Arts

September 27, 2024 0

Filipino Culture on Center Stage in Cambridge

October is Filipino American History Month and to celebrate, the Harvard Square Philippine American Alliance is partnering with Harvard Square Business Association to host the third annual Filipino American Festival in Harvard Square on Oct. 6 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The event will take place along side the business association’s Oktoberfest and the HONK! Parade. Event leader Cathy Uy said the aim of the Filipino celebration is to diversify the Cambridge festivities and “teach everyone about different cultures.” […]

September 13, 2024 0

Dorchester Art Project Set to Honor Vietnamese Diaspora

by Harmony Witte

An art project by a group of Vietnamese Americans in Dorchester will complement a proposed Vietnamese diaspora memorial and aim to become a permanent presence in Boston, say organizers.The “Trưng Bày Mẫu Thiết Kế” show debuts on Sept. 14, from noon to 3 p.m. at the VietAID Community Center at 42 Charles St. in Dorchester, as part of the “1975: A Vietnamese Diaspora Memorial.” The exhibit is lead by artist Ngoc-Tran Vu. “This design showcase is an inclusive and accessible […]

August 23, 2024 0

Artist Kenson Truong Sheds Light on Asian, Gay Identity

by Ryan Lundgren

Artist Kenson Truong was at work in a small nondescript gray building on a steep, hilly road in Roxbury that serves as a studio for Tufts’ School of the Museum of Fine Arts when I met him last week. He was tinkering with some black, glittery cubes at the time – cubes that appeared like props for the background of an episode of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” of which Truong is coincidentally a fan. The black cubes, however, were part of […]

August 23, 2024 0

Asian Americans’ History in Hollywood Was Anything But Golden. Now, It’s Time to Shine

by DongDong Yang

It is no secret that for years Asian Americans had been sidelined in Hollywood, facing discrimination and disrespect. You might get a brief appearance of a short Asian nerd with the smell of “kimchi” in his lunchbox in school. And the typical Asian character in a Hollywood film was usually never played by an Asian actor, but by a white actor who played an Asian role. Famously, Mickey Rooney played an especially offensive Asian caricature in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” This […]

August 9, 2024 0

Boston Festival Orchestra’s Wang Looks Back on Year That Hit All the Right Notes

by Christopher John Stephens

Boston Festival Orchestra co-founder and conductor Alyssa Wang is having a memorable summer. In her fourth season at the helm, Wang and the BFO continue to bring exactly what its promised: imagination, story-telling, and community-building. Born in the early days of the pandemic, the BFO has grown to continue its free out-of-the-box concerts, collaborations, and educational programs with groups like the New England Conservatory. Just in July, its Summer 2024 Stage orchestral concerts have featured Rossini’s Overture to “Semiramide,” and […]

July 26, 2024 0

Boston’s Silkroad Workshop Makes Music in Hangzhou

by Yuchen Hong

The Silkroad’s Global Musician Workshop kicks off this August with its first dual Boston-Hangzhou performances, welcoming musicians from around the world to both historic cities. “Hosting it for the first time (in the Chinese city) is challenging, but I’m looking forward to our presentation in Hangzhou this year. I hope to introduce this free and creative motivated music education to China,” Silkroad’s pipa player, Wu Man, told the Sampan in a video call from China this week. Man has been […]

July 12, 2024 0

‘Louder for Lan’ Gives Voice to Refugee Facing Deportation

by Ryan Lundgren

Lan Le has lived in Massachusetts for over 40 years, after her family came here as refugees in 1981. They fled war-torn Vietnam by boat when she was just 9, and spent time living in a refugee camp in Macau before settling in the United States. She has no real connection to her birthplace and has since raised her nine U.S. citizen children in the U.S., where she holds a green card. But now she, like thousands other immigrants, faces […]

July 12, 2024 0

Attempts to Ban Books Hit ‘Record Number’

by Adam Smith

The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom has a heat map of the United States that at first glance appears like the state-by-state map Americans grew so accustomed to during the Covid pandemic. Texas and Florida are dark maroon, while many other states are hot orange. Massachusetts is a tad lighter, but still fiery. The map, however, is not warning of the danger of disease spread. It’s warning of something just as perilous to Democracy: attempts to curb free […]

July 12, 2024 0

‘Librarian Burnout’ Rises as More Censorship Requests Flood System

by Sampan Staff

As libraries across then nation face ever growing pressure to remove books from their shelves, censor materials and cancel events, staff at these public institutions are taking the brunt of the stress.“I have strong concerns about librarian burnout,” a librarian in Greater Boston, who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak freely, told the Sampan. “I personally know of many librarians who are considering or have left the profession and moved on to corporate … or … retail positions […]

June 21, 2024 0

Asian American Ballet Project Dances to a Beat of Its Own

by Yuchen Hong

Elizabeth Mochizuki, the Asian American Ballet Project’s artistic director, distinctly remembers what was going through her mind during the group’s first time on stage. “I remember being like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s really happening. It’s just us. We’re doing ballet,’” Mochizuki told the Sampan of the all-Asian-American performance. “It was something I’ve never seen before. I just wanted to bring people together to create this idea, share our stories and our experiences.” Prior to the debut, Mochizuki said, she felt […]

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