-
Lynn Yokoe donated 2024-12-22 10:05:17 -0800
Jon Jang
APICC is proud to fiscally sponsor Jon Jang. Donations to Jon Jang projects can be made on this page through APICC as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Jon Jang: pianist, composer, scholar, activist
For three decades, composer Jon Jang has created large scale works for large and small chamber music ensembles that include: Can’t Stop Cryin’ for America: Black Lives Matter!, Chinese American Symphony performed by the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra and Oakland East Bay Symphony; When Sorrow Turns to Joy – Songlines: The Spiritual Tributary of Paul Robeson and Mei Lanfang co-composed with James Newton, Tiananmen!, SenseUS! and the Beijing Trio in collaboration with Max Roach, Reparations Now! Concerto for Jazz Ensemble and Taiko and Island: The Immigrant Suite No. 2 commissioned and performed by the Kronos Quartet.
The Pledge of Black/Asian Allegiance
Asian Improv aRts, which has a long history of presenting works expressing Asian American experiences and perspectives in San Francisco Japantown among other communities, will present Jon Jang's new work that pays tribute to the friendship between Yuri Kochiyama and Malcolm X, both iconic social justice activists who share the same birthday of May 19. The title of the work, The Pledge for Black/Asian Allegiance, affirms the solidarity that Yuri and Malcolm held between Asian and African American communities. A close friend of Malcolm's, Yuri was present at Malcolm's death in 1965, captured in a photo in Life Magazine. She continued on with her long career in social activism eventually settling in the Bay Area. She passed away at 93 in 2014.
The performance will feature Jon’s ensemble, the Jangtet with African American theater artist Dr. Amanda Kemp. The Jangtet features bassist Gary Brown, drummer Deszon Claiborne, saxophonist Hitomi Oba and trombonist Nick DePinna, along with Jon Jang.
According to Jon,
"What is the meaning of The Pledge of Black/Asian Allegiance to me? As an American born Chinese and a descendant of a “paper son” (illegal alien) whose grandparents and parents struggled to make a living in segregated Chinatown during the Chinese exclusion era after the first earthquake in San Francisco during the 1920s and 30s, I will always remember that Frederick Douglass fought for not only for US citizenship rights for black people but also Chinese immigrants during the nineteenth century. The Pledge of Black/Asian Allegiance is my next musical “act” (read Duke Ellington’s Music is My Mistress autobiography) of grieving, recovering and celebrating black music of resistance that has been passed onto to me by my past heroes, mentors, collaborators and friends who have transitioned to ancestry: Max Roach (Scott Free, Garvey’s Ghost, Freedom Now Suite), Horace Tapscott (Two Shades of Soul), Amiri Baraka (Blues People, Funklore, Diggin’) and of course Wendell Logan (Many Thousand Go)."
An Invitation to You!
We aim to raise $15,000 for our 2018 The Pledge of Black/Asian Allegiance. That money will support:
1. Artist Fees and Production costs for the World Premiere Performance at the Buddhist Church of San Francisco by the Jon Jangtet on May 19, 2018 8pm, the shared birthday of Yuri Kochiyama and Malcolm X
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3405264
2. Artist Fees and Production costs for a studio recording and CD release by Jon Jangtet and special guest Min Xiao-Fen. It has been 12 years since the release of Jon’s last recording Paper Son, Paper Songs
*For check donations, please write checks to 'Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center' with 'Jon Jang' in the memo. Please include a return mailing address or email address to send the donation acknowledgement to.
Send checks to the address below:
APICC
934 Brannan Street
San Francisco, CA 94103*Photo by Bob Hsiang
Donate
-
Lynn Yokoe donated 2024-12-22 09:57:45 -0800
Francis Wong
About Francis Wong
Few musicians are as accomplished as Francis Wong, considered one of "the great saxophonists of his generation" by the late jazz critic Phil Elwood. A prolific recording artist, Wong is featured on more than forty titles as a leader and sideman. For over two decades he has performed his innovative brand of jazz and creative music for audiences in North America, Asia, and Europe with such with such luminaries as Jon Jang, Tatsu Aoki, Genny Lim,William Roper, Bobby Bradford, John Tchicai, James Newton, Joseph Jarman, Don Moye and the late Glenn Horiuchi.
But to simply call the Bay Area native a musician would be to ignore his pioneering leadership in communities throughout Northern California. Wong's imaginative career straddles roles as varied as performing artist, youth mentor, composer, artistic director, community activist, non-profit organization manager, consultant, music producer, and academic lecturer. Key vehicles for his work are Asian Improv aRts, the company he co-founded with Jon Jang and as a Senior Fellow at the Wildflowers Institute. In addition, Wong was a California Arts Council Artist in Residence from 1992 through 1998, and a Meet The Composer New Resident in 2000-2003. In 2000-2001 he was a Rockefeller Next Generation Leadership Fellow. He has also been a guest member of the faculty at San Francisco State University (1996-98) and at University of California at Santa Cruz (1996-2001).
”I choose for my work to build community and to seek out how I, as an artist can meet the challenges that our community faces. In the Asian American community, the biggest challenge is continuity of culture and the impact of assimilation. Through music, I envision a way to create continuity through the integration of tradition and innovation.
Francis Current project you can support!:
Remembrance Rising: In Tribute to the World War II Comfort Women is an interdisciplinary work featuring poetry, dance, and music in dialogue with the public art piece Comfort Women Column of Strength Memorial in St. Mary’s Square in San Francisco Chinatown.
Featuring composer/saxophonist Francis Wong, dancer and poet Lynn Huang, dancer Flora Hyoin Kim Han, tuba performer William Roper, violinist Sandy Poindexter, and multi-percussionist Karen Stackpole. Parallel to the performing arts work is a companion zine set, created and illustrated by Katie Quan, focusing on the experiences of comfort women, Jan Ruff-O’Herne and Maria Rosa Henson.
Both projects are made possible through the inaugural Comfort Women Research and Creative Scholarship Small Grant Awards program. Presented by Asian Improv aRts, API Cultural Center, and Lenora Lee Dance.
There will be one indoor performance at the Manilatown Heritage Center on Friday 7-8pm 5/19 and one outdoor performance at the site of the Comfort Women Memorial in St. Mary’s that will be video recorded at 2pm-3pm on Saturday 5/20.
Admission free!
Please register here on EventbriteFriday, May 19, 7-8pm, at Manilatown Heritage Foundation (868 Kearny St., SF)
Saturday, May 20, 2-3pm, at St. Mary’s Square
Donate
