Woman Dies After Being Pushed Onto Subway Tracks

40-year-old Michelle Go was "suddenly pushed" in front of an oncoming train.



In New York, a woman died after she was pushed onto the subway tracks and struck by an oncoming train. The incident occurred on Saturday morning at the Times Square-42nd Street station while she was standing on the southbound R-Q train platform. According to witnesses, a man "suddenly pushed" the woman in an unprovoked attack shoving her onto the tracks as the train pulled into the station, killing her.

Woman Dies After Being Pushed Onto Subway Tracks in Times Square

The victim was identified as 40-year-old Michelle Go, who was Asian. The attacker, identified as 61-year-old Simon Martial, fled the scene and rode the subway to Lower Manhattan, where he told officers at the Canal Street station that he had pushed a woman onto the tracks. Martial reportedly has a history encounters with the authorities related to mental health problems. He is expected to be arraigned on murder charges.

Police are calling the attack "random" and said there was no indication that Go had been targeted because of her ethnicity. I have to say that offers very little comfort. These mounting "random" attacks against victims who just happen to be Asian, during a sharp surge of violence against Asians... at some point, "random" really doesn't seem like a sufficient way to categorize a tragedy like this. We do not feel safe.

More here: Woman Pushed Onto Subway Tracks 'Never Saw' Her Attacker

Man Wanted For Anti-Asian Harassment on Subway

And Other Things to Know From Angry Asian America.



Subway Passenger Blames Asian Man for Coronavirus, Tries to Drag Him Off Train
In New York, police are searching for a man who attacked an Asian passenger on the subway in Midtown, blaming for coronavirus and trying to drag him off the train. The 30-year-old victim was riding on an uptown 4 train approaching the Lexington Ave./59th St. station on Sunday morning when a man approached him shouting, "You're infected China boy, you need to get off the train." The assailant then grabbed the man by his wrist and shoulder and tried to pull him out of his seat. The victim was able to resist until his attacker finally gave up and ran off. Police released video of the suspect and asked for the public's help identifying him.

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Anti-Asian Graffiti Found Spray-Painted Outside New Jersey Home
In New Jersey, police are investigating hate graffiti that was found spray-painted outside a Hoboken home. Surveillance camera footage showed the suspect spraying the racist message, "1 AMOR 3 CHINKS USA #1 CHINKS DIE," on the ground near the building's garage door on Friday night. The suspect is described as a light skin male, bald, with a medium build, wearing dark colored clothing and dark shoes.

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"The fight is always somewhere in us."
The chashu shumai combo at Jist Cafe has been a much-needed bright spot in the COVID-19 pandemic. It's also the best illustration of a community ethic that has rallied a small army of volunteers and social service organizations to Little Tokyo's aid.

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Amplify: Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month
In celebration of Heritage Month, Spotify has launched "Our Roots. Our Sound," a new campaign that spotlights and celebrates Asian American and Pacific Islander artists, creators, and fans by reflecting on the deeply rooted culture and groundbreaking music within the community. The campaign kicks off with the launch Amplify: Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month hub, which includes playlists featuring Asian American artists, flagship playlists from Asia, and podcasts from Asians and Asian Americans. It will be updated with new, exclusive content throughout May. Check it out here.

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Creative Sustainability Sessions: Family Meal
In case you missed it, here's the replay from the inaugural edition of Family Meal, a virtual dinner party conversation I had with fellow podcasters Jeff Yang, Rebecca Sun, Dino-Ray Ramos and Tanzila "Taz" Ahmed.

Who Are The Most Influential Asian Americans?

And Other Things to Know From Angry Asian America.


A100 List
Kicking off AAPI Heritage Month, Gold House has announced its third annual A100 list, spotlighting "the 100 most esteemed and impactful Asians in entertainment and media, fashion and lifestyle, technology, business, and social activism. The List, determined by 20 Asian nonprofit groups, a panel of multicultural icons, and hundreds of Gold House members, unites the Asian diaspora with other communities in celebrating excellence and championing a path towards a more inclusive future for everyone." View the list here.

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AAPI FRONTLINE
From doctors to delivery workers, AAPIs make up the backbone of many critical industries amid the coronavirus pandemic. This Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, NBC Asian America is honoring the workers leading medical research, helping low-income and limited English proficiency groups, combating racism and more.

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Unemployment Claims from Asian Americans Have Spiked 6900% in NYC
In New York, about 147,000 self-identified Asian workers have filed initial unemployment claims in the last four weeks alone, up from just 2,100 during the same period last year. That's a 6,900% increase -- by far the largest percentage increase experienced by any one racial or ethnic group.

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Digital Town Hall - Asian Americans in the Time of Covid-19
In connection with the upcoming PBS series Asian Americans, the Center for Asian American Media, WETA, and Asian American community leaders hosted a digital town hall exploring how lessons from Asian American history can help us understand the experience of Asian Americans in the time of COVID-19.

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The Half of It
The Half of It, the long-awaited new feature film from writer/director Alice Wu, is now available on Netflix. Shy, straight-A student Ellie is hired by sweet but inarticulate jock Paul, who needs help winning over a popular girl. But their new and unlikely friendship gets complicated when Ellie discovers she has feelings for the same girl.

The Greatest Revolutionary Kids Web Series is Back

Things to Know From Angry Asian America



Radical Cram School Season 2
The greatest revolutionary kids web series is back for a second season. Radical Cram School, featuring performance artist and comedian Kristina Wong, is an award winning digital series where Asian American kids ages 6-12 explore the power of their identities, revolution, and social justice through puppets, community storytelling, and comedy. All six episode of season 2 are available on YouTube now.

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Are Asian Americans White? Or People of Color?
"Borrowing from W. E. B. Du Bois' color-line metaphor, some racial justice activists have asked whether Asian Americans are “left or right of the color line.” How we answer these questions bears important implications for movements for racial justice and equity. These are also questions that we have both confronted as womxn who are a second-generation queer Punjabi American and a second-generation Hong Konger American."

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The Lovebirds
Behold, the trailer for The Lovebirds! This looks like my kind of romcom. Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani star as Leilani and Jibran, who experience a defining moment in their relationship when they are unintentionally embroiled in a bizarre crime. As their journey to clear their names takes them from one extreme circumstance to the next, they must figure out how they, and their relationship, can survive the night. In theaters April 3.

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Queens native Awkwafina to be the voice of the No. 7 subway train for a week
Awkwafina, who recently got robbed of an Oscar nomination for her performance in The Farewell, will soon have a starring role as the voice of the No. 7 subway train to Flushing. Riders will hear the rapper/actor, who is a Queens native, handling conductor announcements on the No. 7 train over the next week, in promotion of her new Comedy Central show Nora From Queens.

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A Chinatown Odyssey by Jerry Ma
In New York, Pearl River Mart presents its latest art exhibition, A Chinatown Odyssey, opening Saturday, January 18. Through striking illustrations, graphic novel artist Jerry Ma retells the classic Chinese tale of the Monkey King in a modern, urban setting, and takes us on a journey through the Chinatown of his childhood.

Director Lulu Wang did a Q&A for the one guy who showed up to see 'The Farewell' last night

"I wrote and directed this film... Please stay after for the Q&A."



Writer/director Lulu Wang's family drama The Farewell is one of the most critically and commercially successful films of the year, first debuting to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival, then scoring a magical summer box office run for a film of its modest indie stature. But the hype inevitably had to die down. That said, three months after opening in theaters, it's still playing on a handful of screens.

On Monday night, Wang apparently held a Q&A for the one moviegoer who showed up to the 10:15pm showing of The Farewell at the Angelika Film Center in New York City. Wang says she and her best friend wanted to see her deeply personal film "as real audience members" at a theater where they've seen countless film together. It so happens that there was one other person in attendance. So the director surprised him with a Q&A.

Here's Ms. Wang introducing the film. It is adorable:

Stop ordering spicy noodles with no spice

A personal message from the CEO of Xi'an Famous Foods.



Look, if you go to Xi'an Famous Foods and order your noodles "not spicy" -- honestly, what's the point? -- then complain that the food is "too bland," that shit is on you. I'm sorry, but you have made a bad life choice.

The New York City noodle chain has an important advisory for its customers: "Not Spicy = Not As Good." Xi'an's CEO Jason Wang recently posted a "personal message" to customers at the company's 14 locations, warning people that if they order certain menu items as "not spicy," they may be disappointed. You can have it the way you want it. Just know that the way you want it... does not taste good.

Salon employee refers to Asian customer as "chinky eyes"

And then that salon employee got fired.



So you sit down in the salon chair to get your hair done... and get smacked in the head with some every day racism. That's what happened to an Asian woman who recently saw herself described as "chinky eyes" on a receipt at a Manhattan hair salon. Yup, the racial receipt. We know it well.

Briana Tae was getting her hair blown out at the Drybar in Murray Hill in anticipation of her upcoming nursing school pinning ceremony. But when she saw the receipt slip describing her service, she saw that under the category "Description" one of the employees had scrawled the derogatory slur to describe her.

"I'm sorry, what?" Tae wrote in a Facebook post, sharing a photo of the receipt. "I was the ONLY customer waiting with my friend and rather than describe me by my hair that was in a bun or by my black jacket or as a girl with a friend, I was described as a girl with chinky eyes."

Apply to AAWW's Open City Fellowships

Now accepting applications for the Neighborhoods Fellowship and the Muslim Communities Fellowship



Hey, writers! They Asian American Writers' Workshop is accepting applications for the Open City Fellowships.

Specifically: the Neighborhoods Fellowship, a unique opportunity for emerging Asian American writers to publish narrative nonfiction over the span of six months on the vibrant Asian American communities of New York City; and the Muslim Communities Fellowship, a six-month opportunity for NYC-based writers from Middle Eastern and North and East African communities and Muslim writers of color to write about the Muslim American communities in the city.

Both fellowships offer a $2,500 grant, skill-building workshops, and publishing opportunities to write about the Asian immigrant and Muslim communities of New York City. The fellowship is six months long, beginning in September 2018 and ending in March 2019.

Here are some more details:

How Anthony Bourdain helped a Flushing family food stall become a New York noodle empire

Xi'an Famous Foods will donate 100% of Friday's net sales to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.



The tragic news of Anthony Bourdain's death by suicide stunned fans and colleagues of the internationally renown chef, television personality and world traveler, with a deluge of tributes to his unique life, career and legacy pouring out Friday across social media and beyond.

One such remembrance came from Jason Wang, CEO of New York City noodle chain Xi'an Famous Foods, who shared about the time Bourdain visited and ate at his family's tiny basement food stall in Flushing for Travel Channel's No Reservations in 2007. The endorsement lit a spotlight that helped propel Xi'an from a small noodle stand to a popular restaurant mini-empire boasting a dozen locations and counting.

Wang was still a college student at the time (and no idea who Bourdain was). But years later, he had the opportunity to tell Bourdain how that visit to his family's restaurant had changed their lives.

On Friday, June 8, in honor of Anthony Bourdain's memory, Xi'an Famous Foods will be donating 100 percent of all net sales to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Here's Wang's tribute, shared on social media:

Broadway star Ruthie Ann Miles injured, 4-year-old daughter killed in car crash

A car ran a red light and drove through a crowd of people in Brooklyn.



Tony Award-winning Broadway actress Ruthie Ann Miles was in critical condition Monday after she was struck by a car in Brooklyn in an accident that killed her 4-year-old daughter and another child.

Tony Award-Winning Actress Hurt in Deadly Wreck After Driver Blows Red Light in Brooklyn

Miles was walking with a friend, Lauren Lew, and their kids in Park Slope when a white Volvo reportedly ran a red light, drove through the intersection and plowed through a crowd of people in the crosswalk. Miles and Lew were both injured in the crash. Miles' 4-year-old daughter Abigail and Lew's 1-year-old son Joshua were killed. A fifth victim, a 46-year-old man, was also hit.

Miles, who is currently expecting her second child, was critically injured but listed in stable condition.

Chinatown Night Market Hosted by Ed Lin

Friday, December 8 at the Museum of Chinese in America



New York City! The Museum of Chinese in America invite you to an evening of food, drink and literary intrigue with author Ed Lin. Come celebrate the re-design and re-issue of Lin's crime novel trilogy, This Is a Bust, Snakes Can't Run and One Red Bastard, which follow the gritty exploits of NYPD cop Robert Chow in 1970s Chinatown. They'll have Chinatown snacks and desserts, and Ed will be signing copies of his books.

It's happening Friday, December 8 at MOCA. Here are some more details:

Chinatown Art Brigade protests racist exhibition

"Chinatown lives are not poverty porn!"



On Sunday afternoon in New York, dozens of protesters from the Chinatown Art Brigade and other local art and anti-gentrification activist groups converged in the front room of James Cohan Gallery's Chinatown location, demanding that the gallery take down what the group is calling "racist art."

Their target: Omer Fast's new exhibition, August, which has transformed the space to appear like a poorly maintained Chinatown business. Visitors walk through the space to see the artist's video work in the backroom.

In a letter sent to the gallery last week, CAB called the exhibition a "racist aggression towards the community of Chinatown," and added "this show reifies racist narratives of uncleanliness, otherness and blight that have historically been projected onto Chinatown."

More here: Chinatown Art Brigade Protests Omer Fast's "Racist" Exhibition at James Cohan Gallery

Restaurant calls customer "Ching Chong" on receipt

Manhattan's Cornerstone Cafe apologizes after racial receipt goes viral.



This again. It's the return of the Racial Receipt! The latest sighting occurred in New York, where a Manhattan restaurant recently apologized for referring to an Asian American customer as "Ching Chong" on a receipt.

Last Wednesday, a server at Cornerstone Cafe in the East Village entered an Asian customer's name as "Ching Chong" on the slip for a to-go order of steak and eggs. Because why bother asking for a customer's actual name when you can silently mock them with a racial slur, right under their nose?

The incident started picking up attention when a friend of the customer, Facebook user Ziggy Chau, posted a photo of the offending receipt on social media. That's when the internet went in on Cornerstone Cafe.

"Get the fuck out of my country" and other subway racism

But the woman with the "fucking Chinese eyes" wasn't even Asian.



In New York, a man on a subway train was caught on camera yelling and threatening a fellow passenger, telling her to "get the fuck out of my country before I murder your whole fucking nation" and making racist remarks about "your fucking Chinese eyes." Plot twist: the person he was yelling at wasn't even Asian.

Racist Rant On Q Train: 'Get The F**k Out Of My Country'

The incident happened Tuesday afternoon on the Manhattan-bound Q train. It was set off when the victim, a 21-year-old Brooklyn woman, started "weird vibes" from the man, who was apparently staring at her.

"I asked him politely, 'Can you please stop staring at me you are making me uncomfortable,'" she told Gothamist. "He didn't immediately start screaming but his look turned sour. Then he got off the train and started asking the surrounding people if I had a right to tell him to stop staring, and said I had less of a right because I was Asian." Then the guy got back on the train.

That's where the video picks up:

40th Asian American International Film Festival

Presented by Asian CineVision, July 25 - August 5



New Yooooork! New York film fans, this one's for you. The 40th Asian American International Film Festival, presented by Asian CineVision, is going down this week! As the nation's first and longest running Asian-interest film festival, AAIFF40 will present 20 feature films and 63 short films representing 18 countries. Screenings will be held at Cinema Village East and Asia Society in Manhattan, July 26 - August 5.

Here's this year's AAIFF trailer:

Queens couple plead guilty to keeping children as slaves

Sook Yeong Park and Jeong Taek Lee held two Korean kids as slaves in their home for several years.



This week in New York, a Flushing couple admitted to holding two Korean children as slaves in their home for several years, forcing them to work long hours and withholding contact with their parents.

Couple Who Kept Korean Teens as 'Slaves' at Flushing Home Plead Guilty

50-year-old Sook Yeong Park pleaded guilty to two counts of labor trafficking. Park was sentenced to six months in prison followed by five years probation, after taking a plea deal. The 60-count indictment against her included grand larceny, forcible touching and assault for her treatment of the two children. Her husband, 54-year-old Jeong Taek Lee, was sentenced to five years probation.

The two victims, a 9-year-old brother and 11-year-old sister from Korea, were brought to stay with the couple in January 2010. Shortly afterwards, Park confiscated their passports and effectively enslaved them.

Vincent Chin: Dead or Alive? A Panel Discussion

Monday, June 19 at Chatham Square Library



Next week marks the 35th anniversary of Vincent Chin's brutal, racist murder at the hands of two white autoworkers in Detroit -- a case that set off a pan-Asian, nation-wide movement for justice. Thirty-five years later, what is the legacy of Vincent Chin? The New York Public Library will be hosting a panel discussion, Vincent Chin: Dead or Alive?, examining the case, what has and has not changed since Chin's murder, as well as the current state of civic participation and advocacy in API communities.

It's happening Monday, June 19 in the Community Room at Chatham Square Library. Some more details:

This couple ran a half marathon on their wedding day

...along with 60 of their wedding guests.



To attend this wedding, you had to be in shape. And I'm not talking about looking good in a dress or a tux. Last month, a Brooklyn couple ran a half marathon as part of their wedding day... along with 60 of their guests.

Running couple incorporates Brooklyn Half Marathon into their wedding

When Amanda Hughes and Joel Tse, who met while they were both training for the New York City Marathon in 2009, realized they had scheduled their wedding on the same day as the Brooklyn Half Marathon, they decided to incorporate the race into their nuptials. Not only would they run the half marathon, they invited their guests to run the distance with them to the finish line before they got officially tied the knot.

"We were going to organize a fun run, because without the running community, we never would have met," Hughes told Runner's World. "But the way it worked out was perfect because all of our running friends were going to be in town anyway."

They even sent out a training schedule with the wedding invitation -- with four months to train -- since many of the guests had never run a long distance race before.

His train broke down on the way to his graduation. So subway strangers threw him an impromptu ceremony.

"Thank you guys for coming out today to see my graduation. I appreciate it."



Sometimes, people are great. This week in New York, subway strangers held an impromptu graduation ceremony for a nursing school student who missed his actual grad ceremony due to massive train delays.

Nursing School Student Misses Graduation Due to Train Delay, Has Impromptu Ceremony with Commuters Instead

On Tuesday morning, 22-year-old Jerich Marco Alcantara boarded the packed E train from Queens to Manhattan to attend his graduation at Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing. Unfortunately, the train was stalled by an emergency brake malfunction that kept Jerich and his fellow passengers stuck underground for close to three hours. He wasn't going to make it to his graduation. He was going to miss the whole thing.

Of course, this was a bummer. Standing there on the train, in his full cap and gown, Jerich attempted to alleviate the mood and cracked a joke. He turned to the other passengers in his subway car and said, "Thank you guys for coming out today to see my graduation. I appreciate it."

The people in the car erupted in cheers, and it was on.

"It just kind of snowballed after that." Alcantara told The Washington Post.

Asian AF Goes to New York!

Tuesday, June 27 at UCB East Village.



New Yooooork! Asian AF is making its way out east! The landmark, acclaimed, kind of sort of famous Asian American variety show travels from the west coast to New York City, bringing its special brand of shit-talking Asian as F comedy to the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, hosted by Keiko Agena and Will Choi. This is your chance to see the show that's been selling out every single month in Los Angeles.

It's happening Tuesday, June 27 at UCB East Village. Here are some more details: