Have you heard about the 3rd Annual "Capture the Spirit of Ramadan" International Photography Competition (IRPC)? The competition aims to bring people together from around the world in an effort to counter the negative images of Islam often seen in the media. The competition is open to all photographers, regardless of religion, to capture the spirit of the holy month of Ramadan.

The competition strives to open people's minds and hearts to the good in the Islamic faith. Islamophobia is still rampant in America with the media showing images of terrorism and hatred. By showing images of everyday Americans enjoying Ramadan, viewers will get to see inside of the faith that teaches true devotion through restraint and patience. This serves as a unique form of education through images rather than words.

IRPC is eager to (1) recruit professional photographers in America, regardless of religion, to submit entries, and (2) widen the viewership of Americans through their 55,000+ strong social media platforms.

IRPC is a unique international photography competition

• Publishes all online photo entries (that pass the submission criteria for quality and technical expertise, not just selected finalists and winners) daily throughout Ramadan

• Strives to give as much exposure to photographs throughout the year--an incentive for novice photographers

• Hosts an international touring exhibition of the IRPC photography collection (US exhibitions are currently in negotiations with the Arab American National Museum and the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim Christian Understanding at Georgetown University).

• Is a non-profit, year-round 100% volunteer initiative

About IRPC

IRPC was founded by Basel Almisshal, a professional photographer, in Ramadan 2011. IRPC has seen massive growth in its first two years, and will have an exhibition at The Museum of Islamic Arts in Malaysia during Ramadan 2014.

IRPC is a unique 30-day visual celebration of Ramadan, which began July 10, 2013. Artists from over 60 countries have shared images to over 3 million viewers in previous years.

To learn more, visit - www.spiritoframadan.org

Half Dozen, the toy and book boutique at apple seeds Chelsea, will be hosting a free Chinese New Year event on Sunday, February 24th from 10:30am to 12:00pm.

Where: half dozen: 10 West 25th St, New York, NY 10010
When: Sunday, February 24, 10:30am to 12:00pm
Cost: Free

Apple seeds will have a “create your own snake” art project to celebrate the year of the snake, and will also have the Fun with Animals of the Zodiac wooden puzzles by Clever Duck.

The party will feature a book reading by Michele Wong McSween, author of the “Gordon and Lili” book series, and will have her iPad for the kids to check out her new app “Gordon and Lili: Learn Animals in Mandarin”.

Learn more - www.gordonandlili.com

Every now and then I come across info that I think my community should know about. Tons of info gets passed around but somehow the communities of color don't seem to be in the loop. It's my aim to change that. Today I'm sharing info about the Wonderopolis’ America’s Wonder Year Adventure.

You might wonder why I'd want to share info about some search for families and teachers to be on a website. Duh, because I always felt there's not enough images or media example of OUR families on websites! Also this website is specifically on the a hunt for (3) families and (2) teachers from DIVERSE communities across the nation to join the family learning site for a Wonder Year.

I repeat. DIVERSE communities. Meaning BEYOND white. Yup.

Here's more info about the search.

The Wonder Year Adventure is open to the general public.

The chosen Wonder Families and Wonder Teachers will become the voices of Wonderopolis and will contribute to the Wonderopolis community in several ways. Each week, the Wonder Families and Wonder Teachers will share their learning experiences by posting to the blog and igniting a conversation through their posts and responses to the visitors’ comments. Social media will also play a large role in the Wonder Year as families and teachers will promote online and offline events through channels such as Twitter and Facebook.

This is a chance for OUR families to be featured and show how great we are. It's time we started being more proactive in getting our images out on the world wide web.

The deadline for applications is October 22, 2011 so get started applying NOW at http://www.wonderopolis.org/wonderyear

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I found this post over on Rice Daddies and loved it. While we all know the idea of "race" is a construct,  it still affects many areas of our lives. I like this post because it shows how the issues that race brings up can affect anyone in any culture. On the outside most people see such an asian couple with asian kids. But as he explains even asian have race and culture differences.

http://ricedaddies.blogspot.com/2011/08/race-is-always-parenting-issue.html

 

I also like this post because it's coming from the voice of a father. I wish more dads would add their concerns on race to the parenting community. Within my own community I've encouraged the fathers with blasian child to add their $.02 whenever possible. Being men their not as vocal as women but more and more are sharing. It's still a work in progress, but I'll keep working on :)

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World-renowned children’s clothing brand, OshKosh B’Gosh, announced an initiative to inspire kids to help families in Japan and raise awareness of children affected by the recent tragedy. The program, entitled Cranes for Kids, has a direct and immediate impact. For every origami crane sent to OshKosh B’Gosh by April 25th, the company will donate an article of clothing to children in Japan who have been displaced by the earthquake and tsunami.



In Japanese culture, cranes are a powerful symbol of health and well-wishes. Cranes for Kids was inspired by the ancient Japanese legend promising that anyone who folds 1,000 origami cranes will be granted a wish, most commonly recovery from illness or long life. Kids can create and submit paper cranes, and in exchange, OshKosh B’Gosh will donate up to 50,000 pieces of children’s apparel. In addition, OshKosh B’Gosh will provide a special ten percent discount to anyone who brings their crane to a store.

Origami crane instructions and paper are available, at no cost, at all OshKosh B’Gosh stores, including a special cut-out version for younger children. Families can also

• go online to http://oshkoshbgosh.com/cranesforkids


• visit the OshKosh B’Gosh’s Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/oshkoshbgosh to download the instructions.

Families can also participate by posting a picture of their crane on the OshKosh B’Gosh Facebook page.

Cranes will be collected at OshKosh B’Gosh stores from March 29, 2011 to April 25, 2011 or can be mailed to:
Cranes for Kids
OshKosh B’Gosh
One Waterview Drive
Shelton, CT 06484.

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In friendship and to help aid in relief of those affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, you can join Sanrio's Day of Donation!



In continued support to those affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Sanrio has designated Thursday, March 31, 2011 as a "Day of Donation". On this day, Sanrio.com and participating Sanrio Boutique Stores across the United States will donate all net proceeds to the American Red Cross to benefit Japan earthquake and Pacific tsunami relief efforts.

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I have a rant post sitting in draft about the BS that happened with the movie "The Last Airbender". Replacing the original theme of Asian characters with white one's caused such an uproar and with good reason.

But seems that same BS is about to happen again with the movie AKIRA. Once again the movie making powers want to replace Asian actors with white one within an "Asian" movie. WTF! Once again an uproar has started which lead to the "Don't Whitewash AKIRA!" Virtual Petition.

Racebending.com has created this event page to track the number of media consumers and fans who want to send a clear message to Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures, and the production of AKIRA: Don't Whitewash Akira!

On March 21st, 2011, Deadline.com reported that eight actors have been solicited for the roles of Tetsuo and Kaneda in AKIRA. All of the actors solicited were white. If not in a film called Akira, for characters named Kaneda and Tetsuo, when will Asian Americans get to star in a Warner Bros film?

MORE INFORMATION AT: http://www.racebending.com/v4/featured/akira-adaptation-courts-white-actors/

What is it with Hollywood trying to remake "Asian" movies without Asians?! While I applaud Race Bending for once again taking a stand to have more Asian actors casted, I worry that once again another movie will be made that replaces people of color with white people. I hope this time around more people will add their voice to this issue.

BTW, I really need to post that rant about The Last Airbender movie because I'm STILL pissed and want my $15 back!

I'm getting the word out folks!  I recently spoke with the very nice ladies at Today Moms about highlighting the community of Moms of Biracial children and more specific Mothers of Blasian children.  They asked me to write a little something and *BAM*,  now you can check out my post on their website site title :  Overcoming the Challenges of Raising Biracial Kids

I highlight how it feels to be be asked..."is that your baby" and my hope that as awareness for mixed-race families spreads, the challenges facing mothers of biracial children will become less a struggle and more a celebration of the differences that make us all special and unique. Enjoy!

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I first saw Marc Matsumoto of No Recipes when I attended a bloggers event. I wondered about this Asian guy walking around the room checking out the products. So I started following him on twitter.

Recently I saw Marc tweeted that blogger's were donating their months ad revenue to help Haiti. Since I'm always looking for ways the Asian and Black community crosses paths I contacted Marc for more info about about him, his Blog Away Hunger cause and to learn if he knew any Asian & Black fusion recipes.

1. How did you get into cooking and what's the idea behind No Recipes?

I can't remember when exactly I started cooking, but can say that I loved food before I loved cooking and so getting in the kitchen at an early age (maybe 5 or 6) was just a natural extension of my relationship with food. As for No Recipes, it's how I've cooked since the beginning. Maybe it was because I started cooking before I could read, or perhaps it was because my mother cooked without them. Either way, I've always found that using recipes is a bit like wearing a pair of shoes that are one size too small. Sure, I may post recipes on my site, but I try to go into the techniques behind the recipe so people have more leeway in improvising without missing something important.

2. Is there a certain style of cooking you favor?

I'm all about quick and easy. There's a lot of lore and old-wives-tales involved in cooking and I like to find faster easier ways of doing things without sacrificing the finished product. At the same time I'm also not a fan of processed foods, so when I can, I try to start with raw ingredients. For example, most people would call me crazy for making Japanese style curry from scratch when the packaged mixes taste pretty good, but I've found that it's not that much more work, and the results are worth the extra effort.

3. How did you get other chefs interested in joining your Blog Away Hunger program? How have your combined efforts helped different causes? How can others support your program?

Call me an idealist, but I've always believed that if people who lived a better life, helped those worse off than them, there would be no poverty or hunger in the world. The World Food Program estimates that of the 7 billion people on Earth, 1 billion go to sleep hungry every night and another 2 billion are malnourished. If the other 4 billion people pitched in a dollar per week, chronic hunger could be eradicated. The problem is that most people are waiting till they win the lottery to help people out. It's part of human nature to never be satisfied with what you have, but by giving to those with less than you, it's a reminder that your situation could be a lot worse.

Blog Away Hunger has never been about collecting large individual donations. Whether you're choosing to eat-in one more night a week and donating the savings, or saving a few bucks at the grocery store and donating that, the idea is that if a lot of people come together and make a small change in their lifestyle, together, they can make a big difference.

4. Whats your advice for those looking to cook but aren't great at it?

Pick a couple dishes that you really love and learn to make them well enough that you don't need a recipe. As you get better at them, try improvising with different proteins, vegetables, and spices. Also remember that cooking is about trusting your senses so it's important to watch the dish as you're making it to make sure it looks okay, smell the dish to make sure it smells good, and most importantly taste the dish at every step to make sure it tastes how you want it to.

5. We discussed that there might be recipes & foods that are a fusion of different Asian and Black cultures. Have you discovered any? Can I challenge you to come up with a recipe? :)

I think this is a type of cross-cultural cuisine that's been largely under-explored and reminds me of a Jamaican inspired sushi restaurant in the West Village. As for recipes, I'll see what I can come up with :-)

Of course I'm going to keep bugging Marc for that recipe! Think he'll name it after me? LOL. Thank you Marc for the interview!

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There was all this hype about some asian girl that sung at the MJ memorial but since I chose to cocoon myself from the media madness of the event... I had no idea what anyone was talking about. Later I came online to find out. What did I find? That the "asian, chinese, etc" girl was actually blasian. How funny!

http://www.judithhillmusic.com/index.asp

http://www.mixedchild.com/FEATURES/Judith_Hill/Judith_Hill.htm

Judith was born in Los Angeles and raised in a family of musicians. Her mother is an immigrant from Japan who met her father in a funk band in the 1970s. She laughs about her bi-racial experience, “I was a skinny mixed kid with a lot of hair that I didn’t know what to do with (and still don’t know what to do with it). And my mom could not help me with it!”

She admits that she never “fit in”. Depending on the social circle, she was labeled “too quiet”, “too loud”, “too black”, “to asian”, or too something. Judith expresses, “I was a traveler, kind of a drifter. But, looking back I see how all of those experiences, friends, and cultures made me who I am today.”

I always get the most interesting emails. Take for example what is the end result after a guy requests to join my group for Moms of Blasian. I explain it's for moms so why is he trying to join. His reply? See below. It's actually pretty interesting stuff. Ha.

Hi as a mother of Blasian and/or Asian children I am sure you love your children dearly as any mother would and would fight for their right to live in a world where they aren't oppressed in anyway. That's why I decided to join your group and request your help in spreading awareness of Asian and Asian American issues especially when dealing with racism in Hollywood. Would you please read the article below? and share this with other mothers.

http://www.anbmsource.com/node/513


Please also check out this facebook group

http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?ref=mb#/group.php?gid=2214375888

Additional educational material

THE SLANTED SCREEN PT.1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJwAwH93Yhg

THE SLANTED SCREEN PT.2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb8o2KPDYBo

THE SLANTED SCREEN PT.3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv4plDRdkO4

THE SLANTED SCREEN PT.4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0gr_UmJ7ME

THE SLANTED SCREEN PT.5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yP58xzU5wI

THE SLANTED SCREEN PT.6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ4Ct5wGymc

THE SLANTED SCREEN PT.7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAxkmcWzof0

http://angryasianman.com/angry.html