6.13.2002

CALL FOR PERFORMERS, SPOKEN WORDSMITHS, VISUAL ARTISTS, WRITERS, VOLUNTEERS & CO-SPONSORS

THE 4TH ANNUAL BAMBOO GIRL ZINE BENEFIT PARTY!

Saturday, July 13, 2002
@ the Asian American Writers' Workshop
7pm
16 West 32nd Street, Suite 10A, NYC
$10 suggestion donation
Raffle prizes!
MC: yours truly


I invite you to be part of the lineup for the 4th Bamboo Girl Zine Annual Benefit Party!

All funds go towards the next print run of Bamboo Girl Zine, #12. Come support the zine that's been around since 1995, confronting racism, sexism, and homophobia in their various forms, from the person of color point of view, particularly those of API/Filipina/mixed blood Asian heritage.

The AAWW will be selling my latest issue, #11, and I’ll be shopping my famous tees with catchy mottos such as “Asian Chicks Kick Ass” and “Exoticize My Fist.” Stickers and patches will also make their usual appearance!

Come be part of this summer celebration! Each person will have 10 minutes maximum. And please make sure to keep within the time frame, out of consideration for the hardworking people at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, captive audience, and your fellow performers.

Unfortunately, I cannot pay, but I promise you an engaged audience, my undying appreciation, a great sound system, and an opportunity to strut your stuff and promote your work/causes!

Past performers have included:
Maura Nguyen Donohue, In Mixed Company Dancers
Kevin Camia
International Martial Arts Training Center
Rex Navarrete, Premier Fil-Am Comedian
Maritess, Slight-of-Hand Artist
BlackSonny
Patty Cachapero
Ishle Park
Marta Cabrera Estévez
Emily Chang
Aileen Cho
Pananandata Students of Amante P. Marinas
Jessica Chen Drammeh, Documentary Filmmaker
DMZ
BJ Formento, Photographer
Gita Reddy
Annie Lin
Zahera Saed
Semiautomatic
Johanna Faith Cacho Almiron
Lauren Jade Martin
Kontrast
F. Omar Telan
Darlene "Daya" Mortel
...among others!

Past raffle prizes:
Photos by BJ Formento
Gift basket by Gabriela Network-NY/NJ
Tee shirts from Blacklava, GenerationRice, maARTe, FORWARD

And among previous sponsors:
Utne Reader
Bluestockings Bookstore
Gabriela Network-NY/NJ
Filipino/American Coalition for Environmental Solutions (FACES)
Riding Mower Records
Asian Avenue

There will be light food and refreshments. Do you make a mean batch of cookies or puto bongbong? Come on down!

And: if you'd like to co-sponsor the event, please let me know. Being a co-sponsor means helping to promote the event, possibly donate an item towards the raffle, and/or drop by and partake in the festivities. And of course, donations would be greatly appreciated! Checks can be made out to "S. Margarita Alcantara-Tan" and sent to the address below.

I look forward to including folks in yet another Bamboo Girl Zine gathering, proving once again that our community truly kicks ass.

Questions? Info? Fresh lumpia?:

S. Margarita
Bamboo Girl Zine
POB 507
New York, NY 10159-0507
email: bamboogirl@aol.com


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U.S. troops out of the Philippines now!
Continue the Filipino people’s unfinished struggle for genuine independence and democracy!


12 June 2002

As overseas Filipino workers, women, and youth in Canada, we meet June 12 with a greater resolve to continue the Filipino people’s struggle for genuine independence and democracy. With the Philippines currently under fire by growing U.S. military aggression on sovereign Philippine soil, there is an ever urgent need to carry on the people’s fight for true independence.

Officially, June 12 is the day designated by the Philippine government to celebrate the so-called independence that the Philippines is now supposedly enjoying. For the people, this date marks the Filipino people’s victory over their Spanish colonizers of 3 centuries. The Philippine Revolution of 1896 was the first-ever successful anti-colonial revolution in Asia. But soon after the people’s victory in 1896, U.S. troops invaded the Philippines and the U.S. has since imposed its imperialist will on the people – first holding the Philippines as its colony and now as its semi-colony.

Today, the nation’s cries for genuine independence reverberate more clearly and loudly among the people.

Under the flimsy pretense of helping the Philippine military quell a handful of rebels of the Abu Sayaff, ironically a group created by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, over 4000 U.S. combat troops have stormed into the Philippines since earlier this year to open up the second front in its international war against terrorism.

In direct violation of Philippine sovereignty and territorial integrity, the U.S. military is pushing its way throughout the archipelago. Now U.S. military aggression is spreading with greater intensity outside of the original combat zone into other areas of the Philippines, as far north as Central Luzon. President Bush has even proclaimed that the Philippines will pay for the death of the American held hostage by the Abu Sayaff who was recently killed in cross-fire from the Philippine military. Even though the Filipino people are already experiencing a high degree of militarization and terror, U.S. imperialism is prepared to launch an even more massive military campaign against the Filipino people.

President Macapagal-Arroyo has been completely subservient to the interests of U.S. imperialism by constantly and consistently siding with the U.S. in its bid to maintain control in the Asia Pacific region by using the Philippines. Macapagal-Arroyo continues the anti-people economic and political policies of former regimes, and persists in the practice of flagrant corruption.

For overseas Filipinos, Macapagal-Arroyo's economic policy to pursue the continued export of highly-skilled Filipino workers to industrialized countries has caused greater hardship. In Canada, the Filipino community experiences greater exploitation and oppression. With the worsening economic crisis in the Philippines pushing thousands more Filipinos to migrate to Canada, we face greater desperation.

Clearly, with such a puppet president and the re-occupation of the Philippines by the U.S. military, genuine independence for the Filipino people remains unanswered.

Therefore, on this June 12, we, as overseas Filipino workers, women, and youth are resolved in our commitment to continue the Filipino people’s unfinished fight for genuine national freedom and democracy begun over 100 years ago. We will not stand idly by as Macapagal-Arroyo shamelessly stages a hollow celebration of Philippine independence while U.S. troops re-occupy our homeland. We will continue to educate, organize, and mobilize our community to struggle for our genuine equality and development in Canada and to forward the struggle for a Philippines free from puppets like Macapagal-Arroyo, free from feudal exploitation, and free from foreign rule – we struggle for a nation with true independence.

U.S. troops out of the Philippines now!
Out with Macapagal-Arroyo!
Down with U.S. imperialism!
Long live the Filipino people’s struggle for genuine independence, freedom, and a just and lasting peace!

Statement of:
B.C. Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines
Filipino-Canadians Against Racism
Filipino Nurses Support Group
Philippine Women Centre of B.C.
SIKLAB (Overseas Filipino workers’ organization)
Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance-Vancouver

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Mrs. Lily Chin, 1920-2002

Mrs. Lily Chin, formerly of Oak Park, Michigan, passed away at the age of 82 on June 9, 2002 at 1:55 am at the Farmington Hills (Mich.) Health Center, after a long illness. A beloved figure in the Asian American community of metropolitan Detroit, she was the mother of Vincent Chin, who was killed by two autoworkers in 1982. Mrs. Chin lived these last 20 years following her son's death with great dignity and strength, and to many people she represented tremendous moral courage in the face of injustice. She often expressed her gratitude to all those around the country who had been so kind and supportive to her.

Born in Heping, China in Guangdong Province, Mrs. Chin came to the U.S. after World War II to marry David Bing Hing Chin, a Chinese American World War II veteran and a resident of Highland Park, Michigan. David Chin had worked in Detroit's laundry's and restaurants. Lily Chin became an active member of Detroit's Chinese American community, and in the early 1960s, she and her husband adopted Vincent, their only child. On the eve of her son's bachelor party on June 19, 1982, he was brutally attacked and killed.

Mrs. Chin had courageously persevered in the fight for justice in her son's murder and the subsequent trials of her son's killers, Chrysler plant superintendent Ronald Ebens, and his stepson, Michael Nitz. She never gave up in her quest for justice and her hope that no other mother would lose a child from hate and prejudice.

For the last 15 years, after the legal efforts on her son's behalf ended with the acquittal on appeal of Ronald Ebens, Mrs. Chin moved to China, after spending most of her life in Detroit as a U.S. citizen. She left her longtime home in Oak Park because it was too painful to continue to be reminded of the hate killing and injustice against her son. A civil judgment of $1 million was levied against Ronald Ebens, but he successfully evaded making payment despite efforts of community groups to enforce the judgment. Mrs. Chin had planned to live out her years in China, until her illness brought her back to family and friends in Detroit.

Vincent Chin's slaying came to symbolize anti-Asian violence nationally and internationally. His death took place in the climate of a protracted national anti-Japanese and anti-Asian hysteria. In the moments before the fatal attack, witnesses overheard Ronald Ebens' say to Vincent, "It's because of you motherfuckers that we're out of work." After Wayne County Judge Charles Kaufman sentenced the confessed killers to only three years' probation and fines for their vicious bludgeoning attack on Chin, a civil rights movement of Asian Americans was born, led by Detroit-based American Citizens for Justice, with Mrs. Lily Chin's active involvement. Her legacy, and her son's, was recorded in the Academy-award nominated documentary film, "Who Killed Vincent Chin?," which has been viewed by millions of Americans.

Federal prosecutors eventually brought forth the first criminal civil rights prosecution involving an Asian American victim in U.S. history. Asian American efforts on Vincent Chin's behalf and other victims of hate crimes led to a broadening of federal hate crimes prosecutions. June 19, 2002 marks 20 years since the fatal assault on Vincent Chin, and numerous commemoration events are scheduled around the country. In Detroit, a teach-in will be held on June 21 and a grave side memorial for Vincent is planned for June 23; for information see the website at: http://rededication.cjb.net. Other events honoring Mrs. Chin and Vincent Chin are planned in Los Angeles, New York, Washington, DC, and San Francisco.

Mrs. Chin had established a scholarship in Vincent's memory, to be administered by American Citizens for Justice; donations may be sent to ACJ at P.O. Box 2735, Southfield, MI 48037. She was a member of the Farmington Hills Chinese Bible Church. She leaves behind a sister, Amy Lee and nephew Lewis Lee, both of Farmington Hills, niece Jenny Lee of Troy, as well as several other sisters, cousins, nieces and nephews across the U.S., in Hong Kong and China.

A public memorial service will be held on Saturday, June 15, 2002 at 10:00 am. The funeral home is William Sullivan & Son Funeral Home, 705 W. Eleven Mile Rd., Royal Oak, just west of Woodward; (248) 541-7000. At 11:00 am, Saturday, there will be a funeral procession to Forest Lawn Cemetery, on Van Dyke Ave., south of McNichols, in Detroit.

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AAFE Presents:
"Who Killed Vincent Chin?"

An Academy Award nominated Documentary

Friday, June 21, 2002
6:30 p.m. Film Showing
8:00 p.m. Panel Discussion (with the award-winning Filmmaker, Christine Choy)

Cantor Film Center - Theater 200, 35 E 8th Street (off University)


*Members Only Admission*

The death of Vincent Chin in 1982 became a turning point in the civil rights movement of Asian Pacific Americans in the U.S. After 20 years, what have we gained from the experience? Are we better-off after this tragic incident, or still struggling with the same issues? Come explore these questions with us.

Become an AAFE member now, you will get two free tickets! Want to become an AAFE member? Go to www.aafe.org/membership_form.phtml or contact Helen Romero at (212) 680-1374 ext 126 to reserve tickets.

To learn more about this Asian American landmark civil rights case, please check our website www.aafe.org/vincent_chin.phtml