For you readers in New York, here's an interesting event happening next week presented by A3 - The Asian American Association of Time Inc. and the New York chapter of the Asian American Journalists Assocation:
American Pop with a Twist: Asian Americans in - and on - American Popular Culture. It's a book signing for Jennifer 8. Lee's
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles
, then a panel discussion on Asian/Asian American pop culture, featuring a bunch of notable personalities who might know a thing or two on the topic. Here are the details:
American Pop with a Twist: Asian Americans in - and on - American Popular Culture
Monday, May 19, 2008
5:30pm to 6:00pm - Book Signing of the new NYT Best-Seller, "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles"
6:00pm to 7:00pm - Panel Discussion, 7:00-7:30 - Q&A
2nd Floor Conference Center, Room 1, Time & Life Building (50th St & 6th Ave, NYC)
Event is FREE
Culture exported from Asia has long been a mainstay of American popular culture (everything from yoga to anime) but a new breed of Asian American tastemakers are appropriating "traditional" Asian ideas and icons and reinventing them for mass market consumption. This panel, moderated by FORTUNE writer and Gen-Y authority Nadira Hira, will explore the way Asians and Asian Americans are shaping mainstream popular culture, and turning it on its head, to the delight of a new, multicultural generation. Panelists are:
Pun Bandhu is an actor and Tony Award winning Broadway producer of Spring Awakening and Glengarry Glen Ross.
Sharad Devajaran is co-founder, CEO and publisher of Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation, a set of companies he founded with Sir Richard Branson, author Deepak Chopra and filmmaker Shekhar Kapur.
Jennifer 8 Lee is a New York Times reporter and author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles.
N. Rain Noe is the Executive Editor of Theme Magazine and a NYC based multicreative.
Kate Rigg is an award-winning performer, playwright, and part of the urban Asian hip-hop duo Slanty Eyed Mama.
Jeff Yang is the "Asian Pop" columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle, author, and business/media consultant for Iconoculture, Inc.
*Free giveaways during event.
*Copies of Fortune Cookie Chronicles will be available for sale.
Please RSVP to A3_mail@timeinc.com with the Subject: "A3 Pop Culture Panel” and include your full name. Please note that Photo ID is required to enter the T&L building.
That's happening on Monday night. I was initially invited to participate in the event, but wasn't able to commit due to scheduling issues. But the people involved are all really cool, interesting folks whose work I am a fan of. It should be a really cool, informative event. (Thanks, Terrence.)
