Thursday, April 12, 2018

Support "Okinawan Princess: Da Legend of Hajichi Tattoos"



3Arts Foundation 3AP crowdfunding campaign for Laura Kina, Okinawan Princess: Da Legend of Hajichi Tattoos



Crowdfunding with a Match
3AP (3Arts Projects) is a unique crowdfunding platform with a built-in match that helps Chicago artists finance new creative work. 3Arts matches 1/3 of each project goal, charges no fees to artists, and offers mentoring and technical support.
  • The campaign is running from March 23–May 7, 2018.
  • Visit the 3AP site to learn more about my project and make a tax-deductible donation to support "Okinawan Princess."


STRETCH GOAL! I’m overwhelmed by the amazing response to this campaign! Thank you to everyone who helped me reach my initial goal in record time. This has opened up so many more possibilities for this book that I’m excited to announce that we’re going for a stretch goal of $10,000! With continued support, we will be able to expand the project to hopefully include things like a Spanish translation, an annotated glossary of the hajichi symbols and their meaning, an e-book and/or an audio book, and targeted outreach to Okinawan ethnic communities in the diaspora.

I am illustrating my first children’s book, Okinawan Princess: Da Legend of Hajichi Tattoos. This is a bilingual feminist fairy tale set in Hawai‘i and Okinawa that illuminates an ancient tradition and pushes back against white normative standards of beauty. Growing up mixed-race in the rural Pacific Northwest, I didn’t know much about my own Asian culture or our family history as Okinawan migrant sugarcane plantation workers on the Big Island. For the past decade, I have been making paintings inspired by my travels back to Hawai‘i and Okinawa, Japan to reconnect family roots that were severed during World War II. Over the years those roots continued to drift apart as we assimilated into our respective American and Japanese cultures. This book is part of that reclamation journey. Okinawan Princess is written in Pidgin (Hawai‘i Creole) by Lee A. Tonouchi (aka Da Pidgin Guerrilla) and translated by Dr. Masashi Sakihara into a mix of Japanese and an Okinawan language called Uchinaaguchi. The book will feature over 35 of my original watercolor illustrations. Your contributions to this campaign will help cover costs of production and printing and ultimately enable us to share this little-known indigenous custom with future generations.

Asian Arts Initiative’s 25th Anniversary Celebration



Asian Arts Initiative’s 25th Anniversary Celebration
“Then and Now”
May 4, 2018–August 17, 2018
Opening Reception: Friday, May 4, 2018 5pm
Featuring live interactions with artists Saya Woolfalk and Shelly Bahl
Asian Arts Initiative
1219 Vine St
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Curated by Alexandra Chang, Curator of Special Projects and Director of Global Arts Programs at Asian/Pacific/American (A/P/A) Institute at New York University.
I will have three works on display in the show.

Speaking at UCONN - Transpacific Imaginations & Unsettled Visions Contemplating and Celebrating Margo Machida

Lecture:

University of ConnecticutTranspacific Imaginations & Unsettled VisionsContemplating and Celebrating Margo Machida (Professor Emerita, AAASI)
April 13-14, 2018
This two-day symposium, which opens with an evening keynote address by Professor Lisa Yoneyama (University of Toronto), is inspired by Margo Machida’s foundational work within the fields of Asian American art, diasporic Asian visual culture, and transpacific studies. As the Asian and Asian American Studies Institute celebrates its 25th anniversary, this symposium considers, contemplates, and celebrates one of its own.
All talks will take place in the Humanities Institute Reading Room, located on the 4th Floor of Homer Babbidge Library.369 Fairfield Way, Unit 1005
Storrs, CT 06269
April 13, 2018 / 630 PMKeynoted Address: Lisa Yoneyama (University of Toronto)
April 14, 2018 10:30 AM – 4:30 PM (SYMPOSIUM)
1030 – 1130 AM
HAWAI’I, TRANS-PACIFIC LABOR FLOWS, AND HISTORIES OF PLACE
Franklin Odo, Amherst College 
1130 – 1230 PM         LUNCH 
1230 – 130 PMQUEERING CONTEMPORARY ASIAN AMERICAN ART:  The Optics of Queer Studies and Critical Mixed Race Studies
Laura Kina, DePaul University
130 – 145 PM COFFEE BREAK
 145 – 245 PMWAR, GENOCIDE AND JUSTICE: MEMORY WORK IN ASIAN AMERICAN ART
Cathy Schlund-Vials, UConn 
245 – 3 PM                 COFFEE BREAK
3 – 4 PM PACIFIC ITINERARIES: ISLANDS, OCEANIC IMAGINARIES, AND SITES OF CONVERGENCE IN CONTEMPORARY ASIAN AMERICAN ART
Margo Machida, UConn
4 – 430 PM                 FINAL THOUGHTS

Swarthmore College - Laura Kina artist talk and exhibition "Champuru"

Artist talk and solo exhibition “Laura Kina: Champuru”

Swarthmore CollegeFriday, April 13, 2018, 3 – 5PM
McCabe Library 100 Atrium
500 College Avenue
Swarthmore, PA 19081
This event is part of Compass: Navigating Multiness, an undergraduate three-day conference, to bring together people both personally and academically interested in the Multi experience.
The talk will take place in the McCabe atrium, followed by a reception in the 2nd floor exhibition space.

Poster design from Swarthmore College