Jurying the SFIAAFF documentaries
March 21st, 2012
I had the honor to serve as a juror for the 30th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, which the folks at the Center for Asian American Media put on every year. Specifically, I watched eight documentaries in the span of a few days with fellow jurors Brian Hu, artistic director of the San [...]
Grace Lee Boggs
March 8th, 2012
I had the opportunity for a one-on-one phone conversation with the legendary Chinese American activist, Grace Lee Boggs, a few weeks ago. Boggs is now 96 years old but her mind is probably sharper than most of us young’uns’. She made a trip out to the San Francisco Bay Area last week and spoke at [...]
Poverty Stricken
January 13th, 2012
I recently wrote a story for the East Bay Express about refugees from Burma who are now living in Oakland. A report out of San Francisco State University, headed by Professor Russell Jeung and in collaboration with Burma Refugee Family Network, indicates that this population continues to live in extreme poverty, with an unemployment rate [...]
Nail Salon Researcher Takes the Shine off Your Polish
December 10th, 2011
I interviewed Thu Quach, a researcher at the Cancer Prevention Institute of California, for Hyphen magazine. Quach has conducted several key studies on nail salon workers, a population that is made of mostly Vietnamese American women in some states such as California. It also happens to be a population that is continuously shifting as people [...]
SPJ Nor Cal Investigative Award
November 28th, 2011
I recently attended a Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California Chapter, awards dinner in San Francisco. I, along with journalist Pauline Bartolone, received an award in the investigative (radio/audio non-daily) category for a 30-minute radio documentary we produced on toxic hazards in nail salons for Making Contact. It was my first radio piece, and I [...]
Textbook’d
October 12th, 2011
I’m happy to share the news that a story I wrote for Hyphen, later re-printed in the Utne Reader, has been included in the latest edition of Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings, a textbook published by McGraw-Hill. The article, Color Me Nontoxic, is about a Vietnamese American woman, Uyen Nguyen, who started [...]
Motherhood Rooted
June 15th, 2011
My most recent story centers around Asian American moms who are embracing ancient postpartum traditions. The full feature story can be read here as well as in the most recent issue of Hyphen, the Bittersweet Issue. Special thanks to everyone who donated to the story via Spot.Us, an outfit that allows the community to fund [...]
Enforcing the Silence Premiere
April 13th, 2011
I am excited to announce that a documentary I co-produced, Enforcing the Silence, will have its world premiere in a few weeks at the 27th annual LA Asian Pacific Film Festival hosted by Visual Communications. The film touches on a subject that is largely unknown, or not talked about, at all. It zeroes in on [...]
Youth Activists of Color
March 16th, 2011
Here’s to the next generation activists, particularly who organize youth of color or are youth activists themselves. See the three profiles (click on “articles” on the left side and “The Next Generation) I wrote for The American Prospect’s special report, Colorlinded, on race in America. The profiles focus on DREAM Act “Trail of Dreams” walker [...]
The Toxic Truth About Nail Salons
February 4th, 2011
A radio segment on the toxic truth behind nail salons is now live. I made the segment, with the help of producer Pauline Bartelone, with Making Contact, a show that is a part of the National Radio Project. My segment focuses on the “greening” of nail salons; that is, more salons attempting to make workplaces [...]