Fall N2 Hapa Holidays

Aloha, Hip Hapa Homeez!

At last, we're in the process of setting up several online ‘stores’ where you can purchase our merch—like buttons, posters, stickers and t-shirts for your ‘hapa holiday’, hapas!

Under the banner of ‘YayoiClanArt’, there will be several designs for our films: ‘Tokyo Lily’, ‘War Brides of Japan’, and ‘Watermelon Sushi’; ‘hapa*teez’ for mixed-race folks, ’T_zing’ for the metaphysically inclined, ‘Vegan*Jin’ for those embracing the eating of plants and not animals; and finally, ‘Palm Island Tropical Tease’ which showcases island culture.

‘Tokyo Lily’…war bride. wife. mother. artist. poet. dancer. seamstress. home chef. …

‘War Brides of Japan’…Japanese women who married American military men after WWII endured many hardships including raising mixed-race children while navigating a new language and culture…

‘Watermelon Sushi’…a film about two biracial sisters that explores identity, family, love, birth and death against the backdrop of 1980’s African American hiphop and Japanese traditions…

‘hapa*teez’…for the mixed-race community, no matter how you choose to identify… 

’T_zing’…designs for spiritual folks include both Asian and Western Astrological symbols, as well as other metaphysical signs from world cultures…

‘Vegan*Jin’…art that embraces vegans and animal rights activists. the word  ‘jin’ is often used in Japanese language to denote benevolence…

‘Palm Island Tropical Tease’…a gentle ocean wave, a cooling breeze, a swaying palm; welcome to the peace & zen of caribbean & pacific islands in Tropical Tease…

YayoiClanArt is reflective of Yayoi Jidai, a period of artistic achievement in Japan. It’s believed that the Yayoi Clan crossed the Korean peninsula 2,000 years ago to settle on Honshu. Not only were they the first to cultivate rice in Japan, they were also fantastic artisans and created bronze works, especially temple bells.

Our store links below will be made clickable as soon as they become functional over the next few weeks:

RedBubble

Teepublic

Zazzle

If you made a purchase at our former Cafe Press store, then rest assured we have your donation for ‘Watermelon Sushi’ noted in our records and you will be credited on the movie. Here just a few of our generous supporters:

Andye

Teri

Cassie

Ro Lee

Carol

Eva

Julia

Ejiro

Meanwhile, in other news:

‘WAR BRIDES OF JAPAN, A DOCU*MEMORY’ can still be viewed on Gumroad. The five part series includes interviews with Japanese war brides, their husbands (and former enemies), their adult children, and their grandchildren. There’s an intro and trailer for each segment explaining the stories before you watch it.

https://watermelonsushi.gumroad.com/

War Brides of Japan website
War Brides of Japan on Youtube

War Brides of Japan on Facebook

'TOKYO LILY, A WAR BRIDE DOCU*MEMORY’ is still fundraising and still in its research stage. The story of Tokyo Lily (or Yuriko), a war bride who eventually became an artist, should be completed in 2025. Arrigatou! to all of our past donors whose names can be viewed here:

Tokyo Lily website

donor page

Tokyo Lily (left) in front of one of her paintings

‘WATERMELON SUSHI’ is in the editing stages thanks to our Executive Producer Lowell Douglas Ing. We are so proud of how the footage has held up all these years and the stellar performances of our amazing actors. The narrative will feature a vintage look with hiphop music from the mid-1980’s.

Watermelon Sushi website

Watermelon Sushi on Youtube

Watermelon Sushi on Facebook

                             selling copies of 'Watermelon Sushi' chapbook with Tokyo Lily (left) and her husband

We’re now preparing for 2025 interviews. Are you a mixie with something to say? We’re always looking for folks exploring their ethnic identity. If that describes you, drop us a note.

Have a hapa fall!

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

Marvelous Miwa Lyric, Again!

This week’s Hip Hapa Homee is a long-time acquaintance of Your Hip Hapa. I like to refer to her as The Marvelous Miwa Lyric because she really is something to marvel at. A clothing designer, music producer, performer, rapper, songwriter and more, Miwa is also immensely popular—especially in Los Angeles where she currently resides. We first met because of the proliferation of emails she sent me marketing herself. Surely, I thought, anyone believing so strongly in her own skills was well worth knowing. And, I was right. Friend the friendly Miwa Lyric on Facebook or MySpace. That’s her in the photo here taken by Suzisusana.

Q: What's a nice Nissei (second-generation Japanese American) girl like you doing rapping?

A: I don't really like to be categorized as nice, or categorized at all, cause I am not really "nice". I just love music and through my childhood struggles, music is the one thing that kept me alive, literally.

Q: When did you know for sure that you wanted a career in music?

A: At the age of five.

Q: How have black audiences responded to you compared to Asian or more racially mixed ones?

A: It's rather recent that I perform in front of Asian audiences. When I first started about 12 years ago, there were not many Asians in the audience or in hiphop in general. A lot of Asian women come up to me and tell me that I inspire them to chase after their dreams--knowing the odds of me being Asian and female in hiphop. A lot of black audiences usually give me a blank look when I approach the stage. Then, when I start, they just roar up with smiles and claps. It's always a good feeling! Overall, I get a lot of surprised reactions from everyone because most people think I'm gonna go up on stage to sing, then when I start rapping they just flip out.

Q: Lately, hiphop is everywhere. It may have started out with black gangs in New York, but now even Japanese Ainu (Indigenous) are rapping. Do you think the art form is played out because it’s no longer quote, unquote, pure?

A: I feel like hiphop that calls itself hiphop nowadays has lost its message of the struggle, the movement. It seems like the newer generations have forgotten the past and where hiphop and just history in general comes from. But then again, those who are passing it down need to educate the young ones as well. Me, being in between the new school and old school, I hope to connect that. I think the new music now is a new type of hiphop but it is definitely not the "real" or "original" hiphop that it used to be.

Q: You have such a huge following in L.A. Can you explain why your fans are so devoted to you?

A: Well first off, I am different--something new and, like I mentioned earlier, I was against all odds, which gives people hope that maybe they can go after what they always wanted to try (not just music, but everything in general) but were afraid to. But I think, overall, it’s because I speak from my heart. Everything I write about are things that I want to address because of my experiences and my own personal struggles. Many can relate and those who can't, see a new perspective. I feel that whether people love me or hate me, I bring words that people can ponder about.

Q: Recently, you've been appearing in Japan. How did it feel to perform for people who look like you, but who are so different at the same time?

A: It was an amazing and scary experience. Scary because I have always heard that they don't react like us Americans do, but I proved that wrong. They were bobbing their heads and had their hands up! They showed me that music definitely connects people worldwide!

Q: Your parents don't seem like typical Japanese parents because they allow you and your sister (a fashion designer) to fully express your art. Do you have any thoughts on that?

A: I guess since they are not typical I really wouldn't know what typical defines! But my folks are both artists, and they lived the times through the war. They’ve both seen different parts of the world (dad lived in New York, mom in England), and my dad struggled through poverty and losing his parents at a young age so he never got to go to high school. My mom was definitely a "new age woman", the type of lady that escapes the "norm" and how women shouldn’t be able to do what they want. My dad was always very supportive of my music, but my mom was not. She told me that I had to prove to her that I wanted it, and I proved it to her.

Indeed you have, Marvelous Miwa Lyric. For more info on Miwa, check out the sites below:

http://www.miwalyric.com

http://www.miwakayama.com

http:// www.soulawear.com

http://www.cdbaby.net/miwalyric

http://www.itunes.com

If you Hip Hapa Homeez haven’t already, you should check out the video below. Can you believe it? After all the information educating folks about the nonsense of being color struck, here comes this travesty. I feel like I was just transported back to the plantation or something.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2009/09/09/sidner.india.white.skin.cnn

Anyway, please keep your comments and emails coming. A special shout-out to my girl, Mary no-last-name-please, for continuing to stay so involved with this blog.

Remember to join our Hip Hapa Homeez group on Facebook and our Watermelon Sushi fan page, too. We’re also trying to tweet on Twitter as much as we can (honestly, we forget with all the things we have to do). And, we still have those t-shirts.

Until next week, I am…

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

Jero (Or, J-Lo)

Over the past few weeks, I've received emails from friends that included links to YouTube videos for a singer named Jero.

Jero, I quickly discovered, is actually Jerome White--a 26 year-old enka singer from Pittsburgh. What's enka? you might well ask. Well, it's a very traditional style of Japanese music featuring strong vocals and heavy emotional expressions. Like most things Japanese, the lyrics are focused on Mother Nature's four seasons and, of course, human love. Singing enka also requires certain voice and facial inflections that are revered by the audience when a singer produces them, and Jero seems to have them down.

Jero (who, it turns out, has a Japanese grandmother) not only sings enka but also speaks Japanese. On his YouTube videos you can watch the Japanese hosts of a television show exclaim in surprise, "Sugoi!" when he opens his mouth and spills out Japanese answers to their Japanese questions. I'm no expert in the language (I'm limited to endless nouns and a few verbs), but he sounded authentic to me. At least his pronunciations were pretty good.

So, what's all the fuss about this young man? For one, Jero is African American. Or, at least he's 3/4 since his mother is half Japanese. Dressed like a hiphop artist, Jero bursts from a graffiti decorated background, but instead of exclaiming "yo this and yo that", he croons with authority and integrity in one of the Japanese' favorite singing styles. It's to his credit that Jero could've been just another rapper, but early on felt a strong connection to his Japanese roots and embraced them. I imagine the boys in his 'hood might've laughed at him had they known what he yearned to sing. After all, don't all young black men rap?

Whether he caught flak for his musical choice or not, Jero has the last laugh. Right now in, he's a huge hit in Japan where he currently lives.

I'd love to post a pic of him here, but the only ones I have access to are copyrighted. So, just take my word that he is one cutie-pie. Besides, you should check out his videos. Just go to YouTube and search for Jero. Anyway, the closest image I could come up with is one of me posing with singer Brian McKnight's brother, Frederick, while we were in Seattle in 2000. I know, it's a stretch, but my story needed visuals.

Hey, thanks to Michelle at the World War II War Brides Association and Eriko for sending me Jero clips. Thanks also to Derrick Holmes for providing additional information like how the Japanese call him J-Lo.

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi