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What It Means to Be Hapa

Written by Sady on December 1st, 2011

Ken Tanabe, photo by Willie Davis

Today’s guest post is by Ken Tanabe, founder of Loving Day, a global movement for a new holiday to celebrate the anniversary of Loving v. Virginia.  Loving Day’s mission is to fight racial prejudice through education and to build multicultural community.  Ken will lead a conversation about what it means to be hapa with artist Kip Fulbeck on Thursday, December 8, 6:30p.m. at the Museum of Chinese in America.  This event is part of the Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations series, exploring mixed-heritage families, race, ethnicity, culture, and identity, infused with historical perspective.

The word “hapa” comes from Hawaii, a historical hot spot for interracial marriage, and the birthplace of the first multiethnic US President. It most commonly refers to people whose multiethnic heritage includes Asian ancestry. The hapa identity is an especially vibrant part of a growing movement towards multiethnic identity and community.

Being hapa wasn’t always a good thing. Interracial marriage was illegal in many states for most of US history, including marriage between whites and Asians. This made hapa children illegitimate in many places. Punishments for the parents of hapas could be anything from denial of a legal marriage to jail time and fines. These laws (and the social attitudes that formed them) made it clear that hapas should not expect a warm welcome into the world. Interracial marriage bans were not lifted until 1967 through a landmark Supreme Court decision aptly named Loving v. Virginia (now celebrated as Loving Day).

Celebrating Loving Day in New York, photo by Michael Kirby

In 2011, hapas are everywhere from census forms to celebrity A-lists. The hapa identity is growing fast in academia, the community, and the arts. UC Berkeley hosted the first Hapa Japan Conference this year with a focus on Japanese hapa identity. At Harvard, the third annual SWAYA (So… What Are You Anyway?) conference on mixed-race issues was hosted by Harvard Hapa, one of many active hapa student groups nationwide. A great documentary film entitled One Big Hapa Family was shown on PBS and has been traveling the festival circuit, including the first annual Hapa-Palooza festival in Vancouver.

Part Asian, 100% Hapa by Kip Fulbeck

Kip Fulbeck is arguably the most visible artist in the hapa community. He’s especially well known for The Hapa Project, which includes the book Part Asian, 100% Hapa, a traveling photo exhibition, presentations, and online communities. Fulbeck’s work has inspired many other artists to explore the hapa identity through photography and other media. This visibility has an important effect: for many, Fulbeck’s work is their introduction to the hapa identity and the first step on a path to exploring multiethnic identity.

 

The Hapa Project
Thursday, December 8, 2011 at 6:30pm 

RSVP Required: programs@mocanyc.org
Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA)
215 Centre Street, Manhattan
Directions to MOCA

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present, Events, Oral History, Public Programs | 2 Responses »
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Jungle Fever

Written by Sady on November 11th, 2011

We’re getting ready for the 20th anniversary screening of Jungle Fever (1991)
at BAM next Tuesday 11/15 7PM.

People who haven’t seen the film an awhile remember that awesome Stevie Wonder song and that it was Halle Berry’s first film role:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’re interested in talking about how gender, race, and interracial romance play out in this film and we’re curious about how people will receive the film 20 years later – especially a Brooklyn audience who will know why it’s particularly relevant that Angie Tucci (Annabella Sciorra) is not only white, “H-bomb,” says Cyrus (Spike Lee), but from Bensonhurst, “Megaton bomb!”  Reading this New York Times review of the film from 1991 brings you back to that time.

Join Imani Perry, author of Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop and More Beautiful and More Terrible: The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States;

Historian Renee Romano, author of Race Mixing: Black-White Marriage in Postwar America and co-editor of The Civil Rights Movement in American Memory;

And Michele Wallace, film critic, daughter of artist Faith Ringgold, and author of Black Macho and The Myth of The Superwoman and Dark Designs and Visual Culture in a conversation after the screening.

This event is co-presented by BAMcinématek.

Jungle Fever 20 Years Later
Tuesday, 11/15/2011 7PM

BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Avenue, Fort Greene
$12 / $7 for BAM and BHS Members

UPDATE:  Check out this Op-Ed on Jungle Fever & Harlem’s Identity Crisis from THIRTEEN’s MetroFocus.

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What Are You?

Written by Sady on September 12th, 2011

Today’s guest post is by Jen Chau, founder of Swirl, a multi-ethnic, anti-racist organization that promotes cross-cultural dialogue.  “What are you?” is one of those questions like “Where are you from, I mean from from?” that people pose (sometimes ungracefully) when they are curious about someone’s racial/ethnic identity. What Are You? is also the title of an upcoming event (Monday, September 26th at 7pm), part of the Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations series, hosted here at the Brooklyn Historical Society and co-sponsored by Loving Day.  BHS is learning more about Brooklyn’s overlapping, interweaving communities and we hope you’ll join the conversation here in the comments and at upcoming events.

 

Photo by Lindsay Brandon Hunter, Model Alex De Suze

 

“What are you?” is something I have heard a lot in my 34 years.

From strangers on the street, mostly men.  On the subway one evening by an on-duty policeman.  At a party, from someone who was too curious not to ask within minutes of meeting me.  From classmates.  From a palm reader at a conference who held my hand, looked into my eyes and told me that I was Native American.  From teachers.  At a neighborhood lounge, a friend of a friend looked into my face and told me that I was a blend of cultures: Spanish and Asian.  From other mixed people who want to relate.

Some of these experiences have been more outlandish than others. Depending on the delivery of the question, I have been angered, amused, frustrated, shocked, or happy to engage. Underneath it all, I know that what exists for the questioner is curiosity.  What matters to me is whether that curiosity ends at my physical appearance, or if you also want to understand more about my multi-ethnic upbringing; more about me as a person.

We need to stop solely relying on identifiers like race in order to learn about one another.  Sure, race probably plays a part in who we are, but it’s not everything. It’s not always the beginning of the story and it’s usually never the whole story.

You can read more by Jen Chau on talking about race here.

 

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present, Oral History, Public Programs | 5 Responses »
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Crossing Borders this Fall

Written by Sady on August 18th, 2011

Does your family, relationship, or identity cross borders of race, ethnicity, or culture?

We’re learning more about Brooklyn’s overlapping, interweaving communities.

Join the conversation at these upcoming events, on Twitter using #cbbg, and at brooklynhistory.org/cbbg.

 

 

 

MySpace Codes

What Are You? a discussion about mixed heritage
Monday, September 26, 2011 7 p.m.

Othmer Library, Brooklyn Historical Society
128 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn Heights
Free

Participate in this discussion about mixed heritage co-sponsored by Loving Day, a global network fighting racial prejudice through education and building multicultural community. This conversation will be facilitated by Jen Chau of Swirl, a multi-ethnic anti-racist organization that promotes cross-cultural dialogue; with Suleiman Osman, author of The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn: Gentrification, Race, and the Search for Authenticity in Post-War New York; performance artist Judith Sloan, co-author and co-creator with Warren Lehrer of Crossing the BLVD: strangers, neighbors, aliens in a new America; and writer and actress Katrina Grigg-Saito, whose documentary and installation FishBird is titled for the saying “a fish can love a bird but where would they live?” Panelists will start the conversation and we hope you’ll join in. Brooklyn Brewery beer and light refreshments will be served.

MySpace Codes

20 Years Since the Crown Heights Riot
of August 1991
Sunday, October 23, 2011 2 p.m.

Medgar Evers College
1650 Bedford Avenue, Crown Heights
Free

Listen as historians and community members respond to oral history interviews with Crown Heights residents recorded in the 1990s and 2010.  What’s changed?  What’s stayed the same?  The panel will include the following guests: co-curators of the Crown Heights History Project, 1993-1994 Craig Wilder, professor of American History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of A Covenant with Color: Race and Social Power in Brooklyn, and Jill Vexler, anthropologist and curator of exhibitions about cultural identity and social history; Dexter Wimberly, curator of the Crown Heights Gold exhibition at the Skylight Gallery; Rabbi Eli Cohen, Executive Director of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council; and Alex Kelly, organizer of Crown Heights Oral History – Listen To This and Monica Parfait, a student interviewer from Paul Robeson High School, currently in her first year at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Women’s Development and the President’s Office at Medgar Evers College.

UPDATE: Also speaking: museum educator and public historian Cynthia Copeland and Pamela Green, Executive Director of Weeksville Heritage Center.

MySpace Codes

Jungle Fever 20 Years Later:
A screening of Spike Lee’s iconic 1991 movie followed by discussion
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 7 p.m.

BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Avenue, Fort Greene
$12 / $7 for BAM and BHS Members

Watch Spike Lee’s iconic 1991 movie about mixed-heritage relationships, Jungle Fever, and hear how three panelists respond to the movie 20 years later. With historian Renee Romano, author of Race Mixing: Black-White Marriage in Postwar America and co-editor of The Civil Rights Movement in American Memory; Michele Wallace, film critic, daughter of artist Faith Ringgold, and author of Black Macho and The Myth of The Superwoman and Dark Designs and Visual Culture;  and Imani Perry, author of Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop and More Beautiful and More Terrible: The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States. This event is co-presented by BAMcinématek.

MySpace Codes

The Hapa Project:
A multiracial identity art project
created by artist Kip Fulbeck
Thursday, December 8, 2011 6:30 p.m.

Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA)
215 Centre Street, Manhattan
Free

Join a discussion about what it means to be Hapa. Once a derogatory label derived from the Hawaiian word for “half,” Hapa has since been embraced as a term of pride by many whose mixed racial heritage includes Asian or Pacific Island descent.  Kip Fulbeck photographed more than 1,200 people from all walks of life who identify as Hapa – from babies to adults, construction workers to rock stars, engineers to comic book artists. The project is featured as a part of MOCA’s core exhibition, With A Single Step:  Stories in the Making of America. Join Fulbeck in conversation with Ken Tanabe, founder of Loving Day, a global movement for a new holiday to celebrate the anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court decision that legalized interracial marriage in the United States. Loving Day fights racial prejudice through education and builds multicultural community. This event is co-sponsored by MOCA and is part of Target Free Thursday at MOCA.

MySpace Codes

Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations is made possible by:

Institute of Museum and Library Services

The National Endowment for the Humanities

New York Council for the Humanities

Loving Day

Swirl

BAM

MOCA

Medgar Evers College

Two Trees Management

Brooklyn Brewery

Sweet’N Low Division of Cumberland Packing

Con Edison

 

 

Posted in Oral History, Public Programs | 2 Responses »
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19th Century Kitchen Tools: Lecture by Harry Rosenblum

Written by cgarza on June 19th, 2011
Egg beaters from Harry Rosenblum's collection.

Egg beaters from Harry Rosenblum's collection.

This past Thursday, BHS hosted a lecture by Brooklyn Kitchen owner Harry Rosenblum on 19th Century Kitchen Tools. Rosenblum is passionate collector of rare, antique, and even ridiculous kitchen tools. All of the tools in Rosenblum’s collection, whether corky or obsolete, provide an insight into the life of past Brooklynites. One of the oddest objects Rosenblum presented on was an antique meat juicer. In the 19th Century, it was believed that all of the meat’s nutrients were found in the animal’s blood. After a piece of meat was cooked, it was placed in inside a mechanism that resembled a printing press, with a screw transmitting pressure between two metal plates. The juice extracted from this operation was then given to people who suffered from tooth loss. Americans believed this was the best method to nourish those who could not chew. A single kitchen tool, in this case a meat juicer, can reveal not only erroneous beliefs on nutrition, but sheds light on the state of dental hygiene of 19th century America.

The Brooklyn Kitchen owner is not only fascinated by outdated kitchen appliances, but by the exponential growth in kitchen tools patents over the 19th and early 20th century. The egg beater is the object Rosenblum owns in the largest amount. Each egg beater is a different variation from the original patent. There are said to be over 2,400 patents for the egg beater, an object that performs the task a fork could easily replace. The large number of patents is not a reflection of incredible technological improvements in the field of making whites into whipped cream, but is evidence of the American obsession with copyright infringement lawsuits. Furthermore, patents were used not necessarily for the protection of intellectual property, but as a certificate of quality. Today, we see branding in the same way. A generic or “store” brand is often perceived a being of inferior quality than their branded equivalents. A kitchen tool not worthy of being patented was seen as not worthy of buying.

For the rest of the evening, Rosenblum guided the audience through the history of American manufacturing, and, life before and after the invention of electricity, through the use of objects commonly found in people’s kitchens. Each object has its own fascinating history and provided a connection to the Booklynites that came before us. Personally, I can say I have never felt so connected to a stranger than when holding his old meat juicer. Harry Rosenblum’s next lecture will take place on October 2, 2011. For a complete schedule of public programs, please visit our online calendar.

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