I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaack!!!
Okay so I been back for a minute. I know this update is mad late but i was trying to upload pictures, but I keep forgetting to bring in the disk that has them. Sorry. Im a horrible blogger. Anyway here's the recap:
After attending the NEXT BIG BANG conference in sunny Los Angeles, I'm finally so glad to be back in Philly. The oh-so official name for the conference was NEXT BIG BANG: The Explosion of Asian American Theatre, hosted at East West Players in Little Tokyo. I was there representing for Yellow Rage and Asian Arts Initiative, who co-sponsored the trip. There were a handful of famous faces including Amy Hill (50 First Dates), Tam (Karate Kid II, Joy Luck Club), Jessica Hagedorn as well as our extended spoken word fam - Shout outs to D'lo, Anida & Marlon from Two Tongues, YAWP, Kelly Tsai, Sam, Hanalei Ramos, Julie Pergules, Regie Cabico, Omar Telan, Robert Karimi, DJ Double D, Alison De La Cruz, Ju-Yeon, Kristina Wong, Dan Kwong, Leilani & Ova Saopeng and anybody else I forgot, I'm sorry.
Hereare some highlights, in no particular order of importance:
- the volunteers of NBB who did an awesome job of organizing, we stayed on time and we were well-taken care of
- the food, I've never imagined having kalbi and jhap jae (was that spelled right?) at a conference but once I found out I was right there at the front of the line
- mochi balls, there were so many of them!
- cocktail hour, what a way to network! And thanks to Mark Ju who put gin in my shave ice
- girltalk with Kelly Tsai, I swear it's so much fun to have her as an audience for all your man drama
- the showcase performers who've re-inspired me to write again for stage and maybe get me back up!
- D'lo dressed in a sari and wig. I was speechless
- Regie doing his "Chocolate" poem with the crowd with real Godiva pieces. Unfortunately all the chocolate melted
- watching Robert dance a mix of adolescent wiggling and a little bit of salsa and listening to all "True"
- finding other Laotians and getting them to say "Laos in the House!"
- karaoke on monday night prompted by Regie's sister and then being urged to dance and hold up our candles by this weird Japanese man who only had one blonde dread
- an older woman by the name of Elaine who first described her past experience with rap music as only hearing
"Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom Fuck! Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom Bitch!" until hearing Adriel from YAWP do a spoken word piece
- when one of the Yawp youths called the older participants "elders"
- trying to explain the difference between "spoken word poetry" and "hip hop theatre" and then having to explain the difference further with "one man/woman show"
I wish I had pictures...
See you next year, in NYC
Catzie
