8609813/Mondo-Jazz Photo credit: Peter Gannushkin http://downtownmusic.net

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Host Powerleegirls – Miko Lee and Ayame Keane-Lee speak with API musicians using music for social change. Milck speaks about her song Quiet which went viral at the Women's March. Jon Jang fills us in about his latest work Pledge of Black Asian Allegiance. We end with an update from Mauna Kea where singer Hāwane Rios has been leading the protest movement through song and dance. We also hear an update from California College of the Arts Professor Huma Dar about the media black out in Kashmir.   Community Calendar SATURDAY August 17, 4 PM Stand With Kashmir – Bay Area Protest, San Francisco Ferry Building     The post APEX Express – August 15, 2019- Music for Movements appeared first on KPFA.

Happy birthday to us - sixth birthday, to be exact. What better way to celebrate than digging into six sextets like they were delicious pieces of cake? And if anyone has the complete run of John Zorn birthday cd's (all five-hundred of 'em), please let Mike or your therapist know. Jeremy Pelt – INSIGHT; Jon Jang – TWO FLOWERS ON A STEM; Lester Young – SEXTET 1939; John Kirby – COMPLETE SEXTET RECORDINGS DISC ONE; Albert Ayler – NEW YORK EYE AND EAR CONTROL; Bar Kokhba Sextet – 50th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION VOL 11 DISC TWO.

This month I had the pleasure of interviewing Ching-In about their recent publication, recombinant. We got to talk about archive, language, history, and gender.  Ching-In Chen is the author of The Heart's Traffic (Arktoi Books) and recombinant (Kelsey Street Press) and co-editor of The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities (South End Press; AK Press) and Here is a Pen: an Anthology of West Coast Kundiman Poets (Achiote Press). A Kundiman, Lambda, Watering Hole and Callaloo Fellow, they are part of the Macondo and Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation writing communities. Their work has appeared in The Best American Experimental Writing, The &NOW Awards 3: The Best Innovative Writing, and Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics. They are a senior editor of The Conversant and poetry editor of the Texas Review. They serve on the Executive Board of Thinking Its Presence: Race, Advocacy, Solidarity in the Arts as the Director of Membership and Social Media. www.chinginchen.com Have a listen, spread the word! Artists and works mentioned in this episode: Ching-In's book recombinant Ching-In's book The Heart's Traffic The Peabody Essex Museum's collected artifacts of the basket and fan Milwaukee lynch mob information Cheng Chui Ping aka "Sister Ping"  Golden Venture Disaster Michael Lin's artwork at Peabody Essex Museum I Was Born with Two Tongues Tyehimba Jess's Olio  Syncopated Sonnets Kunidman Cathy Linh Che Wo Chan Jai Arun Ravine Trish Salah conference: Thinking as Presence, creative writing, race and the arts. CFS!   The Sound of Waves Breaking this week is from Jon Jang and the Pan-Asian Arkestra's "Night in Tunisia," just in case you're curious.    This episode was edited by Mitchel Davidovitz, whose sound project you can find here on bandcamp    

This is a Black Arts and Culture Site. 1. San Francisco Arts Festival 2016 is May 19-June 5: Joining us are: Genny Lim (artist), Andrew Wood (Executive Director, SFIAF), Charlie Levin (artist), Jon Jang (artist). sfiaf.org 2. Alice Aziza Jefferson, Artistic Director of Sankofa Akili Dance Ensemble, speaks about the 2016 Spring Benefit, Apr. 30 at DeFremery Recreation Center, Lil Bobby Hutton Park, 1651 Adeline Street, in Oakland. She is first generation West Oaklander, Founder & Artistic Director of The Sankofa Akili Dance Ensemble. She founded the dance company in 1998 to pay tribute to the artistic legacy of her mentor Ms. Akili Denianke, under whom she studied at CSU-Hayward and elsewhere as a member of the Harambee Dance Ensemble. It is the mentorship of Ms. Denianke that she attributes the clarity she has attained regarding her life purpose. Info: 510-735-5150. 3.  L. Peter Callender and Leontyne Mbele-Mbong join us to speak about ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA — which closes the African American Shakespeare Company 2015-16 season. Shakespeare's epic love story — is set in modern day. Mark Antony has traded his power over an empire for the forbidden love of one woman, Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt. Jealousy, betrayal, death, and war cannot refute their undying love for each other. With award winning actors L. Peter Callender and Leontyne Mbele-Mbong in the title roles of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Visit http://www.african-americanshakes.org/productions/antony-and-cleopatra/  

Today we are celebrating the life of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, a man who epitomizes transformation and revolutionary thought born May 19, 2011, (1925-1965). We are joined by friends and family who knew and admired him. Confirmed are: A. Peter Bailey, author, journalist, friend of Brother Malcolm, and Yusufu Mosley, activist, and practitioner of African-Centered Restorative Justice. We are also joined by scholar, artist, writer, teacher, Amiri Baraka. We close with an interview with Abraham Burton, who is headlining the Tenth Annual Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival, Saturday, May 21, 2011 at San Antonio Park. The Abraham Burton Trio performs at Eastside Cultural Center 2277 International Blvd., Oakland, CA   94606, Sunday: May 22, 2011, 6PM-two sets. Admission is $15. For more information: 510/533-6629 We open with "Eleanor  Bumpurs" featuring Jon Jang Sextet (David Murray, tenor saxophone: James Newton, flute; Chen Jiebing, erhu; Jon Jang, piano; Santi Debriano, double bass; Billy Hart, multiple percussion.  The work speaks to an African American grandmother who was murdered by the Bronx police for not paying her rent on time continuing the long history of legal lynching or as Amiri Baraka once broadly described as the Sisyphus Syndrome, the repeated pattern that is a sustained upward trend bred of fierce struggle and broad unity and then blunted and periodically turned around socially, politicially economically, by political reaction, social repression, VIOLENCE and most of all white supremacy reasserting itself. Alan DeWayne Blueford was an 18-year-old senior at Skyline High School, preparing to graduate in June. He was the youngest son of Adam Blueford Sr. and Jeralynn Brown Blueford. During the early morning hours of May 6, 2012, Alan was murdered by an officer – whose name has yet to be released – with the Oakland Police Department. His family is now seeking justice for his death. .

Today in honor of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz's birthday today, May 19, 2011, we want to pause and reflect on his legacy with those inspired by his tireless zeal and push for justice. Confirmed guests are: Grace C. Stanislaus, Executive Director, Museum of the African Diaspora; author, Sharon G. Flake whose latest book is, You Don't Even Know Me: Stories and Poems about Boys; Adwoa Kudoto, a drummer & teacher from Cape Coast, Ghana (West Africa), joins Emani Dawson Bey, "Liberation Theatre." Both women have shows at La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley, May 20 & May 25. Visit www.lapena.org We close with a conversation with musician/scholars: Anthony Brown, Jon Jang, and Marcus Shelby to talk about a Soundtrack for a Revolutioninspired by Bother Malcolm. All the excerpts from speeches are available on line at: http://www.archive.org/details/Malcolm_X (great website),http://www.brothermalcolm.net/mxwords/whathesaidarchive.html We also play part of Leon Thomas's "Malcolm's Gone."

Rebroadcast from October 24, 2008: Today we highlighted the Black Panther Party, Oakland Community School, the first charter school in the State of CA and a model promoted by then Gov.Jerry Brown--yes, unbelievable that this same man, as CA Attorney Gen. is promoting the trial of the SF8. We had Billy X, itsabouttimebpp.com, Melvin Dixon, the Commemorator and the Lil' Bobby Hutton Literacy Program and Naomi Banks, former student on the air. "The Down Memory Lane Reunion," is 10/25, 12-5, at the old school site: 6118 International Blvd., Oakland. We also had Naima and Alixa, climblingpoetree.com who have a new show: Hurricane Season, Oct. 24-25, at La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave., in Berkeley, 7:00 doors, 7:30 show. They will also take "Hurricane Season," to Cell Space in SF, 10/30, 7:00 doors, 7:30 show. They are performing poetry at the "Wonders of Cannibis" Festival its second day, 10/26, which also features Dead Prez, at Golden Gate Park in SF, CA. My other guests were, Avotcja & Modupue, which features musician Jon Jang, and others, performing at the Jazz School, in downtown Berkeley, Oct. 24, 8 p.m. Next was guest, Shara K. Lange, whose film, "The Way North," about a Morrocan sports photographer, Fatima Rhazi, turned activist for women's rights in France, screens at 2 p.m. at the Shattuck Cinemas, in Berkeley, 10/25. It's a part of the "12th Arab Film Festival" www.aff.org. We closed with a great conversation with Black Panther Party Chairman,and co-founder, Bobby Seale, ESCC co-founder, Greg Morozumi, and the author of the book, "The Snake Dance," about the Second Annual Third World Book Festival at ESCC, 12-6 p.m. Oct.25-26, at 2277 International Blvd. in Oakland. Visit http://wandaspicks.com

Dave Davidson, director, "A Place out of Time: The Bordentown School which premieres on PBS Mon., May 24, 2010, 10:00 PM local time; Carolyn Brandy, percussionist, composer, performer, and educator. Her most recent projects include: OJALÁ, which is a vocal and percussion creative ensemble that mixes Cuban and American song forms and the "BORN TO DRUM" Women's Drum Camp July 4th weekend. Carolyn has been a drummer and student of Cuban folkloric music for over 40 years. She has been a practitioner of the Yoruba-based Cuban religion, Regla de Ocha, also known as Santeria, since 1977. She was initiated as a priest of the religion in Havana, Cuba by Amelia Pedroso in 2000. Genny Lim's "Where is Tibet," is featured at the "Kyegudo Earthquake Benefit," Thursday, June 3, 2010, @ the Berkeley Fellowship Universalists Unitarians, 1924 Cedar @ Bonita, Berkeley, CA, (510) 841-4824. Lim has recorded poetry/music collaborations have included jazz greats, Max Roach, Herbie Lewis, Francis Wong and Jon Jang. She's performed at jazz festivals from San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego to Houston and Chicago and has been a featured poet at World Poetry Festivals in Venezuela, 2005, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Hercegovina, 2007 and Naples, Italy, 2009. her performance piece, "Where is Tibet?" premiered at CounterPULSE, S.F., Dec. 2009. She is author of two poetry collections and adjunct faculty at CIIS. Francis Wong saxophonist, a prolific recording artist, and is featured on more than forty titles as a leader and sideman. Asian Improv aRts, an organization he co-founded with Jon Jang is a vehicle Wong channels his work as performing artist, youth mentor, composer, artistic director, community activist, non-profit organization manager, consultant, music producer, and academic lecturer.We close with Sara Sheldon Mann, director/healer, whose "Tribes/Dominion" continues at YBCA's Novellus Theatre, 3rd and Howard, in San Francisco May 20-22, 8 PM, (415) 431-9167.

A compilation of audio from speakers and muscians at Gina Hotta's public memorial services held at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center. With the Rev Mike Yoshii, Ann Hotta, Jeff Chang, Greg Morozumi, Brenda Wong-Aoki, Jon Jang, Dohee Lee and others. MC'd by Wayie Ly and Weyland Southen. The post APEX Express – October 29, 2009 appeared first on KPFA.

Today we highlighted the Oakland Community School, the first charter school in the State of CA and a model promoted by then Gov.Jerry Brown--yes, unbelievable that this same man, as CA Attorney Gen. is promoting the trial of the SF8. We had Billy X, itsabouttimebpp.com, Melvin Dixon, the Commemorator and the Lil' Bobby Hutton Literacy Program and Naomi Banks, former student on the air. "The Down Memory Lane Reunion," is 10/25, 12-5, at the old school site: 6118 International Blvd., Oakland. We also had Naima and Alixa, climblingpoetree.com who have a new show: Hurricane Season, Oct. 24-25, at La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave., in Berkeley, 7:00 doors, 7:30 show. They will also take "Hurricane Season," to Cell Space in SF, 10/30, 7:00 doors, 7:30 show. They are performing poetry at the "Wonders of Cannibis" Festival its second day, 10/26, which also features Dead Prez, at Golden Gate Park in SF, CA. My other guests were, Avotcja & Modupue, which features musician Jon Jang, and others, performing at the Jazz School, in downtown Berkeley, Oct. 24, 8 p.m. Next was guest, Shara K. Lange, whose film, "The Way North," about a Morrocan sports photographer, Fatima Rhazi, turned activist for women's rights in France, screens at 2 p.m. at the Shattuck Cinemas, in Berkeley, 10/25. It's a part of the "12th Arab Film Festival" www.aff.org. We closed with a great conversation with Black Panther Party Chairman,and co-founder, Bobby Seale, ESCC co-founder, Greg Morozumi, and the author of the book, "The Snake Dance," about the Second Annual Third World Book Festival at ESCC, 12-6 p.m. Oct.25-26, at 2277 International Blvd. in Oakland. Visit http://wandaspicks.com

Korean hostages: the response in Korea, impact on US relations in the war. Young musician finds voice on traditional Japanese instrument. Max Roach talks about a Jon Jang collaboration in rare interview. The post APEX Express – August 23, 2007 appeared first on KPFA.

Millennium Park: Made In Chicago: World Class Jazz Thursday, July 27: 6:30 pm Tatsu Aoki's re:ROOTED Project Jon Jang and Francis Wong, collaborators with Tatsu Aoki in re:Rooted project discuss the ideas which helped develop their conception of Asian Jazz. Tatsu Aoki's Re:ROOTED Project is the culmination of an exploration of Asian identity and cultural integration in three different communities. Marrying traditional and unconventional musical instruments and forms, the Re:ROOTED Project also blends the unique perspectives of older and younger generations of musicians. The concert features pianist Jon Jang and saxophonist Francis Wong.

Tatsu Aoki talks about the re:Rooted Project, which his ensemble will perform Thursday, July 27: 6:30 pm at Millennium Park as part of the Millennium Park: Made in Chicago: World Class Jazz series,featuring special guests Jon Jang and Francis Wong.