Christopher John Stephens

Boston February 10, 2023 0

“The Embrace”: A Figurative Abstraction of Love Between Two People Who Loved the World

Boston played host to national media on Friday January 13th as the city unveiled “The Embrace” at the 1965 Freedom Plaza on Boston Common. This marked the start of 2023’s Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Day weekend. While the holiday itself is a testament to the life and works of the slain civil rights leader, “The Embrace” is something special, something distinct from the many statues to King that have surfaced in the nearly 55 years since his death. It’s […]

Boston January 21, 2023 0

Charting the Course for the Future of Boston Public Schools: Mary Skipper on the Road Already Traveled and the Roads Ahead

Mary Skipper became Boston’s new School Superintendent in September 2022. She is the 6th person to assume this critical role in the past ten years. Currently, the Boston Public School system teaches 49,000 students. Skipper had most recently successfully led Somerville’s schools as its Superintendent. Among other accomplishments in her career, including nine years as a Boston Public Schools Latin and Classics teacher, she helped found Boston Tech Academy which scores today in the top percentile on state testing and […]

Boston January 6, 2023 0

Janet Wu Looks Back on her Award-Winning Career as a Television Political News Reporter

The landscape of Asian representation on Boston local television news was certainly different in the 1970s and early 1980s. Stalwarts like Chet Curtis, Jack Williams, John Henning, and Tom Ellis were the faces that brought viewers news of snowstorms, busing and City Hall shenanigans in their stentorian tones and square-shouldered masculinity. Janet Wu’s appearance on the Boston media scene, first as a GBH State House reporter from 1978-1983 and then at WCVB from 1983 until her retirement in December 2022, […]

Arts December 24, 2022 0

The Artist in Motion: An Interview with Yun-Fei Ji

World-renowned painter and Beijing native Yun-Fei Ji has had solo and group exhibitions in such locations as worldly as Hawaii, Belgium, Iceland, and Italy. He has works in collections at the Museum of Modern Art, the Drawing Center in New York, the Worcester Art Museum, and Brandeis University. SAMPAN recently had the opportunity to speak with Ji, regarding his fifth solo exhibition at the James Cohan Gallery in New York City, The Sunflower Turned Its Back, running through January 7, 2023. Ji’s stunning evocations of […]

Front Page September 20, 2022 0

Sampan Interviews a Vietnamese Native About Gun Culture in Vietnam and the US

As of 2018, Vietnam’s homicide rate was 1.52 per 1000 people, the 57th lowest in the world. Compared with the US, where the homicide rate was 4.88 per 1000 and we were the 157th lowest in the world, it’s no wonder that the biggest threat for many living in Vietnam is being victimized by pickpockets and bicycle thieves. Vietnam’s homicide rate is lower than France, Finland, Canada, and Thailand. In 2015, when Vietnam restricted civilians from gun ownership, a black […]

Boston September 7, 2022 0

A Bridge Towards Tomorrow: Sampan speaks with Monique Tú Nguyen – Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement

Government policies and mission statements are always driven by terms and phrases. Whether they exist beyond looking good on paper and sounding strong in stump speeches is the dream that isn’t always realized. For Boston’s MOIA (Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Advancement), the driving motivation rests in that final word: advancement. What does it mean? How is it measured? Can immigrants advance without successfully integrating themselves within the social fabric of their chosen land? What measures need to be taken in […]

Front Page September 6, 2022 0

Gun Possession in Morocco: Sampan Interviews a Citizen about Gun Culture in his Homeland and the US

In a 2018 failed bid for the 2026 World Cup, Morocco highlighted its limited threats from gun crime, especially compared to the United States. At that time, Morocco’s murder rate was 3 in 100,000, which looks comfortable against 5.3 in the United States. The rate has stayed more or less the same in Morocco over these past four years. In comparison, the United States experienced more gun-related deaths in 2020 than any other in recorded history. This reporter recently had […]

Boston August 23, 2022 0

Complaints about the T: Sampan readers speak Out

We hit the streets this week to ask readers how they are coping (and will continue to cope) with the ongoing Green Line problems and the unprecedented month long shut down of the Orange Line starting August 19. Mayor Wu has pledged to make all the Boston blue bikes free for the duration of the shutdown. Extra shuttle buses will clog the streets to assist Orange Line riders coming in and out of the city, and the lucky few who […]

Boston August 22, 2022 0

Building Bridges and strengthening relationships: an interview with Boston Police Superintendent James K. Chin

The ideal of great community relationships between the police department and neighborhoods of any major city in this country is often in stark contrast with the reality. Crime statistics and verifiable incidents are too often recounted in a seemingly endless cycle of false moves, misinterpretations, and bad feelings from those on either side of issues regarding the sometimes strained relationships between police and the public they serve. The end result is more often than not a litany of complaints and […]

Boston August 19, 2022 0

The Games go on: 77 Years of Chinese American Volleyball

Sampan talks with Dr. Bobby Guen of the North American Chinese Invitational Volleyball Tournament ahead of Sept. 3-5 event. Nearly a century ago, the Immigration Act of 1924 had basically shut down immigration from Asia to the United States. No Asians were eligible for citizenship and those who were in the U.S. could neither enter nor leave the country. By the late 1930s, the only thing a typical Chinese laborer — mostly in laundry or restaurants — in Chinatown could […]

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