artsed4all Arts Education, Community, Film, Music, poetry, Visual Arts

“Drawn From Life: The Creative Legacy of Flo Oy Wong” @ SVAPFF 2023

Contemporary Asian Theatre Scene (CATS) is excited to present the 9th Annual Silicon Valley Asian Pacific Film Festival (SVAPFF), which begins today! 

CATS has curated 6 highly-anticipated feature films, documentaries and shorts for the in-person screenings at the Sunnyvale AMC Dine-In Theatre on October 20-22, along with 70+ films to view online (on-demand from October 20-29) — a wide variety of films that will make you laugh, cry, and even learn more about AAPI cultures.

Announcing the premiere screening of “Drawn from Life: The Creative Legacy of Flo Oy Wong” at SVAPFF 2023!

“Drawn from Life: The Creative Legacy of Flo Oy Wong” is our first professionally produced film, and what an amazing journey it has been! We are grateful for the invaluable support provided by CATS and SVAPFF to create this special gift in celebration of Flo Oy Wong’s 85th birthday. We are so excited to see our short film on the big screen!

Sunday’s Local Legends Film Program is now sold out, but you can still watch Drawn From Life: The Creative Legacy of Flo Oy Wong and Sunday’s fantastic line up of short films through the SVAPFF 2023 “Celebrating Communities and Discovering Untold Stories” digital package.

Watch SVAPFF 2023 online – “Celebrating Communities and Discovering Untold Stories” – 15 Short Films for $7!

GET YOUR SVAPFF 2023 ONLINE FILM PASS HERE

As the sixth daughter of Chinese immigrants living in Oakland’s Chinatown in the 1940s-1960s, FLO OY WONG was determined to break free of a life of pre-destined invisibility. She began her art career at the age of forty. Her poetry career started at seventy-five. Now eighty-five, her life comes full circle when The Community Rejuvenation Project proposes to paint a mural at 723 Webster, the former site of her family’s restaurant, The Great China. Flo’s beginnings in Oakland’s Chinatown come to life once more— this time through the eyes of another artist.

We’d like to thank the many people whose contributions helped to bring this short film to light.

Thanks to generous support from Contemporary Asian Theatre Scene, AARP, and Friends of CATS, we have been able to document Flo’s involvement in the 723 Webster Mural Project. We are so excited to share Drawn from Life: The Creative Legacy of Flo Oy Wong with audiences at SVAPFF 2023 and beyond. Whether you made a donation to CATS, bought a ticket to the October 22 screening, or told a friend about the film, we are grateful for your support.

Thank you to William Wong and Nellie Wong, for sharing their insights on their sister’s “fighting spirit” and to Diana Argabrite, Director of the Euphrat Museum of Art for shining a light on Flo’s artistic legacy. We are most grateful to Ed Wong for his dedicated efforts to record and preserve Flo’s artwork over the years. What a truly wonderful moment it was when Ed found the set of archival slides documenting Flo’s Oakland Chinatown drawings, created between 1938 – 1991.

A mural-sized thank you to the 723 Webster Mural Project team: Muralist Desi Mundo of the Community Rejuvenation Project, Roy Chan, Director of the Oakland Chinatown Oral History Project, Denise Chinn of 723 Webster Street and Jack Chen, owner of Imperial Soup in Oakland’s Chinatown. Their collaborative initiative on behalf of Oakland Chinatown is so inspiring! Please support Oakland Chinatown’s Legacy Businesses!

A deep bow of respect for the many artists who supported this project by generously sharing their creative contributions and light – Thanks to multimedia journalist Juan Carlos Guerrero; filmmaker/director Allie Light; musicians Kenneth Nash, Del Sol Quartet, and Marcus Shelby, who celebrated Flo’s 75th birthday with Gwah Gai: Crossing the Street in 2013 and crosses the street once again with his musical contribution in 2023!

A giant tip of the cap to our Director of Photography and Editor Chris Wong for his keen eye and steady camera! A big hug of forever gratitude to Leianne Wong Lamb for her encouragement and guidance throughout the entire film-making process.

We hope that this film conveys our collective love and respect for our dear friend Flo Oy Wong, who continues to have the courage to follow her creative impulses and the tenacity to realize her dreams. Through her art and poetry, Flo attends to the beauty in the every day; she finds dignity in the details. How lovely to behold Oakland Chinatown – past, present and future – through her eyes.

Happy 85th Birthday, Flo! See you at the movies!

For more about the film, visit: https://flooywong.ddns.net/flo-oy-wong-film/

artsed4all Community, Drama / Theatre, Media Arts, Music

Brenda Wong Aoki’s “Soul of the City”

Co-presented by First Voice and the Presidio Theatre, Soul of The City by Brenda Wong Aoki, premieres with two performances at the Presidio Theatre on Saturday, September 30 at 4:00 pm and Sunday, October 1 at 4:00 pm.

Reserve tickets at the Presidio Theatre Box Office www.presidiotheatre.org

Commissioned by The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), this multi-disciplinary work received one of the prestigious 2018 Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions awards for theater, musical theater, and spoken word.

In December of 2018, Upon receiving the Hewlett 50 award, Brenda noted, “The seismic shifts taking place in Japantown and Chinatown compel us to not only capture people and places before they are gone and forgotten, but to support our communities while they are under attack from gentrification, even as we make a work of art.”

Who would have predicted that the City’s performing artists would soon need to deal with a global pandemic?

Brenda Wong Aoki as The Storyteller, and devorah major as MOTHER. Photo by Mark Shigenaga.

A Journey to the Heart of San Francisco

“Soul of The City” is a new work by the nation’s first Asian American storyteller, Brenda Wong Aoki. Told through storytelling, multimedia, live music and dance, “Soul of The City” is a performance ritual for us all. Brenda tells true stories from the nation’s first Chinatown and Japantown based on her family’s 132-year history against the backdrop of today.

Soul of the City – In Creation (June 22, 2023 Lab Time at the Presidio Theatre). Photo by Terry Lorant.

“Soul of the City” is an allegorical story about the city of San Francisco and in particular, Brenda’s life spent living here. It is rooted in API history and looks at the soul of our beloved San Francisco, the birthplace of Asian America, through the sharing of personal stories and lineage. It also serves as a rallying call for the true citizens of the city to overcome all the doom and gloom and come together as a unified community to push back hatred of any group of people and to revive the soul of the city.

Based on many autobiographical stories of her mixed ethnic family tree, she follows how they all come to San Francisco and become a major part of the history of the City and follows her own path here as a performer, teacher, social activist and a proud long time San Franciscan. With the premise of a storyteller who feels she has no more stories to tell and being attacked for her Asian heritage, she hovers between life and death. With the appearance of the Mother (played by esteemed SF poet laureate devorah major) the storyteller is taken on a journey of self-discovery and decision.

The piece will be a moving and inspiring mix of spoken word, poetry, musical styles (featuring seven musicians representing jazz, taiko, koto, African percussion) and movement (drawing upon Asian theatre forms one will see influences such as Kabuki and Noh) and ultimately will hopefully have the audience reenergized and bring the soul of the City back to a newly vibrant state.

Prior to entering the theatre there will be events happening in the plaza outside where audience members will have the opportunity to write their own wishes and prayers to hang on the Tree of Life (a special ikebana installation) as well as be blessed and offer prayers for peace and in honor of the Ancestors.

Soul of The City Creative Team

Written by Brenda Wong Aoki. Directed by David Furumoto with musical direction by Masaru Koga. Original music by Mark Izu, Masaru Koga, and Derek Nakamoto. Multimedia by Andi Wong and Olivia Ting. Costumes by Lydia Tanji. Performers include Brenda Wong Aoki, Caroline Cabading, Masaru Koga, devorah major, Shoko Hikage, Jimi Nakagawa, and Kenneth Nash.

For more about the artists: https://www.firstvoice.org/soul

Soul of The City: A Healing Ritual

Music Director Mas Koga shares a special moment – Healing Ritual music by Mark Izu (sho) and Kenneth Nash (percussion). Music rehearsal, September 15, 2023.

Before the performance in the courtyard, the audience is invited to add their prayers, thoughts and wishes on the Soul of The City sacred tree. At the conclusion of the performance, we will return to the garden for refreshments, renewed, recharged and inspired to carry on.

Sacred Tree, photo by Mark Shigenaga

Be sure to pick up a copy of Mark Izu’s brand new CD, “Songs for J-Town,” at the show!