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June 7, 2024 0

In Face of Protest, Skip Schiel Wants You to Picture the Plight of Palestinians, Refugees

Photographer Skip Schiel keeps a photo of a boat full of refugees hanging on his wall in his home in Cambridge. It’s not a photo that he took, but one that was sent to him in a fundraising campaign. “I’m looking at it right now,” he said during a phone call with the Sampan. “It was made by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. It’s a boat full of people of different colors, maybe a 100 or more, looking […]

June 7, 2024 0

Palestinian-American Speaks Out After Library Photo Reception Taken Over

by Adam Smith

Laila Kassis had never heard of Skip Schiel’s photography before she was asked to talk at the reception in mid-May for the exhibit “The Ongoing and Relentless Nakba, the Palestinian Catastrophe of 1948 to the Present.” Kassis, a Palestinian-American, said when she did see the 14 or so photos in the show, she noted how underwhelming it all was, given the subject. “It was very simple and innocuous.” There was no big statement or in-your-face message, just photos of the […]

June 7, 2024 0

Pride Month, and a Ways to Go for Some

by Tracy Huang

Two decades after Massachusetts legalized gay marriage and after decades of battles for equal rights for gays and lesbians, the struggle for acceptance still continues for some, especially in Asian American communities. “I came out to my parents in high school, where I hoped that they would be accepting of the fact that I had a girlfriend, instead of their Christian Korean boyfriend standard,” a Korean-American Boston College student, who wishes to keep her name private, told the Sampan recently. […]

June 7, 2024 0

Clean Energy Activist Frank Pao Sees the Light

by Kristen Si

The U.S. Small Business Administration is lifting a loan program cap for clean energy projects for small businesses. With these new regulations, small businesses will be able to take out as many loans as they would like for up to $5.5 million to fund energy reduction or clean energy projects. These new policies come as part of a series of policy changes urging for cleaner energy from the Biden-Harris administration.Amid these new policy changes, Sampan had the opportunity to speak […]

May 24, 2024 0

Hub Music Group Celebrates ‘Chinese Arts and Culture’ Boston Festival Orchestra Conductor Tells of show, group’s history

by Harmony Witte

Sampan sat down with the conductor of the Boston Festival Orchestra, Alyssa Wang. Wang discussed the orchestra’s upcoming program, “A Celebration of Chinese Arts and Culture,” as well as her thoughts on inclusion and engagement in music, and what it means to her to be leading the performance as a Chinese American. BFO’s “A Celebration of Chinese Arts and Culture” will be held on July 28, 3 p.m., at Jordan Hall in Boston.Tickets can be purchased at: bforchestra.ticketleap.com/scheherazade/Sampan: Will you […]

May 24, 2024 0

Report: American Youth Dying at High Rates of Preventable Causes

by Adam Smith

Despite advances in medicine and vaccines, America’s young people are dying at alarming rates and by preventable causes, according to a recent investigation by a team of U.S. pediatric doctors. The report, published in May in the Journal of the American Medical Association, shows that in particular Blacks are hit hard by gun violence, whites and Hispanics by motor vehicle accidents and Asians and Native Americans by suicide. Most every group saw a recent increase in drug-related deaths.Most startling: Between […]

May 24, 2024 0

Editorial: U.S. Is Failing Its Young People

by Admin

America is failing its children.That is the undeniable takeaway from a report published earlier this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association.Kids age one to 19 are overall dying at a faster rate than they have been in the past half century, found the team of doctors who wrote the report, “Racial and Ethnic Disparities in All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality Among US Youth.”Between 1999 and 2020, nearly a half million kids in the U.S. died, and many from […]

May 24, 2024 0

U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su Reflects on Family’s Immigration, Value of Unions

by Tracy Huang

Secretary of Labor, Julie Su, spoke at a conference in honor of Asian American Heritage Month on May 13, reflecting on her family’s own path to the U.S., including her mother’s union job and trip to the U.S. from China on a cargo ship.Su is an American attorney and government official who has served as an acting United States secretary of labor since 2023. She’s also the 37th United States deputy secretary of labor, serving since 2021. Elaine Lan Chao […]

May 24, 2024 0

Dr. Gisela Velez Awarded for Vision Care to Hispanics, Others

by Kristen Si

After years of helping under-served Hispanic residents of central Massachusetts with eye care, Dr. Gisela Velez has been honored by the Small Business Association. Her clinic, Central Mass Retina and Uveitis Center, was recently named Woman-Owned Business of the Year.Velez says her ability to care for patients while also speaking both English and Spanish has helped her better serve her patients. Her practice provides specialized medical ophthalmic care to patients whose only other option would be to travel to Boston […]

May 24, 2024 0

AstraZeneca’s Jab Ends; Officials Urge Getting Covid Boosters

by Kristen Si

AstraZeneca is pulling its Covid-19 vaccine, Vaxzevria, which had been OKed in several nations in Europe and elsewhere.The U.K. company’s official reason for withdrawing the vaccine was a lack of demand, as the pandemic has largely cooled since it first flared up in China after the first cases were detected in late 2019. The vaccine was granted full marketing authorization in the European Union in 2022.But just before the vaccine’s run was to end, AstraZeneca publicly admitted in court documents […]

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