I was brushing my teeth and THISCLOSE to forgetting about writing today, even though I have been thinking about it off and on throughout the day.

But the day got away from me.

I had Isaiah all day and he only squeezed his adorable eyes closed for an hour nap, forgetting he’s supposed to nap for at least 2 hours.  Then I had Nick and my Thursday date night where I got a Filipino take out food for 2 and a bottle of wine.

Sometimes Love is the only acceptable excuse to not get to writing.  As my eyes are falling as I type this, I know that the writing I would have done today is still inside me and it will come out again at another time.

As a writer who believes in the power of the everyday narrative, I rarely attend large celebrity events.  Through Facebook, I was alerted to someone named Dave Eggers who is not only a bestselling author, but a true activist for literacy and education.  He founded a non-profit creative writing center for children and his work seeks to amplify the voices of marginalized people and pressing issues of social justice.  A real rugged soul.

I thought it was good.  But, I’m probably not the best person to write about going to see a celebrity writer.

I can see why I’d ask him about form, content, diction, and style.

But people were asking about parenthood, business funding, even a job inquiry (that was a real gem) and Dave Eggers is given the floor to speak…and I started checking my cell phone. I’m not a celebrity-goer.  And I’m not a fan of someone manipulating the situation asking Dave Eggers for a job while he’s on stage.

Afterward, I was looking desperately for the bathroom and felt like a fish swimming upstream.  My shoulders were being knocked left and right as I was the only person heading back INTO the lobby area while everyone else was pouring out.  I was forming a poem in my head about going against the flow of suits and fur coats when Dave Eggers almost knocks my shoulder.  He narrowly misses and I look curiously in his eyes.  I see that glazed look of so many public speakers.  That self-protecting look that disguises the inevitable fatigue of talking under the hot, bright lights of a stage and answering questions from complete strangers.  He had about two hundred people in line waiting to talk to him at his table.

Suddenly, I feel sorry for him.

I thought of the last person who signed a book of mine: Grace Lee Boggs, a 96 year old activist who had spent her life fighting for youth, revolution, peace, and radical love.  And yet, with Grace, her eyes were completely different than Dave Eggers.  Grace had this look of insistence and the widest smile I’ve seen in years.

I thought of her.  Grace, the Detroit resistant with a heart bigger than all of Michigan.

I stood in line with friends as they waited to have their books signed.  I was the only empty-handed one.  As much as I admired his work and especially his interest in transnational issues, I was more lit up from the insights of Grace than the uber famous Eggers.

What makes one author a celebrity and one author a well-known activist?

I think it’s in their message.

Eggers profiles stories that tug at the heart, that draw us into the disbelieving story of human injustice that makes us want to apologize for who we are.  Grace Lee Boggs speaks about our unimaginable capacity to love our country and neighbor enough to fight for change.

Eggers tells people a story.  Boggs tells people to love.

Most people would rather be entertained by a story than to learn how to be a better person.  That’s the difference between a celebrity and a true activist.

Ellen Somekawa, Executive Director, Asian Americans United, Philly

Casino was going to be built at the Chinatown in Philly.  Everyone thought it would be great.  The only question was how much CHinatown wanted in exchange for having this on their border.  They organized.  December 2010, the license was revoked.  The people voiced their fight against Chinatown to drive casinos out of Chinatown.

Fight against predatory gambling.  The business is about impoverishing their clients and addiction.  Their motto is Play to Extinction — play until there is no money left to loose.  Home equity, future earnings, assets.  particularly in philly.  this preys on the poor, people of color to maximize their wallets.  The money goes straight to business.  Gambling addiction is number 1 concern of Chinatown and which is why they protested.

Chinatown was a place for immigrants to build their dreams, build their lives.  It was a place where they built to have public space, green space, a park bench. it didn’t make sense to have a casino there.

Signed petitions.  door to door.  Gave them to politicians.  City council didn’t care.  Said it was ok to build.  They might as well have put a sign up that said, “We dont care about Chinatown.”

The city did a lot to protect white washed casino riverfront.  25% is of poverty line is in Chinatown.

We take this as a victory that the casino, but another casino is up less than a mile away from Chinatown and there’s talk to put in a trolley.  They have targeted Asians and it’s calculated.  Mayor is pushing for a second casino to be built by Chinatown again.

There may be a cover that this is about organizing, but it’s more than that.  Here are our guidelines:

1) we need to build our fighting capacity. we need to build new leadership all the time.  commit to youth leadership.  help people come to consciousness and political awareness.  young people must train next generation coming after them.

2) take time to help people treasure their neighborhood, the relationship to each other.  organizing isn’t just righting what’s wrong, but building what we want to see: a school, community garden, connection among people,knowledge of elders in our community, value cultural differences.  if neighbors don’t care about each other, what happens when they are threatened to be “the other?”  we need to find joy and love in the struggle.  part of what keeps us going is the joy and relationships we create through our work.

Alex Tom, Chinese Progressive Association, San Francisco

“Check Please!  Hidden cost of dining at low road restaurants in San Francisco Chinatown”

Story behind the cheap prices of Dim Sum…

Since 2001, CAP has organized workers to win back stolen wages and collected over $3 million dollars

— fought against wage theft (where employers are basically stealing part of their employees wages) in clothing, restaurants, particularly Golden Dragon restaurant and wihtin a day got their wages back.  New on Sang Poultry Market — got their wages back in 8 mo.

This is “hot shot” organzing, but it’s not foundation building.  if you really want a base, you can’t always be doing this kind of work and start at the bottom. not just the angry people, it has to be a collective among many kinds of people.

Advocated for and created job training and placement programs

Passed policies to benefit low-wage workers (even tho they got their 3 million wage theft, but it’s not “winning” because we were basically given what was already owed to us.  that’s not winning)

—Prop L – raised SF minimum wage to highest in country ($54 million transfer of wealth/year)

— paid sick leave

Focused on restaurant: highest concentration of low wage Chinese immigrant workers

Lack of data on Chinese workers, health and work leads to survey project

— wage theft happens all the time in Chinatown and anywhere there are high concentrations of immigrant workers

Formed the Chinatown Restaurant Worker health and Safety Project

Department of Health Checklist for Food Safety Inspectors — but they care more about the consumer than the worker — e.g. employers cut their finger and bleeds while doing food prep.  They care more that the consumer will eat that person’s blood rather than caring as well that the worker is always overworked and regularly cuts their fingers.

Wage Theft

no minimum wage, 50% of all workers, 70% kitchen workers

no overtime 76% of those working overtime

Unpaid wages (back wages) 1 in 12 workers

8 millin or more every year lost to Wage theft in chinatown restaurants and that money is kept by the owner

family of 5-7 live in one room

“Being a dog would be better than being a person in the United States,”  said a worker.  They don’t feel human.  These are the conditions we are talking about.

Organizing a community: You have to push a community but they also have to be ready.  It’s a balance.

Formed Progressive Worker Alliance

Pictures of organizing….

what is our role?

asians are all racilized to be silent, subservient, the model minority student, worker, etc…this is a common thread

asians are what maintain the system where are used us as the wedge.  we are dehumanized and have to be the agent of change to transform and reimagine the sytem

we are needed everywhere to keep on fighting!

Esther Wang, CAAAV – Organizing Asian Communities, New York

CAAAV…Committee Against Asian American Violence a grassroots membership based group that organizes diverse working class and immigrant asian communities to build self determination, change concrete conditions, and to participate in a broader movement for social, racial, and economic justice.

–speaking about the hx of CAAAV–

shifted to focus on grassroots community organizing and how systemic forces impact immigrant communities

ORGANIZING Model — 5 Strands — basebuilding, leadership development, campaigns, alliance, building, organizational development

What’s happening in Chinatown (focusing on the one in NY)?

hx of an immigrant community which is incrasingly under attack

bordered by luxury neighborhoods; NYC is some of the most expensive realestate in the world

garment factories are leaving hte US and other factors driving the economy are now financial and realestate industry which are located in NYC specifically right in Chinatown so there is a lot pressure on those neighborhoods

New developments are occurring; building of new condos — gentrification of Chinatown; are built for people other than the people of Chinatown.

Other housing issues: landlord harassment, no hot water in winter, raising fees on tenants legally and illegally, eviction and displacement, Landlord neglection (intentional) leads to fires, land/realestate speculation

Prioritize building leadership from the grassroots– engage the tenants and work with them on the housing issues.  help them fight their issues with campaigns, rallies, etc.

Engage in policy work — strengthening rent laws for example.

SHORT CLIP of showing organizing and advocacy work being done.

Senator Hoon-Yung Hopgood introduction

Hoon-Yung Hopgood Addresses Audience

— APIA is one of the fastest growing ethnic group in Michigan and the nation as well

— we all owe the communities around us for where we are today.  for some it’s parents, families, mentors, educators.  but we all owe someone something

— we all have a growing and budding awareness of the issues around us; we must nurture that as well

Diana Choi introducing keynote Helen Gym

Helen Gym, Asian Americans United  aaunited.org

(disclosure — she is an AMAZING speaker, and I couldn’t catch everything because I was kind of stunned by her brilliant rhetoric!)

–great honor to be here.  7 or so years ago, I stood here introducing Grace Lee Boggs.

I want to talk about education.  It’s an upside down world.  Children are exploited, trafficked, starved, uneducated, miseducated all for profit.

No commitment is made to Detroit schools, a fraction of hte budget is spent on public schools compared to inmates.

Billion dollars standardized tests have infiltrated the system to have a one size fit all education.  That is upside down.

50% dropout highschool

90% do NOT get a high school degree

that is upside down.

each person has aright has a right to library. safe education.  decent.

education has been a playground for billionaires like gates the walton family who are rewriting the national edcuation policies with their money

asian americans have been a part of this, we are not excluded from this

schools and media teach repeat the boring litany… of upside down

You are a yellow pearl, that is what it means to be asian americans.  we need to reclaim our roots and right side up this world.  edcuation must change students and their world.

–discussing progress in china town organizing–

no stadium built, we have children playing.  we think about green spaces in philly chinatown.  after 140 years, basic things are still lacking.  we are not afraid of taking on institutions.  we value the hx of our people.

we use folk art – see, value, and respect cultural knowledge.  this is an act of resistance.

children learn oral hx storytelling, dancing and drumming ensemble.  when they know and love traditions that can question the structures that harm and try to take them away.

We don’t make friends this way  (shows slide of politicians who are denouncing their efforts).

We exercise community rights like fighting for community gardens, libraries, reclaiming space.  we celebrate culture through our youth.   Festivals have become a time for expression and the young are participating.  They know that space is precious.

Picture of Asian american student telling the superintendant, “Once we open our mouths we are terrorized,” she said.  Picture: It’s not a question of who beat whom but who let it happen.

The heart of revolutionary struggle is radical love, fearless and urgent.  It doesn’t matter how many people you have.  It doesn’t matter what’s the issue – tiger mom or ranting UCLA student on youtube – it doesn’t matter.  Now is the time.  If you are waiting for others to do it, you will wait a very long time.

we walk in a long hx of those who walked before us and we follow a path that is equally long.

Glenn Omatsu

I was trained in a community situations; education is possible everywhere.  Anything can be come education.  Education is life.  It can be transformative.  I don’t know if I would think and be this way had I gone through traditional forms of education.

This vision fuels current Ethnic Studies conference.

Wasn’t until junior year in college and into organizing in San Francisco; anti-imperalism orgs, Japanese newspaper, early life was infused with “how do you raise awareness, how to do you engage people?’

You don’t need books or a classroom, but you need desire and intention.

My way of teaching is infused with workers’ experiences because I worked with labor unions; my style of education is informed by my experiences.

You need a spirit of experimentation to educate; it may or may not be successful.  One thing that works with one group may not work with another group.

Western concept of education: sit in an audience and not participate.

— explaining interactive exercise that is coming up —

Culture circle — culture means community that you’re involved in, not just race or ethnicity.

I focus on holistic learning, focuses on the mind, not separating thinking and doing.

Talk about something in your possession that reveals something about your culture.  Culture is much more than ethnicity and race.  I do this to humanize the class.  To get to know other people as human.

SE Asians academic class right now is about broadening the discussions beyond criticisms of communism and government.  — points to student writing on a wordpress blog

–more interactive exercises —

identify one struggle.  create a small educational activity that refers to the issue that you chose.  brainstorm teaching activities and ideas to share.  suggestions: organize and write a song, a rap, perform a play, a comic strip, haiku poetry, mini mural making, write a poem.

the objective: to overcome western colonial culture which says you have to know before you act, separates thinking from doing, separates teaching and learning.

Strategies to Overcome Westernized Concepts of Education

(my group went first)

we made a digital mural of our faces (taken with my webcam) and then aligned them in a line going down the middle of the mural wall and on the left side put OLD and on the right put NEW and then opened a dialogue about what would be the new issues presented to Asian Americans now that Asians before did not and the nuanced ways that unite and differentiate Asian Americans and Asians.

map out the journey of food in your family (analysis of skyrocketing rates of obesity and diabetes in certain cultures) particularly for our race.  Food is powerful educational tool.  “Feast of Resistance” curriculum by ?? to teach history in an informative and cultural kind of way using food items.

— next group asks out skit — trying to promote cultural awareness cross lines of latin@ and asian difference (deportation, food, cultural appropriation)

Next group: raising consciousness — do lines of poetry; pass one piece of paper with the line:

I am

I struggle

and have each person fill out.  (reading poem that the group did as an example — it’s awesome by the way)…

This exercise helps younger people who don’t identify as poet or writers.  This could empower them to rethink that concept and gets people to express themselves publicly.

How to raise consciousness and how to frame issues.  Each person write about the issue they are facing and then pass/share with others in the group.  You take someone else’s issue back to our community and discuss.

Use the sketch/phrase See, Hear, Speak No Evil and use as a base to ask what you are doing and how are you using your senses.

Next group: exercise to unpack privilege and power.  Everyone stands in a line. Ask series of questions.  Take a step forward if…parents graduated from college, speak english, primary identity is caucasion/White.

Take a step back if you went to bed hungry, or are a woman or a person of college, if you grew up around prostitution or drugs.

End of game everyone is dispersed through the room.  Then you conduct race to see who can reach the wall fastest and the person who is usually up front will win.  So, no matter how fast or strong you are, sometimes its not enough with the system but with determination you always reach the wall no matter what.

You can take the same activity and adapt — make use for racial equality, gender bias, etc.

Next group: take cameras and photo document what matters most to you.  each person what is is of value and then relate to anti-tobacco use among Asian americans, especially vietnamese population.  connect to second hand smoke as well.

Next group: issue is mentoring.  concern with working with students around issues of advocacy and getting students involved, resisting apathy.  How to address apathy:  mentors should not intervene with telling people how to do it.  But organize and gather the apathetic and lead them in group discussions on what is important and implement creative strategies to move them from apathy to activism.  (use creativity: hip-hop, photography, writing, etc)

Next group:  issue how to define asian american issues based on your identity when you are halved

conduct groups arranged by race and then have them list what the issues are that are most pressing and have one group that is mixed.  compare the results.

Concluding remarks by Omatsu:

education should be fun.  think creatively.  it’s invigorating to work with other people even when you don’t know them.  it’s best to be with other people.  this is based on longer traditions on older asian american communities, similar to other oppressed communities ‘ approach to learning and education.  as we move into mainstream thinking, don’t forget your roots about people-centered education.  most powerful form of education is outside the classroom.  as a teacher, experiment and do something beyond lecture and books.  get people outside and do other things in experiementation.  this will encourage colleagues to do the same and entire classes and orgs can change in powerful ways.

Lisa Lee — Director of the Hull-House

Alice Kim — Director of the Public Square

SUBJECT: Organizing in Chicago — sites of resistance.  How to engage the public in social justice issues

Notes:

Lisa Lee speaking

Theory itself is only liberated in practice and in relationships.  Grassroots organizing is more than uniforms of knowledge, critical theory.  Thinking is the first active resistance.

What kind of spaces bridge academics and activists?  — Founded Center for Public Intellectuals! to fill that space.

reflecting on C. West’s “Race Matters” — return to thinking of the Common Good “we must focus our attention on the public square…the vitality of any public square determines the quality of our life as a common person”

Last 10 years, the Public Square in Chicago is building laboratory space for praxis.

“Imminent critique” — implement strategies of the oppressor and use the tools to defeat the oppressor

Began her work at the museum, in charge of this “dusty house” into a vibrant center of engagement.

Hull House — Jane Adams, one of the founders, first women to win Nobel Peace Prize — believes in peace and justice as relationship.  JA was also considered to be a public enemy and a dangerous person.  Her NPP is displayed next to her FBI profile in the museum. “JA is probably a member of more organizations than any other one individual in the US.  REsponsible for …radical meetings…and where subversive breeds have found shelter.”  She was under servaillance for creating opportunities to discuss ideas for marginalized women.  That’s what Hull House was and that’s what it strives to be again.

The best way to preserve history is to make it relevant to current struggles for social justice.

–shift in presentation —

how do we create social change and provide environment that supports the way we think and move?

talking about the cooks and bakers in Chicago who got fed up with fine dining and wanted to do something more about the earth, agriculture and growing obesity epidemics in the poor populations in Chicago.  Their engagement with food was inspiring.

How do their tastes change when you’re exposed to other ethnic food?  Leads to how to feed a family, public health…all beginning with issue of food.  Led to coffee, soup and rolls service.

This led to the dining hall space of the museum to be used a modern day soup kitchen — once a week, bring people together to discuss the most pressing issues surrounding food.

Food is the issue that pushes everyone to talk.  It’s what brings people together to eat and pushes us to think differently about its distribution, how its created, who we choose to eat with and how it’s prepared.

Brings together eaters, farmers, economists, engineering issues, contemporary food justice movement and diversity issues.

This is all about creating the opportunities to cross lines of difference.  They try to make links between issues.  E.g.  when you eat a bowl of soup — inform and educate about the locality of those tomatoes and bring in advocates to inform about who picked those tomotoes and what they’re paid so people think if they like tomoato soup, they’ll care about social justice issues –.

Also created an urban farm, creating a seed library – where people can check out their own seeds, just like a book with fees and fee policy.  At the farm, we highlight the dazzling diversity of food and focus on the issue of diversity of food and the diversity of the earth.  mono-cultural food is dangerous for the planet.  similar to languages.  we have hudnreds of thousands of languages but only a handful are spoken.  we do this work on the farm: ou can’t talk about sustainability without talking about culture and social issues, it’s not just about economics.

Food preservation — e.g.  grow your own in the summer and preserve it for the winter.

Hul house began canning and preserving the excess produce of the farm.  They began selling their stuff and realized how sexist and racist the food labels are (Aunt Jemima) and began highlight stories of women home economists in their selling their items.  E.g. Ellen Swaller Richards — radical home economist

“Survival pending Revolution” use this term in their work.

CHANGE SPEAKERS

Alice Kim

How do we create the world anew?

Reclaim public, private, institutional, uknown spaces into places of dialogue and change.  Transform spaces in our everyday lives for intentional and meaningful dialogue.

Activist circles: disparage talk about dialogue. E.g.  “The philosophers talk about the world, but the world needs to be changed.”  Deep conversation about anything more than just weather is becoming more rare.  How to talk about issues that matter to us: media blackout in puerto rico, wisconsin rallies of protest — these issues are brought up in unconventional places turned places for dialogue.

The point is to resist and interrupt a cultural of silence and consumerism.  Coordinate spaces to be democratic to dream and debate.  These spaces are few and far between.

— Alice reflecting on growing up, loving books, but then realized she never read about girls that look like me.  Made me want to read more.  In college

Adrian rooks, bell hooks, cherri moraga — introduced terms like alienation and what was previous unnameable [memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts] Personal sharing of life shtory of coming into knowledge that moved her into feminism, orientatlism, theory of oppression, helped me to see my onw agency and make the world anew.  New ways of seeing gave way to activism — against war, for repro rights.  Natural connection between activism and idea.  Issues of identity were the first round of transformation but it was issues of class that propelled me to go deeper.

Working with women who were HIV positive (after college) — went to grad school and left academy and knew that the ivory towers were not the place of the revolution so I left after my masters and decided not to pursue PhD.

Worked at Cook County Hospital…met with a man who was brutally beaten by the police and led her to criminal justice reform work and anti-death penalty.  Links between slavery and capital punishment and how discrimination is still in the center of that.  Our work is to bridge of ideas to the world of activism.

Creating spaces — CAFE SOCIETY

quoting Gwendolyn Brookes — consider another’s business as our own business, about rethinking the notion of community and going beyond traditoinal notions about geography and building, insist that the classroom is not the only place where ideas are exchanged.

Black and Brown Unity in the Age of Obama  — (topic of discussion as example)

place for conversation that might not otherwise happen  like “Why Do We Still Dream” — posed this question at Cafe Society.

–showing media clip —

Shwoing slides of Cafe Society Discussions where they hold dialogue.  Facilitator is always present to guide the conversation to help unpack the wisdom at the table.  Provide frame and links for more resources so there is shared knowledge.  next slide — BROWN SUGAR BAKERY — conversation was recorded then uploaded online for further discussion.  CAFE AFIDOS (?)  led in Spanish for spanish speaking community.  CHRISTOPHER HOUSE came on board to host discussions for their English as a Second Language exercise so ESL students were also involved.  BARBERSHOP — people are talking, author and scholars included — to have their hair cut and talk about these issues.  Barbershop was filled with organizers, writers, citizens listen.  MUSEUMS also used for conversations, “Art of Dissent” cafe discussions.

Created a toolkit DIY Cafe Toolkit — wants to act as generators of dialogue to promote others to facilitate their own programs.  Toolkit is a call to action, to create their own dynamic spaces to transform themselves and community.

“If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be a part of your revolution.”  – Emma Goldman

Lisa Lee back to talking —

Public sphere is a contested space and needs to be re-imagined all the time and our lovers, family, friends, and coworkers should fill those spaces.  The personal should be brought out and the “secret self” should be separate from activism has been debunked by theorists and this notion only benefits the private sector.  The personal is political!

For the work to be effective, it has to be extremely pleasurable!  Remember the joy of doing this work!

In research to learn more about reformers, discovered these “serious” people who closed sweatshops and dedicated their own lives for activism has been about their right to simple pleasures.  Long bike rides, dancing, skinny dipping, and eating with one another.  Our sensual selves is critical in our struggle.

To create the world anew is not just about what we’re against but what we are for!

its’ essential to rethink our work, our organizing and practice public discourse and embrace a politics of imagination.  what are the other sites of resistance now?  how do we transcend bitterness and embrace dreams of freedom?

“we must tap the well of our collective imagination and do what our ancestors did: dream.”  Its essential to know what to build and to know what to knock down.

Dream, dream, dream.

Embrace the intellect and the creative of us.  “If we came from nowhere here, why can’t we go somewhere there?”

I’ll be posting and sharing the brilliance when and where I can.

Follow me on Twitter LFB27 if you want more!  #APIA11

— update — Twitter is misbehaving.  I’ll blog exclusively until it’s back up!