North Side Immigrant Rights Group Foster Community By Folk Drumming
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August 8, 2022
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Hana Center, a nonprofit organization for Asian American and immigrant rights, provides neighbors new opportunities to teach them traditional Korean folk drumming, which activists frequently use in their advocacy.
Community engagement coordinator Won Joon Lee tells Block Club Chicago that the group teaches Pungmul, a Korean folk tradition with deep historical roots. It originated in Korea’s pre-industrial farming culture and used the hourglass-shaped janggu (a double-sided drum) to protest immigration and racism.
Lee explained that during the Japanese occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945, public gatherings were prohibited except for musical performances, making Pungmul a form of resistance.
In 2017, two long-standing organizations, the Korean American Community Services, and the Korean American Resource and Cultural Center were combined to become Hana Center, named from the Korean word for “one.”
The organization has a long history of youth Pungmul programming, but this summer marked the first time the non-profit offered classes for adults interested in advocacy work.
The first-ever class will proceed after the initial session of eight weeks has passed. As the new program expands, the instructors intend to continue enrolling new students in it on an ongoing basis.
Hana Drum School instructor Inah Jeong said Pungmul drumming is loud as planned, and they are culturally and politically distinct. Korean immigrants may connect with Chicago immigrants and join the immigrant rights and citizenship march, she tells Block Club Chicago.
The ensemble delivered its first drumming class this summer, but new students are always welcome to join in. Residents and community organizations can benefit from such events, according to the center’s administrators.
Choi tells Block Club Chicago that the current situation is both exhausting and frightening, but she believes the strong and loving communities they form may provide joy even in difficult times.
Their communities enable them to change the world now and in the future. The goal according to Choi is to turn community building into advocacy that targets racial, gender, and economic concerns along with immigrant rights.
Hana Center is located at 4300 North California Avenue in Irving Park. It also offers services to address needs related to citizenship and immigration, housing, and other areas.
Lori Matsukawa, a former Hawaii resident, and Seattle news anchor received the ‘Order of the Rising Sun Sun, Gold and Silver Rays’, one of Japan’s highest honors.
The award was for her contribution to promoting Japan-U.S. friendship. “This is a true honor and thrill for me because for the last several years, I’ve been really working hard to connect people in Japan and people in the United States on a person-to-person basis,” Matsukawa told KING 5.
The award was more generally bestowed upon distinguished members of the Japanese military since 1875, but in 2003, the honor was extended to women.
Matsukawa was a well-known journalist for the Seattle media and KING 5, as well as a former president of the Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Washington. She brought to light important events in Japanese American history, particularly those that occurred during World War II, through her reporting.
Her Emmy-award-winning documentaries centered on the detention of Japanese people in the Pacific Northwest during World War II.
Matsukawa was also instrumental in founding a chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association.
King County has designated June 29, 2019, as Lori Matsukawa Day in honor of her retirement.
A $95 million lawsuit has been filed against a restaurant owner behind several top East Village Japanese restaurants, Shuji Bon Yagi for allegedly sexually assaulting an employee this winter.
The lawsuit was filed by Nozomi Horikoshi, a top executive at Yagi’s restaurant group T.I.C., who claims Yagi allegedly assaulted her while she had passed out after a night of drinking and could not consent, according to the New York Post.
According to the allegations made in her file, Horikoshi, who has been employed by the well-known restaurateur for close to a decade, stated that he invited himself to celebrate the birthday of another female colleague “knowing that his wife was in Japan throughout the weekend.”
Horikoshi claimed that her boss forced her into a taxi sometime after 2:00 a.m. and then began groping, caressing, and attempting to kiss her when she was very intoxicated. She “tried to push Yagi off her and told him to stop, but due to her level of intoxication, the plaintiff eventually lost consciousness inside the taxi,” the filing alleges.
Yagi reportedly drove her directly to his residence on West 58th Street, as obtained from the GPS information from Horikoshi’s cell phone. Horikoshi ultimately awoke with her employer allegedly resting on top of her while she was naked from the waist down.
“I realized I was naked from the waist down … that was so embarrassing.” The 51-year-old married mother of three told the New York Post, “I was like what happened? I have to go home. I knew that something happened already,” she continued. “There was a feeling of shame.”
Horikoshi’s attorney claimed the lawsuit was about “power and accountability” for Yagi, a high-profile businessman renowned for influencing Japanese cuisine in New York.
Dubbed an “East Village ambassador for Japanese cuisine” by the New York Times, Yagi’s restaurants include Rai Rai Ken, Cha-An, Sobaya, and Bar Decibel.
Have you ever thought of opening a business during a recession? How about during the pandemic? Well, this lionhearted momma just did that!
Filipino-American Mariel Black started her baking business, Sinful Treats, in June 2009, at the peak of the recession — everyone thought she was crazy to start a business at that time. She had only one product to sell, some unknown Filipino pastry called ‘Food for the Gods’. “No one knew what it was. I had to tell people, ‘it’s like a blondie with dates and walnuts’” she said. Starting out as an online bakery, she gave out samples to whoever was open to trying her product. People never heard of it, but once they tasted it, they loved it!
Because everyone was hurting during the recession, she found that people were more inclined to help each other. Soon, a few coffee shops agreed to carry her products, and she also kept selling online.
“This photo marks the beginning of our Sinful Treats adventure. My boys have been involved since Day 1.” -Mariel
Her big break came in 2011 when the Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento ordered 19,800 Snickerdoodle cookies for their main holiday event, The Polar Express. A year before that, she took her 4-year-old son on the train ride, where they served cookies and hot cocoa just like in the movie, Polar Express. He took one bite of the cookie, then he told her that she should make the cookies. “Ah, the power of suggestion, from a 4-year-old!” Mariel exclaimed.
She talked to the coordinators and gave them cookie samples and they loved them. The following year, they ordered 19,800 Snickerdoodles. “I said YES, even if at that time,” she said, “I had no kitchen and no employees to help me. I had a couple of months to figure out how to make it happen.”
She rented a kitchen in a restaurant at night and asked friends to help, “I had a crew of 5 people. Like little elves, we’d bake all night while the restaurant was closed.” They only had one oven with 2 racks, only able to bake 48 cookies every 12 minutes. The cookies were baked from scratch, scooped by hand, packaged individually, sealed with a heat sealer, and labeled — all 19,800 of them!
“It was the most exhausting but exhilarating experience. It was then I knew that I loved the thrill and pain that came with being a business owner.” She’s been baking for the Railroad Museum since then.
Sinful Treats grew to have its own retail location a few years later and became a full-service bakery and catering company. They created and launched their first baking mix in 2015 with their signature product, “the treat that started it all” — Food for the Gods Baking Mix.
The year 2020 would have been their 10th year baking for the museum, “but 2020 had a different plan for all of us” she said. All of their Fall and Holiday events have been canceled. “Being in the baking business, our fourth quarter is when we make the most. Suddenly, all of it was gone. Having survived and thrived during the recession, I can honestly say this year, this pandemic is a lot harder than the recession.”
But the lockdown didn’t stop Mariel to continue her passion, rather she pursued another idea – to have a one-stop shop for baked goods. “Recession, pandemic, lockdowns won’t stop me. There are always opportunities even in the worse scenarios.”
In October 2020, she launched an online marketplace where local bakers can sell their products and grow their small businesses. Sinful Treats is now home to the best local brands. Mariel’s goal is to empower small business owners, especially women and minority-owned businesses. All Bakers and Food Makers who have something special and have unique products to offer are welcome to join, “The food industry is already very competitive, but we are stronger together. So my hope is that through this marketplace, we can all help each other grow.” They ship cakes, cookies, desserts, and gourmet food across the United States.
Sinful Treats’ Business Partners
“The food industry is already very competitive, but we are stronger together. So my hope is that through this marketplace, we can all help each other grow.”
-Mariel black
“Everything I have worked for seemed to be a stepping stone to what I’m doing now,” she said, “Having a brand that’s already established, a working website, products that have been tried and proven, years of networking and relationship building, all of this and more are now helping to make this new path easier to take and faster to grow.”
Mariel always gets a thrill watching businesses grow, she also shares over a decade of her experience and wisdom with new small business owners. “I love baking, but my real passion is business”. She guides her marketplace sellers with what they need; teaching them about branding, pricing, basic accounting, packaging, shipping, and even how to improve their products and come up with new ones.
“I always tell my kids, when something bad happens, it’s usually a blessing in disguise,” she added, “True entrepreneurs find opportunity even in the worst scenarios.”
One of Southeast Asia’s biggest job platforms, Glints, just put out a report that shows the situation may not be as severe as they seem.
Glints co-founder and CEO Oswald Yeo told TechCrunch that there has been a lot of funding injected into the IT business. This is a response to the two-to-three-year bull run, and as a result, several firms grew swiftly.
Yeo said that Singaporean firms seemed to adapt fastest to macroeconomic changes and that this wasn’t a terrible thing because other firms wanted to move swiftly, too.
Operations, finance, HR, and certain sales and marketing teams have been hit hard, while businesses turned to Vietnam and Indonesia, which have fewer layoffs, for top-tier technical personnel. Moreover, the pandemic has created a decentralized-minded workforce.
Yeo observed that the pandemic had made remote work more convenient, necessitating cost-cutting measures. Many firms turn to remote employment to optimize their human and financial capitals.
They have seen that remote work prospects on Glints have expanded tenfold in a year. Some regional firms in Malaysia continue to hire foreigners, while others only hire Malaysians. According to Glints, mid-to senior-level employees’ compensation won’t diminish, but junior talent may.
One-year fixed-term contracts are another trend that helps firms predict their financial destiny, as employers are wary about signing long-term contracts.
He believes that not everything was awful — the need for technological and product skills on Glints favored job seekers.
Layoffs help startups build core teams. Yeo said that because there is less rivalry for talent, it’s a fantastic moment for organizations in a strong position to hire top managerial talent.
