API Month Conversation with Professor Xiang - "Last Night at the Telegraph Club", January 24 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's University Library System will present API Month Conversation with Professor Xiang - "Last Night at the Telegraph Club" on January 24.

Join the University Library System for a conversation with Professor Lidong Xiang from the English Department to talk about "Last Night at the Telegraph Club" as part of API month at Pitt. The book received National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2021, but is currently banned from the K-12 schools and libraries in many states. 

The novel tells the story of Lily Hu, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, as she explores her sexuality and the struggles and threats her family faces in 1950's San Francisco during the Red Scare and the McCarthyism investigations. 

Professor Xiang is assistant professor at the English Department in the University of Pittsburgh. She received the Doctoral Degree in Childhood Studies from Rutgers University; and is committed to critically engaging with social justice issues regarding girls and other marginalized children and youth.

It runs from 12:30 to 1:15 pm in the 1st Floor Cafe of Hillman Library (map), and is free and open to the public. Registration is recommended and can be completed online.

Miyazaki film The Boy and the Heron (君たちはどう生きるか) remains in Pittsburgh-area theaters through (at least) January 25.

The 2023 Hayao Miyazaki film The Boy and the Heron (君たちはどう生きるか), which opened across Pittsburgh-area theaters on December 7, will remain here through (at least) January 25. A synopsis of the movie, from the distributor:

Hayao Miyazaki's first feature film in 10 years, The Boy and the Heron is a hand-drawn, original story written and directed by the Academy Award®-winning director. Produced by Studio Ghibli co-founder Toshio Suzuki, the film features a musical score from Miyazaki's long-time collaborator Joe Hisaishi. The theme song for the film "Spinning Globe" was penned and performed by global J-pop superstar Kenshi Yonezu.

. . .

A young boy named Mahito
yearning for his mother
ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead.
There, death comes to an end,
and life finds a new beginning.


A semi-autobiographical fantasy
about life, death, and creation,
 in tribute to friendship,
from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki.

Tickets are available online for shows at the Chartiers Valley Luxury 14 (the AMC Loews Waterfront is temporarily closed). Please note, some shows are in Japanese with English subtitles while others are dubbed in English.

Book Launch! Diana Khoi Nguyen "Root Fractures," January 30 at White Whale Bookstore.

White Whale Bookstore will host a book launch for Diana Khoi Nguyen's Root Fractures on January 30.

Our poetry-loving staff are big fans of National Book Award finalist and Pitt prof Diana Khoi Nguyen’s work, and we are so excited to host her in-store for the release of her second poetry collection, Root Fractures, a haunting of a family’s past upon its present, and a frank reckoning with how loss and displacement transform mothers and daughters across generations. Diana will be joined by poets S. Brook Corfman, Trish Le, and Chet'la Sebree, who will be reading their own work on the topic of family.

In Root Fractures, Diana Khoi Nguyen excavates the moments of rupture in a family: a mother who was forced underground after the Fall of Saigon, a father who engineered a new life in California as an immigrant, a brother who cut himself out of every family picture before cutting himself out of their lives entirely. And as new generations of the family come of age, opportunities to begin anew blend with visitations from the past. Through poems of disarming honesty and personal risk, Nguyen examines what takes root after a disaster and how we can make a story out of the broken pieces of our lives.

In the Mood for Love (花樣年華), Past Lives at Row House Lawrenceville, February 9 through 15.

The 2000 Wong Kar-wai film In the Mood for Love (花樣年華) and the 2023 Celine Song movie Past Lives will play at the Row House Lawrenceville from February 9 through 15, part of the Love Languages film series.

A summary of the former:

Wong Kar-wai’s vibrant romantic drama starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu-wai explores the limits of morality, the passing of time, and courage as it follows neighbors drawn together by their spouses’ extramarital affairs in overcrowded 1960s Hong Kong.

And the latter:

Subtle and moving, Greta Lee stars in Celine Song’s deeply human story of two childhood friends who are reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life.

Tickets are available online. The single-screen theater is located at 4115 Butler Street in Lawrenceville (map).

2009 Japanese animated movie GURREN LAGANN THE MOVIE: The Lights in the Sky are Stars- in Pittsburgh, January 23 and 24.

The 2009 Japanese animated movie GURREN LAGANN THE MOVIE: The Lights in the Sky are Stars will play in Pittsburgh on January 23 and 24, a week after the first installment of the Gurren Lagann series played here.

Seven Years have passed since the battle of Teepelin…

Humans have successfully rebuilt civilization under Simon’s leadership and enjoyed an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity. However, humanity’s increasing population triggers the emergence of a powerful enemy. This fearsome Anti-Spiral proves too overwhelming for humanity to fight back. In these desperate times, the members of Team Dai-Gurren reunite to fight once again. In this high-stakes battle, can Simon and his team pierce the heavens with the Gurren Lagann to save mankind one last time?

It plays locally at the AMC Loews Waterfront and the Cinemark theaters in Monaca, Monroeville, North Hills, and Robinson, and tickets are available online.

Caroline Yoo Solo Show Alice & Alice: in Free Fall, January 19 - February 16.

Caroline Yoo's Solo Show "Alice & Alice: in Free Fall" will run from January 19 through February 16 at Bunker Projects in Bloomfield.

Inspired by the life of double agent Alice Hyun (1903- 1956??), A l i c e & A l i c e: in Free Fall, pays tribute to the first Korean American born in Hawaii and the first Korean American to gain US citizenship through birth. This new body of work is the first solo exhibition of artist and performer Caroline Yoo, who continues her research practice of amplifying stories of forgotten women, the women who rebelled, the women who were too loud for history.

Born while Korea was under Japanese colonization, Hyun believed in an independent one-nation Korea. The radical pioneer devoted her life to independence, enrolled in the USA military working partially as a linguist during World War II, and was stationed in Tokyo and Seoul until 1945-1946. However, in a turn of events, Alice was uncovered as a communist and was named as a double agent for North Korea. Despite her incredibly complicated and high stakes life, the independence fighter’s legacy is absent from Korean American and feminist histories in both mainland South Korea and the United States.

A multimedia and multi-sensory installation, Alice & Alice includes a 3-channel video work, an interactive tea performance, and prints of translated archival documentation. The exhibition’s centerpiece, a 3-channel video made completely through thermal technology, weaves text from Alice Hyun’s archives and Lewis Carroll’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to pose questions about the role of nationalism in the diaspora. Alice Hyun was labeled a communist, a devil, a spy, both an enemy and ally. A l i c e & A l i c e: in Free Fall positions Alice as a metaphor for bodies that simultaneously house multiple cultures and multiple truths while asking what is the past, present, and future of diaspora politics tethered to motherland and birthland nationalism.

The show starts with a soft opening on the 19th from 5:00 to 8:00 pm, and punctuated by We're all made here, 35-minute sound, vocal, movement performances on February 8 and 15th. Bunker Projects is located at 5106 Penn Ave. in Bloomfield (map).

Freshworks: Caroline Yoo and Davine Byon, April 5-6 at Kelly Strayhorn Theater.

The Kelly Strayhorn Theater will host "Freshworks: Caroline Yoo and Davine Byon" on April 5 and 6.

Prophecies & Soy Sauce Shots is an experimental performance with artists Caroline Yoo and Davine Byon. They dance together, rejecting the permanently aspirational future and reflecting on the consequences of ancestral dreamwork. The performance asks, are we dreaming in resistance of or within the confines of colonized standards of success? They move through three vignettes, using projections, sculpture, music, and the exchange of dreams. This new performance in process pieces together a messy, precious home in the diaspora, and asks whose dreams – past, present, and future – we are living for.

Freshworks is KST’s creative residency for Pittsburgh-based artists and collaborators. It supports playful exploration in performance through interdisciplinary work in contemporary dance, theater, music, and multimedia. The program provides artists with financial resources, studio space, production staff, lighting and sound design, professional development, and encouragement for creative risk-taking.

The shows run from 7:30 to 9:00 pm each night and include a post-show discussion. Tickets are available at "pay what moves you prices" online. The Kelly Strayhorn Theater is located at 5941 Penn Ave. in East Liberty (map).

Taiwanese chain Wushiland Boba's first Pittsburgh location now open.

Wushiland Boba is now open in Pittsburgh, on S. Craig St. near the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon campuses. During this soft opening period it is open from 12 to 7 pm.  

Where It All Began

In 1994, Wu-Shih-Lan started its first “Hand-Shaken Tea” store in Tainan, one of the major cities in Southern Taiwan. The commitment of using the best and authentic ingredients led to an exponential popularity growth. Wu- Shih-Land soon successfully expanded its brand and became a leading beverage company in Taiwan. Across the Pacific Ocean- A Taste from Taiwan.

 

Across the Pacific Ocean- A Taste from Taiwan 

With the desire to share our classic Taiwanese taste to the world, we started our journey in North America. Today, we proudly serve our customers fresh hand-made tea everyday in five locations in Southern California. Our first store OO Tea opened in San Diego, California in 2016, followed by the second store, Wushiland Boba opened in San Gabriel, California in 2017. Recently, three stores were launched in Westfield shopping centers. Come visit us and enjoy a taste of Taiwan without needing to travel thousands of miles away. 

Signage first went up for the new bubble tea place in October. It is located at 300 S. Craig St. (map), where Fuku Tea opened its second location in July 2020. The operator of this Wushiland is the Director of Operations of Fuku Tea and Atarashi Sushi, the latter an offshoot of the Sushi Fuku that had a few locations in Oakland and that opened Fuku Tea in 2015.

via @WushilandBobaUSA

1973 Japanese film Lady Snowblood (修羅雪姫) at Row House Lawrenceville, from January 19.

The 1973 Japanese film Lady Snowblood (修羅雪姫) at Row House Lawrenceville as part of its Snow Week series, January 19 - 25.

One of the most influential action films of all time, this 1970s Japanese cult classic follows Yuki — who has been raised as an assassin since birth to avenge her family. It served as inspiration for countless revenge thriller films, including Tarantino’s Kill Bill series.

Tickets are available online. The single-screen theater is located at 4115 Butler St. (map).

University of Pittsburgh East Asian Library Open House, February 7.

The University of Pittsburgh University Library System will host an East Asian Library Open House on February 7.

Come join the University Library System's East Asian Library for an open house featuring a selection of rare and unique East Asian materials from Library's Archives & Special Collections.

Librarians from the East Asian Library will also be onsite to share information and resources available to the Pitt community and beyond.

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