Lot of events down at the Asian Art Museum. For the full scoop (including Chuseok) check out https://calendar.asianart.org/sundays/
Book Reading & Dance Tutorial with Harry Shum Jr & Shelby Rabara
Join authors and real-life parents Harry Shum Jr and Shelby Rabara as they bring to life Martee Dares to Dance, published by Gloo Books.
Harry Shum Jr (Glee, Grey’s Anatomy, and Everything, Everywhere, All At Once) and co-author, acclaimed actor and dancer Shelby Rabara (Steven Universe, Goliath, 17 Again) share their new picture book Martee Dares to Dance through a reading, dance tutorial, moderated Q&A, and book signing.
Celebrating both dance and diversity, Martee Dares to Dance is the story of a brave young Filipino boy finding the courage to dance to his own beat.
Free copies of the book are available for signing to the first 200 families.
Tickets available on a first-come, first-served basis; please stay tuned for details.
Community Talk: Fostering Positive Asian American Identities with Dr. Sarah Lee
Learn quick, easy, research-based ways to engage and nurture the Asian American experience in your home.
Hear from Dr. Sarah Jaewon Lee, Assistant Professor of Learning Sciences and Human Development at the University of Washington, in an interactive workshop teaching effective ways to foster positive Asian American identities in children. Drawing from her own background as a Korean American, Dr. Lee offers effective strategies to create nurturing environments for young Asian Americans.
/ dcheartz
DP: Brandon Yoon @brndnyn / brndnyn
STREAM NOW:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/track/1KCwLD...
Apple Music - 
/ where-is-the-bread-single
The socials -
SC: 
/ emperorkhan
IG: / khantrast
FB: 
/ khantrastnyc
TIKTOK: @khantrastnyc" / dcheartz
Mo Rabbani - / mo.a.rabbani
STREAM NOW:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/track/4kmgXJ...
Apple Music - / man-of-the-year-single
The socials -
SC: / emperorkhan
IG: / khantrast
FB: / khantrastnyc
TIKTOK: @khantrastnyc"From the video: "Jon SooHoo is it his 41st year as the Dodgers photographer and he has spent nearly half a century capturing the iconic historic sports moments in Los Angeles. An L.A. native, SooHoo is also the grandson of the founder of Chinatown in DTLA, Peter SooHoo. Hear how his unique experiences framed his one-of-a-kind perspective on capturing the greatest photographs in modern Los Angeles history."
From Wiki:
"Jon SooHoo is the official photographer for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the first Asian American to hold the position in Major League Baseball. He's documented the team for nearly four decades, capturing iconic moments like their last two championships. SooHoo's work extends beyond the field, capturing everyone from fans and ushers to front office executives and clubhouse attendants. He's also covered the World Series, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup, and Daytona 500"
###
September 12, 2025
This year has already been unprecedented in the deployment of National Guard Troops to major cities like Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., under the guise of fighting crime and protecting federal agents or buildings. Chicago has been identified by the Trump administration as one of the next possible targets for the National Guard to be deployed. The JACL, including our Chicago chapter, vehemently opposes the deployment of troops in American cities, especially the possibility of deployments in Chicago. The use of military personnel and resources in US cities is not only a waste of taxpayer dollars and government resources, but it also puts American citizens, especially communities of color, at greater risk for violence or unjust targeting.
The announcement of possible deployments in Chicago comes on the heels of heightened ICE and CBP activity in the city. This so-called “Operation: Midway Blitz” is currently underway, and as with the other immigration raids, the city and state governments were given no advanced notice of such actions. These raids follow similar tactics being used in Los Angeles and Southern California, as ICE agents go after family-owned businesses, immigrants appearing for their voluntary hearings, and more, without warrants or probable cause.
These tactics have continually been called into question. While the United States District Court for the Central District of California found that ICE and CBP agents in Los Angeles had been racially profiling people, the Supreme Court recently granted the Trump administration’s application for an emergency stay of this ruling. This stay allows ICE and CBP to continue their inhumane and racist tactics until the case makes its way through the federal courts.
The Chicago chapter of the JACL urges the Nikkei community, in Chicagoland and beyond, to show up in this moment to protect immigrant rights and immigrant communities. Many JACL Chicago members have a family history of incarceration without due process during WWII. According to JACL Chicago program director Rebecca Ozaki, “My own grandfather shared the horrifying memory of how two FBI agents showed up to their home in 1942 and detained his father. They didn’t know where he was for months, and he didn’t see his father for years. Their family was separated when they were forced into incarceration camps. He was just a child, paralyzed from fear, and there was no one to protect his family or the 125,000 others of Japanese ancestry who were forced into prisons without due process during World War II.” JACL Chicago believes that no human should face this reality, regardless of citizenship status. We are proud that our city will continue to fight against racist immigrant detention and deportation to keep our people safe, even with the threat of a US president declaring “war” on our city, and urge the Nikkei community to join us to take action.
“We find ourselves once again witnessing the actions of the administration making decisions that risk immigrant communities becoming subjected to racial profiling, detainment without due process, and family separation - reminiscent of what my own family experienced 80 years ago. At the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, my late uncle was diagnosed with Down syndrome. He was subsequently separated from his incarcerated family to be institutionalized at the age of 3. I can't fathom the fear and uncertainty both he and his family felt, unable to see each other for the duration of the war. It is crucial that the Chicago Nikkei community stands up to make our voices heard and send a clear message that no one should have to experience this.” - Ben Nishimura, JACL Chicago Chapter President
The continual overreach of the administration in its deployment of federal law enforcement and the National Guard is a dangerous precedent that conjures disturbing imagery of authoritarian dictatorships and fascist regimes, which should have long been relegated to the pages of history. Our legislative and judicial bodies must do everything in their power to keep the executive in check, as was designed by our nation's founders, to ensure nothing like this ever comes to pass. In the meantime, organizations like the JACL and countless others continue to stand against these continued attacks on our communities. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote while in Birmingham Jail in April 1963, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” We must continue to fight to prevent these injustices from continuing, and we must do so together.
###
-RESOURCES FOR LOCAL MEMBERS/SUPPORTERS -
In addition to our members attending two emergency rallies held downtown this week, JACL Chicago will host a workshop, “Detention: Then and Now,” on October 5th in partnership with Nikkei Uprising. The workshop is open to all who want to learn how to get involved and take action against immigrant detention. Learn more and RSVP: https://jaclchicago.org/detention-then-now-workshop/.
JACL Chicago will also be participating in the No Kings Rally on October 18th with a poster-making rally prep day on October 15th at the JACL Chicago office. For more information or to join the JACL Chicago rapid response network, visit their website at jaclchicago.org, or contact program director Rebecca Ozaki at rebecca@jaclchicago.org for more information.
For Know Your Rights resources, visit the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights website at https://www.icirr.org/.
###
About The Japanese American Citizens League
The Japanese American Citizens League is a national organization whose ongoing mission is to secure and maintain the civil rights of Japanese Americans and all others who are victimized by injustice and bigotry. The leaders and members of the JACL also work to promote cultural, educational, and social values and preserve the heritage and legacy of the Japanese American community.
All I know is that while this is not unprecedented, we are in dark territory. When you can't criticize your government for fear of losing your job, when the First Amendment is blatantly being shoved aside and run over, days later, run over again and set on fire--we are not the America that made us truly great.
There's a piece of me that feels I'm being told that I must conform to this one thing where it just feels like I'm stuck in a box where everyone looks and has to feel the same, regardless of anything individually. It's that suffocating on both a macro and personal level.
Seeing companies bend the knee is not comforting. Watching a pay to play government doesn't send warm fuzzies up and down my neck. The fact that I can get taken by people in masks, shoved away into a dark hole waiting for due process, which may take months, maybe even years, while not actually having done anything wrong--I can't say that doesn't scare me a little. Because it does.
Regular people, not named Kimmel, are losing their jobs because they pushed back on the Charlie Kirk narrative exalting him from his racist and homophobic views (from what I've heard from reputable people).
It's almost as if I find myself sent via a time machine to the 80's with the Moral Majority.
Censorship and moral guardians.
What's next. Nancy Reagan just saying no?
How are we moving backwards and becoming less progressive? Less open to more ideas and different thoughts? And why does this always involve someone who's more than just a little racist?
I don't know what Kimmel will do. I hope he fights. He's got the resources to do it and I think because of how it happened he can win.
In the meantime--here are some companies and organizations who pushed back and either won, or gained a lot of ground in the right direction--and that's important to remember: that you get to stand up for yourself.
From the interwebs, search machines, and ai hyperbrains:
A coalition including AFT Massachusetts, other labor unions, school districts etc. got a preliminary injunction against the Education Dept’s efforts to fire many staff via reductions in force.
American Bar Association lawsuit over Trump’s “Law Firm Intimidation Policy” — targeting law firms via sanctions, loss of contracts, security clearances, as retaliation for representing clients the government dislikes. Some of the individual law firms sued and won in court (judges have temporarily or permanently barred many of those orders). The ABA’s lawsuit is more recent (filed June 2025) and is seeking relief on behalf of all its members; outcome still developing.
V.O.S. Selections, Inc. et al. Challenged “Liberation Day” tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), arguing the administration lacked authority to impose them. The Court of International Trade permanently enjoined enforcement of those tariffs; the plaintiffs succeeded in showing overreach under IEEPA. In appeal by Trump government.
E. Jean Carroll: The writer successfully sued Donald Trump for sexual abuse and defamation. A jury awarded her $5 million in the first trial and $83.3 million in the second trial.
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) successfully sued to block a February 2025 directive from the Department of Education that sought to ban race-based programming at colleges.
But one regret I do have, is that at a Magnetic North concert, after getting to meet the incomprable lyrical and inspirational em T. Vu after the performance, is that I didn't take a free t-shirt.
If I look back I think I was just anxious, maybe even a little overwhelmed. Like I didn't deserve it maybe in a way. You know?
Even though I was an adult, I was still working on who I was, and some of that involved combating the feelings of imposter syndrome that crept up, which sometimes, was a lot.
Like I knew who I was, what I stood for, and was doing my own thing writing and blogging, but I still wondered at times if I fit in.
If I was "legit".
In that way I guess I was a late bloomer, which manifested itself as me later in life without a kick ass t-shirt from a time when it seemed like everything was going to land because of the music that inspired us to keep moving forward.
Fast-forward to now and I'd get as many t-shirts as I could and might even try to steal that damn box.
After everyone else got theirs of course.
And after I paid for what remained in the box, because I'm not a thief per se.
I was just saying I'd probably get that box for free too.
It'd be a steal you know?
Hmmm...now that I think about it, even though I don't have a t-shirt, I do have a little bit of a story. And a signed CD. And I was thinking that at the time I might have tried to get into a medium which I couldn't wear now because I'm really a large, so it's probably best it worked out the way it did.
/ lf.low.g
Facebook: / low.to.the.g
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6TITn...
-----------------
Disclaimer: Bài nhạc có chứa ngôn ngữ nhạy cảm, cân nhắc trước khi xem.
/ thaivg454
► Facebook Profile: / thaistreets
► Instagram: / thaivg454
► TikTok: 
/ thaivg454
► Youtube: 
/ @thaivg
► Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/60866...
► Apple Music: / thai-vg
BUY THAI VG LATEST MERCH: https://www.vgmerchofficial.com/
-------------
© Bản quyền thuộc về VG Entertainment (Vui lòng không reup)
© Copyrighted by VG Entertainment (Do not reup)
© 2025 VG Entertainment. All Rights Reserved
#ThaiVG #warandpeace #Suboi #DJFeliks #PURPOSE #album #rap #hiphopThis is one of those moments where so many things can be true at the same moment in time.
Charlie Kirk was not someone I would ever say I followed or agreed with. I watched or read about him only what I needed to know--like someone trying to understand an adversary, an ideological foe.
He was a conservative extremist. Someone whose ideas did not match mine, and ones that I personally believe have helped ingrain and impregnate hate, bigotry, and racism into a multitude of generations, old and young. That language and ideology I believe contribute to actions which suppress, torture, and kill of members of BIPOC and immigrant communities, either by direct violent action, or through tenets that uphold laws and structures of power meant to disenfranchise its citizens, leading to shortened lives.
But I am also a First Amendment advocate, and while I do believe the above, I still feel someone like Charlie Kirk, did not deserve to be assassinated while giving a talk at a university, just like I believe someone shouldn't go to jail for a year for burning the flag.
Here is the link to the post: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMImXWFx9Ce/
