Columbia College Chicago is having their Asian American Heritage Celebration in April. Columbia’s calendar is packed with great events that you wouldn’t want to miss! For more details please refer to the following information from Laila Alchaar, Coordinator for the Asian American Cultural Affairs at Columbia.

Bricks
Thursday April 1st, 5-7pm, Multipurpose Studio (618 S. Michigan, 4th floor)
“Bricks” is a workshop dedicated to the creating change in the Asian American community. Instillation will be up for the month of April in MPS.

Solution Cypher
Monday April 5th, 12-1pm, Multipurpose Studio (618 S. Michigan, 4th floor)
Join Asian American Cultural Affairs as we navigate through interactive art based workshops on change!

“Inside North Korea”
April 6th @ 7 pm, 1104 Film Row Cinema
LiNK and Asian American Cultural Affairs presents a National Geographic documentary by Lisa Ling (field correspondent for Oprah and sister of one of the 2 American journalists recently detained in NK) called “Inside North Korea”. A non-profit organization called Liberty in North Korea is currently working on a modern day underground railroad, helping refugees escaping North Korea to find freedom.

“AOKI”
Thursday, April 8th, Gene Siske Film Center (164 North State Street), 8pm (co-sponsored with Chicago’s Asian American Showcase)
Documentary film chronicling the life of Richard Aoki (1938-2009), a third-generation Japanese American who became one of the founding members of the Black Panther Party. Filmed over the last five years of Richard’s life, this documentary features extensive footage with Richard and exclusive interviews with his comrades, friends, and former students. Viewers will learn about Richard’s childhood in a WWII Japanese American concentration camp, growing up in West Oakland, and serving eight years in the U.S. military.

Midwest Asian American Student Union Conference (MAASU)
Friday, April 9-11th, Ohio State University
MAASU works to recognize the needs of the APIA community by assisting schools with the establishment of APIA student organizations, promoting leadership among students, addressing educational needs and rights of the APIA community, and developing a channel of communication among APIA student organizations in the Midwest.

Asian American Cultural Affairs, Latino Cultural Affairs, and Big Mouth present: Def Poet Oveous Maximus.
Wednesday, April 7th, 7pm, Stage Two (618 S. Michigan Ave, 2nd floor)
Spoken word with Columbia poets and Def Poet Oveous Maximus. Oveous has become a Powerful voice that has cultivated a tremendous following, based on an uncompromising allegiance to breathing real life into his words and an undying commitment to keeping his late brother’s gift of lyricism alive.

Cultural Journey Series Featuring: Jaafar Aksikas
Tuesday, April 13th, 12pm, Multipurpose Studio (618 S. Michigan Ave, 4th floor)
An informal talk/presentation with Columbia College Chicago Faculty member about their professional and personal journey to Columbia College Chicago. Jaafar will also discuss his new book “Arab Maternities”

The Creative’s Creation – Dialogue with nationally renowned Asian American artists.
Tuesday, April 13, 6pm, Conaway Center (1104 S. Wabash, 1st floor)

Eric Nakamura, Publisher / Co-Editor of Giant Robot
Eric graduated from UCLA with a degree in East Asian Studies. He got his start in magazine making through a stint at Larry Flynt Publications. In addition to publishing issues of GR, Nakamura has made an independent movie called Sunsets, shot photos for punk rock bands, and designed t-shirts.

Tadashi Nakamura, Filmaker
Tadashi is a 29 year old, fourth-generation Japanese American and second-generation filmmaker who produced Yellow Brotherhood and A Song for Ourselves.

Goh Nakamura, Musician
Goh, a San Francisco Bay Area based musician who writes ditties about parking tickets, impossible crushes and faraway dreamlands. Goh’s talents have also found a home in the film industry. Goh’s vocals and guitar work are featured prominently on the scores to Ridley Scott films A Good Year and, most recently, American Gangster.

iLL-Literacy
Friday, April 16th, 7pm, Stage Two (618 S. Michigan, 2nd floor)
iLL-Literacy fuses spoken word, hip-hop, funk, and experimental theater for a unique style that has infected thousands of audience members across the continents.

Dylan Rodriguez
Monday, April 19th at 12pm, Collins Hall (624 S. Michigan, 6th floor)
Dylan talks about his new book Suspended Apocalypse - a rich and provocative meditation on the emergence of the Filipino American as a subject of history. Culling from historical, popular, and ethnographic archives, Dylan Rodríguez provides a sophisticated analysis of the Filipino presence in the American imagery. Radically critiquing current conceptions of Filipino American identity, community, and history, he puts forth a genealogy of Filipino genocide, rooted in the early twentieth-century military, political, and cultural subjugation of the Philippines by the United States.

Suspended Apocalypse critically addresses what Rodríguez calls “Filipino American communion,” interrogating redemptive and romantic notions of Filipino migration and settlement in the United States in relation to larger histories of race, colonial conquest, and white supremacy. Contemporary popular and scholarly discussions of the Filipino American are, he asserts, inseparable from their origins in the violent racist regimes of the United States and its historical successor, liberal multiculturalism.

Rodríguez deftly contrasts the colonization of the Philippines with present-day disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and Mount Pinatubo to show how the global subjection of Philippine, black, and indigenous peoples create a linked history of genocide. But in these juxtapositions, Rodríguez finds moments and spaces of radical opportunity. Engaging the violence and disruption of the Filipino condition sets the stage, he argues, for the possibility of a transformation of the political lens through which contemporary empire might be analyzed, understood, and perhaps even overcome.

Elements
Thursday, April 22nd, 5:30-8:30, Dwight Lofts (624 S. Clark st.)
Celebrating Asian Americans in Hip Hop! Join local Chicago Asian American Graffiti artist and Columbia College Chicago Alum REVISCMW as he introduces students to the art, history, and interactive workshop on Graffiti in Chicago.

A2 Art Fair
Thursday, April 29th, 12-8, Conoway Center (1104 S. Wabash, main floor)
Art showcase: 12-8pm
Student Performances: 6-8pm
Celebrating the works of Columbia College Chicago’s Asian American Community.