Tag: Asian American
May 26, 2025
Chris Grace As Scarlett Johansson
When Scarlett Johansson took on an anime character role in a live action version of The Ghost In The Shell in 2016, Actor, writer and comedian got the spark to perform as Scarlett Johansson. Asian American groups instantly protested a white actress taking on the beloved character from a Japanese cyberpunk story based on a manga series saying it was a "whitewashed" role. Johansson defended it saying that an actor had a right to play any role. And that’s the premise of actor Chris Grace’s new show Chris Grace As Scarlett Johansson
March 27, 2025
Exploring Personal Diasporas
Dmae talks with Jane Vogel Mantiri (Indo writer/actor and founder of Advance Gender Equity) and Samson Syharath (theater artist and co-founder of Theatre Diaspora) about their journeys with cultural diaspora. Both are performing personal solo plays dramatizing their explorations into family secrets and the effects of war and myth on their own identities. They premiere their separate shows at the 2025 Fertile Ground Festival, a city-wide festival starting April 4-19th featuring all local theater works.
January 30, 2025
Simon Tam & The Slants – Worth The Fight
Simon Tam is one of the few, if any, rock musicians to have received a major award from the American Bar Association. Co-founded in 2006 as an all-Asian American dance band paying homage to 80's music, the Portland-originated The Slants were denied the right to trademark their name. Tam had to fight a case all the way to the US Supreme Court in order to get the band name trademarked.
September 22, 2024
Coming Home
Chisao Hata, veteran artist, activist and community weaver and Roberta Wong longtime visual artist and curator both have personal and family histories connected to Portland’s historic Old Town. They are about to embark on Vanport Mosaic’s Coming Home project events September 25th through October 5th, 2024. Their project was one of 14 selected nationwide by Race Forward and Americans for the Arts.
June 17, 2024
A Theater Family
Dmae Lo Roberts has the distinction of working with every member of the talented Gil-Kashiwabara family. She worked with John Kashiwabara as a scenic designer for three shows she’s directed including “Where The Mountain Meets The Moon” at Oregon Children’s … Read the rest
March 22, 2024
Philip Kan Gotanda – Veteran Playwright
For more than 40 years, Philip Kan Gotanda, has been writing plays, screenplays and opera librettos that speak to the Asian-American experience. Many of his stage plays centered on the trauma and aftermath of WWII Incarceration Camps such as ““After … Read the rest