In a heartbeat: best of APAture

Join Kearny Street Workshop and the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center for two thrilling nights of stellar performances and presentations from some of the Bay Area's most promising artists. Featuring theater performer Sean San Jose, singer-songwriter Odessa Chen, filmmakers Anita Chang and Stuart Gaffney , poet and performer Russell Gonzaga, butoh artist Ledoh, musical group The Invisible Cities, and poet and musician Denizen Kane, this program condenses the power and dynamism of nearly ten years of APAture into two captivating evenings. Experience the promising talent of the Bay Area and get a headstart on preparing for attending the 9th annual APAture festival in September 2007. This program is curated by APAture 2006 Coordinator Nirmala Nataraj.

Event: Best of APAture, Nights 1 & 2

Night 1, Friday 5/18:
The Bong Bong Projects (Sean San Jose and Jonsen Vitug)
Odessa Chen
Anita Chang
Russell Gonzaga

Night 2, Friday 5/19:
Jane Chen
Ledoh
Stuart Gaffney
The Invisible Cities
Denizen Kane

Dates: Friday & Saturday, May 18 & 19, 2007

Time: 8pm

Location: SomArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco

Cost: $13 in advance, $16 at the door

Info: Contact APICC at info@apiculturalcenter.org or 415.864.4120.

The Bong Bong Projects is Sean San Jose and Jonsen Vitug, a new group, creating new performance works for theatres and schools. "Tsismis : the dugo dance" was presented in collaboration with Alleluia Panis Dance Company and Kularts at the 2006 and 2007 POMO Festivals. That was the first in a series of pieces including: "Rouge", an original piece; and a new theatrical creation from Jessica Hagedorn's story "The Blossoming of Bongbong." “Tsismis” was performed with Krishtine DeLeon at Apature 2005. Thank you to all who have helped in the development: Locus, KSW, APAture, Intersection,Alleluia Panis and Kularts. In addition to this new work Sean San Jose (left, top) is proud to work for Intersection for the Arts and resident theatre company Campo Santo.

Jonsen Vitug (left) will next perform with Intersection and Campo Santo in the world premiere play "Fe in the Desert" by Jessica Hagedorn beginning in May. www.theintersection.org

ANITA CHANG is an independent filmmaker. She was born to parents who emigrated from Taiwan in the 1960’s, fleeing a dictatorship. She grew up in Ohio and Massachusetts. She has worked as an urban youth counselor, civil rights investigator, and education director for a non-profit San Francisco-based media literacy organization. She has completed artist residencies in Nepal, Headlands Center for the Arts, Taipei Artist Village, and Hweilan International Artist Workshop. In pushing the boundaries of the moving image medium, she is always discovering ways to experiment, inspiring an active viewing experience. She has taught film/video production at Film Arts Foundation, including its STAND program for directors from under- represented backgrounds. She has also taught abroad in Kathmandu, and at the renowned Motion Picture Department at National Taiwan University of Arts. She is currently teaching in the Department of Language and Communication of Indigenous Peoples at Taiwan National Dong Hwa University.

JANE CHEN is a Taiwanese- American actor, singer, and teacher. A graduate of Yale University and the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre, Jane has created original theater that combines such varied forms as opera, clowning and puppetry. Locally, Jane has performed with Ten Red Hen Productions ({99-cent} Miss Saigon), Opera Piccola/Stagebridge (Being Something, Oakland Metro, dir. Ellen Sebastian Chang) Mugwumpin, Shotgun Players, FoolsFury, Kearny Street Workshop (APAture Festival Featured Artist 2003), PuppetLOVE!, and UC Berkeley (Tarnival!). Jane has taught acting, voice, and theatrical clowning for such organizations as U.C. Berkeley, AAA Summer Camp (Walnut Creek). Splash Circus (Emeryville), and Ten Red Hen (Berkeley). She is the lead soprano for the annual Fremont and Grand Lake Montessori School operas, performing alongside talented 5-12 year-olds. Commercially, Jane is represented by JE Talent and has worked for such companies as Microsoft, Honda, Genentech, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. She currently teaches private voice lessons in her Oakland home. TAIR CHEN is a Taiwanese-American performer and computer engineer. Her experience in theater originated in observing and enjoying the rehearsals and performances of her two daughters, which she has done for the past seventeen years. She made an abrupt career change from software engineering to performing arts in 2004, with her starring role as “Mom” in The Chinese Clown Cabaret. In addition to co-creating and performing, Tair also takes on the roles of prop-making, sets, costumes, tour managing, and web maintenance. Her love of the arts has helped her toward a very important purpose: connecting with her daughter, taking part in her life, and helping other mothers across the world re-invest in their relationships with their children. Tair currently resides in New Jersey but commutes to California frequently to rehearse the Chinese Clown Cabaret. She holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science.
The Chinese Clown Cabaret was created in 2004 by mother-daughter team Jane and Tair Chen. Their show premiered at the Dell’Arte Mad River Festival Edgefest in July 2004, followed by the San Francisco Fringe Festival in September 2004. They continued expanding upon their show and their audience base, performing at museums, Christmas parties, baby showers, state conferences, and schools. Last summer Jane and Tair toured Canada, performing in six Fringe festivals and garnering “Best Overall Production” and “Best Concept” awards in Ottawa. They are currently seeking help producing a short silent film. Ask them how you can help, and then ask them to tell you the crazy story of how it all started.

DENIZEN KANE Denizen Kane is a poet and musician born and raised in Tree City. He is one of the founders of I Was Born With Two Tongues (1998-2003), an Asian American spoken word quartet that played a major role in the current spoken word resurgence. The group toured extensively, independently released an LP, Broken Speak, and helped create an open forum for issues of race, identity, and immigration to be discussed throughout a network of colleges, community groups, and local crews. His poetry has been published in numerous periodicals and anthologies, including the Asian Pacific American Journal, the Columbia Review , Echoes upon Echoes: New Korean American Writings, and Screaming Monkeys. He has also performed on three seasons of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam. In 2000, Denizen co-founded Typical Cats, a Chicago-based hip hop collective. They have released two LPs through indie imprint Galapagos4—a self- titled debut (2000) and Civil Service (2004), generating an enormous word-of-mouth buzz on the strengths of their stellar live show and stunning on-wax chemistry. Kane made his mark as a solo artist in 2002, with an EP entitled Tree City Legends. His newest LP, Tree City Legends, Volume 2, furthers his reputation as a precocious lyricist, style innovator, and great storyteller-in-the-making. Kane has toured from New York to Tokyo to Los Angeles, and performed with such underground luminaries as the Visionaries, Living Legends, and J-Live. He continues to create, experiment, build, and break away.

Stuart Gaffney has been making films and videos about his Asian, Hapa,and Queer identities since 1994. His works have been screened and broadcast worldwide.Stuart was the a Featured Artist at APAture 2001, where he premiered the commissioned work "Transgressions." Many of his short films have screened at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival over the last decade. In 2004, Stuart and his partner of 20 years, John Lewis, were one of the first 10 same-sex couples to marry in San Francisco City Hall, and they are now leaders in the movement for marriage equality and LGBT rights.Stuart was born and raised in Milwaukee. He studied English literature at Yale University, and he works as a Policy Analyst at the University of California, San Francisco's Center for AIDS Prevention Studies.

LEDOH was born into the Ka-Ren culture indigenous to Burma and Northern Thailand. In Kyoto in 1989, Ledoh discovered Butoh via master performer Katsura Kan, with whom he performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to five-star reviews. Ledoh's site-specific solo collaborations with composers Reverend Markus Hawkins and Michael Kosacki have electrified audiences in and around San Francisco for over ten years. In 1998 Ledoh founded the Butoh performance collective Salt Farm.

The Invisible Cities is a San Francisco- based band that makes incandescent rough-around-the-edges sometimes-quiet sometimes-loud pop music. Watertown, their first full-length record was released in 2004 and they are currently finishing up their long- awaited, as yet unnamed second album. In 2005, The Invisible Cities were voted “best indie pop band” by the readers of the San Francisco Bay Guardian.Sometimes they think their music sounds like: landing softly in a new town, things that make you sad but are so beautiful you bring them out again anyway, the part where you kick the trashcan just because you remembered something that pissed you off, the moonlit night where you were far from the city and the stars and the orange and the snow swirled together, the six hour drive on the highway that you don’t hardly remember because you were listening to the radio really loud the whole way down.