20 Years of Asian Improv aRts

Hi all!!!!

I thought I will start a little blog this week to express some of my thoughts about Asian Improv aRts' 20th Anniversary. It's been a fantastic journey. As I was explaining on Art Sato's KPFA program yesterday, when Jon and I started Asian Improv Records, we only saw it as a transitional phase to when we would be signed to a "real" record label and eventually get a booking agent, etc. Little did we think that Asian Improv Records (now under the direction of Chicago musician Tatsu Aoki) would have perhaps the largest catalog of titles by Asian American creative musicians (over 70 and growing). And of course Asian Improv has become much than a recording label - and more than a presenting organization. Perhaps our key role has been to support artists at various points in their career, whether it was providing artistic or professional mentorship, writing grant proposals, press releases, producing concerts or recordings, in other words, whatever it took.

We are really excited about what we have been doing, especially the spectrum of artists we have supported in recent years, including:
- Jon Jang's commissioned works including the Chinese American Symphony No. 1, Paper Son, Paper Songs and the upcoming “Unbound Chinatown: A Musical Tribute to Alice Fong Yu”
- Author/performer Genny Lim's True Freedom Project through a grant from the Creative Work Fund
- Dancer/choreographer/taiko artist Melody Takata's recent Satori Project and upcoming "Shimenawa" Project (also supported by a grant from the Creative Work Fund).
- My recent Shanghai 1948 project (supported by grant from the National Endowment for the Arts
- Works by immigrant artists Dohee Lee (Korean percussionist/dancer), Shuang Sabrina Hou (Kunqu opera artist)

Well, that's it for now, stay tuned, hope to see you at the shows this week at ODC. You can find the info at www.asianimprov.org

Francis Wong
Creative Director and Co-Founder