UCLA: Hip-Hop on the Brain; Aesthetics, Activism, and the Academy

Hip-Hop on the Brain: Aesthetics, Activism, and the Academy
Thursday, May 31st 2007
1-3pm
Kerckhoff State Rooms

Featuring:

* Jeff Chang, author of the National Book Award-winning Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation.
* Rennie Harris of Puremovement, renowned choreographer and hip hop dance historian.
* Cheryl Keyes, author of Rap Music and Street Consciousness.
* Susie Lundy, muralist from the Eastside Arts Alliance Collective in East Oakland, researching political graffiti writers in Oakland.
* Samir Meghelli and James Spady, two co-authors of the recently published Tha Global Cipha: Hip Hop Culture and Consciousness

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This event is sponsored by:
The Academic Advancement Program/Graduate Mentorship Program, Asian American Studies Center, Hip Hop Congress, the Department of Anthropology, USAC Financial Committee, and the UCLA Hip Hop Studies Working Group

UCLA: Shahidul Alam, The Majority World - Reconifguring the Frame

The Majority World: Reconifguring the Frame
A Talk by Shahidul Alam
Thursday, May 31, 2007
12:30 PM - 2:30 PM
11377 Bunche Hall, UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095

One recent study has shown that "upward of 90% of the images of the developing world (now increasingly called 'majority world') are taken by white non-indigenous photographers, either in-country staff of development organisations or commissioned photographers sent in-country by the 'western' media." Charities and development agencies need to raise money from the western public. It has been felt that the best way to pull the heart strings - and thereby the purse strings - is to show those doleful eyes that a few pennies could save.

With the advent of the internet and digital photography it should be easier than ever for photographers from the Majority World to present their own reality in the global media. But old prejudices die hard.

Perhaps photographers from the South cannot be trusted to understand this? Perhaps they are so hardened to such images of daily suffering that they are unable to appreciate the impact these sights might have on western audiences - and the coffers of western aid agencies.

The talk explains the underlying causes behind this prejudice and narrates the tale of resistance against it.

About Shahidul Alam:

Shahidul Alam is one of the world's most recognized and exciting photographers and a major figure in the public, intellectual, and cultural life of Bangladesh.

UCLA: Alsaybar, Filipino American Youth Formations in Los Angeles

Culture, Power, and Social Change

Please join us for a discussion with:

Bangele (Nonoy) Alsaybar

Filipino American Youth Formations in Los Angeles : A Transnational View

Thursday, May 31, 2007
4:00 – 6:00 P.M.
Haines 352

Refreshments will be served.

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Bangele (Nonoy) Alsaybar recently completed his doctoral work at the UCLA Anthropology Department. He has an M.A. in Asian American Studies from UCLA and an MA in Anthropology from the University of the Philippines , Diliman.

Abstract: Extensive field ethnography of youth groups in both the Philippines and Los Angeles has shown me that the "gang" framework and the "gang/non-gang" dichotomy (widely held by both law enforcement and influential researchers) cannot adequately explain the rise and creation of a violence-rejecting, fun-seeking Filipino American youth culture. Rather than search for defects in the mental and social backgrounds of immigrant youths and explain gangs as a response to difficult acculturation, I bring attention to pre-immigration American cultural influences that provided models for aggressive behavior and group bonding. An examination of youth formations like the transplanted barkada, gang, fraternity,the more recent crew and the linkages among them illustrates the relative complexity of the phenomenon and challenges assumptions and dominant images of Filipino American gangs and youth.


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For more information about CPSC, including the schedule of speakers, please visit the course website:

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/07S/anthro297-4/

News: Senate Votes for Filipino WWII Veterans

SENATE OVERWHELMINGLY VOTES FOR

FILIPINO WORLD WAR 2 VETERANS

Passage of Family Reunification Amendment Continues Momentum for Legislation to Restore Honor and Dignity for Filipino Veterans

The National Alliance for Filipino Veterans Equity (NAFVE) commended the Senate for passage of amendment S. 1186 to the Senate Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act. The amendment would exempt children of certain Filipino World War 2 veterans from numerical limitations on immigration visas. The amendment was offered by Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 87-9.

“We thank Senator Akaka for his ongoing commitment to the Filipino World War 2 veterans,” said Jon Melegrito, NAFVE Co-Chair. “We continue to work with him to pass the Filipino Veterans Equity Act (S. 57) as well, which would restore U.S. veterans status for these individuals who fought so bravely for the United States . We support all of the Senator’s efforts to help our veterans in their twilight years.”

“This landslide vote in favor the amendment demonstrates the support in the Senate for Filipino World War 2 veterans,” said Lillian Galedo, NAFVE Co-Chair. “We applaud the Senate for this move and call on them to take the next step and restore full equity for our veterans through passage of the Equity Act.”

NAFVE represents over 20 local, national and international organizations committed to securing full equity for Filipino World War II Veterans. More information about NAFVE and the Filipino Veterans Equity Act is available on the NAFVE Web site: www.nafve.org.

APC: AAPI Communities at UCLA Seek to be Counted!

May 23, 2007

Contacts: Jason Osajima, 714.745.6243

Candice Shikai, 323.422.7406



Struggling for Recognition of its Diversity

AAPI Communities at UCLA Seek to be Counted!



What: Assembly Member Ted Lieu’s office will join the Asian Pacific Coalition at UCLA in a press conference to urge public support for the “Count Me In” campaign and Lieu’s AB295— separate efforts to disaggregate Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) data collected by the University of California and by state agencies. The “Count Me In” campaign and Lieu’s bill aim to disaggregate the racial category of AAPI into their specific communities to ensure that public policy reflects the needs of diverse communities.



When: Thursday, May 31, 2007

3:30 pm – 4:30 pm



Where: Ackerman Viewpoint Conference Rooms

University of California, Los Angeles



Who: Representative from Assembly Member Ted Lieu’s Office, Assembly District 53

Alex Lowe, Asian Pacific Coalition (APC)

Alma Riego, APC & Samahang Pilipino

Erik Yang, Association of Hmong Students

Nefara Riesch, Pacific Islands Student Association

Kevin Peanh, United Khmer Students

Candice Shikai, APC & Nikkei Student Union



Why: While many believe the AAPI community is a homogenous group of affluent and educated individuals, the reality is that many face serious inequities. Currently, UC admissions and state agencies only collect data on some of the larger Asian American communities and condense underrepresented groups into the “Other Asian” category. UC admissions currently place Pacific Islanders in the same racial category as Asian Americans, effectively marginalizing this complex group by hiding the barriers they face in access to higher education. The collection of data for these groups would create a better understanding of the diversity within the AAPI community, and accurate data collection would help decision makers craft public policy that better serves these underrepresented communities. This press conference will demonstrate the desperate need for disaggregated data and programs that serve underprivileged AAPI communities.



Visuals: A short 2-minute video presentation on the “Count Me In” campaign.



*The Asian Pacific Coalition at UCLA represents over 21 different organizations as the officially recognized voice of AAPI students on campus. Founded under our Points of Unity, APC has historically worked on issues that impact the AAPI community both on and off-campus by advocating for progressive changes that ensure equal opportunity and civil rights.

UCLA: Clare Sears, "The Queer Crime of Cross-Dressing"

Clare Sears

The Queer Crime of Cross-Dressing

Monday, June 4

4:00 pm
306 Royce Hall

In 1974, in the city’s Tenderloin district, the San Francisco Police Department arrested ten drag queens for the criminal offense of wearing women’s clothing. According to the police, the queens were violating a local cross-dressing law that made it illegal to appear in public in “a dress not belonging to his or her sex.” San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors had passed this law more than a century earlier as part of a broader attempt to regulate “good morals and decency.” However, far from being a nineteenth-century anachronism, cross-dressing law had proved remarkably durable, and by the mid-twentieth century it had become a flexible tool for policing emerging lesbian, gay and transsexual communities. In this talk, Clare Sears analyzes the history of San Francisco’s cross-dressing law, with particular focus on the forces that undermined its viability and led to its removal from the law books in 1976. Her analysis focuses on the emergence of a medicalized transsexual identity, struggles between doctors and police for ownership of this gender offense, and transsexual women’s efforts to deploy medical discourse to challenge the law.

Clare Sears received a Ph.D. in Sociology (University of California Santa Cruz, 2005), specializing in studies of sexuality, gender, law and social control. She received the Kevin Starr Postdoctoral Fellowship in California Studies (University of California Humanities Research Institute, 2005-2006) and was a Beatrice M. Bain Research Group Scholar-in-Residence (University of California, Berkeley, Fall 2006). She currently teaches courses in women’s studies and queer studies at the University of California, Irvine and is completing a book manuscript, entitled “Arresting Dress: Policing Gender Difference in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco.”