June 21, 2017 International Examiner

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

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June 21, 2017 – July 4, 2017 — 1

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CID community shares neighborhood concerns at Peoples Party listening post

By Chetanya Robinson IE Assistant Editor More than 60 people came to a community “listening post” at the Nagomi Tea House on Monday evening, June 19.

The format allowed for the discussion of neighborhood problems and solutions with the purpose of sharing them with mayoral candidate Nikkita Oliver and members of the Peoples Party. Oliver, 31, is one of six front-runners in the race for the next Seattle mayor, and was the first serious candidate to enter the race challenging Ed Murray while he was still running for reelection.

Oliver has a background in law, social justice activism, and spoken word poetry.

Most of the event involved residents of the Chinatown International District (CID) and other Seattle neighborhoods gathering around tables to discuss five issues with each other: housing affordability and quality; public health and cleanliness; business and jobs; public safety; neighborhood and community development; and additional concerns. Each table was a place to discuss a different issue, and after about 20 minutes, people switched to a different table and issue.

The event was meant to provide a space for the community to advocate for itself, and in particular for elders and people with limited English to be heard, a member of Oliver’s campaign explained at the start of the evening. Interpreters of Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, and American Sign Language helped translate for some attendees.

At the table discussing public safety, candidate Oliver listened while one elder said in Cantonese that she would support any candidate for mayor who advocated for public safety in the neighborhood.

Following the discussions, representatives from each table gave a presentation to the whole room on the main ideas and points that came up in conversation.

For public safety in the CID, people discussed concerning issues such as public drunkenness, crime, and belligerent behaviors, which residents said they find uncomfortable. Some people said a lack of police presence in the neighborhood made them feel unsafe, while others said

Mayoral candidate Nikkita Oliver and the Peoples Party held a community “listening post” on June 19, 2017 at Nagomi Tea House. • Photo by Chetanya Robinson

it was police presence that made them feel unsafe. In addressing public safety, people said they wanted sustainable, long-term solutions such as more community blockwatch patrols and better lights and sidewalks in the neighborhood.

At the housing affordability and quality table, people expressed concern that the City is not ensuring access to affordable housing for people who need it. People felt Seattle also needs to address homelessness, and should continue to address the effects of racist neighborhood zoning and redlining.

The neighborhood development discussions brought up the need to create incentives for local business owners to be prioritized in the CID. People discussed a need for more green spaces, more inter-generational programs in the neighborhood, and moving the community center to the heart of the neighborhood. People also discussed creating community resources like a repair shop with a tool library.

The discussion around public housing and cleanliness brought up recent concerns in the neighborhood over the Navigation Center shelter and what people see as a lack of communication between the City and neighborhood, as well as concern over the development of large hotel complexes.

People were concerned about a general lack of linguistically and culturally accessible social services.

In the conversation on business and jobs, people talked about advocating for small businesses, which are forced to compete with large corporations, as well as encouraging non-tech related jobs and trades for young people.

In her brief remarks, delivered without notes, Oliver said many of the issues people brought up expose various ways the City has failed. She presented some of her platform on affordable housing; namely a multi-faceted strategy aimed at driving market prices down. This might involve tools like rent stabilization or stopping speculative markets, wherein people who don’t live in Seattle buy up property, Oliver explained. She criticized Mayor Ed Murray’s Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) for not going far enough in creating actual affordable housing units.

In particular, in response to an audience question, Oliver suggested that the Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) provision in HALA—in which developers would have to either build a certain number of affordable units, or pay into an affordable housing fund—should be renegotiated. Because the developers can sometimes opt to just pay the fee, more housing doesn’t actually get built quickly enough, she said.

And when it comes to affordable housing, Oliver said, the definition of “affordable” keeps changing as Seattle’s median income

rises by thousands each year. However, this doesn’t necessarily take into account people’s needs.

On homelessness, Oliver said the City has done a poor job communicating with communities of color on the issue. Though it’s declared the homeless crisis a state of emergency, the City hasn’t put in the necessary resources, and has spent too much money on encampment sweeps.

In a brief interview following the event, Oliver said she held the listening post event because the Peoples Party is committed to listening to disenfranchised communities— a description that fits the CID. “In particular, our elders are sometimes really pushed out, especially with lack of access to language or the opportunity to voice their concerns,” Oliver said.

Some of the most pressing issues Oliver sees as facing the CID are affordability, gentrification, more affordable housing for seniors, and public safety.

“And when I say public safety, it’s how do we work with members of the CID, residents here, some of whom have different points of view, to ensure that everyone feels safe,” Oliver said, “but we do it in a way that honors the coalition of people that make this part of our city work.”

Oliver said the evening taught her about the importance of translation services for elders. Some young people told her that many public meetings in the CID don’t provide translation. As a result, elders aren’t always made aware of what’s happening in the community and their input isn’t fully taken into account.

“It’s humbling and it’s honoring to get to sit with any community’s elders,” Oliver said. Listening to people is an important part of Oliver’s campaign and the approach she would bring as mayor, she said.

“Hearing their ideas, hearing their concerns, and then getting to solution-build with them, as opposed to going back to our offices and coming up with a plan,” Oliver said. “Actually trusting the brilliance of the community that lives here to solution-build for itself. And then really the role of the City being, how do we resource your brilliance, your self-empowerment and your selfdetermination to continue to see the CID flourish?”

2 — June 21, 2017 – July 4, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE OPINION

Son of Asia America: I take pride in my culture

By Francisco Sao F.I.G.H.T. I was born March 29, 1984 in San Francisco, California before I knew anything about that city my parents moved to Tacoma, Washington. I have been residing here for 33 years now.

Growing up in the most urban part of Tacoma was a very complex upbringing for me. I was taught that education and a job is a priority in my family. It taught me a sense of responsibility. My mother would always emphasize to me that she fled our country to start a new life and that we have to take advantage of what this new country has to offer to us and become successful.

Throughout my elementary and half of my middle school years I earned good grades and stayed out of trouble.

My mother was a very strict woman and disciplined me when need be because she was a single parent and had to raise me on her own. She made it her duty to teach me the significance of our cultural customs, traditions, morals, and values.

At the time I was not interested in learning these traits because I was more infatuated with the urban lifestyle. But, because I have a high level of respect for my parents, I listened. Or at least I made them think I was listening. My parents, however, were relentless and they repeatedly kept on teaching and instructing me about my culture until it sunk in. I was going through a phase in my life where I rebelled against my mom and started skipping school and hanging out with friends and getting into trouble with the law. I use to think to myself: “Why would they waste their time teaching me our Khmer ways?

They came to America to start a new life and how am I suppose to adapt to the American lifestyle?”

I was confused growing up because I saw kids of different ethnicities act or portray an image similar to another race—so I didn’t know how to “act Asian.” I have come to the realization that urban living is a very influential culture.

IE STAFF

Established in 1974, the International Examiner is the only non-profit pan-Asian and Pacific Islander American media organization in the country. Named after the International District in Seattle, the “IE” strives to create awareness within and for our APA communities. 409 Maynard Ave. S. #203, Seattle, WA 98104. (206) 624-3925. iexaminer@iexaminer.org.

As I got older, I became more curious about my parents’ immigrant past. My mother would indulge me by telling me all these stories about my country and how she escape the turmoil of the Khmer Rouge regime. I use to think that I had a hard life but when my mother would talk about her trials and tribulations living in a third world country, my life seemed luxurious. It was pointless to try and complain to my mother about having no food to eat or even gripe to her about not having nice things, because growing up in the projects compared to living in a village in Cambodia is good living. She always taught me to make the best out of a bad situation no matter the circumstances were in.

I began to get more involved in my culture and it became natural. When I was in the presence of my family I was well mannered and respectful, but when I was around my friends I was the thug I wanted to be. I embraced a double life and familiarized myself with being able to switch as needed.

instilling our Khmer ways onto future generations. My hope is that one day, they can glance back and say, “My mission as a Khmer man is complete.” I made a vow to commit to continue to mirror the beauty that my culture reflects and never give up on family. Although, I may be Americanraised, I will never forget who I am and where my history, past, and bloodline is derived from. This is something more tangible to me than money, cars, and clothes, because culture gives us a sense of direction and humanity. We as a collective need to continue to fight for what is rightfully ours and journey into a path of righteousness.

EDITOR IN CHIEF Travis Quezon

IE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Ron Chew, President Gary Iwamoto, Secretary Arlene Oki, At-Large Jordan Wong, At-Large Edgar Batayola, At-Large Lexie Rodriguez, At-Large Peggy Lynch, At-Large Nam Le, At-Large

ASSISTANT EDITOR Chetanya Robinson

COMMUNITY RELATIONS MANAGER Lexi Potter

COPY EDITOR Anna Carriveau

BUSINESS MANAGER Ellen Suzuki finance@iexaminer.org

CVA COORDINATORS Ngoc Dinh Heidi Park

***

Formerly Incarcerated Group Healing Together (F.I.G.H.T.) was started by a group of Asian & Pacific Islander (API) men who were at one time incarcerated in the Washington state prison system. F.I.G.H.T. is a direct outgrowth of the organizing that many of us did through different API groups in different prisons. This organizing built deep bonds of unity among us. Together we learned about our own diverse cultures and political histories, life experiences, and perspectives. We also created culI sometimes ask myself: “What does tural celebrations featuring various it mean to be an Asian American?” I’ve forms of traditional arts, like language, come to realize that, for me, the answer is music, and dance. very simple—it means to always love your Upon being released, we stayed comfamily, have strong core values, practice mitted to continuing to support each our native tongue, be proud of my culture, and become a leader in my community by other, whether inside or outside of the prison system. We support both curempowering my people. rent and formerly incarcerated APIs It’s important to promote diversity and through mentoring, advocacy, outreach, positivity in a society where it is easy to and political education. We encourage oppress the minority when ignorance each other to embrace positivity, comis bliss. For years, our people have been passion, strength, hope, confidence, and subjected to stereotypes that continues to building healthy lives and healthy comoppress us. Disaggregated data disproves munities, while breaking the cycle of the model minority myth and shows that mass incarceration. For more informaAsian Americans are still the targets tion, visit www.fightwa.org. of racial inequality and institutional discrimination.

I cultivated my future aspirations and goals around the teachings of my parents to pass down the legacy of my people to my children. For centuries, my great ancestors laid the path down for our generation to pass onto the youngsters. I believe that my ancestors paved the way for our parents to elude the genocide and communist war in the 1970s during the reign of the dictator Since, I have been at Stafford Creek Pol Pot so our children’s children could Corrections Center, I have been pushing be born in America to live a peaceful and to get a cultural group started here, prosperous life. which needs to be approved by the prison I take pride in my culture and even administration. I am still striving to set though I’m considered to be second the foundation down for my brothers that generation due to the fact that I was born are in the process of figuring out their in the United States I still feel that the own identities. This is something that I motherland is my first home even though am very passionate about because I was I probably wouldn’t be accepted by my the kid who at one point did not know people if I ever visited or decided to live how to “be Asian.” It’s important that in Cambodia because I’m an American. we preserve our Asian culture, customs, While I have been incarcerated, I spend morals, and values. I’d like to be the my spare time learning and teaching my bridge that connects the next generation culture and customs to younger brothers to their culture, so that they have a that pass through these prison walls. I platform to express their culture without made it an obligation to not let the existence being ridiculed or judged. As long as we of my traditions be extinct by consistently never allow ourselves to fall victim to

lexi@iexaminer.org

racial injustice or become the victimizer ourselves, we will never be degraded.

editor@iexaminer.org

news@iexaminer.org

ARTS EDITOR Alan Chong Lau arts@iexaminer.org

CONTRIBUTORS Francisco Sao Yayoi Winfrey Ken Matsudaira Misa Shikuma Roxanne Ray Linda Ano

Aya Bisbee Kae Saeteurn Jean Jung Nalini Iyer DISTRIBUTORS Joshua Kelso Makayla Dorn Maryross Olanday Rachtha Danh Antonia Dorn Kristen Navaluna Kat Punzalan Eli Savitt Christina Nguyen DIGITAL MEDIA INTERNS Kai Eng Cathy You

YOUR OPINION COUNTS Please share your concerns, your solutions, and your voices.

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IE COMMUNITY

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

June 21, 2017 – July 4, 2017 — 3

Raising the doughnut bar with Raised Doughnuts

By Kae Saeteurn IE Contributor Raised Doughnuts was born out of a love for doughnuts and baking.

Launched earlier this year and still newly established, I sat down with founder, Mi Kim, to discuss her passion and new business venture.

Kae Saeteurn: Tell me a bit about your story and what inspired you to establish Raised Doughnuts.

Mi Kim: Well, it was just never a thing that was on my radar. My parents owned a restaurant and I saw how hard it was, and I was like, “I don’t think it’s for me,” but something just clicked last year.

I started at Macrina [Bakery] when I was 18, and it could’ve been like a lifer job, but I wanted to try something new. I was thinking about what I wanted to do, and I always said it would be a doughnut shop. Growing up I always ate doughnuts with my parents. Our whole family loves them. For the most part, everyone’s got a little sweet spot for doughnuts, and in Seattle I didn’t feel like there was a go-to spot for me. I just wanted to try something different. A lot of places do classics, but I also wanted a mix. Also, with baking, there has to be a love for creativity and there has to be a love for doing the same thing over and over everyday. When you’re in a bakery, you have to love that repetition. For me I thought of doughnuts. I thought, “Well, it’s going to be the same dough, but I can get as creative as I want with the flavors and toppings. I’m going to stick with what I want. My passion, my love.” That’s where it kind of started.

KS: Can you tell me more about your creative process?

Raised Doughnuts founder Mi Kim. • Photo by Kae Saeteurn

MK: Creatively I think about different ways of presenting things.

I’m a huge texture person, and there are so many different mediums of food. I like to see an idea and see how I can create it in a different way, or get those flavors in different ways. Kind of like breaking it down and building it back up, and flavors that aren’t typical, but aren’t too crazy. I love simple flavors. I think you should always have the originals because people are always going to want the maple bar, apple fritter, and plain glaze, but to also keep it fun and exciting.

KS: What are challenges within that creative process, or as a business?

MK: Biggest challenge flavor-wise, creative process-wise is making sure the doughnuts stand up to temperature and the amount of time they’re going to be sitting out. I use a lot of freezedried things, but those things really take in moisture. I have to take that into account and find the right way to do it.

Operations have been really interesting at pop-ups, learning what people want to know. I didn’t know people wanted a full-on description of things. They want to know all these things I didn’t know was that important initially. Now, just getting feedback from the people that are helping me and feedback from everyone else, I’ve learned a ton. It’s really interesting to learn these operational intricacies that you don’t think about.

KS: How does your cultural background influence your work?

MK: Definitely flavors. I always want to include some kind of Asian [flavor].

I’m Korean, so I love sesame and red bean. I think those are really fun, and they’re not so common around here, so it would be really fun to expose people to it more in different ways. Growing up, my parents just kind of showed me what hard work was and how much you have to put into things to just get by even, and kind of prep me to know what to expect doing this even though I never thought I would.

KS: How do you hope to raise the doughnut bar?

MK: I think doughnuts should be a certain way. There are basic doughnuts and then ours are just a little bit higher in a way, such as the quality of ingredients we use. It’s a step up, and the dough is what I care about the most. At the end of the day I judge a doughnut spot by their plain glaze because you can mask a doughnut in

any way, by filling it, by topping it, but the texture of the dough has to be right.

For me, I’m going to make sure that the dough stays consistent and that’s kind of my “raising the doughnut bar.”

How I came up with Raised, I was in San Diego with friends and I was like, “I’m going to do this doughnut shop, but I don’t know what I want to call it. How about Raised Doughnuts?” We nixed it and came up with all these names, and then I came back. I also love elephants, and so the elephant [logo] with the nose up means it’s good luck. In that sense too, it’s raised. Overall a higher quality doughnut.

KS: You’ve done two pop-ups previously. What do you have planned for the next couple of months?

MK: Right now we’re looking at spaces. Our whole goal was to open by the summer, but we’ve had a really hard time finding locations for a kitchen.

Other than that, we might start getting into farmers markets to ramp up as we find a spot. Farmers markets, more pop-ups, talking to some locations about doing pop-ups, and getting the logistics down a little bit better.

You can stay up to date with Raised Doughnuts by visiting www. raiseddoughnuts.com.

Raised Doughnuts. • Photo by Kae Saeteurn

Monthly Health Tip from Amerigroup What can I do to reduce my risk of skin cancer?

when the sky is cloudy or hazy, too. UV How can you protect yourself and rays also reflect off surfaces like water, cement, sand and snow. And indoor your family from UV exposure?

The warmth of the sunshine can tanning—using a tanning bed, booth, or Use a broad spectrum sunscreen that feel good on our skin, but it can also sunlamp to get tan—exposes users to will protect you from both UVA and UVB be dangerous. The sun’s ultraviolet UV radiation. rays. Your sunscreen should have a sun (UV) rays are the main cause of Some times of day are worse than protection factor (SPF) of 15 or higher. most skin cancers. others. Here in the continental U.S., Stay in the shade, especially during Protection from UV radiation the most hazardous times for UV the middle of the day. is important all year round, not exposure are from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 Wear clothes that cover your arms just during the summer or at the p.m. Daylight Saving time/9:00 a.m. to and legs. beach. UV rays from the sun don’t 3:00 p.m. standard time. UV rays from Wear a hat with a wide brim to shade just reach you on bright and sunny sunlight are the strongest during late your face, head, ears and neck. spring and early summer. days. They come through even Wear wraparound sunglasses that block both UVA and UVB rays.

Don’t use tanning beds or other indoor tanning.

Shawn Akavan, MD, MBA, CPE Medical Director Amerigroup Washington

4 — June 21, 2017 – July 4, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE ARTS

Your Name (Kimi no Na Wa) is a metaphysical film of hope

By Yayoi Lena Winfrey IE Contributor Currently the highest-grossing anime feature worldwide, Your Name (Kimi no Na Wa) is based on a 1,000-year old poem

by Ono no Komachi. In part, the lyrics read: “Before I slept I thought of him, and into the dream he strayed. Had I known it was a dream, in the dream I would have stayed.” Besides dreams, the film also highlights issues of triumphing over Nature’s unexpected challenges.

No strangers to natural disasters, the Japanese have weathered catastrophes like the 2011 tsunami that engulfed the Tohoku region and the seismic shift of the Great Kanto Earthquake that killed over 100,000 people in 1923. Further, they’ve managed to overcome the destructive consequences of World War II by surviving two atomic bomb attacks. It’s no wonder, then, that a film whose theme is about prevailing over an impending holocaust would resonate with them.

In this case, it’s the once-every1200-years appearance of Comet Tiamat that will unpredictably trigger a cataclysmic event. As everyone anticipates the coming attraction and looks forward to a colorful but believed-to-be benign light show in the sky, two high school students begin “dreaming” about being each other.

Mitsuha (Kamishiraishi Mone) is a high school student living in the mountainous crater town of Itomoro. She likes to hang out with her best friend, Sayaka, and a guy named Tessie (for Teshigawara) who seems to be in denial over his infatuation with Sayaka. Mitsuha also has a sharp-tongued younger sister, Yotsuha.

The two motherless girls live with their grandmother since their mayor father

Your Name (Kimi no Na Wa) is based on a 1,000-year old poem by Ono no Komachi.

seems to have developed a self-centered political agenda.

Meanwhile, far away in the bustling metropolis of Tokyo, a teenager named Taki (Kamiki Ryunosuke) is busy working in an upscale Italian restaurant every day after school. Taki also enjoys spending leisure time with his buddies. While his mates all nurse a crush on a sophisticated university student, Ms. Okudera, who’s also employed at the eatery, it’s the sweet “late bloomer” Taki whom she’s drawn to.

Suddenly, for no obvious reason, on an ordinary day, both Mitsuha and Taki wake up as each other. In Mitsuha’s bed and body, Taki feels strange and begins to fondle his newly visible breasts in shock, while Mitsuha finds herself in Taki’s bed and body with an extra appendage. Needless to say, both are stunned as are the people around them who wonder why they’re behaving so peculiarly. This

switching of bodies continues to occur on and off as the two strive to communicate by leaving clues like updated entries in Taki’s diary or writing their true names on each other’s palms.

But there’s more to this story than just evading a disaster while two teenagers share out of body experiences. For one, Mitsuha’s sagacious grandmother doesn’t appear to be alarmed by her granddaughter’s odd behavior. In fact, she reveals that she, too, once experienced vivid dreams as a youngster as did her daughter, Mitsuha’s late mother. However, she can’t recall the person she dreamt she was.

For Taki, though, the body-switching venture is a lonely one as his family seems to consist only of a single father who scolds him for being late for school.

In Itomori, Mitsuha was bored and longed to be a handsome, hipster Tokyo boy sipping coffee at a real cafe (and not from a vending machine) and touring To-

kyo Tower. And when she becomes Taki, Mitsuha’s thrilled she’s able to do those things even though she’s in his body doing them. Still, she senses that what’s happening to them has a deeper purpose.

Back home in her own body, Mitsuha and her sister practice an ancient shinto dance ritual for an upcoming festival, then ferment sake (by chewing rice and spitting it out) to offer to the deities. Explaining that kuchikamizake is the oldest sake in the world, their grandmother suggests that because the girls are making it with a part of their bodies, they’re giving the gods half of themselves.

As Mitsuha hoists her grandmother onto her back, she and her sister pilgrimage through lush forest lands to their ancestral shrine. All the while, their grandmother shares ways in which they honor their ancestors, deities and heritage. When Mitsuha helps her grandmother braid threads into cords, she’s told their people’s history is woven into those threads and that they connect them with their gods. Later, Mitsuha offers a corded bracelet to Taki as a charm that will tie them together eternally.

Besides the engaging characters created by animator Tanaka Masayoshi, the film also boasts minute background details based on actual existing landmarks, like bridges and buildings. In the scene where Mitsuha dances with her sister, there’s a brief close-up of a realistically drawn CD player pumping out the music.

In Your Name, director Shinkai Makato creates a metaphysical film that binds young people with ancient traditions. And, by presenting a scenario that empowers a small town to overcome adversity with strength and resilience, he gives hope to Japanese still affected by the events of March 11, 2011.

Artist Paul Komada memorializes the Alaskan Way Viaduct

By Ken Matsudaira IE Contributor Paul Komada’s multimedia exhibition, Monument In Memory: Abstract Alaskan Way, is described as a preemptive memorialization of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Komada spent eighteen months walking and driving along and under the soon-to-be-demolished thoroughfare, recording sound, video, and still images of its iconic views of the waterfront, the rhythms of its traffic, and the physical presence of its structure upon the landscape.

“The exhibition is about Seattle’s optimism and relentless appetite for amassing future capital, while simultaneously hinting at the melancholic tug of unfulfilled promises,” Komada says. “As I walk and drive the ‘monument,’ my mind races through the history of the city as far back as the Elliott Treaty of 1855. I find the viaduct fascinating—it is enormous and striking, yet, people tend to forget its presence. Our perception of its existence shifts depending on our manifold states of mind. It’s there, but not really …”

Monument In Memory is primarily comprised of two video pieces with accompanying physical works. The development of Komada’s unconventional pairings is perhaps a product of his life experiences. Born in Seattle but raised in Yokohama, Japan, Komada received his BFA from the University of Washington and MFA from the University of Pennsylvania. Komada’s works are as much about action as they are about object. In them he expresses,

“what it feels like to live in-between two different cultures through making artworks categorized as ‘Hybrids.’ I don’t actually aim for the hybridity but rather it comes out naturally that way.”

The video component of Bounty of Duwamish is both the jumping-off point for Komada’s companion painting of the same name, and also a record of its creation. In the video, Komada is garbed in a head-to-toe painter’s coverlet and wears a crocheted orange traffic cone on his head. On the wall of his studio is the large, blue tarp that is the substrate for the Bounty of Duwamish painting. He superimposes himself over images of the viaduct or other scenes from the waterfront, watching the merged images on an off-screen monitor. The tarp acts as a blue screen in the merged video image. Komada stretches snap lines along the lines of perspective in the projected images, creating geometric forms on the tarp that trace guardrails, support pylons, onramps, or other prominent lines from the changing images on the screen. The resulting painting of angular figures in black and white capture an abstracted view of the viaduct’s delineations, history, and vanishing presence.

Komada’s video, Fuzo Fumetsu and the accompanying mixed media work, Untitled Property, examine the viaduct in past, present, and future. Fuzo Fumetsu blends archival footage of the viaduct, Washington State DOT footage, images of the Bertha tunneling machine, Mario Cart, and video images of driving through traffic along the viaduct.

Rendered entirely in black and white, the images strobe between positive and negative, evoking a sense of discomfort and uncertainty which is heightened by the drone of the piece’s audio track. Komada built up layers of sound from his field recordings of the viaduct. “The viaduct produces Monument in Memory: Abstract Alaskan Way, at Gallery 4Culture different tones depending on the time of the day (the traffic volume). Slipping ing over the expansion joint of the structure, I fan-belt of passing car, Water taxi Horn, Po- imagine the people inhabiting the tents listenlice siren under the viaduct at midnight, there ing to the very same sound.” are so many interesting artifacts collected Through Monument in Memory, Komada from the site.” provides the space for viewers to experience For Untitled Property, Komada has sus- the viaduct as an abstracted, complicated pended a small camping tent about four feet memory prior to its actual dismantling. He inabove Fuzo Fumetsu’s monitor (which rests vites us to think about the viaduct in relation on a low dais on the floor and is flanked by to Seattle’s growth, the impacts of growth, our tree crocheted traffic cones). The tent is in- past, and our future. “We don’t really know verted, the top hovering above the monitor, where the viaduct and its traffic is going in the and is illuminated from within by flashes of future,” he says. “The mega project’s economLED lights triggered in reaction to the video’s ic, as well as emotional impact on the people soundtrack. The implicit connection through of Seattle is unfathomable at the present.” sound between the video and the tent height‘Monument In Memory: Abstract Alaskan en the relationship between the viaduct and Way’ shows at the 4Culture Gallery through homelessness. Says Komada: “Every time I June 29. For more information, visit https:// walk on the waterfront and hear the cars go- goo.gl/Fzw8KJ.

IE ARTS

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

June 21, 2017 – July 4, 2017 — 5

The Big Sick weaves together identity, love, and comedy

By Misa Shikuma IE Contributor With a stacked cast featuring Kumail Nanjiani, Ray Romano, Holly Hunter and Zoe Kazan, The Big Sick is far more than the mere rom-com any log line or lazy media headline may suggest. Cowritten by Nanjiani, who plays a slightly-fictionalized version of himself, and wife Emily V. Gordon, the film explores the early stages of their relationship; you know, Pakistani thirty-something and struggling comic meets cute, whipsmart Caucasian girl after a show, they fall for each other, but the pressure from his traditional, over-bearing parents creates insurmountable tension.

They break up. She’s hospitalized for what starts out as the flu but leads to a medically-induced coma that the ex and her parents must cope with together in scenes that are alternately awkward, endearing, devastating, hilarious, and sometimes all four.

“It’s a rom-coma,” Gordon joked at a screening at Austin’s South By Southwest.

The Big Sick debuted at Sundance in early 2017 to widespread acclaim, leading to a record-breaking $12 million distribution deal with Amazon, and has been riding high on the festival circuit ever since. The plaudits are well-deserved, but for Nanjiani, who has only achieved mainstream success of late thanks to HBO’s Silicon Valley, and Gordon, who was a couples and family therapist before switching to writing and producing, bringing their story to the big screen has been years in the making.

“I knew that it was a story that had not been told before, and that it was a story that only we could tell,” Nanjiani says.

“As specific as the story is, you could not make [it] up,” adds Gordon.

The decision to tell their story to audiences may have been easy, but writing and developing it was anything but. “[Judd Apatow] really, really pushed us to keep writing and finding the truth and the really messy emotional stuff of it,” Nanjiani recalls. “It was really scary, but

Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani in The Big Sick.

the fact that Judd had the confidence in us the conversation moves toward achievthat we could do it gave us the confidence ing a balance in tone and avoiding cliche. “I was more concerned with makin ourselves.” ing sure we kept coming back to the “We would meet with [Judd] every serious stuff, because I knew that evfew months for years and he would erybody involved could do comedy. The give us notes—some of them were very harder stuff—not that comedy’s easy— harsh—and then we would go back but the harder stuff, emotionally, was and redo it and come back another few digging into some of the uglier, grittier months later,” Gordon says. stuff that happens in the movie. So I had The result is a masterful screenplay no doubt it would be funny; I wanted to that is as sharp and witty as the real-life make sure that it wasn’t just funny.” couple, yet also captures moments with If the script has a weak point, it’s stark poignance and clarity that in less probably the phone call Kumail receives capable hands might have been sappy from an unknown number (Emily’s or cheesy. Take, for example, a scene friend informing him that she’s in the in which Kumail listens to old voice hospital), which fellow comic and friend messages from Emily (Kazan) while Hannibal Buress hilariously pointed out she lays comatose in the hospital and during the post-gala screening Q&A in the doctors have no idea what is wrong Austin. with her. Or later, after Emily wakes up, “We needed a bridge to the second when she rebuffs Kumail’s attempt to articulate everything he went through act,” Nanjiani exclaimed to laughter emotionally while she was unconscious. from the audience.

As integral as Kumail’s relationship “There’s not one single scene of anyone trying to unplug Emily from the with Emily and with her parents (smartly wall,” Gordon proudly declares when played by Romano and Hunter) are to the story, the film is also a personal journey for his character as he transitions from pretending to be the good, Muslim son that his parents want him to be (e.g. watching YouTube videos while he’s supposed to be praying) to figuring out his true self and aspirations, and ultimately telling them even though he risks alienation and disapproval.

It’s a feeling and a process that many children, especially those of immigrants parents, can relate to.

The character Kumail’s family enjoys quite a bit of screen time, and not merely just to emphasize how much he tries to keep his worlds separate.

“Half of my family is now Muslim, so I’ve gotten to see, over the years, Muslims in a way that I think that most white people don’t get to see [them],” Gordon says.

“I thought it was really important for other white people to see that in a movie: to see people speaking Urdu in a [context] that isn’t planning a terrorist attack or just an episode of Homeland.”

Sadly and inevitably, The Big Sick wouldn’t be a faithful representation without including instances of racial slurs being hurled at Kumail, although he insists that, “We didn’t make this movie for the context that it’s coming out in.”

A particularly memorable scene occurs when Emily’s parents decide to watch one of Kumail’s sets, which gets interrupted by a drunken bro shouting something profane and racially charged.

And while it’s obvious that Kumail would much rather keep going and pretend nothing has happened, Emily’s mother refuses to let it go. The scene escalates; hilarity ensues.

“It was happening so much ... that I started writing lines to say when it would happen,” Nanjiani says.

“I would say it’s probably happened to me maybe seven times, but also I’ve been doing [comedy] for 15 years ... so “For a long time [my parents] wouldn’t one [incident] every other year is not so talk about my work or my career at bad.” all, and now they do—they’re vocally All jokes aside, The Big Sick weaves proud of it,” says Nanjiani, who earned together a narrative of identity, family, a degree in computer science prior to love, and compassion without ever being pursuing comedy. “Part of what this heavy-handed or hackneyed; a real treat movie is about is when you grow up you in the midst of blockbuster season. have to learn another relationship with ‘The Big Sick’ opens June 23 in New parents as peers, so that they’re not your parents anymore in a way—you have to York and Los Angeles. Select cities June learn how to have a relationship with 30. Wide release July 14. them as an adult.”

Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon

6 — June 21, 2017 – July 4, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE ARTS

Welcome to Braggsville actor explores race and identity

By Roxanne Ray IE Contributor

by and compared to, he’s breaking even more American conventions of Asian-ness and challenging the types of Asian characters that American media shows us simply by existing and owning his complicated existence,” Huertas said. “That kind of visibility is extremely important to me as an Asian-American actor.”

T. Geronimo Johnson’s novel Welcome to Braggsville comes to the stage with a world-premiere adaptation by Josh Aaseng and Daemond Arrindell at Book-It Repertory Theatre, and local actor Justin Huertas is excited to play a part in the production.

“I’ve always wanted to do a show with Book-It!” Huertas said. “I love Josh, and I’ve loved getting to know [Book-It co-artistic directors] Myra Platt and Jane Jones as the host of Book-It’s annual fundraiser Guilty Pleasures.”

For Huertas, the arts have been a lifelong passion. “I’ve been in school plays since elementary school but focused more seriously on playing cello in high school,” he said. “I got accepted to Pacific Lutheran University for Cello Performance just before starring in the Spring Musical my senior year of high school.”

This was the turning point for Huertas.

“I played Major-General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance, and I was costumed in this colorful military uniform, glued-on mutton chops, and a drawn-on mustache,” he said. “Every night, I entered with a bright rainbow umbrella and got an applause on first appearance every night, and that’s when I decided I wanted to be a stage actor forever.”

Since then, Huertas has been pursuing that goal through a variety of avenues.

“Being an actor is in line with any sort of contract work,” he said. “You’re constantly thinking ahead to the next opportunity and making sure you’re always busy.”

Dimitri Woods (Charlie), Zack Summers (D’aron), Justin Huertas (Louis), Sylvie Davidson (Candice). • Photo

by John Ulman

He has found Seattle to be a fertile creative environment. “The awesome thing about my work in Seattle theatre is it isn’t limited to acting,” he said. “I also compose music and write plays, so my time between acting contracts can be filled with even more art that I’m passionate about.”

This creative work has paid off. “I wrote a musical that I also perform in called Lizard Boy,” Huertas said. “That was commissioned by and premiered at Seattle Repertory Theatre, and it has since had a second production in San Diego at Diversionary Theatre and two New York readings at Playwrights Horizons.”

Back in Seattle, these efforts resulted in an invitation from Welcome to Braggsville adapter and director Josh Aaseng. “I had actually never heard of this book before!”

Huertas said. “Josh sent me information when he asked me to audition, and I was so intrigued by the premise.”

Huertas says he was immediately drawn to the book. “I love the way Johnson satirized not only how we perceive racism and racist people but also these self-important liberal millennials who think pointing an iPhone at a problem is automatically fixing the world,” he said. “And I definitely belong to that group sometimes! It just made me really think about what I’m putting into the world during this difficult time and whether or not it’s as productive as I think it is.”

Because much of the play takes place in the Southern United States and centers on Civil War reenactments that recur annually in many Southern communities, social issues are front and center. “Race is a major theme in this play, and one of our adaptors Daemond led an amazing workshop for our cast on race and identity,” Huertas said. “That was an amazing experience that really put us all on the same page, gave us vocabulary we can share to keep the conversation going, and bring us all into an even safer space to talk about these issues as themes in the show.”

A major lesson has been that race and ethnicity will never be simple issues in the United States. “On a personal level, it really taught me a lot about the challenges I have and will face as a minority, and about the privileges I have that I often take for grantIn the show, Huertas plays the role of ed,” he said.

Louis, one of four college students who Following Welcome to Braggsville, Huerembroil themselves in a political interven- tas will focus on writing some new musition that goes terribly awry. “I think what I cals, as well as returning to his work in connect to the most is his sense of humor,” Lizard Boy. “I’m continuing to develop that Huertas said of his character Louis. “He’s so musical and follow wherever it leads me.” irreverent and self-deprecating in very un‘Welcome to Braggsville’ runs from comfortable and hilarious ways.”

June 7 to July 2 at Book-It Repertory But the character of Louis is more than Theatre, Center Theatre, 305 Harrison just a class clown. “In joking and pointing Street, Seattle. out Asian stereotypes that he’s been judged

Chef Lee guides viewers through the ancient art of fermentation Linda Ando & Aya Bisbee IE Contributors

I rose up to producer/director/editor of Mind of a Chef and worked on that for four or five years and then I got the opportunity Seattle is buzzing with the excitement to direct and edit this film with Edward. of celebrated Chef Edward Lee and the IE: Could you tell us more about premiere SIFF showing of Fermented your work with Mind of a Chef and

by Zero Point Zero Production, the film how that influenced the development of company behind Mind of a Chef and Fermented?

Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown.

Chef Lee and director Jonathan Cianfrani JC: There is DNA embedded in take you on a culinary expedition of the Fermented that is tied to Mind of a Chef. senses. Chef Lee introduces viewers to There’s nothing we can do about it. Edward the ancient traditions of fermentation and was a host of half of season three [of Mind master artisans of bread, cheese, beer, of a Chef ]. Mind of a Chef is peering into miso, and soy sauce. Fermented reminds Edward’s mind, what inspires him, where us of this vital aspect of food culture he gets his influences. This one is more like and awakens our insatiable appetite for he’s the host. He’s taking us on the journey fermented food. rather than us going on a journey into his We sat down with the director, Jonathan head. So he’s kind of asking questions for Cianfrani, and Chef Edward Lee for insight us. He’s simplifying things for us. He’s into the making of Fermented and the art simplifying complicated processes by asking direct questions which he might of fermentation. know the answer to, but he’s doing it for the International Examiner to director benefit of the viewer. So he’s taking on a Jonathan Cianfrani: Could you tell us different role as host rather than as subject. a little bit about yourself and how you IE: How did the concept to make a became a filmmaker? film about fermentation come about?

Jonathan Cianfrani: I studied film at JC: We loved working with Edward Boston University. I got out of there and on Mind of a Chef and we had all been interned wherever I could. I decided to in touch with him since that aired. We move to New York which is where I got went back and forth on maybe we could hooked up with Zero Point Zero Films, do something again in the future. He who produced this film and Mind of a Chef. was in town one day for a food event.

Chef Edward Lee hosts the film Fermented, a guide to the art and science of fermentation around the world.

He came into the office with a stack of cocktail napkins with about 30 ideas on them, all about fermentation. He said, “I really want to do something about fermentation.” We said that sounds like a great idea. We just worked together to come up with a storyline, and figure out subjects, and who we wanted to film with, and where we wanted to go, and just launched into it.

JC: I’d say the biggest challenge, from a visual perspective, is everything happens in vats underground, in darkness. On top of that, it’s all on a microscopic level, so you don’t see the change and we don’t have time to sit there for three months while it’s changing. The hardest part of this was figuring out how to compress time and make it visually appealing. And also how to keep the story engaging because IE: What were the challenges in beer in a stainless steel vat fermenting is making the film and striking the not inherently interesting. To me, what balance between the science and art of FERMENTED: Continued on page 7 . . . fermentation?

IE ARTS . . . FERMENTED: Continued from page 6

ended up becoming interesting were the people who were doing it. It was really about the things that they’re doing, but mostly who they are. And getting to know what perspective a beer maker has on fermentation versus a cheese maker.

Two different personalities. Two different processes. It’s two different ways to look at the world. I think it’s interesting that they’re all doing something with fermentation, but they all have a different perspective on what it means to them.

IE: How does fermentation represent a philosophy and attitude toward life and food?

JC: It’s about not wasting. If you have a whole harvest of vegetables, you can’t eat them all before they go rotten. You can give them away, but you’re still going to have stuff left over. You have to figure out ways to preserve it. I think it’s a way of preservation. It also helps to enhance health benefits of those raw ingredients.

The chemical reactions that are happening a lot of times create new nutrients. It’s about preservation of ingredients, but also preservation of culture. The ingredients and the techniques are passed down from one generation to another. You have to keep that line alive. Just like with fermented ingredients. It’s like the mother in bread.

People have mothers that are one hundred years old, two hundred years old. It just keep passing down from one generation to the next. From a cultural perspective, it’s a way to keep that going.

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER every country, has their own fermentation culture. Morocco, West Africa would be a lot of fun. I think that would be a great place to start. Exploring China would be great, exploring Scandinavia, Appalachia, all those would be fun.

they still are familiar with it and they want to taste it. So it’s actually not been a struggle at all. I’ve always felt like people, if anything, were very hungry for it. That they want it. And I’ve found that to be anywhere that you go. Food media has made the world a small place.

EL: Yeah, of course I believe that.

If you like food, if you like to learn and explore then you realize that there’s many cultures out there. I think through food you can really understand another person’s culture. That’s really important.

IE: Your approach to share the “science” behind the food was really cool as well as introducing the amazing artisans making cheese, bread, kimchi, miso and soy sauce.

Can you talk about the role of science in the art of fermentation in the culinary world?

IE: Can you talk about your work in the community to create “social change” and empowering youth with life skills and job opportunities in the food industry. Why is this an important part of your life?

EL: We really let the people talk. We didn’t tell them what to say. It’s what they wanted to say. We thought they *** were going to talk more scientifically, International Examiner to Chef but most people talked very culturally.

Edward Lee: Could you tell us a little We weren’t expecting that, but had no bit about yourself and your journey to script. We just let people talk, so that was a pleasant surprise. becoming a chef?

Fermented

Edward Lee: I grew up in Brooklyn and I’ve been cooking since I was a little kid, so I’ve always known I wanted to be a chef. When I got to New York, I started cooking in summer jobs when I was sixteen and after college, I kind of went into it full time.

IE: What is your earliest memory of eating fermented food?

EL: My grandmother made kimchi, so that’s probably the first thing I had that was fermented. There was always kimchi in the house.

IE: Could you talk about your IE: What is the stigma of fermentation philosophy on food as a window into that you would like to dispel? our culture and who we are?

JC: I think people are afraid of doing EL: In this day and age, I think food something wrong that’s going to make is very important to everyone. I think them sick. And there’s a way you can get culturally, we look at food to figure sick if you do it wrong. But there are very simple things you can do to have it done out who our identity is. So I may be safely, effectively, and deliciously. One of Korean, but I also love Southern food. the main things we tried to do with this I think that the foods that you eat or film was demystify it and have people walk the foods that you cook say a lot about away from it saying I can do it, I’m not who you are. It doesn’t necessarily afraid to do it. We’re not trying to answer mean that your heritage is your favorite all the questions about fermentation in this food. I think more and more people are film, we’re really just trying to give an becoming aware of what you put into introductory course and show many of the your body. So what you eat says a lot different things you can do with it. It’s very about who you are. complicated, but you don’t need to know IE: How has your ethnic/cultural all that to do it. You just follow the rules, identity influenced your life and your and it’ll do the work for you. That was kind work in the culinary world? of the message we wanted to give.

EL: I cook a lot with Asian flavors. I IE: What did you take away in the don’t cook traditional Korean food and process of making this film and what do I never have, and I never will. But it you hope audiences will take away? informs a lot of decisions I make, so I JC: I started not knowing what see a lot of Korean ingredients going fermentation was and that was what into different foods. It makes my food drew me to it—trying to answer for more diverse. myself, what is fermentation? I’ve IE: Louisville, Kentucky is not a heard so much about it, I’ve seen it, I place we often associate with a large don’t know what it is. Trying to answer population of Asian Americans. that question for myself, I hope that Tell us about your experience as an Edward and I were able to help to Asian American living in Kentucky answer that question for the audience in and introducing Asian flavors to a an engaging, fun, entertaining, but not southern palate. to serious way.

EL: I think with media, and especially IE: After making this film, what with food TV, I don’t think that there’s would the part 2 of Fermented feature any part of the country that’s isolated or focus on? anymore. So even for the people of JC: There is not a plan right now, but if Kentucky, they may not have a lot of people like it, maybe we should think about experience with Asian food, but they it. I would go throw a dart on a map and know about it through TV and media. go there. It’s everywhere. Every continent, Even if they haven’t tasted a lot of it,

June 21, 2017 – July 4, 2017 — 7

IE: What are your thoughts of fermentation as a new trend and the challenge of preserving the cultural traditions of indigenous communities?

EL: What I always say about fermentation is, fermentation existed a long time ago because we needed to preserve food. Because we didn’t have refrigerators or canning or anything.

In the modern world, we don’t really need fermentation anymore because we have modern, industrial ways of packaging food. And the fact that it still exists and not only does it exist, but it’s thriving, means that we still need fermentation. Maybe not to preserve food, but along the way, we’ve realized that our body needs fermentation. I think we’re seeing a whole generation of young, home cooks and chefs, and everyone realizing that fermentation is not just out of necessity, but it’s because our body actually desires it and needs it. So it’s very important to our survival as humans.

EL: I grew up very poor and people helped me along the way. Not just my parents, but like strangers that I met helped me along the way. I think at a certain point when you get to a certain level of success, you look back at your life and you realize that not all the success I had in life was my own.

People helped me along the way, people who didn’t need to help me. And so when you get to a certain level, you realize that it’s my duty now to help other people in whatever ways I can. Maybe it’ll work, maybe it won’t, but I can put it out there. And there are people that helped me, that I don’t even think they realize they were. They were just randomly doing things for me and so by the same token, I think I just try and help people along the way. And it’s not my life’s work, but I do what I can. And if it means some young person’s life is going to change because of what I do for them, then that’s a good thing. I think we pass that on, just like we pass on culinary recipes to our next generation, we should also pass on charity and kindness and help.

IE: What are you currently working on? Could you tell us about your upcoming projects?

EL: The next thing is we’re opening a restaurant in Washington, D.C. And then we’re opening a whiskey bar in Louisville. So that’s the two big things we’re working on.

IE: How does fermentation IE: What are some of your favorite represent a philosophy and attitude sites and foods here in the Pacific toward life and food?

Northwest? Would you ever consider EL: Well that’s a big question. I don’t opening a restaurant on the West have the answer to that. I just think Coast? that a lot of it is about having patience and being able to make things from scratch. And don’t always take the short cuts. Fermentation takes time, but you get rewarded by it.

EL: I actually spent the day exploring Scandinavian food and the history of Scandinavia. I was in Ballard and we went to a store called Scandinavian Specialties and then we went to a couple bakeries, and then a really cool place called The Old Ballard Aquavit store, so they sell homemade aquavit. It was a really fun day just to get a sense of the history of Seattle.

IE: It is humbling to know traditions and knowledge of fermentation is being passed on from generations for over 120 years, like soy sauce artisans. How do you see yourself passing on the knowledge and IE: How do you manage being traditions onto your children or in the a business person, a chef, having community? restaurants and having a family?

EL: Well, I definitely want to pass it on to my daughter and also through my chefs. I think we are realizing that this is not just something that was done for preservation. We need it. It makes us healthier.

EL: It’s not easy, it’s not easy. It’s a hard balance. But hopefully you hire good people that all believe in the same vision that you have, so that’s the most important thing that I do. I hire people who share my passion and my vision.

IE: In the world that we live in A big takeaway from the film is that today where there is an increased anyone can practice fermentation, start hostility towards immigrants and with Sandor Katz’s simple “kraut chi.” refugees and others, do you feel food Follow Fermented at fermentedfilm.com can be a peacemaker between people and Chef Lee on Twitter @chefedwardlee. and nations and if so, why?

8 — June 21, 2017 – July 4, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

A thank you banner to the Here Lies Love cast and team on finale night on June 18, 2017 at Seattle Repertory Theatre. Dedicated young supporters like sisters Hana and Yoko Fedorenko attended the play up to 21 times.

Community organizers Cindy Domingo and Elaine Ikoma Ko helped coordinate the Filipino Community outreach for the play. Seattle Repertory Theatre directors Braden Abraham and Jeff Hermann also pictured above. • Photo by John Foz

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INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

June 21, 2017 – July 4, 2017 — 9

10 — June 21, 2017 – July 4, 2017

IE NEWS

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

Mayoral candidates respond to API community questions ***

IE News Services Twenty-one Seattle mayoral candidates were invited to the Mayoral Candidate Forum for the Asian Pacific Islander community on June 22 at Nagomi Tea House at 7:00 p.m. (Food and refreshments will be provided at event, which opens at 6:30 p.m.)

In order to participate in the forum, the candidates were asked to fill out a questionnaire with five questions pertaining to the Asian Pacific Islander community. Of the 21 candidates, 10 responded and are scheduled to participate in the June 22 forum hosted

by API Candidates & Issues Forum—King County.

The participating candidates include: Gary Bose, Tiniell Cato, Jenny Durkan, Jessyn Farrell, Bob Hasegawa, Mike McGinn, Cary Moon, James Norton, Larry Oberto, and Nikkita Oliver.

Here are their responses to select questions. To view the candidates’ entire questionnaires, visit iexaminer.org/2017/6/ mayorcandidates2017. ***

Gary Bose Name the top three issues that are of concern to the API community in Seattle.

• Traffic and infrastructure in the Chinatown/International District area.

• The effect of Seattle legislation on API small business • Citizen safety Name one thing the City of Seattle has done to the API community that you are happy or unhappy with, and tell us why.

Seattle’s attempt to micromanage business in the form of minimum wage controls, sick leave, sugar taxes, and other issues, affects all businesses in Seattle, but primarily impacts small business. The API community is very innovative and entrepreneurial and all these steps taken by the City add an extra layer of complexity to small business and I don’t believe that is right. Add what I perceive to be the lack of support for business promotion in the District and I believe what we see is a Mayor’s Office and City Council that has turned a deaf ear to the API Community. ***

Tiniell Cato Name the top three issues that are of concern to the API community in Seattle.

Need for families and friends of undocumented Asians and Pacific Islanders to address and solve the problem related to legal status.

1. Need for social equity.

2. Need for economic equity.

3. Need for political equity.

Name one thing the City of Seattle has done to the API community that you are happy or unhappy with, and tell us why.

Until the clerical errors that violate human and civil rights are evaluated, rewritten, or removed, I am not happy with anything the City has done. The process and procedures that do not uphold the Law are discriminating against all people’s civil rights especially in the 37th district, which consist of the Central District, Seattle District, Renton, SeaTac,Tukwila, and Burien, etc.

This is “An EVOLUTION” for all People.

United We Stand. Divided We Fall.

Jenny Durkan Name the top three issues that are of concern to the API community in Seattle.

As mayor, I will lead the fight to ensure that immigrants and refugees from Asia, South Asia and the Pacific Islands are made to feel welcome here in Seattle. This includes support for citizenship classes, funding for seniors, and translation and interpretation services. Most importantly, I will continue to support efforts to fight President Trump’s unconstitutional travel ban and ensure that those living in Seattle can stay united with their families. I will oppose the American Health Care Act so API community members can continue receiving the health care they need. I will work with other mayors around the country to fight President Trump’s proposed cuts to the Community Development Block Grant and the Department of Housing and Urban Development so we can continue providing affordable housing. In the end, I am the candidate running for mayor that can best and most effectively fight back against President Trump’s harmful agenda and its impacts on the API community here in Seattle and around the country.

In addition to standing up to Trump, I will work with the API community on the following issues: 1. Homelessness and affordable housing.​ We are a generous and compassionate city.

But our approach to the problem has not moved enough people out of tents, off the streets and into housing. We must treat the homeless with compassion, dignity and respect. But the causes of homelessness are complex and varied and cannot be solved with a one size fits all approach. We have pathways we can follow. As mayor, I will continue to build public/private partnerships to solve this problem; I will focus on making sure no kid ever has to sleep in a car, or on the street. And we will direct more resources for mental health and drug dependency treatment and support.

We have to address the fact that housing in Seattle has just become too expensive.

Too many people just cannot afford to live here. Houses are too expensive and rents are sky high. And those that are lucky enough to own homes see their property taxes increasing to amounts that just are not affordable.

Because of Mayor Murray’s leadership on HALA, we will build more affordable units and millions of dollars targeted for affordable housing options. As mayor, I will make sure we use that money wisely.

I will also explore ways to go to Olympia and reduce the property tax burden for older homeowners, lower income owners and landlords providing affordable housing.

2. Public Safety/Police reform:​Public safety is one of the highest priorities for city government and I will work to keep all parts of our City, including the Chinatown International District, safe for all including API residents. More importantly, I will ensure that the Seattle Police Department has culturally competent services to work effectively with the API community. Not only is this the right thing to do, it will make our city a safer place because we need full community partners and must ensure no one is afraid to report crimes. As U.S. Attorney, I lead efforts for police reform in Seattle. I will work to make sure we continue on this path. We are now a national

model for police reform, particularly in the areas of crisis intervention. Our police all have been trained in national leading crisis intervention practices. They partner with mental health professionals and de-escalate situations every day. This has saved lives, is making a difference on the streets, and has improved the relations between the community and the officers that serve them.

I am proud of these improvements. As mayor, I will make sure progress continues.

We will not go backwards.

3. Education:​I will work with Seattle Public Schools to ensure that API students have a safe, welcoming environment to learn. From early learning through high school, I will work to close the opportunity and achievement gap. We cannot look at the API community as a monolithic group and we must remain vigilant about disproportionality to ensure that students in every sector of the API community have the resources they need. This includes looking at disaggregated data in order to find the best ways to serve sectors of the API community. Finally, we need stand up against the cuts in education that are being proposed by the Trump Administration and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Name one thing the City of Seattle has done to the API community that you are happy or unhappy with, and tell us why.

I am happy that the City of Seattle has made good progress on the consent decree, which will ensure that the Seattle Police Department (SPD) has the needed training in order to respect the civil rights of all communities of color including the API community. As U.S. Attorney, I worked extensively with community leaders from throughout Seattle, including leaders in the API community to hear how SPD can better engage the community. I know that the progress could not have been made without hard, collaborative work of community members, police officers and their leadership, city leaders, the Monitor and the DOJ. I know first-hand that the API community leaders were key to this work and am grateful for it. ***

Jessyn Farrell

Bob Hasegawa Name the top three issues that are of concern to the API community in Seattle.

1. Communication with the mayor’s office. Ex: No heads up that the Women’s March would go STRAIGHT through annual Lunar New Year parade, New multimillion dollar high rise on 12th and Jackson, navigation center surprise, etc.

2. Immigration and sanctuary cities.

3. Public health and safety—We need extra cops and good response times, rapid city clean up services and services to support the population that’s being ushered here, especially with incoming Navigation center.

Name one thing the City of Seattle has done to the API community that you are happy or unhappy with, and tell us why.

I am not happy with how the city decided to drop the navigation center into the ID without any input from the community. This is symbolic of the larger problem in how the City leadership makes top-down decisions and imposes them onto the neighborhoods. The decisionmaking process needs to change to reflect the involvement and will of the people. ***

Mike McGinn Name the top three issues that are of concern to the API community in Seattle.

Preserving communities: I​n the face of rising housing prices and higher taxes, many API residents and businesses are getting squeezed or pushed out of town.

We need a renewed emphasis on affordable housing, support for small business, and preservation of neighborhoods that are historically home to our API community.

Public Safety:​Our police department and other city agencies must build stronger relationships in API communities and have staff that reflect the communities they serve. This includes sustainable funding for ​CID Public Safety Steering Committee and staff ​and increase their presence to improve safety, as well as improved outreach city-wide.

Education: ​ The myth of the model minority hides the opportunity gap that exists for many in the API community.

We need look deeper to understand the specific groups that need more support, and then take action.

Name one thing the City of Seattle has done to the API community that you are happy or unhappy with, and tell us why.

I am concerned that the city is not doing enough to respond to concerns about public safety. CID has expressed specific concerns—which require hands-on management to ensure the city responds.

Gang disputes and shooting appear to be increasing, which will require renewed attention to youth violence prevention and gang intervention. ***

Name the top three issues that are of concern to the API community in Seattle.

Equal, multilingual, and culturally sensitive access to education and social service for all Seattle area residents, especially immigrants and refugees; civil and human rights, especially as they affect education, racial profiling, and immigration, and economic opportunities for small business owners.

Name one thing the City of Seattle has done to the API community that you are happy or unhappy with, and tell us why.

Declaring Seattle a Sanctuary City is one of the most important things our city has done as it affects residents across our city. As Mayor, I will ensure we remain a Sanctuary City and protect against national cuts to services and resources, threats to the safety and opportunity of residents, and stand up for all who come to make Seattle home. But our city has a long way to go.

Our affordability, housing, and homeless- Cary Moon ness crisis affects the API community and Name the top three issues that are of API owned business and we must take ac- concern to the API community in Seattle. tion now. Similarly, Seattle Schools have A. Engagement, voice, and an unacceptable opportunity that is leaving representation in the political process. students behind. We can and must do better. ***

CANDIDATES: Continued on page 11 . . .

IE NEWS

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

. . . CANDIDATES: Continued from page 10

API folks comprise a large and growing population in Seattle, and Asian voices have historically been left out of the local political process. The City must do a better job hearing the communities’ priorities and including their voice in decision making processes; the community is also working to ramp up their advocacy and organizing more robust political engagement.

B. Investments in infrastructure, economic development and public safety in Chinatown, Japantown, the ID, and Little Saigon. These historically API neighborhoods do not get sufficient resources and services. There are particular needs: helping communityowned small businesses with technical assistance, ensuring the upcoming transit changes are planned with community needs at the center, increasing culturally competent public safety resources, and increasing affordable housing. Our city’s rapid growth is putting particular pressure on these vulnerable neighborhoods, and the City must work carefully with community leaders to ensure community members thrive in place, instead of being displaced.

C. Social justice and racial equity.

Seattle’s long history of racial injustice has created a condition of vast inequality in power and wealth between marginalized communities of color and white communities. Emerging leaders in API communities are building solidarity and strengthening their voices with leaders from other communities to achieve a more inclusive and intersectional movement for social justice and racial equity in Seattle.

Name one thing the City of Seattle has done to the API community that you are happy or unhappy with, and tell us why.

I am frustrated with the City’s apparent lack of communication with, and indifference to the Little Saigon community regarding the siting of the “Navigation Center” shelter. The city should have done more advance outreach and communication directly with the community about the process and proposal.

I am impressed with the work SCIDpda is doing to assist the API community with business development in Chinatown/ ID, partially funded by the City’s Office of Economic Development. Recruiting and retaining businesses that are a good fit, and working hands on with building owners and tenant businesses to help them get or stay on their feet is a good example of how the City can ensure community based businesses can thrive in place. I would like to expand this program, and use it as a model for other API communities facing the threat of gentrification.

***

James Norton Name the top three issues that are of concern to the API community in Seattle.

Homelessness and how it impacts the API community, the need to have the API community have a voice in city government, and how some API members of the community are having housing concerns.

Name one thing the City of Seattle has done to the API community that you are happy or unhappy with, and tell us why.

I am unhappy with the way the International District is losing its community, culture, and history so quickly with our recent local officials. ***

Larry Oberto Name the top three issues that are of concern to the API community in Seattle.

Safety, Affordability, and Opportunity.

Having lived in Seattle all my life and having a business in Rainier Valley I see first hand the continued challenges. What I lack and will learn is an understanding of how these challenges affect the API members directly.

Name one thing the City of Seattle has done to the API community that you are happy or unhappy with, and tell us why.

My focus and method if I am to be your mayor is to understand what has worked and has not worked to affect the challenges the API faces. My methods feel it is more important to serve than to tell others what I may think. Usually the people most involved have the most useful information and cost-effective ideas to solve problems. ***

Nikkita Oliver Name the top three issues that are of concern to the API community in Seattle.

A. (safety) With unsolved murder of My-Linh Nguyen and Donnie Chin and contentious relationship between the City, the CID, and homeless encampment, safety is top concern. Fear for public safety as many API folks walk and/or catch the bus has been expressed by residents.

B. (drugs, cleaningness) With not enough City resources allocated to address trash and human waste (stadium games, tourism), the ChinatownInternational District seeks refuge with hope that from new development would bring different crowd while could also drastically change the CID culture.

C. (housing/services) Affordable housing and elderly care facilities.

Being pushed south means less access to culturally aware and culturally trained service providers. Additionally, development which does not align with CID cultural and community values/ goals is threatening the culture of the

June 21, 2017 – July 4, 2017 — 11 CID. Historically the City has not served API communities well, thus Uncle Bob’s generation created their own service programs and grassroots safety groups to address community needs. The cultural shift of this generation is asking for more police presence and houseless sweeps.

While those transactional services provide temporary relief, how can the City offer resources for more sustainable and long term resolutions while allow autonomy for API communities to identify and address their needs?

Name one thing the City of Seattle has done to the API community that you are happy or unhappy with, and tell us why.

Unhappy: The City continues to pit the CID communities and API communities against other marginalized or disenfranchised communities in Seattle.

This sort of posturing only creates tension between already struggling communities and allows the City to act unaccountably.

Examples of this includes, the Hookah Lounges, the Navigation Center imposed onto CID/Little Saigon without proper discussion, and hotels/zoning issues in the CID.

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12 — June 21, 2017 – July 4, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE ARTS

Arundhati Roy’s second novel offers a vision of hope amid darkness political history from World War I to the Emergency into a masterful novel, Roy approaches India’s history from the Emergency to the election of Narendra Modi (1975-2014) in a layered fashion where the characters and plot loosely hold the political critiques of different historical moments when the state perpetrated violence against its people.

By Nalini Iyer IE Contributor Twenty years after the publication of her debut novel, God of Small Things, which won her a Booker prize, Arundhati Roy has published her second work of fiction, titled The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Whereas the first novel depicted intimacies and violence within a Syrian Christian family in Kerala centered on twins, Estha and Rahel, this second novel is a sprawling narrative of the nightmare of Indian politics from the perspective of the marginalized.

For those who know Roy’s non-fiction books, this novel’s devastating critique of the failure of democracy, the violence inflicted by the state on minorities, and India’s occupation of Kashmir is familiar.

The narratives of two people—Anjum, a hijra (transwoman) and Tilo, a maverick architect living in Delhi—gives shape to the novel. Following her traumatic experiences in the 2002 Gujarat riots, Anjum leaves her hijra family and moves into a derelict graveyard. She is soon joined by a young Dalit man who goes by Saddam Hussain and a small community of the displaced and marginalized grows here. Tilo goes to Kashmir to see her lover, Musa, who is deeply involved in the Kashmiri struggle for freedom.

Their college friends, Biplab Dasgupta,

Author Arundhati Roy • Photo by Augustus Binu

who works in Indian intelligence, and Naga, a journalist are also embroiled in the politics of Kashmir. Into this arrives a foundling baby girl abandoned at Jantar Mantar during an anti-corruption rally who is raised by Anjum and Tilo in the graveyard community. If the plot line seems convoluted and somewhat disconnected, it is.

Roy shifts from plot to political critique and from character to character. Unlike Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, where protagonist Saleem Sinai was handcuffed to history and brilliantly wove India’s

Thus the novel engages shifting gender politics and hijra identity, the pogrom against Sikhs in 1984, the riots in Gujarat orchestrated by Hindu fundamentalists that devastated Muslim communities, the insurrection in Kashmir and the increased presence of jihadi organizations there, the role of the Indian army in state sanctioned violence against Kashmiris, globalization and the rise of a consumerist middle-class, the growing economic chasm between the rich and the poor, the violence against Dalits, the Maoist uprisings in different parts of the country. In the midst of the narratives of torture, murder, disappearances, rapes and assaults is a vision of hope as the dispossessed build a life together based on love and acceptance. If the narrative seems loose and too broad, then Tilo’s poem provides a reason: “How to tell a shattered story?/ By slowly becoming everybody./ No./ By slowly becoming everything.” (440).

In the final paragraph, the narrative perspective comes from Guih Kyom, a dung

beetle, who lies on his back waiting to save the world in case the heavens fell: “…even he knew that things would turn out all right in the end. They would, because they had to.” (444).

This is not an easy novel to read—its critiques are dense even as the characters draw us in. The violence it speaks of is brutal and as with most of Roy’s writings, the narrative speaks truth to power. You may not agree with her version of the truth, but you cannot help listening.

Arundhati Roy reads on June 27 at 7:30 PM at Town Hall and sponsored by Elliott Bay Bookstore.

Gu Jiani’s dark duet shows a new view of partnership

By Jean Jung IE Contributor

beginning scenes, but with added soundscapes from a beach, traffic, with camera clicks suggesting snapshots of life events. As the two dancers reunite, connect and move again, there is the same fluid, yet taut manner in the movement, but with more pause, adding a spaciousness to explore a new connection. Wang’s movements and manner express no reproach, but rather, a kind of acceptance or compassion.

The aural scenery adds perspective on their place in the scheme of life.

Gu Jiani’s “Right and Left” is a study on love performed by two dancers (one, the choreographer), set to flashing lights, crackling electrical sounds, a Chopin waltz, traffic and beach audioscapes, more melodious fare, and uses two stools and a table as props.

Flashing, strobe-like lighting and sounds of electrical static at the beginning and later in the piece, create an industrial feel. Two slender, androgynous, dark-clad figures weave through the flashing light and machinelike sounds: their sinewy, sliding movements, largely in synch with each other, add poignant contrast.

The choreography throughout is taut and controlled, yet extremely fluid. The two dancers connect and meld, then separate in seamless, lithe sliding on the floor and then to sinewy entwinements upright. The dance evokes a deep, silent tension, like an organic uprising occurring against the electric fence of sounds and light: beanstalk tendrils that might wrap around wires, stealthily eluding shocks.

Notes of a Chopin waltz begin and the movements become more pedestrian.

Two round stools join the dance, one dancer encasing the other within the stools’ legs, defining space while offering furniture for the other dancer to lie on. The contraption perilously misses the dancer’s body, like the magician’s swords that slice through a trunk in which his assistant lies. An

Choreographer Gu Jiani’s duet, Right & Left • Photo by Fan Xi

element of trust and danger, a bit of sadism, encroaches.

yet remains somehow, still intimate: a dance of torture but also, of trust.

The dancers seem like the stools: uniform, rail-thin, easily stacked, and surrendering at times, too well to manipulation. Dancer A (Gu Jiani) at one point sidles up to Dancer B (Wang Xuanqi), removing one stool, and hovers over Wang, who is sitting on the other. Gu begins manipulating Wang, twisting, turning, pushing, bending, and snapping her upper body and head sharply, as if Wang is merely an object.

Wang complies, her sinewy movements, completely surrender to Gu’s sharper, yet still taut, succinct movements. The interchange grows increasingly violent,

Then, as Wang moves off stage, the piece develops with a catharsis of some kind in Gu’s removing her sweatdrenched shirt, bending over, then rising up to confront herself in the audience’s gaze. In her strong gaze, we may also see ourselves, complicit in the modern warfare she seems forced to engage in. As Gu puts her shirt back on and moves backwards, slowly, selfconsciously, ending in a crouch, she gestures as if holding her partner again.

The tenor then shifts with syncopated music and flashing lights, like the

The two dancers’ movements progress to playing now on the table, taken down from its mooring against the back stage wall and upturned. It is easier for two to play on its larger legs and greater surface area than was possible with the stools. A sense of mastery over the prop as well as room for equality is further expressed in the relationship between the two dancers being side by side, rather than one hovering over the other, or manipulating her with the stools.

Gu Jiani’s “Right and Left,” deftly tells a tale of relationship in a technologized, urban era, using choreography that is executed to express a deeply intimate connection - one that exemplifies violence, subjugation, confrontation, guilt, trust, surrender, acceptance and transformation. A military reference that echoes in the violence of the earlier scene, “Right and Left” becomes transformed into a new view of partnership, balance, and perhaps, simple acceptance of life on life’s terms.

IE ARTS

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

June 21, 2017 – July 4, 2017 — 13

One Less God tells 26/11 story, Reset an explosive sci-fi thriller

By Yayoi L. Winfrey IE Contributor

At the beginning of One Less God, a disembodied voice asks, “Do you believe in God?” The responder (who is also the questioner) answers, “I believe we are all one.” He then goes on to explain how all of humanity is interconnected while scenes from a joyful Hindu Holi festival are flashed onscreen. But all those good vibes stop as the film begins to focus on an interconnection that proves fatal.

In November, 2008, 10 Muslim terrorists from Pakistan attacked 12 locations in India, including the luxurious Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai. After it fell under siege, the Indian government struggled for four days to contain the scene while terrorists shot their way through, floor by floor, knocking on doors and killing hotel guests that opened them. One Less God, a feature narrative, is based on the gruesome events that took place during that seizure.

Various characters are introduced, each with personal issues that escalate as they realize they may never escape their entrapment. There’s a devoted grandfather, Gradda (SukhRaj Deepak),

about to raise his granddaughter (Mihika Rao) alone because she’s losing her mother to cancer at a nearby hospital.

A French journalist, Claire (Martelle Hammer), becomes hysterical when she learns that the terrorists are hunting for media folks like herself. She ends up hunkered down with a Turkish Muslim woman angry with her overprotective brother who’s been instructed to guard her by their mother.

And, there are many others—a man who recently lost his wife, a Jewish couple considered a prime prize by the terrorists, an elderly lady with a severe gunshot wound, and an Australian man placed at the center of the film as the likely hero with his reckless attitude and who’s also the disembodied voice heard at the start.

Astonishingly, the actors playing the two terrorists Yaaseen (Kabir Singh) and Ahmad (Kieran Kumar) are the most skilled at bringing a multidimensional flavor to their characters. They snort coke, become awed by Western materialism flaunted in the hotel rooms, and quarrel with each other, all the while slaughtering hostages as instructed by their handler in Pakistan via cell phone. Unfortunately, some of

the other actors are not as convincing in their roles as they struggle with showing genuine fear and instead unload streams of f-bombs. However, Deepak as Gradda gives an excellent performance of a man frightened to the core who refuses to unmask his panic in front of his trusting grandchild.

Referred to in India as “26/11” because it began on November 26, 2008, the real incident ended the same way as the film—with 31 brutally massacred at the hotel and 166 total dead at all 12 locations.

‘One Less God’ is currently on the film festival circuit. *** At one time or another, everyone wishes they could “reset” their lives by simply going back and redoing something done badly. That’s exactly what Xia Tian (Yang Mi) does in the feature narrative aptly titled, Reset.

It all goes horribly wrong when the young scientist and single mother watches helplessly as her son Doudou is abducted right in front of her eyes. Soon, she’s instructed to supply the kidnapper with the vial of data from her experiment that allows humans to time travel by creating new versions of themselves. The matter of

it taking three different sets of irises to open the encrypted vault becomes moot when the abductors supply one of the detached eyeballs.

So, in several tension-crammed scenes, Xia Tian sneaks into the hightech skyscraper lab, and convinces her colleague, Da Xiang (Liu Chang), to help her snatch the vial containing the formula so she can save her son from the bomb implanted in his neck. Although she delivers it in the nick of time, the dastardly devil who’s the abduction mastermind Tsui Hu (Wallace Huo) kills the unfortunate child anyway.

Grief-stricken and enraged, Xia Tian returns to the lab where she creates another version of herself (and later, another) to do over the rendezvous-gonewrong and rescue Doudou. Meanwhile, she learns disturbing news about her beloved Chief (King Shih-Chieh), leader of their time travel project.

With a profusion of car chases and crashes, people plunging from high places, explosions, gun battles, knife fights and everything but martial arts, this film is an action-packed KoreanChinese sci-fi thriller produced by Jackie Chan.

‘Reset’ opens June 30.

14 — June 21, 2017 – July 4, 2017

Arts & Culture Asia Pacific Cultural Center 4851 So. Tacoma Way Tacoma, WA 98409 Ph: 253-383-3900 Fx: 253-292-1551 faalua@comcast.net www.asiapacificculturalcenter.org Bridging communities and generations through arts, culture, education and business.

Friends of Asian Art Association (FA3) P.O. Box 15404 Seattle, WA 98115 206-522-5438 friendsofasianart2@gmail.com www.friendsofasianart.org To advance understanding, appreciation and support for Asian arts and cultures, the Friends of Asian Art Association provides and supports programs, activities and materials that reflect the arts and cultures of countries that make up the broad and diverse spectrum of Asia.

RAJANA Society Seattle, WA 206-979-3206 sameth@rajanasociety.org

RAJANA Society is an Arts & Civics project focusing on civic engagement and bridging cultural divides with the Cambodian Diaspora.

Civil Rights & Advocacy Organization of Chinese Americans Asian Pacific American Advocates Greater Seattle Chapter P.O. Box 14141 Seattle, WA 98114 www.ocaseattle.org

OCA—Greater Seattle Chapter was formed in 1995 and since that time it has been serving the Greater Seattle Chinese and Asian Pacific American community as well as other communities in the Pacific Northwest.

It is recognized in the local community for its advocacy of civil and voting rights as well as its sponsorship of community activities and events.

Education Denise Louie Education Center 206-767-8223 info@deniselouie.org www.deniselouie.org

COMMUNITY RESOURCE DIRECTORY

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

Homelessness Services

Professional & Leadership Development

YouthCare 2500 NE 54th Street Seattle, WA 98105 206-694-4500 info@youthcare.org www.youthcare.org

Working to prevent and end youth homelessness with services including meals, shelter, housing, job training, education, and more.

Homeownership Services HomeSight 5117 Rainier Ave S Seattle, WA 98118 ph: 206-723-4355 fx: 206-760-4210 www.homesightwa.org NMLS#49289 HomeSight creates homeownership opportunities through first mortgage lending, down payment assistance, real estate development, homebuyer education, and counseling.

Housing Services InterIm Community Development Association 310 Maynard Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104 Ph: 206-624-1802 Services: 601 S King St, Ph: 206-623-5132 Interimicda.org Multilingual community building: affordable housing, housing counseling, homelessness prevention, advocacy, teen leadership, and the Danny Woo Community Garden.

Executive Development Institute 310 – 120th Ave NE. Suite A102 Bellevue, WA Ph: 425-467-9365 edi@ediorg.org • www.ediorg.org EDI offers culturally relevant leadership development programs.

WE MAKE LEADERS Fostering future leaders through education, networking and community NAAAP Seattle services for Asian American Queen Anne Station professionals and entreP.O. Box 19888 preneurs.

Seattle, WA 98109 Facebook: NAAAP-Seattle info@naaapseattle.org Twitter: twitter.com/naaapwww.naaapseattle.org seattle

Senior Services

The Kin On Team is ready to serve YOU! www.kinon.org

Kawabe Memorial House 221 18th Ave S Seattle, WA 98144 ph: 206-322-4550 connie.devaney@gmail.com We provide affordable, safe, culturally sensitive housing and support services to people aged 62 and older.

Seattle Chinatown/International District Preservation and Development Authority ph: 206-624-8929 fx: 206-467-6376 info@scidpda.org Housing, property management and community development.

Immigration Services

Speak better. Write better. Live better. Improve your English language skills with a professional language consultant at a price you can afford. Learn to write effective business and government correspondence.

Improve your reading, conversation, academic writing, and IT skills.

Washington New Americans Program OneAmerica 1225 S. Weller St., Suite 430 Seattle, WA 98144 Are you a lawful permanent resident? The Washington New Americans program can help you complete your application for U.S. citizenship. Low-cost and free services available – please call our hotline or visit www.wanewamericans.org.

Phone: 1-877-926-3924 Email: wna@weareoneamerica.org Website: www.wanewamericans.org

Southeast Seattle Senior Center 4655 S. Holly St., Seattle, WA 98118 ph: 206-722-0317 fax: 206-722-2768 kateh@seniorservices.org www.sessc.org Daytime activities center providing activities social services, trips, and community for seniors and South Seattle neighbors. We have weaving, Tai Chi, indoor beach-ball, yoga, dance, senior-oriented computer classes, trips to the casino, and serve scratch cooked lunch. Open Monday through Friday, 8:30-4. Our thrift store next door is open Mon-Fri 10-2, Sat 10-4. This sweet center has services and fun for the health and well-being of boomers and beyond. Check us out on Facebook or our website.

Social & Health Services Asian Counseling & Referral Service 3639 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S Seattle, WA 98144 ph: 206-695-7600 fx: 206-695-7606 events@acrs.org www.acrs.org ACRS offers multilingual, behavioral health and social services to Asian Pacific Americans and other low-income people in King County.

APICAT 601 S King St. Seattle, WA 98104 ph: 206-682-1668 www.apicat.org Addressing tobacco, marijuana prevention and control and other health disparities in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner.

Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs GA Bldg., 210 11th Ave SW, Suite 301A Olympia, WA 98504 ph: (360) 725-5667 www.facebook.com/wacapaa capaa@capaa.wa.gov www.capaa.wa.gov Statewide liaison between government and APA communities. Monitors and informs the public about legislative issues.

Cathay Post #186 of The American Legion Supporting veterans for over 70 years Accepting new members—contact us today to learn more! (206) 355-4422 P.O. Box 3281 Seattle, WA 98144-3281 cathaypost@hotmail.com

Offering home visiting services for children birth to 3 and full & part-day multicultural preschool education for ages 3 to 5 in the International District, Beacon Hill and Rainier Beach.

Grammar Captive 409B Maynard Ave. South Seattle, WA 98104 206-291-8468 tutor@grammarcaptive.com www.grammarcaptive.com

Senior Services

Keiro Northwest 1601 E Yesler Way, Seattle, WA 98122 ph: 206-323-7100 www.keironorthwest.org rehabilitation care | skilled nursing | assisted living | home care | senior day care | meal delivery | transportation | continuing education | catering services

Legacy House

803 South Lane Street Seattle, WA 98104 ph: 206-292-5184 fx: 206-838-3057 info@legacyhouse.org www.scidpda.org/programs/legacyhouse. aspx Services offered: Assisted Living, Adult Day Services, meal programs for low-income seniors.

Chinese Information & Service Center 611 S Lane St, Seattle, WA 98104 ph: 206-624-5633 fax: 206-624-5634 info@cisc-seattle.org www.cisc-seattle.org Creating opportunities for Asian immigrants and their families to succeed by helping them make the transition to a new life while keeping later generations in touch with their rich heritage.

Want to join the Community Resource Directory?

Contact lexi@iexaminer.org

COMMUNITY RESOURCE DIRECTORY

Social & Health Services

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

Since 1935

Tai Tung Restaurant International District Medical & Dental Clinic 720 8th Avenue S, Seattle, WA 98104 ph: 206-788-3700 email: info@ichs.com website: www.ichs.com

Banquet Facilities - Catering - Delivery

Bellevue Medical & Dental Clinic 1050 140th Avenue NE, Bellevue, WA 98005 ph: 425-373-3000 Shoreline Medical & Dental Clinic 16549 Aurora Avenue N, Shoreline, WA 98133 ph: 206-533-2600 Holly Park Medical & Dental Clinic 3815 S Othello St, Seattle, WA 98118 ph: 206-788-3500 The largest Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community health center in Washington state, ICHS provides medical, dental, behavioral health and pharmacy care with multilingual doctors, nurses and staff experienced in meeting the needs of King County’s diverse and multicultural communities. All are welcome and sliding fee scales are available for uninsured patients.

7301 Beacon Ave S Seattle, WA 98108 ph: 206-587-3735 fax: 206-748-0282 www.idicseniorcenter.org info@idicseniorcenter.org

Come Enjoy the Oldest Chinese Restaurant in Town!

IDIC is a nonprofit human services organization that offers wellness and social service programs to Filipinos and API communities.

655 S King St, Seattle, WA 98104 (206) 622-7372

Parking & Transportation Services

Mon-Thurs 11am-10:30pm Fri-Sat 11am-12am Sun 11am-10pm

206-624-3426 transia@aol.com Merchants Parking provides convenient and affordable community parking. Transia provides community transportation: para-transportation services, shuttle services, and field trips in and out of Chinatown/International District, and King County.

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Answers to this puzzle are on Wednesday, July 5.

June 21, 2017 – July 4, 2017 — 15

16 — June 21, 2017 – July 4, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

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