Category: Asian & Pacific American studies

CBS Sunday Morning & Other Ukulele News/Reviews

Posted on by UH Press Marketing
CBS Sunday Morning interviewed Jim Tranquada on the UH Manoa campus (courtesy of CBS Sunday Morning).

Jim Tranquada, coauthor of The ‘Ukulele: A History, had a minute of fame on the CBS Sunday Morning Show that aired October 14 across the U.S. The entire six-minute segment by reporter Seth Doane and producer Kay Lim featured international uke star Jake Shimabukuro, the Kamaka ‘ukulele factory, and teacher Roy Sakuma (impresario of the annual Ukulele Festival Hawaii). Tranquada shared that the instrument now widely identified as a Hawaiian icon actually was introduced by Portuguese immigrants from the island of Madeira, off the coast of Morocco.

As related news, The ‘Ukulele: A History has received thumbs-up reviews from Library Journal and ForeWord Magazine. The former recommends the book for “any comprehensive music collection (and, really, for any popular music collection),” while the latter calls it “a fascinating musical and social history that not only supports Tranquada and King’s argument for a rehabilitation of the instrument’s image, but also sets the stage for a full-scale ‘ukulele revival.” Read the full reviews:
Library Journal    |   ForeWord

Roughly half a world away, on another island, the “Uke Ireland & Ukuhooley Blog” has posted a comparative review of Tranquada and King’s history with Ian Whitcomb’s recent Ukulele Heroes (Hal Leonard Books). Embedded within that blog post is a video review by Ukester Brown, a ‘ukulele player in Minnesota, who recommends both books, for different reasons. According to the information on the Uke Ireland site, every Saturday there’s a UkuHooley Meetup at the Dun Laoghaire Club in Dublin—perhaps another example of how the ‘ukulele has become an international cultural phenomenon!

A Journey into Hawaiian Ways of Knowing

Posted on by stephchun

Ancestry of Experience
As Hawaiians continue to recover their language and culture, the voices of kupuna (elders) are heard once again in urban and rural settings, both in Hawai‘i and elsewhere. How do kupuna create knowledge and “tell” history? What do they tell us about being Hawaiian? Adopted by a Midwestern couple in the 1950s as an infant, Leilani Holmes spent much of her early life in settings that offered no clues about her Hawaiian past—images of which continued to haunt her even as she completed a master’s thesis on Hawaiian music and identity in southern California. Ancestry of Experience: A Journey into Hawaiian Ways of Knowing documents Holmes’ quest to reclaim and understand her own origin story.

“Part memoir of a Kanaka academic in the diaspora searching for her ‘ohana, part historical and ethnographic celebration of Hawaiian culture, and part documentation of the reality of Kanaka ʻŌiwi constant communication with our kūpuna o ka pō (those who have passed into the pō), Ancestry of Experience is that rarity of rarities: an academic page-turner. Leilani Holmes’ book will bring readers to tears in its evocation of the enduring love and spiritual connection in an ʻohana that spans many generations, and make them gasp at the incredible series of ‘coincidences’ that leads to Leilani’s re-connection with her ʻohana.” —Noenoe Silva, professor of political science, University of Hawai‘i, and author of Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism

September 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3129-5 / $39.00 (CLOTH)

Conversations with UH Press Authors

Posted on by UH Press Marketing

Besides the NPR “Crime in the City” interview with Victoria Kneubuhl that aired August 13, other “talk stories” with UH Press authors took place in the past month:

Hawai‘i Public Radio‘s The Conversation interviewed jazz saxophonist Gabe Baltazar about his memoir, If It Swings, It’s Music. Listen to the  “Book ’em, Gabe-o…with a new autobiography” in the HPR archives for August 7.

Gabe was also featured in the “Old Friends” column that appeared in the August 29 edition of MidWeek, mailed to over 270,000 homes in Hawai‘i. Read the online version here.

On August 27, HPR’s The Conversation caught up with Jim Tranquada at Occidental College to talk about The ‘Ukulele: A History. Listen to the “Madeiran melody maker morphs into a jumping flea…” in the archived show.

The editor of MauiTime interviewed author Tom Coffman about his inspiring new book, I Respectfully Dissent: A Biography of Edward H. Nakamura. Read Coffman’s take on Justice Nakamura’s legacy as a labor attorney and Supreme Court justice in the August 23 cover story, “Standing Alone.”

Family Torn Apart Roundtable Discussion

Posted on by stephchun

Join Lily Ozaki Arasato for a roundtable discussion of Family Torn Apart: The Internment Story of the Otokichi Muin Ozaki Family on Saturday, June 23, 10:30-11:30 am, at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i’s Community Gallery. Ms. Arasato is the daughter of Otokichi Ozaki, who was a Japanese language school teacher and tanka poet in Hilo. Family Torn Apart traces Ozaki’s WWII incarceration at eight different camps, his family’s life in Hawai‘i without him, and later their move to join Ozaki in the camps.

Family Torn Apart is distributed by UH Press for the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i.

Biography of Edward Nakamura

Posted on by stephchun

I Respectfully DissentI Respectfully Dissent, Tom Coffman’s portrait of Edward Nakamura, is both insightful biography and engrossing political history. The arc of the story may sound familiar (the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the GI Bill, Statehood), but it is strewn with surprise, resulting from Nakamura’s unshakable creed and unique angle of vision. Translating the political gains of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Nakamura played a central role—unpublicized—in devising arguably the most progressive program of legislation in an American state: universal health care, temporary disability insurance, collective bargaining rights for public workers, and more—all of which forever changed the Hawai‘i worker’s landscape.

“Rarely do we encounter someone who not only touches our daily lives but also shapes society for the better. Ed Nakamura was such a person, a visionary who lived simply, who was gentle in manner yet fierce in his life-long devotion to justice.” —Lowell Chun-Hoon, labor lawyer

May 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3572-9 / $14.99 (PAPER)

Autobiography of Jazz Musician Gabe Baltazar Jr.

Posted on by stephchun

If It Swings, It's MusicHawai‘i’s legendary jazz musician Gabe Baltazar Jr. has thrilled audiences since the late 1940s with his powerful and passionate playing. In If It Swings, It’s Music, the first book on his life and career, Gabe takes readers through the highs, lows, and in-betweens on the long road to becoming one of the very few Asian Americans who has achieved worldwide acclaim as a jazz artist.

“Gabe Baltazar is a living example of the rare Asian American jazz musician who enjoyed a national and international career, one that took place during an important transitional period when jazz was being transformed from a popular idiom into a bona fide tradition. His story provides insight into a real working jazz musician’s life with all its headaches, victories, defeats, and joys.” —Kevin Fellezs, Columbia University

May 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3637-5 / $24.99 (PAPER)

A Conversation about the American Immigrant Experience

Posted on by stephchun

Mary Yu Danico, author of The 1.5 Generation: Becoming Korean American in Hawai‘i and co-editor of the recently published Transforming the Ivory Tower: Challenging Racism, Sexism, and Homophobia in the Academy, participated in a discussion on the 1.5 immigrant experience at the Crawford Family Forum in Pasadena on March 27. The forum was sponsored by Southern California Public Radio.

The 1.5 generation—comprising immigrants who arrive in the U.S. as children and younger teens—holds a unique place within the immigrant diaspora experience. What roles do they play at home or outside it? What languages do they speak in given situations? Does 1.5-ness affect who gets their votes—or their hands in love or marriage?

Listen to the forum here: http://www.scpr.org/events/2012/03/27/being-15-intergenerational-ness-day-day-life/.

Challenging Racism, Sexism, and Homophobia in the Academy

Posted on by stephchun

Transforming the Ivory TowerPeople outside and within colleges and universities often view these institutions as fair and reasonable, far removed from the inequalities that afflict society in general. Despite greater numbers of women, working class people, and people of color—as well as increased visibility for LGBTQ students and staff—over the past fifty years, universities remain “ivory towers” that perpetuate institutionalized forms of sexism, classism, racism, and homophobia. Transforming the Ivory Tower: Challenging Racism, Sexism, and Homophobia in the Academy, edited by Brett C. Stockdill and Mary Yu Danico, builds on the rich legacy of historical struggles to open universities to dissenting voices and oppressed groups. Each chapter is guided by a commitment to praxis—the idea that theoretical understandings of inequality must be applied to concrete strategies for change.

March 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3526-2 / $39.00 (CLOTH)

Race, Nation, and Sexuality in the Affairs of Yone Noguchi

Posted on by stephchun

Queer CompulsionsWhile confessing his love to fellow writer Charles Warren Stoddard, Yone Noguchi (1875–1947) had a child (future sculptor Isamu Noguchi) with his editor, Léonie Gilmour; became engaged to Washington Post reporter Ethel Armes; and upon his return to Japan married Matsu Takeda—all within a span of seven years. According to Amy Sueyoshi’s Queer Compulsions: Race, Nation, and Sexuality in the Affairs of Yone Noguchi, Noguchi was not a dedicated polyamorist: He deliberately deceived the three women, to whom he either pretended or promised marriage while already married. Sueyoshi argues further that Noguchi’s intimacies point to little-known realities of race and sexuality in turn-of-the-century America and illuminate how Asian immigrants negotiated America’s literary and arts community. As Noguchi maneuvered through cultural and linguistic differences, his affairs additionally assert how Japanese in America could forge romantic fulfillment during a period historians describe as one of extreme sexual deprivation and discrimination for Asians, particularly in California.

“There is no question that Amy Sueyoshi is a very gifted historian who has mined every available source on Yone Noguchi. Her work is as exhaustive and deep in its interrogation of the extant literature as one could possibly hope for. Moreover, it has placed the life history of Yone Noguchi in a broad sweep of various fields of academic inquiry that gives his particular experiences relevance well beyond the field of Asian American history. The story of this rather unknown and unremarkable poet is rife with intellectual and academic meaning well beyond the significance of a late nineteenth-century historical biography.” —Tomas Almaguer, San Francisco State University

February 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3497-5 / $40.00 (CLOTH)

Ethnoburb Now Available in Paperback

Posted on by stephchun

EthnoburbWinner of the Association for Asian American Studies’ Book Award in Social Sciences, Ethnoburb: The New Ethnic Community in Urban America, by Wei Li, provides a new model for the analysis of ethnic and racial settlement patterns in the United States and Canada. Ethnoburbs—suburban ethnic clusters of residential areas and business districts in large metropolitan areas—are multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural, multilingual, and often multinational communities in which one ethnic minority group has a significant concentration but does not necessarily constitute a majority. Li documents the processes that have evolved with the spatial transformation of the Chinese American community of Los Angeles and that have converted the San Gabriel Valley into ethnoburbs in the latter half of the twentieth century, and she examines the opportunities and challenges that occurred as a result of these changes.

“A thought-provoking and well-executed book. The built environment is among the most reliable indicators of who people are and what they want, and Li has persuasively demonstrated key aspects of some dramatic transformations.” —The Geographical Review

February 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3671-9 / $25.00 (PAPER)

Distributed for the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii

Posted on by stephchun

Family Torn ApartFamily Torn Apart: The Internment Story of the Otokichi Muin Ozaki Family, edited by Gail Honda, is the gripping story of one Hawai‘i family’s World War II odyssey. Otokichi Ozaki, a Japanese immigrant, was a Japanese language school teacher, tanka poet, and anthurium grower and also a leader of the Japanese community in the city of Hilo on the Big Island of Hawai‘i. Based on letters, poetry, and radio scripts in the collection of the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i, and translated here for the first time, this work traces Ozaki’s incarceration at eight different detention camps, his family’s life in Hawai‘i without him, their decision to ‘voluntarily’ enter Mainland detention camps in the hope of reuniting, and their subsequent frustration as that reunion bogged down in red tape and government apathy.

January 2012 / ISBN 978-0-9761493-1-6 / $26.00 (PAPER)
Distributed for the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i

New Catalog: Hawaii and the Pacific 2012

Posted on by stephchun

Hawaii and the Pacific 2012 catalog
The UH Press Hawai‘i and the Pacific 2012 catalog is now available. To view the 4.6M PDF (the catalog is available online only), click on the cover image to the left.

Highlights include:

* An illustrated history of the ‘ukulele (The ‘Ukulele: A History)

* A handy guide to “power foods”: fruits, vegetables, and nuts that could save your life (Eat Smart, Stay Well)

* The story behind the conservation of the Big Island’s King Kamehameha statue and its meaning for the residents of Kapa‘au (The Painted King: Art, Activism, and Authenticity in Hawai‘i)

* Two histories of Kaluapapa/Makanalua: (Kalaupapa: A Collective Memory) and (Ma‘i Lepera: A History of Leprosy in Nineteenth-Century Hawai‘i)

* An illustrated compilation of traditional Hawaiian design (Links to the Past: The Work of Early Hawaiian Artisans)

* Two works offering invaluable insights into Hawaiian culture: (No Na Mamo: Traditional Contemporary Hawaiian Beliefs and Practices) and (I Ulu I Ke Kumu: The Hawai‘inuiakea Monograph)

* The autobiography of legendary Hawai‘i jazzman Gabe Baltazar Jr. (If It Swings, It’s Music: The Autobiography of Hawai‘i’s Gabe Baltazar Jr.)

* A trek into the past with Hawai‘i hiking expert Stuart Ball (Native Paths to Volunteer Trails: Hiking and Trail Building on O‘ahu)

* The most comprehensive and thoroughly illustrated treatment of loulu, the Hawaiian palm (Loulu: The Hawaiian Palm)

* A look at the complex interaction between lived sexualities and socio-legal mores at the turn of the 20th century (Queer Compulsions: Race, Nation, and Sexuality in the Affairs of Yone Noguchi)

* A posthumous work detailing the spiritual journey of a young Japanese scholar who immersed himself in Australian Indigenous culture (Gurindji Journey: A Japanese Historian in the Outback)

MENU