Bridging the Divide Through Music
Miriam Oomen is a musician (fiddle player), teaches music and plays in old-time bands. She hails from Eugene, Oregon and was at Bellevue College as a speaker at a Bellevue College event, Voices United: A Week of Campus-Wide and Civic Conversation. It provides the opportunity to discuss why and how to have conversations about difficult or complex topics. Oomen describes how music has bridged the divide for her.
The Future of US-China Relations
Governor Gary Locke, who serves as Interim President at Bellevue College spoke on campus about the future of US-China relations on May 16th.
Governor Locke served as Washington State Governor from 1997-2005. He served as the 36th US Secretary of Commerce from 2009 to 2011 and as ambassador to China from 2011 to 2014.
The event was hosted by Bellevue College Business Leadership Community and the Asian Pacific Islander Student Association.
Special thanks to Bellevue College Digital Media Arts Department for the recording.
Guatemala Citizen Action
Title 42 expired just one week ago today. Biden’s new policy requires most migrants to prove they were denied asylum in a country they passed through en-route to the United States. Since Title 42 ended, the ACLU has sued the Biden administration to attempt to block new restrictions for asylum seekers. Meanwhile, immigrants and asylum seekers are arriving at the border by the thousands each day. The conditions they flee are not going away.
Accion Ciudadana is the Guatemalan Chapter of Transparency International, an organization that investigates and challenges governmental corruption. Accion Ciudadana’s Executive Director Manfredo Marroquin and an investigator for the organization, Cesar Vega were in Seattle earlier this month, hosted by the organization, Global Visionaries. Marroquin and Vega talk about the role of the US in encouraging the current corruption in Guatemala.
Producer: Yuko Kodama Special thanks to Joaquin Uy for help with the story.
Photo: Accion Ciudadana
Transforming Intergenerational Pain into Inspiration and Strength
Lauren Iida
-YK
91.3 KBCS Music and Ideas. I’m Yuko Kodama
Lauren Iida is a local artist whose work Adorns public spaces including the Washington State convention center, Plymouth housing in Seattle and Uncle Bob’s place in Seattle’s Chinatown international district a cross from the wing luke museum. Her artwork is often themed around the Japanese American experience.
You see, Lauren Iida’s paternal grandparents and great grandparents were forcibly removed and incarcerated along- side about 120,000 Japanese Americans by the US government during WWII. The event scarred the family. Lauren Iida’s artwork, usually made of hand cut paper is often inspired by photos, documents and oral histories found through Densho,, a repository to document this historical time for Japanese Americans.
Iida describes the approach to her artwork.
-LI
I create what I call paper cutaways, and they’re cut paper compositions that I make with a scalpel, like an Exacto knife.
I am biracial, my father is Japanese American – and the Japanese part of my heritage has always been kind of a mystery to me. Growing up as a child, I didn’t really have very much access to Japanese things – I think mostly because my grandmother was incarcerated during World War II at Tule lake. And after that, she tried to shed the stigma of the racism by raising her children in a very “American way”, so the only thing that made it down to me really was some Japanese foods. But I always looked at those things in a magical way. …Like, I wondered at those things….and I did want to know more when I was a kid, but there wasn’t really much information available to me. So as an adult, I’ve really focused on learning more and researching more on the topics of my Japanese heritage and being a Japanese American.
At first, I didn’t really know anything about any kind of history related to the incarceration of Japanese people, during World War II. I knew that it had happened, but it was such a small part of any conversation I ever had with my paternal grandmother, or with my father or really with anybody in my family. – So as I grew up, I sort of started to hear about it. I remember very briefly studying it at public school, but I had a lot of questions. – So as I grew up and discovered the Densho archives, I was really, really interested and fascinated by it. Just looking through all the photographs and documents and listening to oral histories.
And then I started to make art about it. But basically, as I got older, and I kept studying those things and researching those histories, I realized that it was natural to not really want to talk about those things for my grandmother especially. – And I understand why she wanted to put on an air of being very pro-America and very not-Japanese honestly. Because after being persecuted for her race, I can really understand why she raised her children that way, and why she acted that way. – But I think it’s a real shame. And it’s an injustice to me that I don’t get to know about my family heritage, my cultural heritage, because she was traumatized by the US government’s racist protocols. – And for a whole variety of reasons, many people are disconnected from their cultural heritage – displacement, if they’re refugees, if their parents were traumatized, if there was just a break in the lineage for any reason or break in the communication… I think it’s a really common situation that I’m in.
Regarding storytelling and passing down of information from our elders to us, it’s really complicated. – Because sometimes they don’t want to talk about things because of trauma. Because they don’t want to relive sad events for themselves. And sometimes they don’t want to burden us with negative or sad memories. And other times, I find that they just don’t think that it’s interesting. They’re surprised to learn that young people would think that their experience was interesting. My grandma Clara, who’s 102, She asked me the other day, “Why do you know so much about me? And why do you care?” And I said, because your life has been so fascinating and so interesting…and it’s been a source of inspiration for me and my artwork for many years…and it always will be. I study your life, and I’ve done a lot of research and I remember all the answers to all the questions that you give me. –And she laughed, like she was tickled by that.
I think it’s a really essential function of being a human being – finding out where we came from, and also trying to get the information that feels like it’s helping you put together the puzzle of who you are and who you want to be. When I learn more about the struggles that my ancestors and their peers went through, being incarcerated during World War II, it does give me more personal strength. I’m inspired by their stories, and I’m inspired by their optimism and their attitude and their strength and resilience, going through that really difficult time. (And) it does help me keep my own life struggles in perspective. (And) I think that is something that we often fail to do in our lives, especially in a privileged country like the United States.
There are people who are suffering around us here also in the US right now. And when we give something of ourselves to somebody else, and when we listen to somebody else’s story, we share an experience with them and we feel compassion for them. (and) We also learn something about ourselves. So, I really encourage people to, to share their stories and also listen to other people’s stories because everybody has a story, and the more we share our stories, the more we understand about each other, and hopefully the more we can get along.
-YK
That was local artist, Lauren Iida. She’s represented by ArtXchange. Iida will be unveiling a 30-foot paper memory net featuring symbolic objects from the book, Swimmers by Julie Otsuka. Tomorrow at 7 pm at the Seattle Public Library Central branch in downtown Seattle. For more information about the event and to support our work, you can visit kbcs.fm
KBCS In-Studio with Tuck & Patti
Genre crushing duo Tuck & Patti stopped by the KBCS studio before their show at Jazz Alley for a wide ranging conversation about musical partnerships, early influences, covering Cyndi Lauper, and how music is community; it was all really quite lovely.
Oh! They also played 3 songs live, plus Tuck showed Iaan Hughes what a 13#11th chord, and Patti stunned with a few a cappella bars of “High Heel Blues!”
KBCS In-studio with Willy Tea Taylor
We spent a nice Friday afternoon hanging out with Willy Tea Taylor this past Friday listening to his tough but tender songs, talking about the lost art of the knuckleball, why he plays tenor guitar, and a shared love for Jim Harrison books.
2023 Spring Message
KBCS Spring Message from the General Manager
It’s beginning to look and feel like springtime across the Pacific Northwest as winter reluctantly lets loose its icy grip upon the landscape. The crocus and daffodils are pushing up through the still cold, hard ground and their vibrant spring colors spread joy and optimism across the land. Spring is the most optimistic season.
At Community Radio KBCS, springtime is the harbinger of our traditional spring fundraising campaign and thanks to the generosity of our listeners we are off to a very optimistic start to the year. This coming fall will mark my fourth year at Bellevue College serving as the stations General Manager, along with several other hats I wear. Despite the difficult challenges we have faced together over the past three and half years, KBCS is now in a financially more secure position, as we embark on the next 50 years of bringing true community radio to thousands of listeners across the greater Puget Sound and online around the world.
Since first signing on the air in 1973, KBCS has evolved to become one of the most popular and diverse local community radio stations in the country. For most of our listeners our program diversity is our greatest strength when measured against the vast wasteland of inane banality of formulaic radio cluttered across the radio dial.
KBCS is handcrafted, homegrown radio curated by a very diverse group of everyday people who live right here in our community. Each of them produce and host their own shows and share their passion for music and life here in the Pacific Northwest with their appreciative listeners.
KBCS is investing in new broadcast technology to create a modern, technologically robust digital broadcasting platform to serve our listeners with a more user friendly interface and an exciting interactive experience. KBCS is the real thing and regular donations from listeners is what keeps the station relevant and on the air.
Please support KBCS during our annual spring fundraising campaign now underway. For those who can afford to give a little more, you can help us cover the gap from those living on a tight budget during these uncertain times and just can’t afford to make a donation right now.
Support KBCS with a donation today and help ensure the future of our mission of offering a broadcast voice to everyday people and not just broadcast professionals or the large corporate media conglomerates. And, don’t forget to tune in April 21st-April 30th and help us celebrate our 50th anniversary during our annual on-air spring fundraising drive.
As always, thank you for your continued support and your generosity,
Dana Lee Buckingham
KBCS General Manager and Proud KBCS Sustaining Contributor
KBCS In-Studio with This Girl
KBCS Music Director, Iaan Hughes, sat down with This Girl to chat about Diva Ranch: A Country Drag Show at the Tractor Tavern on April 16th. This conversation goes everywhere from country music as Drag performance, to the silliness of Kid Rock shooting beer cans, to the multiple laws being written to ban Drag performances around the country, to the beauty and art of Iris DeMent. They also played a lot of music as This Girl stormed the airwaves, including:
Gretchen Wilson’s “Redneck Woman”
Yola’s “Faraway Look”
Patsy Cline’s “Leavin’ On Your Mind”
Dolly Parton’s “Just Because I’m a Woman”
The Chicks’ “Cowboy Take Me Away”
Iris DeMent’s “Let the Mystery Be”
LeAnn Rimes’ “Blue”
Pam Tillis’ “Maybe It Was Memphis”
Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn’s “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man”
Kacey Musgraves’ “Follow Your Arrow”
KBCS In-Studio with Abby K.
Sometimes, rather than beginnings and endings, we need songs about being in the middle of things. That’s just what Abby K. does and does so well. Her latest album is called Where We’re At and we were thrilled that she shared moments from it with us yesterday. She was joined by the very talented Jonathan Plum on guitar and Art Frankel on pedal steel and banjo.
They perform tonight at Slim’s Last Chance!
KBCS In-Studio with Jon Pontrello
Jon Pontrello stopped by the KBCS studio recently to play his song about PNW icon Peter Bevis. Peter had a hand in everything from the Fremont Troll, to the infamous Lenin statue, to the ill-fated Kalakala. Jon’s song is wonderful and fitting tribute to a complex person.
Jon shares the stage at The Tractor Tavern tonight with Jake Xerxes Fussell.