National Association of Asian American Professionals [NAAAP] Pittsburgh Annual Summer Picnic, August 23.

The Pittsburgh chapter of the National Association of Asian American Professions [NAAAP] will hold is annual summer picnic on August 23 in North Park. From the Facebook event page:

Get out and enjoy summer with NAAAP (The National Association of Asian American Professionals) and NetIP (The Network of Indian Professionals). Join us for our annual summer picnic! We'll enjoy food, games, and good conversation. Bring yourself and a dish to share.

The picnic will be held at Miller Grove in North Park. Note that this is a free event, but please bring a dish to share. Frisbees, balls, and any outdoor games are encouraged if you have them. You are welcome to bring family along (this is a kid friendly event) or invite any other friends. The picnic will run from 12pm to 4pm and food will be served at 1pm.

Everyone is welcome, you don't need to be a member of NAAAP or NetIP (or an Asian/Indian professional) to join in. Post a comment or contact us at info@naaappittsburgh.org for more information.

"Hiroshima Day Observed Here", 1963.

On August 6 and 7, 1963, the local papers reported on Hiroshima Day events in Pittsburgh. From the Pittsburgh Press on the 6th:

Paper cranes on helium-filled balloons -- symbols of the children who died 18 years ago during the bombing of Hiroshima -- flew high above Gateway Center today.

The paper birds were sent aloft by a group of Pittsburgh women as reminders that today's children still face the dangers of the nuclear arms race.

The Pittsburgh Women for Peace, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and the Society of Friends sponsored the outdoor observance of Hiroshima Day. The groups are urging support of the nuclear test ban treaty now awaiting ratification by the U.S. Senate.

Pittsburgh City Council issues proclamation to "commend and recognize" Remembering Hiroshima, Imagining Peace.

On August 4, two days before the 69th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the Pittsburgh City Council issued a proclamation to "commend and recognize the important work of Remembering Hiroshima, Imagining Peace".

Chinatown bus stop moving to Strip District.

Pittsburgh's Chinatown bus stop is moving from Oakland to the Strip District effective September 1. Currently located at 116 Meyren Ave., its new home will be 1613 Penn Ave. (map), according to the sign posted on its door, between a Chinese restaurant and an Asian hair salon. The daily bus to New York's Chinatown leaves at 12:20 am and costs $45 each way ($65 at the door, though $45 if you mention "George", says George.)

In early June we posted about a different sign on the door that read:

Retail opportunity on the ground floor of one of
Pittsburgh's hottest technology co-working spaces
116 Meyran Avenue is available for lease

Lao-language The Rocket at Northland Public Library, August 13.

Australian Lao-language film The Rocket will play at Northland Public Library on August 13. It's this month's selection in the Foreign Film Series. It was one of four films to open the 2013 Three Rivers Film Festival last fall.

The Akha people of Laos believe that giving birth to twins is bad luck. The main character’s twin is stillborn and it is believed that he will bring bad luck to everyone around him. Ten years later, the family gets word that their village will soon be under water due to a Dam project. After calamity-filled adventures, he tries to prove that he’s not bad luck by building a giant rocket to enter into an exciting and dangerous competition, the Rocket Festival. This film has won 25 awards and has been nominated for 20 others.

The movie starts at 1:30 pm, and is in Lao with English subtitles. Northland Public Library is located in McCandless Township in the North Hills (map).

I Live in Fear (生きものの記録), Hiroshima-Nagasaki Legacy Exhibit, Shibori Peace Quilt, and remembering the "miracle of terror".

A reminder, the 1955 Akira Kurosawa film I Live in Fear (生きものの記録) will play at the Melwood Screening Room (map) in Oakland on August 5. The film is co-sponsored by Remembering Hiroshima, Imagining Peace as a commemoration of the 69th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the 6:00 pm screening is followed by an 8:00 pm Skype interview with Japanese students.

Remembering Hiroshima, Imagining Peace has again this year planned other activities around the commemoration. From August 4 through 15, Hiroshima-Nagasaki Legacy Exhibit will be on display at the City-County Building downtown. The exhibit "consists of photographs, graphics, poetry, and artwork" and is co-sponsored by Veterans for Peace.

From August 5 through 10, the Pittsburgh Children's Museum will host the Shibori Peace Quilt Project. From 12 to 3 each day, visitors are invited to dye small pieces of cloth in the Japanese shibori style. These pieces will then be woven into a quilt to be presented to representatives from Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 2015. The museum's website has a bit more:

Today, there are Museums of Peace in both cities where people can go and learn about the bombs, feel sad together, and forgive each other for the war. One of the things that makes things stop hurting so much is when people who remember what happened teach their children about how painful war is, and how poisonous bombs are. Another thing that helps is to make something beautiful to share.

Please join the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh and Remembering Hiroshima, Imagining Peace to make a Shibori memorial honoring those who were hurt in World War II, and their children and grandchildren who have been healing and rebuilding their communities ever since.

The Pittsburgh Children's Museum is located on the North Side (map).



Also on the North Side, along the Northshore Heritage Trail, is a permanent memorial to the victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A marker at Frederick Franck's "The Unkillable Human" reads:

At Hiroshima Franck was confronted with the shadow of a human being burned into a concrete wall by the atomic bomb.

The indestructible spirit rises from the ashes.

At the time of 2012's post on the memorial and contemporary coverage on "the miracle of terror", the Shadow Project had placed bungee cord outlines of bodies, seen above, replicating similar memorials that turn up this time of year. The sculpture by Franck is located basically across the street from Warhola Recycling on Chesboro St. (map).

Asian Garden coming to North Fayette.

A bridge at one end of a pond that comprises the Asian garden; from the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden's Facebook page.

On Friday the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review wrote about the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, opening on August 1, which will include an Asian garden as one of its five Woodlands areas.

The 60-acre Woodlands section that will open next week features five areas: a Cove Forest, an Asian Garden, European and English woodlands and an Appalachian Plateau. Cove forests are unique to the Appalachians and lie in small valleys closed at one or both ends.

A master plan posted in February says the contents of the Asian Woods will include: Lotus Pond and Teahouse; Stream & Primrose Garden; Bench Garden; Azalea Bowl; and Maple Trail and Rustic Shelter. It will abut a Rock and Gravel Garden.

The Pittsburgh Botanic Garden is located at 798 Pinkerton Run Rd. in Oakdale (map). It's open Thursday through Sunday from 9 to 5 from August through November, and until dusk on Saturdays. General admission tickets are $9 for adults and $8 for students and seniors.

First rendition of Sichuan University-Pittsburgh Institute.

Last week the University of Pittsburgh put that artist's rendition of Sichuan University-Pittsburgh Institute on its website. The institute at Sichuan University's Jiang'an campus is set to open in Fall 2015 with an initial enrollment of 100 undergraduates across three majors, though a University of Pittsburgh press release says the enrollment is projected to reach 1,600. Ground was broken for the institute on July 2.

학원 in Pittsburgh? Murrysville man starts SAT academy based on South Korean models.

Yesterday's Tribune-Review profiled Jesse Lee, who started mySchooler Academy and Education Consulting after being dissatisfied with options for preparing his own son for the SATs:

Lee moved to the United States from South Korea in 2000, earning a master's degree in information science from Carnegie Mellon University.

“A couple years ago I thought about it, that I just needed (to provide) that for college preparation,” said Lee, 46, who lives in Murrysville with his wife, Kyung, and son Jay, a junior at Penn-Trafford High School. “Originally we started this year in January: Saturday classes started at that point and then we just expanded them. Our students just needed more, so we set up doing a summer schedule for them.”

Talk with author of Love Beyond Measure: Memoir of a Korean War Bride, July 29.

On July 29, the South Butler Community Library will host author Katie Schell to discuss her 2013 book Love Beyond Measure: Memoir of a Korean War Bride:

Encounter a breathtaking story about one of the first Korean women to ever live in Moon Township, PA. This memoir details the amazing life of her mother Ock Soon Lee’s journey as a young Korean peasant who survived unspeakable suffering. Orphaned at age seven and farmed out to households as a slave, Lee experienced near-starvation and capture by the North Korean Army. Yet, incredibly she survived and fell in love with an American G.I. from McKees Rocks. After immigration laws changed in the late 1950’s she became one of a small handful of Korean War brides to make it to the United States. This is a true story of incredible courage that carried Ock Soon Lee from life as a peasant in Korea to that of a proud American. It is a story of strength and love during the Korean War. It is a story you will never forget.