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Identity/Culture Journal Entry: Interview with Taiwan's Warren Fox

Taipei-based, Seattle-bred renaissance man talks about martial arts, hip hop, and being Black in Taiwan. (Martial Arts photos courtesy of Justine Wang)

Blog / Journal Entry: Avatar retreads tired racial stereotypes

As with most futures not envisioned by people of color, the human population will still be predominately White. Beyond a few tokens, the rest of us still show up as the “others.”

Hip-hop Book Review: Small Island

Small Island is a complex, multi-layered book addressing a number of if issues such as race, gender, religion, and identity in general, set to the background of World War-II era England and Jamaica.

Curriculum: Green Day and The Enlightment Period

I recently used this video in a World History class to see if students could apply themes we studied. This video deals with the idea of religion versus spirituality. While the majority of my teaching is standards based, I also like to work in these types of activities to keep things interesting and see if students are making connections.

Press Item: Interview on Waakao Taiwan

After meeting up with Domingo Yu a few months ago on his recent visit to Taipei, his second home, we got a chance to sit and exchange a few words...and drinks with the traveler, teacher, dj and student of all things living and cultural. Waakao is happy to introduce this talented writer and dj who is also a mix of two cultures that rarely meet in Taiwan. Latin and Taiwanese.

Blog / Journal Entry: Living History: Allensworth, CA

Allensworth was founded by African Americans at the turn of the 20th Century. Although it is not currently a functional town it’s a state park and has several events each year to keep its legacy alive. For this year’s annual commemoration Oakland Unity High School and Our Family Circle teamed up to make the four-hour drive. Three generations of Oaklanders joined the celebration, along with yours truly.

Identity/Culture Journal Entry: Pan Africana: Taiwan

A discussion with three members of the Pan Africana Cultural Troupe of Taiwan. Music was our entry point but hardly the focus of our conversation as we touched on a number of topics, including being Black in Taiwan and their impact on Taiwanese identity.

Blog / Journal Entry: Latinos in Taiwan Pt. 3: Chicano hip hop scene

It’s no secret that people in Asia are fascinated by hip hop, with countries such as Japan cultivating a massive scene including sub-genres such as Chicano rap. Although Taiwan’s scene is not as developed, it’s steadily growing and makes huge strides every time I visit. As far as I can tell, there’s relatively little that’s been written about this scene so I wanted to explore a little bit. But to properly address this issue, I need to set up some personal context.

Blog / Journal Entry: Latinos in Taiwan Pt. 2: El Gallo Restaurant and Brass Monkey Salsa Night

This may be the shorter of my three postings on this topic as my conversations with Isa, one of the owners of the El Gallo restaurant, and Jorge, the founder of Latinos Taiwan, were super short. However, in my effort to learn more about the Latino community in Taiwan, every little bit of information counted! During my brief visit I wasn’t focused primarily on finding out everything Latino so I took whatever I could get.

Latinos in Taiwan Part 1: Eddy’s Cantina

Blog / Journal Entry: Latinos in Taiwan Part 1: Eddy’s Cantina

As a Taiwanese Mexican, it should come as no surprise that during my visits to Taiwan I’ve often sought out “my people.” To be clear, I’m not a Mexican who grew up in Taiwan, nor a Taiwanese who grew up in Mexico. My mother is Taiwanese and my father is Mexican American. As such, I’ve been particularly interested in exploring the topic of Mexicans and Latinos in Taiwan specifically. Although I was born in Taipei, except for a brief stint in elementary school I’ve only returned in short spurts to visit family as my immediate family spent time in Italy and throughout the U.S.

In my past visits to Taiwan I’ve tried out Mexican restaurants, salsa nights, and even trying to track down a guy by the name of DJ Chicano. I had some good conversations with Taiwanese locals who told me about Mexicans living in Taiwan, including their own spouses at times, but for a number of reasons I was just never able to connect with anyone beyond a handshake or two. However, in recent months I became aware of not one, but TWO restaurants in Taipei owned by actual Mexicans, as well as a Bolivian-owned one in Kaoshiung. This was unlike the other restaurants I had sampled, which were not Mexican owned. Furthermore, I came across a new organization called Latinos Taiwan. This new information proved to be the final push I needed to book a flight home ASAP!

Due to the wonders of the internet I was able to contact both restaurant owners and the founder of Latinos Taiwan. Unfortunately, time was limited and I was only able to have a proper conversation with Eddy, of Eddy’s Cantina, and even that was too short. Nonetheless, all three were friendly and open and I will be back to learn more about the Latino Taiwanese community. There is so much to explore: the experience of Latinas, the experience of their children, visa and language issues, the role of race (having stronger African or indigenous features versus more European)—to name a few. At any rate, here’s part one of this most recent visit.

Playlist: New Year's Eve 2009

Crowd-pleasing tunes for NYE '09 at Frankie's and Ray's in Oakland, CA.

Playlist: Vinyl Preservation Society Top 10

I connected with one of the founders of this Toronto-based newsletter during a recent trip to Detroit and he asked me for 10 vinyl releases I was into. My top 10 of all time? Nope, but stuff I definitely recommend. For more info on this newsletter, hit Chris up here.

Playlist: Nick's Place-Chicago, IL

I came out of semi-retirement for this private gig in Chicago. While focusing on the '70s-'90s I also snuck in some newer cuts.

Gallery: Doing It For the Kids Fundraiser-San Francisco, CA

Happy hour fundraiser for various programs at Oakland Unity High School. Beyond good music and good people there was also live painting, with Principal Castillo and Vice Principal Zarazua as the subjects by Desi WOME! February 12th, 2010 at SOM Bar in San Francisco. Special thanks to Hakobo for hooking up the event. Juan Gomez for helping man the tables, and everyone who came out to support!

Gallery: OGYMC Grand Opening-Oakland, CA

Pics from The Oakland Green Youth Media Center, one of the city's gems. This center offers a variety of courses for youth, including music production, dance classes, leadership training. Participants and attendees included Colored Ink, Dr. Yvonne Cole (most famous as Keyshia Cole's foster mom), D'Wayne Wiggins, Grind For the Green, The Community Rejuvenation Project, and staff rom Youth Uprising. Pics were taken by Luis, a 9th grader at Oakland Unity High School, as well as a few by yours truly. They've been floating around a bit, but I finally got around to posting them here.

Gallery: Oakland Zoo

A spontaneous visit to one of Oakland's gems. The day was overcast and the closing time wasn't too far off but I decided to go anyway. I'm an animal lover, but have mixed feelings about zoos. It's sad to see animals such as tigers and elephants confined to relatively small spaces. Watching chimpanzees watch us is always strange. Having said that, I get positive vibes from the Oakland Zoo staff and considering the alternatives for some of these animals (the tigers came from a circus), as well as their ability to make us care about their habitats, I'm not going to throw the baby out with the bath water!

Music Event: Doing It For the Kids Happy Hour

Please join Oakland Unity High School for our first "Happy Hour" school fundraiser. All proceeds from the door go directly to two important school programs.

Music Event: Nitty Gritty Studios Open Studio and BBQ

Oakland-based artist Jamie Treacy opens up his studio to the community as part of the Pro Arts East Bay Open Studios program. Yours truly will be spinning from 2-6.