ASIAN AMERICAN DREAMS yea yea GEYYYYYYAAHHHHH!

Chapters 5 and 6 were quite informative to say the least...
Stereotypical stuff like hollywood perceptions....

Helan Zia uses these in-depth studies to analyze the deeper implications for Asian Americans in the US. This tour de force novelization of history provides a canvass for Helen Zia's astute analysis of the underpinning sociological and psychological forces affecting the course of Asian American history. Helen Zia's intermingles her personal history into broader context of societal events in each section, engaging the reader but also tying the diverse topics into a whole.

Helen Zia's Asian American Dreams will be an eye opening experience for many Americans, given the dismal state of US history in our schools over the years. Even those who have kept up to date on current affairs will find themselves understanding events and political statements in a new light, with the deeper understanding of the history and the issues rarely covered in the media.

Unfortunately, my enthusiasm for Asian American Dreams is slightly marred by the sadly uninformed discussion of international adoption. It is a great loss to the adoptive families embracing Asian American ideals that this well written and vital book includes a few paragraphs of unsubstantiated, prejudicial statements about mixed race families, a practice which she rightfully condemns when directed toward Asian Americans.

If she ever undertakes a second edition of this worthy and enlightening tome, I hope that Helen Zia will rectify this misunderstanding. In addition, her views on the impact of globalization and more recent immigration history would be helpful for understanding the current situation in the US. Given her unique outlook, an examination of the tension over the participation of women in Asian society would have been interesting as well. Lastly, more attention could have been paid to the historical differences between the various Asian countries - as this will have a huge influence on what the term "Asian American" ultimately comes to mean.

Most of these suggestions are a very small part of what is sure to be a remarkable, landmark source for anyone interested in Asian Americans and Asian American affairs. I recommend Asian American Dreams highly to anyone interested in this topic. Its a marvelous work in terms of scope and depth that is unique in its field.

Jeffrey JUpac

....the swine flu....

so all this commotion going on about the swine flu and how everyone is so scared about it. blah blah blah, it's just like every other flu nothing different so i dont know why people are making a big deal out of it. yes some people have died from the swine flu but many has also from common flus. The news says that approximately 167 people have died but only determined 57 of them were cause by the swine flu, therefore, so stop tripping. All you gotta do is take care of yourself. After that incident, i've seen so many people wearing face mask everywhere like godamn are you serious??? && it has gotten into people's head where they don't even wanna go out to eat, party or anything. I mean if you're sick then stay yo ass at homee right? But yeah speaking of the flu, i'm sick myself which sucks. I have a very very weak immune system and i tend to get sick easily which is whack. But i'm trying to take care of myself so that I won't get as bad. I hate being sick because I'm usually stuck at home doing absolutely shitttttt when i rather be outtt partyyyinnnngggg.....feeel me? the only good part bout being sick is that someone is always there to comfort you and give you all the love and attention you want. muahhsssss* thankksssss babeeee and of course my mommmmyyyy....hahahaha.

POP

So i'm gonna talk about the POP performance. I think that the dance crew did a great job learning the dance and learning it in such a short amount of time. But anyways, so the big day comes and supposedly the shows starts at 7pm. but it didnt start til almost 7:30 and we were told that we would be performing around 8ish and guess what....we were the last group to perform was not able to til 9:45pm LITERALLY! omg i know everyone was exhausted from practicing and rehersal and just sitting there waiting for our turn. UGH. i must say i've never been at school on a friday for that long and i know there were many people that were irriated and annoyed. So it was finally our class turn to perform and everyone started leaving, i thought that was very rude because our class had to stay til the end and the others could have done the same for us and especially when they didnt even follow directions because each skit/scene was suppose to be only 5 minutes long and they went as long as 20 mins for each scene. If we knew that was going to happen, we could have done our performance first and go home after. I was so tired and so hot and so so so hungry at the same timeee...But thank buddah it's over.

I can't believe this semester is going to an end. And I'm glad it is because school was so stressful for me. I'm not even excited for summer either because I'm taking summer school from June 8 to Aug 14. Wow what a summer right? Whatever. FUCK MY LIFE ! :)

xoxo,
Julie Joi

THE SOFTER SIDE OF JUPAC.......SHIEEET EVEN GANGSTAS NEED LOVE TOO

AS I TAKE A MOONLIGHT STROLL DOWN THE BEACH, I WONDER WHEN A TRUE TO LIFE PLAYA WILL MEET....... MY SOULMATE ON THAT ONE DATE ALL... THESE CORNY ASS BITCHES GONNA HATE....
SIIIIIIIKKEEEE! I BET YOU THOUGHT PAC WAS GOING TO SELL OUT TO THAT NO GOOD COOKIE CUTTER R&B SHIT.... I THOUGHT YOU KNEW JUPAC WAS ROBBING MORE HOODS THAN ROBIN.
YES IT IS TRUE THAT EVEN GANGSTAS NEED LOVE...
I THINK ID RATHER SELL A SACK OF WEED SO I COULD BE ROLLIN ON SOME DUBS...
YES I THINK I THINK I WOULD LIKE TO TAKE THAT SPECIAL BITCH TO A CANDLE NIGHT DINNER...
BUT ID RATHER COP A PIMP MINK COAT FOR THE WINTER....
SO WHILE IM SPITTIN YOU SILLY MUTHAF**KAS CAN PONDER....
WHILE IM HITTIN DOUGHNUTS IN MY RICED OUT CIVIC HOND-ER.......
SHIIEETT... I BET U DIDNT KNOW JUPAC COULD RHYME SO FU**CKING SWEET....
PLEASE EXCUSE MY NO GOOD BIT** SHES A HOODRAT THAT NEEDS A BEAT....

JEFFREY AKA PUTTIN IT DOWN LIKE A MUTHAFUC** POUND (OF WEE*) THAT IS.

POP!!! POP!!! THERE GOES THE SOUND OF MY GLOCK!!!!

POP!!! POP!!! THERE GOES THE SOUND OF MY 9MM SHOTS....
AS WE PERFORMED ON OUR FINAL/ KINDA FINAL... BUT NOT REALLY.
AS USUAL I WAS KEEPIN IT HOOD WITH MY GANGSTA RAP AND MY FLAGRANT DISREGARD FOR SAFETY. IT WAS A SMOGGY FRIDAY NIGHT AND I PACKED UP MY GANGSTA ESSENTIALS ASIAN STYLE THAT IS. ( POCKET PROTECTOR, SCIENTIFIC CALCULATOR, CHAPSTICK, EVEN GANGSTAS GET CHAPPED LIPS, YOU KNOW REAL NI**A SHIT...) I GOT INTO MY LEXUS GS 300 AND PROCEEDED TO TAKE A RIDE TO SCHOOL ( ONE HAND ON STEERING WHEEL, GOT THAT GANGSTA LEAN GOING ON, SHIT.......)
SO A PLAYA WAS 39 MINS AND 24 SECONDS LATE FOR REHERSALS ( THATS HOW I ROLL SON!!!!) AND I WAS LIKE, " A YO!!!!! WHERE THE SHORTIES AT??!!!!!! ILL HOOK IT UP WITH SOME BACKSTAGE JUPAC PASSES!!!" AND AS USUAL THE HOOD RATS CAME FLOCKING.... BUT THATS THE LIFE OF A CERTIFIED G.
OH YEA BACK TO THE PERFORMANCE...... THE GROUPS WERE PUTTING IT DOWN BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, THE SPOKEN WORDS WERE OK, BLAH BLAH BLAH.
SHIIIIEEEEET. JUPAC WOULD HAVE SMASHED THAT BY THE WAY
IRENE WAS ILL WITH IT SOOO THAT SHIT WAS REAL HOOOOD.
SO I GOT ALOT OUT OF IT
JEFFREY AKA LEVEL 30 MAD HOODRAT SLAYER JUPAC SHAKUR
SIGNING OUT PEACEEE!!!

CHECK OUT MY FREESTYLE YO!!!!GEEEEYYYAHH! PREPARE FOR TAKE OFF BITCHES!!!!!!

FIRST OFF I WOULD LIKE TO SAY TO ALL THE ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES MAJORS GEEEEEYYYYYAAAHH!!!!!! SKEET SKEET SKEET! IM OUTTA HERE U SILLY SALAMI EAT BASTARDS. I JUST FINISHED MY POWERPOINT ON ASIAN AMERICANS IN THE MARINE CORPS AGES 20-29. SHIT WAS ILLER THAN AN AID PATIENT SON!!!! JUST KIDDING. SIKE!
I WOULD HAVE RATHER BEEN AT THE DENTIST TO BE HONEST. THE CHICKS WERE DIGGING MY SWAG LOLOLOL. YEA IN THE MIDDLE OF MY PRESENTATION I BUSTED A FREESTYLE, WOULD U LIKE A SAMPLE YO? " A JOSH DROP ME A MUTHAFUCKING BEAT!!"
A YO!! A YO!!
IM THAT SICK PLAYA FROM MIXED PERSUASIAN ! YOU SO BLACK YOU LOOK LIKE A SUNBURNTN HATIAN!
BREAD AND BUTTERS PSSSSH! U LOOK LIKE YOU LIKE IT IN THE BUTT! LIKE THAT GUY FROM NSYNC WHO WAS ADDICTED TO ANIMAL SMUTT!
I THINK HIS NAME WAS LANCE, HOW THE HELL YOU GONNA BE A WHITEBOY AND THINK YOU CAN DANCE????!!!
YOU LOOK THIRSTY, HOW ABOUT A HANSEN?! BITCH HOW U THINK YOU GANGSTA WHEN I HEARD U BUMPIN HAN-SON?????!!!!!!!!!!
I HEAR YER CORNY ASS LISTEN TO LIVE 105!!! BITCH!!! ILL BATTLE RAP YER MOM AFTER SHE TAKES A DICK DIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!
PEACE!!! IM OUT FOR DUECE ZERO NINE!!!!!

JEFFREY AKA "JUPAC" SPITTIN HOT FIRE ON THE MIC

Filipina American Poet: Luisa A. Igloria

Luisa A. Igloria is a Filipina American poet and author of various award-winning collections. Originally from Baguio, Luisa A. Igloria is now with the faculty of the English Department and the Institute for the Study of Minority Issues at the Old Dominion University in Norfolk Virginia.

She received her undergraduate degree from the University of the Philippines, Baguio in 1980 (B.A. Humanities - Cum Laude - major in Comparative Literature, minor in English, cognate in Philosophy), and the M.A. in Literature at Ateneo de Manila University at Manila, Philippines in 1988 as a Robert Southwell Fellow. She received a Ph.D. in English/Creative Writing at the University of Illinois at Chicago in July 1995, where she was a Fulbright Fellow.

While in Chicago, Igloria was an active member of PINTIG, a Filipino-American cultural and theatre group. She was a member of PINTIG's cultural and education committee and co-wrote some scenes for Chris Millado's stage play, Scenes from an Unfinished Country: 1905-1995. She was a Visiting Humanities Scholar in 1996 at the Center for Philippine Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She also taught briefly at De La Salle University where she became the Graduate Programs Coordinator and Senior Associate for Poetry at the Bienvenido N. Santos Creative Writing Center at De La Salle University.

She has published five books under the pseudonym Maria Luisa A. Carino, and received eleven Palanca Awards since 1984, including its prestigious Hall of Fame distinction. She has been a recipient of numerous grants and honors, among others the 1998 George Kent Prize for Poetry (donated by the poet Gwendolyn Brooks) and the 1998 Illinois Arts Council Award.

Regarding History
by Luisa Igloria

A pair of trees on one side of the walk, leaning
now into the wind in a stance we’d call involuntary—
I can see them from the kitchen window, as I take meat
out of the oven and hold my palms above the crust, darkened
with burnt sugar. Nailed with cloves, small earth of flesh
still smoldering from its furnace. In truth I want to take it
into the garden and bury it in soil. There are times
I grow weary of coaxing music from silence, silence
from the circularity of logic, logic from the artifact.
Then, the possibilities of sunlight are less attractive
than baying at the moon. I want to take your face
in my hands, grow sweet from what it tells, tend
how it leans and turns, trellis or vine of morning-glory.
I wish for limbs pared to muscle, to climb away from
chance and all its missed appointments, its half-drunk
cups of coffee. Tell me what I’ll find, in this
early period at the beginning of a century.
Tell me what I’ll find, stumbling into a boat
and pushing off into the year’s last dark hours.

-Donna ;]

AA Poet Jessica Hagedorn

Jessica Hagedorn is a poet, playwright, storyteller, and musician. Born to a Scots-Irish-French-Filipino mother and a Spanish-Chinese-Filipino, she was born and raised in Manila, Philippines. In 1963, she moved to San Francisco to learn at the American Conservatory Theater training program. She eventually moved to New York to pursue other opportunities in playwriting and music.

One poem that caught my eye was published in her book Danger and Beauty. It was published in 2002, but it has a collection of poems that date back to the late 1960s. In particular her poem Sorcery caught my eye (and I don’t know why).

Sorcery

there are some people I know
whose beauty
is a crime.
who make you so crazy
you don't know
whether to throw yourself
at them
or kill them.
which makes
for permanent madness.
which could be
bad for you.
you better be on the lookout
for such circumstances.

stay away
from the night.
they most likely lurk
in the corners of the room
where they think
they being inconspicuous
but they so beautiful
an aura
gives them away.

stay away
form the day.
they most likely
be walking
down the street
when you least
expect it
trying to look
ordinary
but they so fine
they break your heart
by making you dream
of other possibilities.

stay away
from crazy music.
they most likely
be creating it
cuz
when you're that beautiful
you can't help
putting it out there.
everyone knows
how dangerous
that can get.

stay away
from magic shows.
especially those
involving words
words are very
tricky things.
everyone knows
words
the most common
instruments of
illusion.

they most likely
be saying them.
breathing poems
so rhythmic
you can't help
but dance.

and once
you start dancing
to words
you might never
stop.


I am far from a literary critic/interpreter, but I managed to get a feeling that she was questioning contemporary views of the times. In the first stanza, she goes on to say that there is a certain beauty that is on the border of brilliance and despair. I believe that has something to do with the way beauty has traditionally been seen. Particularly, many try to envision the western concepts that are commonly associated with beauty. In this poem, however, she speaks about a different type of beauty. One that does not fall under the same accepted standards. Those who see it for the first time are wary of the looks, but there an alluring aura around it.

As we stare longer, we begin to accept this other standard. Conformists on the other hand tell us to heed their warnings. They say that what we see is a mere illusion. They believe that we have become disenfranchised. The more we believe in our own idea, the further from their reality we get. Eventually, we fall into a sort of slipstream. In a sense, we liberate ourselves from traditional levels of thinking. Once we find our own truth, we pursue it harder, faster. Eventually it comes to a point were we no longer look back at the ideas that we were taught to accept. Instead we get caught up in our own realm; a realm where we set the rules and create our own reality.