Click Here to Access: Program – Blurring the Color Line with Taiko
☆ Part of the Roots & Rambles concert series.
Why are Asian communities and cultures so often seen as perpetually foreign? Where did the Chinese sit on the bus during Jim Crow? Does taiko count as American music?
Join in an afternoon arts experience connecting these important questions about race, immigration, culture, and American-ness. This event, curated by taiko artists, allows us all to hear from filmmakers, performing artists, community leaders, educators, and ethnomusicologists, as they share their experiences and ideas. What happens when art forms are defanged, and how can we resist together?
Your tickets include:
- A special documentary film screening of Blurring the Color Line: Chinese in the Segregated South, a film inspired by Crystal Kwok’s grandmother’s story about her family’s grocery store in Augusta, Georgia. Her family grew up in a Black neighborhood and they share stories about their personal experiences that expose the problematic, racialized system.
- An exploration of the film’s sound & story, with Crystal Kwok (director, producer & writer) and ManMan Mui (composer of the film’s score), including audience Q&A.
- A discussion on racialization and Asian arts, moderated by ethnomusicology professor Dr. Deborah Wong, with panelists from the taiko arts and Black, and Asian American communities. Activities will include an optional breakout session.
- Community drumming and resistance, facilitated by ManMan Mui & Sasen Cain, taiko artists and educators.
- Taiko performance by Mujō Dream Flight, contemporary taiko ensemble, plus special guests.
This event is offered in person and streamed live via Zoom to allow for all to participate.
About Taiko Drumming
“Taiko is a postwar tradition of Japanese drumming that is also Japanese American and Asian American. It is loud, physical, and powerfully expressive. It is a deeply mediated world music; it is both very old and quite contemporary; it is a fusion of different musical influences; it is folkloricized; and it is a global phenomenon, with approximately three hundred groups in North American and perhaps five thousand in Japan.” – Dr. Deborah Wong, Louder and Faster: Pain, Joy, and the Body Politic in Asian American Taiko(2019)
About Yeeman “ManMan” Mui (they/them)
Yeeman “ManMan” Mui is a multidisciplinary taiko artist, dedicated to artistic expression to foster an inclusive, equitable, and creative community through multisensory expression and a mindful connection with one’s body. ManMan’s work in their early 20s with Hong Kong cinema was a pivotal moment in their career, driving toward an understanding of how soundscape composition opens avenues for authentic expression as Hong Kong Chinese and Neurodivergent. ManMan debuted as a taiko soundscape artist for OTHELLO at Hawai’i Theater in 2016. Currently working as a Teaching Artist in Grand Vision’s Meet the Music Program, ManMan also teaches taiko drumming lessons at the Grand Annex, Los Angeles Taiko Institute, and Makoto Taiko. ManMan co-created a neurodiversity advocacy school program titled “Listening into Silence” with taiko artist Carrie Alita Carter under the name Actually Autistic Artists.
About Sasen Cain (pronouns: Sasen/Sasen’s)
Sasen:
- is a Bengali-American scientist, artist, and educator who grew up mostly in the South and also in Kolkata, India.
- has been studying taiko since 2008–in SF, Boston, New York, Providence, San Diego, and LA—with many different styles, teachers, and directors.
- has founded or co-directed several taiko groups with open membership policies.
- founded or chaired both of the major gender justice organizations in the English-speaking taiko community, and has also advocated for trans/non-binary inclusion in higher education, STEM, and healthcare.
- composes and choreographs, and uses those words interchangeably at times.
- combines ideas and practices from dance, engineering, and brain & cognitive sciences to teach and to inspire strong practice habits.
- uses Sasen‘s name as a pronoun: Sasen/Sasen/Sasen’s.
About the Film Blurring the Color Line
Blurring The Color Line follows director Crystal Kwok as she unpacks the history behind her grandmother’s family, who were neighborhood grocery store owners in the Black community of Augusta, Georgia during the Jim Crow era. This documentary serves to disrupt racial narratives and bridge divides.
About Crystal Kwok (she/her)
Crystal Kwok is an award-winning filmmaker who established her career in Hong Kong as an actress, writer, director, and talk show host. As a strong women’s advocate, her talk show, “Kwoktalk” broke boundaries in Hong Kong with conversations about women and sexuality. Having moved back to the US, Kwok now embraces issues closer to home — that of her Asian-American heritage. Kwok is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Hawaii in Performance Studies and a recipient of the prestigious East West Center Scholar awards.
About Dr. Deborah Wong (she/her)
Deborah Wong is an ethnomusicologist and Professor of Music at the University of California, Riverside. Her most recent book is Louder and Faster: Pain, Joy, and the Body Politic in Asian American Taiko. She served as editor for Nobuko Miyamoto’s extraordinary memoir, Not Yo’ Butterfly: My Long Song of Relocation, Race, Love, and Revolution. Active in public sector work at the national, state, and local levels, in 2021 she joined the boards of the Chinese American Museum DC and Great Leap. Her happiest hours of the week are spent going on air with her weekly radio show Gold Mountain for KUCR 88.3 FM in Riverside.
About Carrie Alita Carter (pronouns: Carrie/Carrie’s)
Carrie Alita Carter is a globally acclaimed taiko artist and dancer whose original compositions are known for their dance-like choreography. Founder of All Things Taiko, the first online resource for learning taiko, Carrie also created the only taiko-specific body care program, JABS (Joint Mobility Alignment Balance Stability). While working toward an MPhil. in Ethnomusicology at The University of Hong Kong (2012), Carrie and ManMan Mui began envisioning Listening into Silence, now an interactive taiko show that connects with students on topics of neurodiversity, language, race, gender, and communication. After 7 years in Japan, Carrie currently resides in Silver Spring, MD as a taiko educator, the Curator for School Culture and Inclusion >at The Springwell School, and owner and artist for Japan-inspired Etsy shop Kansai Treasures
About Mujō Dream Flight (MDF)
Members (pictured from left to right): Yeeman “ManMan” Mui, Chris Tsang Phua 曾詠欣 (pronouns: Chris/Chris’), Maxyn Rose Leitner (pronouns: fae/faer/faers), Sasen Cain
MDF is the artistic vehicle of founding taiko artists Sasen Cain, Yeeman “ManMan” Mui, and Maxyn Rose Leitner. Together, and in collaboration with other predominantly trans/non-binary taiko artists, they create both original works and traditional adaptations. MDF’s art centers dance and personal storytelling informed by their specific cultural backgrounds.
In 2023, MDF is embarking on its inaugural tour, called “Haimweh” (Bavarian for homesickness), with the dual aims of highlighting trans/non-binary peoples’ often-fraught connections with their hometowns & families, and a journey of retrieving the belongings of one of our members whose parents don’t accept faer transness, and reclaiming identity, belonging & inter-dependence. This tour is funded, in part, by the Taiko Community Alliance. Please contact us at [email protected] or on our instagram (@mujodreamflight) to donate or request performances.
☆ Roots & Rambles is a three-concert series featuring musicians dedicated to the preservation, artistry and evolution of folk and traditional music in the United States. Each concert includes a workshop highlighting an aspect of the performer’s craft. Made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts.
