Asian American Adoptee Activist: Simone Labony Labbance

Aloha, Hip Hapa Homeez!

Simone

Welcome back to our Watermelon Sushi World. Meet this bi-month’s featured hip hapa homee, Simone Labony Labbance.

A transracial/transnational adoptee, Simone is a recent graduate of Wellesley College where she studied Asian American Studies and Music. Recently, Simone completed a capstone for her Asian American Studies major, which culminated in a full-length lecture examining the relationship between AAPI admissions at elite colleges and race-based admission practices. Simone was also president of Wellesley Asian Alliance, the only pan-Asian racial justice student organization on campus. Currently, she’s job-hunting in the Boston area and hoping for something in AAPI Advocacy. In the meantime, she also has a part-time job at EMW Bookstore. Is that busy enough for you, hip hapa homeez? No? Well, here’s more from this active activist:

Q: Simone, who are your parents and how did they meet?

A: My parents are Kathie and Bob. They have the most generic white names of the ‘50s! They are both racially white. My mother is of mixed European descent, but I think mostly English. My father was very Italian (biological last name of Maestro), but he was adopted into a Hungarian family, hence my last name: Labbance.

I have an older brother, who is also adopted, and his story influences mine, so I’ll touch on it briefly. He was adopted from an orphanage in Kolkata (many people still use the British name of Calcutta). My parents chose India due to interest in the culture and because it was a country known for having relatively smooth adoption processes at the time. When my parents went to adopt a second child, they had two hopes.

1. to adopt a girl, so they could have “one of each”;

2. to adopt from the same orphanage or at least the same region of India, so my brother and I would share a culture.

We’re both Bengali, and as you’ve probably at least heard, India is a very diverse country from food to culture/language and even terrain/ecosystem.

My brother and I are both from the International Mission of Hope (IMH) in Kolkata, but it almost didn’t turn out that way! IMH was hurting financially when my parents adopted my brother. So they grouped together with many other expectant parents to hold a fundraiser. My parents ran an eclectic restaurant and cooked a huge Indian meal. One mother, an artist, painted a backdrop for the dinner featuring a scene from India, I believe…but I’m not entirely sure because I wasn’t there or alive! My brother successfully made it over to our family in large part due to that fundraiser. Yet during the interim year or two between the time my brother left IMH and the time my parents would file for a second adoption, IMH looked as though it was closing, or at least was not in the position to match children and families. So my parents were forced to look elsewhere in India. They were recommended to a place in the southern part of the country. But before that adoption was close to being ready (and definitely not paired), IMH started to accept applications for adoption again. Because I was the second child my parents had adopted from that particular orphanage, the orphanage let them choose the sex of the child. They, of course, chose a girl and ended up with me!

My mother’s first image of me was via fax (yes, back in the days of fax machines)! She tells a great story of holding her breath while watching me appear, feet first, her new daughter, Labony. I arrived at Logan International Airport a few months later in the fall.

Simone with Chinese adoptee

Q: How did you grow up?

A: Ha ha--definitely not in an ethnically diverse neighborhood. I grew up in rural Vermont, the second whitest state in the USA. There was little cultural opportunity, but my parents worked really hard to provide whatever they could for us in that regard. My first home was located in the epitome of backwoods Vermont with only a few children (if that!) in each grade and not a single other person of color in the entire local community. (Unless of course you count my brother!)

So we moved to Central Vermont, which could offer a community with other POC, but most importantly, other children of color. Many of these children were also adopted, and we shared a particularly meaningful connection. Central Vermont also had easy access to Burlington, Vermont’s hub of cultural diversity.

My mother brought me to Indian music and dance performances, as well as international festivals and events for Hindu holidays. At some point in my junior high years, my mother and I attended a Bharatanatyam* (Hindustani classical dance) performance. Through members of the crowd, we discovered there was a massi**, who worked in my orphanage in India, present that night, too! (I’m so grateful for the small community in Vermont at times like these!) She is an amazing person, and we still keep in touch on occasion today. The massi, now Auntie-ji, invited me to her house, spoke Bangla around me (though I’m sorry to say I haven’t picked it up), taught me how to cook desi food, and wholly welcomed me into her Bengali home and community without a second thought. I also met one of the main dancers of the evening and began taking Bharatanatyam lessons in Burlington on a regular basis. (A big thanks to my mother for driving me for an hour there, waiting throughout the lesson, paying for private lessons, and then driving me home.)

Simone plays sitar

When I was fourteen, my father indulged my wish for a sitar. I took sporadic lessons throughout high school, as I had to go all the way to Portland Maine to meet with my teacher. I already had a strong musical background through piano lessons as a young child, and flute lessons starting in fourth grade. While this was clearly European classical music with completely different theory, notes, scales, everything, it did offer a base from which to work. I was very passionate about linking my activism with music. This was especially possible when addressing cross-cultural communication and international relationships.

Simone with Big Bang Bhangra Brass Band (B5)
playing Bangra Jazz fusion

I composed pieces for the sitar and European chamber ensembles. The musicians often came from a variety of backgrounds. My favorite musician to play with was Bolivian American. The piece of music I composed that expresses this most is Me Shanti, or into peace. The first-stage version is still posted on my MySpace musician page, since that was the in platform of the time. This composition was selected to open the United Nation’s International Day of Peace ceremony in 2009 as a musical representation of a world in conflict engaging in cross-cultural dialogue and eventually moving into a state of positive peace. The musicians were from three different continents (including myself). Those who performed were of South Asian, Latin@, and Mediterranean descent to further convey the message.

Since I haven’t produced new music since high school (and the days of MySpace), I haven’t felt the need to move to SoundCloud or anything else. I hope to have a page up within a year with some new pieces though! I’ve learned a lot in my music courses at Wellesley that I want to apply.

Simone's collage for justice

While Vermont is very racially hegemonic, there are pockets of non-whites and cultural experiences if you know where to look. I was very fortunate to grow up with those experiences made available to me.

Q: What was like being a child in New England?

A: As I mentioned previously, there were other people of color and other transracial (and transnational) adoptees in the greater Vermont community. My parents met many parents of transracial transnational adoptees, and maintained close friendships. Their friends’ children tended to be the same age as my brother and me, and even occasionally from the same orphanage! This was a great support growing up. We shared concerns with one another and processed our individual experiences together. Though to a certain extent, it did seem natural to be adopted and to be a different race than my parents, because those were the experiences I was surrounded by.

WWA poster designed by Simone

At college, it was quite different and definitely more difficult! I attended Wellesley College outside of Boston, and our campus was approximately 30% AAPI including international students. Most students of Asian descent at Wellesley are not adopted, speak their mother tongue pretty fluently, and had a much stronger vocabulary for discussions around race, culture, and ethnicity than I did. It was intimidating to arrive at Wellesley, but I also felt most at home with other students who identified as AAPI. No one knew I was adopted just by looking at me, and a few people even thought I was an Indian International student. I was told by other Indians that I gave off a certain vibe that led them to believe this and, according to them, was able to hold my own in discussions of Indian culture.

Q: Do you have the same passion for golf as your late father?

A: I actually quite dislike golf! The only reason I hold any fondness for the sport (now) is because my father loved it so much. He was well respected in the field as a historian and writer. My father fell off a bridge (on a golf course, of course!) and was paralyzed from the neck down when I was still in elementary school. He died in 2004, just after my fifteenth birthday, of ALS, Lou Gehrig's Disease. Now that he’s gone, I like hearing golf tournaments on in the background (though I’d never actually sit down and watch). The sound is comforting and reminds me of him.

I would say our mutual passions fall into the category of history, politics, and writing. He was very liberal and used to write incredibly out-there articles under a fake name for a publication in England about Americans. I’m probably more like him than I realize, but it’s hard to tell when your strongest memories of your father are of his illness. My main memories, besides the painful ones relating to his own suffering, are of his laughter and sense of humor, his strength through great adversity. The most useful lesson I learned from both my parents was personal strength during difficult times. I also learned that strength takes on many faces and how to use multiple types of strength to endure life’s hardships.

playing flute in the Himalayas

Q: Have you returned to India, or connected with any relatives there?

A: There is no information on my birth family, so nothing there. But I have returned to India. I studied abroad at an alternative school in India my senior year of high school. This is where I really developed my Bengali American cultural identity. At this school, there were roughly a combined total of 10 American and Canadian students and approximately 30-40 Indian students. I was the only Indian westerner and soon discovered I didn’t fully fit in with either group of students. I wasn’t Indian in the sense that I didn’t grow up in the country and still required a fair amount of help with certain interactions, especially because my Hindi is quite poor. Yet I wasn’t white American. I understood certain cultural etiquettes and was often treated by Indians (students and community members) as though I had never left the country! It was an interesting experience trying to balance the pieces of my identity that fit into both worlds all while trying to remain true to myself as an individual. My experience could not be corroborated with or related to by anyone else in the campus vicinity.

WAA film festival poster

Q: Do you believe that Indian culture is inherent in you, or do you think culture is something that's learned?

A: I believe both. I don’t think one’s culture is inborn, but I think certain people inherently feel more connected to the culture of their heritage. Many personal traits are deep-rooted and even natural, evident at birth. I don’t believe in the “babies are a blank slate” thing. For example, I would also consider myself inherently political and compassionate. I have always been very aware of the world and cared deeply for others. (Perhaps this is what led me to pursue activism!) Even when I was in my first years of elementary school, I would draw posters about current issues and hang them up around school in attempt educate my peers about topics that called for intellectual and moral consideration.

with friend Suh, stepsinging

With regard to culture, part of me definitely has always shown a strong interest in my South Asian heritage and culture. But this was fostered and reinforced by a variety of experiences. I don’t believe that the opposite of inherently feeling Bengali is having to learn the culture. The two are closely linked. If I am interested in my culture from birth, this will lead me to learn about my culture and further my knowledge of it by seeking out experiences that will educate me about my culture. This isn’t an exclusive relationship either! Someone who has shown absolutely no interest in their culture for their entire life could suddenly decide it’s something they want to learn more about and pursue that knowledge without having felt an inherent connection to their roots.

at the Iraqi Youth Leadership Exchange Program

Q: You are so active in your beliefs. Where do you think that comes from?

A: As I said before, I have always shown a strong level of conscientiousness with regard to global issues and exhibited concern with the future of the world and its inhabitants—people and animals alike, although my work does center around racial justice (humans).

Thank you, Simone, for sharing!

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

*Bharatanatyam: Hindustani Classical Dance, also known as temple dancing. These dances are for the gods and goddesses of the Hindu pantheon. There are many different styles of Hindustani temple dancing. Bharatanatyam is from Tamil Nadu in the south.

**Massi means caretaker such as an Auntie or someone else of significance…more than, say, a high school babysitter!

WWA on Facebook:

Want more, Hip Hapa Homeez? Then, please check out these links:

Watermelon Sushi film
Watermelon Sushi on Facebook
Watermelon Sushi World Networked Blogs on Facebook
Hapa*Teez on YouTube
Hapa*Teez on Facebook
Hapa*Teez on Café Press
War Brides of Japan v.2 on YouTube
War Brides of Japan on YouTube
War Brides of Japan on Facebook
Yayoi Lena Winfrey fan page on Facebook (sorry, but Your Hip Hapa can’t add any more friends to her regular profile page)
Twitter
Don't forget to join our Hip Hapa Homeez group on Facebook where we post articles and comments about the multicultural community.

Blackanese Boy

Aloha, Hip Hapa Homeez!

Blackanese Boy, Ramon

This month’s featured Hip Hapa Homee is Ramon Calhoun who just published his novel, Blacknese Boy. Read what Ramon has to say about being multiracial and a writer, below. Here’s the url to his book:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H0OSV6Y

Q: Ramon, who are your parents and how did they meet?

A: My father is black American and my mother is Japanese American (sansei).  Supposedly they met while at the Monterey Jazz festival in the 1960's. They then moved in together in San Francisco and were basically hippies; mom had super long hair, and dad had a big Afro.

Q: Where and how did you grow up?

A: I grew up in San Francisco, and was raised primarily by my mother and my Japanese American family. I went to a Japanese bilingual school from grades 1-5, and also was involved in a Japanese American Cub and Boy Scout troop (located in Japantown) as a child, up into my teens. I also spent time in the country, near Lodi, the central part of California, where my grandparents on my mother's side lived.

My parents separated when I was a child. My father wasn't around that much; he led a bohemian life, so would pop in and out on occasion. My close friends and peers growing up were either Japanese American, or mixed Japanese.

Ramon with his mother

Q: How do you identify, and how did you first shape your identity?

A: I identify as mixed, as Blackanese. My identity as a child was shaped by many factors and influences: my mother, my relatives, my classmates, and then society and culture. I first identified as Japanese as a child. As I got older, my identity changed and switched and evolved. At various times in my life, I identified as Mexican, black, Indian, Filipino, Hawaiian and Mediterranean. It was challenging because there weren't any fellow Blasians around me, nor in popular culture. I was always the ONLY one. Now, as an adult, I fully embrace both my black and Japanese American heritages, and am proud to be Blackanese!

motivated

Q:  What motivated you to write about your experiences and put them in a novel?

A: I was motivated to write about my experience because I'm a writer/artist, first and foremost, and wanted to express something that is deeply felt by me. I wanted to use my experience as the basis for the main character and create a work of fiction. Also, there are no novels out there that have Blackanese people as their main characters. There's a hole out there when it comes to stories about Blasians, and so I wanted to address that. I want to read about such characters, and I want to have such characters out in the world for people to read about. It's such a diverse, complex country, and all our stories should be read/heard.

Q: There are lots of mixed-race forums now compared to 10 years ago. What advice do you have for mixies who want to follow in your shoes and write fiction about multiracial folks?

A: Go for it! I hope that many more mixed folk will write stories and novels. It doesn't have to be about being multi-racial per se, but just having us out there, as writers and artists in the public eye, is a positive thing. I think people should write about what they feel strongly about, whatever the topic or story. Writing about being mixed isn't easy, at least for me it isn't. But I want to continue writing about this (and other topics) because I feel so strongly about it. It truly is in my blood!

fellow Blasians, Ramon with artist/poet Sabrena Taylor

Q: It's unusual to see a mixed-race man write a book about being mixed although we've seen lots of published material from women. To what do you attribute that?

A: I guess that's true. Not sure why that is because there's many male black American writers, and male Latino writers, who write about race and ethnicity. I think it has to do with my passion for bringing my story and what it's like being Blackanese into the world. I want other people to read about it, to have some understanding of the complexities and challenges of being mixed like that. I want people to know that people like me exist, and to put us Blasians on the map so to speak.

Also, my father is a poet. His name is Conyus Calhoun. He's been published. I probably inherited the love of the word from him.  Though he was hardly around, his love of jazz and poetry is something that stayed with me.

Ramon with friend, Calvert

Q: What's next?

A: This novel is self-published, without any professional marketing or advertising, so there won't be any signings or book tours or anything like that--unless by some miracle it gains a wider audience and reaches a national attention. But I don't think that's going to happen. 

I'm currently working on some short stories. I'm very excited about them, as the writing is a bit different from the novel. They're not so strongly based on reality. When they're ready to be published, I'll submit them and see what happens. I feel very strongly about them.

I have another novel in the back of my head. I'll start writing that probably in a year or two. I already have ideas about it. I'm really looking forward to starting this, and to see what comes out.

Ramon at Tomales Bay

Arrigatou gozaimasu and thank you, Ramon. Hip Hapa Homeez, you can learn more about people like Blackanese Boy by joining and frequenting our Facebook group page—Hip Hapa Homeez. Please, also check out the following links:

Watermelon Sushi film

http://www.watermelonsushi.com

Watermelon Sushi on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/watermelonsushi

Hapa*Teez on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBIMaJUljjI

Hapa*Teez on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/hapateez

Hapa*Teez on Café Press

http://www.cafepress.com/hapateez

War Brides of Japan v.2 on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNSEUkT2N4E&feature=plcp

War Brides of Japan on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnJkujn1iek&feature=colike

War Brides of Japan on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/WarBridesOfJapan

Yayoi Lena Winfrey fan page on Facebook (sorry, but Your Hip Hapa can’t add any more friends to her regular profile page)

https://www.facebook.com/yayoilenawinfreyfanpage

Sexy Voices of Hollywood

https://www.facebook.com/sexyvoicesofhollywood

Twitter

https://twitter.com/watermelonsushi

See you again on June 4 for another interview with a Hip Hapa Homee like you!

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

Halito, And A History Lesson

Halito, and welcome to the tribal drum circle all you Hip Hapa Homeez! This week’s featured Hip Hapa Homee is Boe Bvshgolawa Many Knives Glasschild--a musician, shaman and yogi with roots in the Blackfeet, Cherokee and Chocktaw Nations. To the left is how he looked when we met about 12 years ago in Los Angeles. Check out that baaaaad Mohawk! Below, is a photo of Boe today in his favorite yoga asana and surrounded by his instruments.

Q: What’s a nice Native slash African American guy like you doing teaching yoga in Flint Michigan?

A: I started taking yoga in 1998. After a lady pulled her SUV across LaBrea Boulevard and stopped in my lane, I slammed on the brakes of my motorcycle. My front tire hit her tire. I braced my arms, so I didn’t get hurt. But I had a very stiff back.

As an actor, I had a commercial to do, but when I got up I couldn’t move from my waist to my shoulders. I put my chest on the gas tank, used my hands to pull my legs over, pushed myself upright and rode to the gig. I took yoga for relief.

Later, I met my wife-to-be who was into yoga. When she got pregnant, we went to prenatal yoga. Then, I started realizing that I was enhancing my spirituality through yoga. Yoga also made me aware of not abusing the body. I used to smoke so much pot that my gums started receding. All of a sudden, it didn’t make sense to do that to my body anymore.

Q: Who are your parents, and how did they meet?

A: My father is black, Cherokee and Blackfeet. My mother was black and Choctaw. They met in 1953 in West Texas. My mother married my father to get out of the house. My father’s father was Blackfeet and Cherokee, and abandoned by his father. He was raised in a black environment in the South with "yes, ma’m; no, ma’m", and stuff like that. His name was Chief.

My father’s father, my father, my oldest son and I all rode motorcycles.

Q: Your maternal grandmother was a big influence on you. Describe her.

A: She was full-blooded Choctaw and died of cancer in 1966 when I was 10. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1944, she went and got a case of beer to celebrate. She was anti-American because when she was a young girl, they put her in school and beat her whenever she spoke Choctaw. So, she made sure we learned Choctaw.

She was born in 1896 and married my grandfather in 1928. My grandfather who was born in 1894 had Chickasaw blood, too, but his parents died and by 1906, he was on his own.

My grandmother had my mother when she was in her 40’s. When I was born, she wanted to name me Hiawatha, but conceded to Boe. In the Choctaw language Chinchinabebo is the translation for Hiawatha, and the Muskogee word is the militant name Bvshgolawa. Many Knives refers to a tool, not a weapon.

My grandmother was very pro-Choctaw. Up until she died, she spoke the language. She used to tell me that her brother would take a knife and kill white people at picnic grounds in Okalahoma. She was very much full of hatred. But she liked black people. Her husband, Nelson, was black.

Our people were originally from Mississippi, but Andrew Jackson gathered Cherokee, Chickasaw and Choctaw and put them on the Trail of Tears. We relocated in one of ten counties of Oklahoma of the Choctaw Nation.

Q: Did you go to powwows?

A: My grandmother didn’t like powwows. She said they were b.s.--that the federal government allowed us to ‘play Indian’. She thought we should get together whenever we want, not when the government said we could.

She was the Amistad of Native American culture--outspoken, radical and very much respected. Grandfather followed behind her. Everyone had this high level of awareness of her, except her daughter.

My grandmother didn’t like pets and said it was like black slavery. She thought that animals should not be sold because you cannot put a value on its spirit.

My father left when I was three because my grandmother stabbed him in the leg with a knife. I saw him again when I was 43 in 1999, and discovered that he was in Michigan.

Q: What was your mother like?

A: She was born in 1933 and never acclimated to the Chocktaw Nation so she did not get along with my grandmother. She was more integrated into the American way. She grew up in the Lucille Ball era and grew away from Indian things. She dressed and wore her hair like Lucille Ball.

Q: You’ve lived in Texas, Los Angeles, Mississippi and Michigan. You get around!

A: I was born in Midland Texas, about 18 miles from the biggest meteor crater to strike North America in 1/4 million years. Around 18, I left. My mother got me addicted to California because she would go out there. I went to Los Angeles in 1975 and stayed until 2002.

Texas was so racial. I got elected safety patrol, but the white kids didn’t like me crossing them. I grew up in the same city as George Bush. It was so biased, and my grandmother was so radical. I don’t how she picked that place.

I used to love to go to Oklahoma. We had relatives that didn’t speak English. They didn’t want to be assimilated by force and wanted to stay where they were. They were empathetic towards Latinos not speaking English.

I’m enrolled in the Choctaw Nation, and a card-carrying Indian. I have my CDIB--Certified Degree of Indian Blood. In 1900, at the turn of the century, the government rounded up Indians like cattle, sold their land and gave them CDIB’s. White Americans don’t have to carry a card saying that they have so much Irish blood, etc. But if you want benefits from the Red Nation, you have to have a CDIB card for free medical and dental.

In March 2003, I moved to Mississippi. The sign says, “Set your clock back 20 years.” I thought it was a joke. It should have said "25". The first interracial prom took place in 2005. The greatest thing that happened in Mississippi was rap music because it got black and white people united. It means white people finally got some good music to dance to.

I taught yoga classes in a Catholic church. I drove 56 miles one-way because it was the only place I could find liberal enough. By the time I left 2 1/2 years later, I was teaching yoga in a funeral home.

In Flint, it took about a month or two to open some doors. I started teaching freebies. The first time I tried to go into the real world, I didn’t know that black men didn’t teach white ladies. I had to break the door open. Now, I have my choice of where I can teach.

Q: What styles of yoga do you teach?

A: I’ve studied Kundalini, Hatha and Qigong, and have Pilates certification. Some days, I teach up to five classes. The thing is that people will pay to drink beer, but not to learn yoga. If you want to do it free, come by my house.

If you want to be babied, you came to the wrong place. I had a lady of 65 doing handstands. A black coach came to class and backed out because these old ladies were outdoing him. If you use props, you’re not working hard enough. I can tell if you don’t stretch at home. People love their comfort zone. I say, push yourself. Eventually, you’ll get flexible.

I bring my daughter, 11, and son, 8, to class. Since my wife Brenda’s father is black and Cherokee, my kids got that Native black thing goin’ on.

Q: How did you get into music?

A: Music was my total focus. I decided I would make it in rock-n-roll until later in my career I realized I was wasting my time. The truth was rock-n-roll is a very biased genre of music. It wasn’t until the 1990’s that I really saw the racism. Rock-n-roll was borrowed and re-labeled, and blacks had a hard time getting into something they started.

Eventually, I started seeing that it was not about being a good musician, but about being a white musician. Growing up, I was a little bit blinded to what was going on. We would jam our a** off, but we couldn’t get a show. It’s really a racist industry.

I had seen the racism but, once I really acknowledged it, my combative nature wanted to come forth. One thing about yoga, it took a lot of anger out of me. Now, I look for a higher consciousness and vibration.

Thank you Boe for sharing the history lessons.

On another note, here are some links sent by AllPeople Gifts. After viewing them, let me know what you think. I wasn’t entirely sure if they were for real.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDAayFuIXvY

http://www.youtube.com/user/AverageNegro#p/u/10/oUfS2iaxwMg

http://www.youtube.com/user/AverageNegro#p/u/12/xBJe9NZ7dWo

http://www.youtube.com/user/AverageNegro#p/u/8/r0jPASWiMjQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCNrZDf8a9Y&feature=related

Meanwhile, you know the drill. Join our Hip Hapa Homeez group and Watermelon Sushi Fan pages on Facebook, and follow watermelonsushi on Twitter. Remember, we have Hapa*Teez t-shirts for you and a rear crawl credit on our film if you make a purchase.

See you next week when I shall once again proclaim myself to be,

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi