NEA Cuts + Help Out Theater Mu

We know what the current administration is up to these days--trying to bring down communities of color, immigrants, Diversity Equity And Inclusion--and in doing so, has cut many grants and funds that would go to programs and organizations which are all about DEI and helping to make safe spaces and platforms for marginalized voices to be heard.

One of those is Theater Mu in the Twin Cities which was founded in 1992  by Dong-il Lee, Rick Shiomi, Martha B. Johnson, and Diane Espaldon as an arts organization dedicated to bringing Asian American voices to the Twin Cities theater community. It is now one of the largest Asian American theater companies in the U.S. and is the largest in the Midwest.

Here is their statement on losing their NEA grant for their show Fifty Boxes of Earth:

"On Friday evening, May 2, Theater Mu received notice that its $20,000 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant for Fifty Boxes of Earth, which had its world premiere in March, was terminated because our production fell outside of "projects that reflect the nation's rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the president." 

Minnesota's Asian American is unique to the US. We are 56% SE Asian, the majority of whom came to the US after as a result of the wars in SE Asia 50 years ago. Over 54% of our Asian American community identifies as immigrant or refugees. To leave out these stories is to leave out a rich and vital part of what makes our Minnesota so special.

No matter the funding or political landscape, Theater Mu will not censor itself, nor will we change our mission of creating great performances born of arts, equity, and justice from the heart of the Asian American experience.

Ankita Raturi’s Fifty Boxes of Earth wove theater, puppetry, and choreography together; challenged xenophobia and transphobia; and centered love and hope. This is the type of art we will continue to uphold and produce.

After Theater Mu’s $20,000 NEA grant was revoked, our partners at the Venturous Theater Fund, a fund of Tides Foundation, graciously stepped up with an additional $15,000 grant.

With your help, we can recover the final $5,000. Will you be the one to help us reach our goal"

Read it in full and donate here: https://www.theatermu.org/news/2025/5/05/response-to-nea#gsc.tab=0

Simu Liu at THUNDERBOLTS* Premiere In London

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Bustle x MAYBELLINE = 40 Asian Pacific Trailblazers AKA Face the Difference

 

"Co-created with Maybelline New York in honor of Asian Pacific Heritage Month, Face the Difference brought together 40 trailblazers shaping beauty, culture, and the arts to celebrate the broad spectrum of Asian Pacific beauty — something yet to be done at this scale. Olympic medalists traded stories with Broadway stars. TikTok icons swapped numbers with culinary giants. Eavesdropping between takes, there was no small talk — only genuine conversation about what it meant to grow up feeling invisible and how embracing heritage has fueled success.

Inspired by the 40 shades of Maybelline’s Fit Me Matte + Poreless Foundation, the shoot turned shade diversity into something deeper: a storytelling canvas. These 40 trailblazers didn’t show up to blend in. They came to show how their differences became their superpower. The portraits, layered with mirrored reflections and prismatic light, are more than visually striking — they’re symbols of nonlinear journeys, of strength shaped by nuance, identity, and pride. Because beauty doesn’t happen in spite of difference — it happens because of it. Each of these changemakers invites you into the distinct world they’ve created, where being seen is just the beginning."

--Read More at: https://www.bustle.com/beauty/face-the-difference-celebrating-asian-pacific-beauty

Jennie and Lisa + Met Gala 2025

Yes, I know, there are other things to be blogging about, especially since I have not been keeping up to my part of the bargain from a blogging perspective, but all that being said...everyone loves themselves some BLACKPINK at the Met...right?

Lisa + Maroon 5 + Priceless + WTH?

 

I think I'm still trying to figure this all out. 

On one hand I'm like Damn!

And then I'm also like What?

These spaces coexist.

Run Yunseo Chung. Run.

Dear Yunseo Chung,

I want you to run for as long as you need to,

Because you are caught in a maelstrom,

The likes of which you probably never thought you would be in,

Because you spoke your voice for people that had no voice,

Because your skink looks like mine,

Because you were born in another country like so many of us,

Because this country is turning its back on everything good it was built on--

To show its ugly and distorted face it so desparately wanted to--

Because it's afraid of you.

Because it's afraid of losing itself even though, 

We are not the molestors and abusers they are,

Even though we will let them walk in our world with their swords up against us,

Sometimes even showing compassion,

Because most monsters are created, 

Not born.

Maybe I should have said Hide Yunseo Chung. Hide.

Rest your wearied body and soul to recharge for another fight,

For another day which you do not deserve,

While others speak at a time when you cannot,

So one day, you can come back into the light.

Rest Yunseo Chung. Rest.

Mahmoud Khalil, Try To Deport Me MFs, Freedom of Speech, Rubio Needs To Be Deported To K-Town, And It's Kind Of Feeling Like Nazi Time Here

So I was casually minding my own business, trying to get some rest from the onslaught of what the hell is going on in our nation, lobbing my penis around seeing if it wanted any action (the answer was a NO if you were interested) and then this NYT email in my inbox catches my eye from an article with the headline.

The U.S. Is Trying to Deport Mahmoud Khalil, a Legal Resident. Here’s What to Know.

Mr. Khalil, who helped lead protests at Columbia University against high civilian casualties in Gaza, was arrested by immigration officers and sent to a detention center in Louisiana.

I had saw just a smidgen of a headline about this before and was going to search it out, and the next thing you know (after my lobbing) I get that.

So you take a young man, who in addition to others, led campus protests against the civilian casualties in Gaza, who has a legitimate green card, and is married to a pregnant U.S. citizen and who in a CNN article said--

"As a Palestinian student, I believe that the liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand-by-hand and you cannot achieve one without the other,” he told CNN last spring when he was one of the negotiators representing student demonstrators during talks with Columbia University’s administration.

“Our movement is a movement for social justice and freedom and equality for everyone,” he said.     

AND YOU TAKE AWAY HIS GREEN CARD AND SEND HIM TO A DETENTION CENTER?

While both Trump and Rubio (among others) are trying to paint him as someone who is antisemitic, Khalil has said that there is no place for antisemitism.

While Trump and Rubio are trying to tie him to Hamas and terrorism, there's nothing that ties him to either. 

He's simply doing the same thing that protestors did here during the Vietnam War. And yes, he's getting the same, "Are you a communist sympathizer", but 1000 steps further bcause he's got his green card revoked for no legal reason, he's detained, and now facing deportation.

The U.S. was built on free speech, and yes, there are limits, but Mahmoud Khalil? He didn't spout hate speech and incite violence, unlike Trumpcession did. He's well within his rights to do what he's done and is afforded the same rights from a free speech perspective (according to journalist Minho Kim from the NYT).

Like I said in the title of this post, it's feeling a little like Nazi time where if I don't like you, get ready for the gas chambers, and if you think that statement is a little pedestrian and overwrought, I would say from an Executive Order Type Of Level, it's mostly high-level anyway, and that's the problem.

Where does it end?

Will U.S. citizens, in "extreme" circmstances try and have their citizenship revoked? 

It's already happening with birthright citizenship. But people think of that as so out of reach and so unconstitutional it will never work, especially with so many legal challenges. 

But what about a newly minted citizen from a country where let's say in a year, is looked at from a hostile perspective, as an enemy.

Instead of concentration camps, which we've already done, is it out of the question to think that an administration, or government body, will say "Anyone from country X that received citizenhip in the last 10 years will have their citizenship revoked and deported."?

Does that sound that far fetched in this current climate against immigrants?

Consider that under current policies: 

A person is subject to revocation of naturalization if the person becomes a member of, or affiliated with, the Communist party, other totalitarian party, or terrorist organization within five years of his or her naturalization.^[6] In general, a person who is involved with such organizations cannot establish the naturalization requirements of having an attachment to the Constitution and of being well-disposed to the good order and happiness of the United States.^[7]

The fact that a person becomes involved with such an organization within five years after the date of naturalization is prima facie evidence that he or she concealed or willfully misrepresented material evidence that would have prevented the person’s naturalization.

It doesn't seem that far out of reach, and no matter what, the vortex of DETAIN NOW ASK QUESTIONS LATER, is always in play. And sure, maybe the legal battle is won, but how long does it take while someone rots away?

This is not the America we should be living in.

Daewon The Skate God Turns 50

 

New moves up above.

Damn. Happy 50th.

Alex Wagner's Show Is Gone on MSNBC, And Katie Phang's Is Too. In The Same Cut As Joy Reid. MSNBC Can *$&@(@(##!@%!

I've posted in the past on MSNBC where somedays they've talked the good talk, but when you looked at the primetime, and the faces they were promoting, it just didn't pass muster. 

And now--in one sweeping cut--they just knocked off THREE Women of Color including Alex Wagner, who I knew there had to be something up and I wondered if she'd be coming back, Katie Phang, who I was loving so much and LOVED seeing this awesome Asian American Woman on TV, and Joy Reid--one of the most distinct voices and best voices on MSNBC.

For all their talk about what they stand for--MSNBC, while they are replacing Joy Reid's show with 3 anchors of color, it's still suspect--because they're still dropping TWO ASIAN AMERICAN WOMEN.

At the same time, it sounds like no one was given any real information on their shows being cancelled beforehand (although I wonder if Wagner had some inkling)--and that makes a difference. If you worked at a company for X number of years doing great things--don't you think you should at least be given some respect in the send off vs "Here's a box for your stuff" and getting it via an email from x of x of x (and not I don't know the actual pieces of that, but we can guess because it's already been stated it was A SURPRISE). 

Checking out different numbers across the board it sounds like everyone was not doing great from a numbers standpoint, but that it was getting better, so while mostly--all things were equal--they still decided to go with Whiteness.

These Two Articles By/About Asian Americans Made Me Cry Furiously

NPR host Adrian Ma remembers his girlfriend who died in D.C. plane crash

In the wee hours of the morning on January 30, after an American Airlines flight collided with a military helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and crashed into the Potomac River, NPR's Adrian Ma sent an email to some of the leaders at NPR. Its subject line read:

"I knew someone on AA5342."

That someone was Adrian's girlfriend, Kiah Duggins. She was coming back from Wichita, Kan., where she was visiting a family member who had just had surgery. There were no survivors. Adrian offered to speak to NPR, about that night and about his late girlfriend.

Read it in full at NPR: https://www.npr.org/2025/02/20/g-s1-49853/dc-plane-crash-american-airlines

Tiger mom and her cub contemplate cancer

Tiger Cub

One Friday night, after a long school week, you and Dad took my little sister and me out for dinner. I was confused because you rarely took us out to eat, yet this was your second time in recent memory. During the first dinner just a couple of weeks ago, you shared you were leaving your job after 4 years. This dinner I was understandably wary. What else could there be? You’d already dropped one bombshell. 

We went to a restaurant Danielle had discovered with her friends. While I was regretting my menu choice and contemplating stealing some of Danielle’s food, you shared the news that you had breast cancer. You quickly assured us not to worry, explaining it was highly treatable and that you would undergo surgery and radiation therapy. 

Read it in full at AsAmNews: https://asamnews.com/2025/02/18/tiger-mom-and-her-cub-contemplate-cancer/

SUBMIT TO PAAFF 2025

From the PAAF website:

"The Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival focuses on film and other media by, for, and/or about the Asian & Pacific Islander* diaspora community.

PAAFF accepts films and other media that have at least one person of Asian & Pacific Islander descent in a key creative role (director, DP, producer, writer, actor, etc…) and/or are about the Asian & Pacific Islander experience both in the United States and internationally. PAAFF has historically featured works with themes involving, but NOT limited to, Asian and Pacific Islander cultures, histories, and experiences.

Asian & Pacific Islander includes, but is not necessarily limited to, people from and descended from areas now known as Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Palestine, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Yemen; and the indigenous peoples of Oceania and the Pacific Islands.

PAAFF requires all films in its program to include closed captions.

PAAFF does not and will not accept films which have received funding from the State of Israel or financial institutions incorporated therein.

PAAFF does not and will not accept films for which human labor has been supplanted with generative AI."

Get it here: https://paaff.org/submit/

Help With Research At The University of Texas at Austin: For Asian American Breast Cancer Survivors, Depression Management for Midlife Korean American Women, And Chinese or Korean Women Caregivers of Alzheimer’s Patients

One of the research assistants at the University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing reached out to me to see if I could help spread the word about some of the research projects they are working on that could benefit Asian American women. Please check out the information and flyers below, and while I have reviewed this information, site, links, etc., always do your own checks if you have any questions and to make yourself feel comfortable.

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Study 1: Cancer Pain Management for Asian American Breast Cancer Survivors

We are looking for an Asian American woman aged 18 years and older who has had a breast cancer diagnosis in the past; can read and write English, Mandarin Chinese, Korean or Japanese; have access to the Internet; and identify their sub-ethnicity as Chinese, Korean, or Japanese.

Eligible participants who agree to join the study will be randomly assigned to one of the two groups. Depending on the group that you are randomly assigned, you may or may not be asked to use the technology-based program.

You will be asked to 1) use the educational information (the American Cancer Society breast cancer survivorship website that is provided by the research team), or 2) participate in the online forum and 1:1 coaching/support program. Participants will be asked to complete a questionnaire three times.

Your participation will last about 3 months. After the program is finished, each participant will receive $ 50 e-gift card, totaling up to $150. Please note that your participation is voluntary, and you can withdraw your participation at any time

Email: cai.help@austin.utexas.edu Phone: 512-232-2142 Website: https://cai.research.nursing.utexas.edu/

Study 2: Depressive Management for Midlife Korean American Women

We are looking for midlife Korean American women aged between 40 to 65 years old whose parents or grandparents are of Korean descent; can read and write English or Korean; live in the United States; do not have any disabilities that prevent physical activity; have access to the Internet; and experienced depressive symptoms during the past two weeks.

We would appreciate this opportunity considering the site’s relevancy to the topic. Eligible participants who agree to join the study will be randomly assigned to one of the two groups. Depending on the group that you are randomly assigned, you may or may not be asked to use the Web-App based program. You will be asked to 1) use the educational information (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] website on depression and physical activity guidelines that is provided by the research team), or 2) participate in the online forum and 1:1 coaching/support program.

Participants will be asked to complete a questionnaire three times. Your participation will last about 12 months. At the completion of the participation at each time point (pre-test, post 6-months, and post 12-months), the participant will receive a $50 gift card per time point for your participation in the study, totaling up to $150.

Please note that your participation is voluntary, and you can withdraw your participation at any time.

Email: wpapp.help@austin.utexas.edu Phone: 512-232-2121 Website: https://wpapp.research.nursing.utexas.edu/

Study 3: Technology-Based Support for Chinese or Korean Women Caregivers of Alzheimer’s Patients (Funded by NIH)

We are conducting a research study to test the "Technology-based information and coaching/support program that is tailored for Asian American midlife women who are family caregivers of persons living with Alzheimer’s disease (PLAD)”.

We are recruiting participants to enroll in the study. We are looking for an Asian American midlife woman aged 40 to 65 years old who are family caregivers of persons living with Alzheimer’s disease; can read and write English, Mandarin Chinese, or Korean; have access to the Internet; and identify their sub-ethnicity as Chinese or Korean. Eligible participants who agree to join the study will be randomly assigned to one of the two groups.

Depending on the group you are randomly assigned, you may be asked to use the educational information or participate in the online forum and 1:1 coaching/support program. Your participation will last about 3 months. You will be asked to complete a questionnaire at three different time points: Baseline, T0 and T1.

You will receive $50 reimbursement for completing the questionnaire at each time point. Thus, when the program is completed, you will receive up to $150 reimbursement. Please note that your participation is voluntary, and you can withdraw your participation at any time.

Email: tacad.help@austin.utexas.edu Phone: 512-232-2323 Website: https://tacad.research.nursing.utexas.edu

These studies aim to improve health outcomes for specific populations through innovative, technology-based interventions.

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Below are the flyers (please click them to see the larger images).

On The Horrible DC Plane Crash

When you have such a horrible plane crash, taking the lives of so many who were looking forward to a future so full of promise, it makes you both grief stricken and at the same time, wanting to hold and love those close to you even more.

My heart goes out to the families.

"The figure skaters and coaches returning from the recent U.S. national championships in Wichita, Kansas, were aboard the American Airlines flight that collided with a Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport [...] 

Wichita Mayor Lily Wu also offered her condolences during a press conference, becoming emotional when stating there are not any survivors. 

"Our hearts are heavy as a city," Wu said. "Our hearts are heavy as a city council, and we are here to provide the support needed for our community." [...]

Zeghibe identified the skaters from the Skating Club of Boston as Jinna Ha and Spencer Lane. Ha's mother, Jin Han, and Lane's mother, Molly Lane, were also on board. Zeghibe also identified the two coaches as Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. The two were 1994 World Pair Champions who joined the club in 2017, Zeghibe said."

https://abcnews.go.com/US/devastated-figure-skaters-coaches-aboard-flight-collided-black/story?id=118257532

Josh Johnson On Mark Zuckerberg And What He Looked Like When Talking About Allowing Hate Speech Back On Facebook Again . Thank you.

 

"#JoshJohnson isn't sure what Mark Zuckerberg was going for with this look #dailyshow #markzuckerberg"

Just To Be Clear Mark Wahlberg's Movie Was #1 With Like Two Dollars In Sales?

Sure you can say that $12 million is a lot of money. I'm not denying that. 

Like $12 million for a dozen donuts at Dunkin?

Way too much.

Getting a bonus of $12 million for your day job where your salary is $65K?

Awww hell yeah!

You know that's a lot of money!

But for a movie with a $25 million production budget?

And a marketing and distribution budget of  like $20 million?

And you know that second week is gonna be like a 50% drop.

At least!

That's a loser...

A big L.O.S.E.R

And I'm not saying Wahlberg can't get a chance at redemption--not only for his hate crimes, but also for asking for them to be expunged--he was a teen when he did the crimes (tried as an adult), and an adult when asked for them to be expunged--

Because no one's perfect right? We all make mistakes right? And we can all be better people and turn our lives around. We should have the opportunity to do that.

But a big L.O.S.E.R is still a big L.O.S.E.R.

And when you do what he did and wait until he was an adult to express forgiveness, and doing that only when you were looking to get pardoned (even if pushed into it), and talking about not reliving it...people have every right to look at you with some side eye.

They have every right to question intentions like when he was expressing thoughts about the murder of George Floyd, or to comment on how WE ALL thought it was odd when he gave the award to the cast of Everything Everywhere All At Once.

I'm not saying his foundation for young kids doesn't do good in the world.

I'm not saying he hasn't apologized (for whatever anyone attaches to that).

But has he done anything specific for Vietnamese or Asian Americans?

Does he need to?

No matter what, in the end--no matter what side anyone is on--this gets to follow him.

People get to ask questions.

It's just fair.

P.S.

Don't even get me started on Mel Gibson....