>> i just feel like this is what i was born to do when i was a little kid i would make up performances and daydream it was always performing and doing something i feel if i can't do that than i can't be e

me. >> i just get excited and my nickname is x usher my mom calls me i stuck out like a sore thumb for sure hey everybody i'm susan kitten on the keys from there, i working in vintage clothing and chris in the 30's and fosz and aesthetic. >> i think part of the what i did i could have put on my poa he focus on a lot of different musical eras. >> shirley temple is created as ahsha safai the nation with happens and light heartenness shirley temple my biggest

influence i love david boo and el john and may i west coast their flamboyant and show people (singing) can't be unhappy as a dr. murase and it is so fun it is a joyful instrument i learned more about music by playing the piano it was interesting the way i was brought up the youth taught me about music he picked up the a correspond that was so hard my first performing experience happened as 3-year-old an age i did executive services and also thanks to the lord and sank in youth groups people will be

powering grave over their turk i'll be playing better and better back la i worked as places where men make more money than me i was in bands i was treated as other the next thing i know i'm in grants performing for a huge protection with a few of my friends berry elect and new berry elect and can be ray was then and we kept getting invited back you are shows got better we made it to paris in 2005 a famous arc we ended up getting a months residencey other than an island and he came to our show and started writing a script based on our troop of 6 american burr

elect performs in france we were woman of all this angels and shapes and sizes and it was very exciting to be part of the a few lettering elect scene at the time he here he was bay area born and breed braces and with glossaries all of a sudden walking 9 red carpet in i walgreens pedestrian care. >> land for best director that was backpack in 2010 the french love this music i come back here and because of film was not released in the united states nobody gave a rats ass let's say the music and berry elect and performing doesn't pay very much i definitely feel into a huge

depression especially, when it ended i didn't feel kemgd to france anymore he definitely didn't feel connected to the scene i almost feel like i have to beg for tips i hey i'm from the bay area and an artist you don't make a living it changed my represent tar to appeal and the folks that are coming into the wars these days people are not listening they love the idea of having a live musician but don't really nurture it like having a potted plant if you don't warrant it it dizzy sort of feel like a potted plant (laughter) i'm going to give san francisco one more year i've been here since 1981 born and raised in the bay area i know that is not

for me i'll keep on trying and if the struggle becomes too hard i'll have to move on i don't know where that will be but i love here so so much i used to dab he will in substances i don't do that i'm sober and part of the being is an and sober and happy to be able to play music and perform and express myself if i make. >> few people happy of all ages i've gone my job so i have so stay is an i feel like the piano and music in general with my voice together i feel really powerful and strong.

i'm scott adams. i'm board chair of the a.p.a. heritage foundation. we want to thank you for joining us this evening as we celebrate lunar new year, the year of the boar. we wish you and your family the best of fortune, prosperity and much happiness. we are a nonprofit organization dedicated to securing funds and coordinating resources to support the city's annual

a.p.a. heritage organization festivities. our organization is made up of a very small board, and i'd like to introduce to you our directors. we have our treasurer, irene yee riley, our incoming treasurer, j.j. lara. board member matt mooey, and our founder and president, claudine ching. [applause] >> so although we're a very small organization, we're able to put on celebration events every year because of the dedicated members of the a.d.a. celebration committee, and that's a group of 30-some odd representatives of the community that makeup the a.p.a. community. so if you are a member of that

group, can you please raise your hand? okay. everyone give them a hand. [applause] >> want to thank you so much for being part of the a.p.a. team. now please give a warm welcome to our president and founder, claudine ching. >> thank you, scott. [applause] >> thank you, everyone for helping to come celebrate lunar new year. today is the third day of the new year. some of us were in chinatown for the first day of the year with mayor breed, and when i friend, walter wong, celebrated the biggest celebration in chinatown with eight pigs, is that right? and firecrackers, so i want to acknowledge of the presence of the mayor who will be speaking shortly and the members of the council and community members

of the so eve-- members. every year, we kick off events in the community with the lunar new year celebration. we can take the opportunity to tell you a little bit more about what we are doing for a.p.a. heritage month this year. some of you may not have been to our a.p.a. heritage month celebration, so i want to take the opportunity to talk about the a.p.a. heritage month. last year, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the law that established this particular celebration. so the month of may, why is it the month of may a.p.a. heritage month? congress decided because of two reasons. the first day of 1943 marked the rival on may 7 of the first japanese immigrant into the united states in the record so that was one reason. and the other reason was on may

10 -- 1843 -- 1869 was the completion of the trans-continental railroad. so that's why the month of may was selected, and this year was the 150th anniversary of the trans-continental railroad. so for this year's celebration on may 1, as you all are invited to our event, together with mayor breed, we'll be celebrating two significant historic events. one is the completion of the trans-continental railroad, and the other one actually is the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the college of ethnic studies at san francisco state. this is unbelievable that to this date, although there are a lot of ethnics -- different studies classes in many universities and colleges, our san francisco state remains the only ethnic studies department in the whole country where

asian american studies african american studies, all ethnic studies had a part of. this is a momentum decision. we are very happy to be celebrating these two significant occasions this year, and during our event, we will be presenting the second annual edwin mah lee public service award. last year, the winner was our assessor-recorder carmen chiu. we're very happy to have her -- in the month of may be able to bring to our city a whole month of activities. we have plenty of events because we have celebrations, partners such as the asian art museum, san francisco public library, and the country's largest asian american themed

festival. with all of these organizations, i think we have a healthy calendar. but back to today, we are happy to be here, celebrating lunar new year. we are very lucky to be in a city that we have cultural offerings with the different cultural offerings. so some of you -- some of you may not have met mayor breed. mayor breed is a native of san francisco. she grew up in the western addition in the public housing, graduated from schools -- from schools in san francisco, from galileo, as i remember, and without taking the time to read the mayor's long bio, many people have asked me how is it working with mayor breed? and i just have to say, i am not jewish, but if i were

jewish, our mayor has a lot of chutzpah. no matter what issue she is addressing, housing, transportation, public education, every time i hear the mayor talk about this, she's open-minded. she's willing to look at other solutions of the city that have been -- of problems of the city that have been around for years and decades. so we're very proud to have mayor breed with us today. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: thank you, claudine. you know, when i first started on the board of supervisors, i attended this event, and it was always in room 201, in the mayor's conference room. and i would always say, claudine, we're growing. we need more space. and finally, she took me up on my word, and she decided we

were going to move this incredible celebration to here, the north light court. this is our great celebration of our a.p.i. heritage month kind of kickoff. even though it's not in the month of may, it is during the lunar new year which is of course fitting that we celebrate such a time honored tradition here in our city. i want to thank so many people who are joining here -- joining us here today, including so many folks from the leadership, many of our sister cities, folks from manila, from osaka -- yes, you can clap -- from seoul, taipei, ho chi mint cities, places that we share more than our brotherly and sisterly loves, but relationships of community, of business, and a number of other things that are so important and vital to the success of not

just san francisco but the entire world. i also want to take this time to recognize that we have a number of council generals who are with us here today. starting with the council general of the philippines, who is -- i hope i don't butcher your name council general. i apologize from the philippines, and his wife. thank you so much for being here. council general for the republic of korea is here, as well. and council general from japan. thank you so much for joining us. we have really an incredible relationship with so many of our sister cities as well as the council generals from all over the world, and san francisco, as you know, has been the gateway to the pacific, and we truly value our relationships which promote trade and cultural and

educational exchanges. we -- we know sadly we're living in a time our immigrant population and our cultural diversity are sometimes not welcomed in other cities across the united states, but i want you to know that here in san francisco, it's not only welcomed, it's celebrated. it is celebrated in a way that really honors our rich history and our traditions. and we have many celebrations throughout the year, including during the month. we just kicked off black history month here in the rotunda in city hall, chinese lunar new year, which is amazing, along with an amazing parade and a number of festivities, and we will kick off asia-pacific heritage month, which we started celebrating in 2005. when i served on the board with supervisor -- well, actually, only supervisor president yee was on the board when we passed

that resolution, making it official in san francisco. and here he is now, the president of the board of supervisors, along with his colleagues, and they'll be talking in just a minute. so i am just here to say thank you to so many of you, especially because as we know, it takes a lot of resources to put together so many amazing community activities that promote our diversity and our culture, and i just want to thank the a.p.i. heritage committee for their continued work and fund raising and bringing people together. and claudine, at this time, i'd like to honor you and the members of the committee with a certificate thanking you for your service and the work you continue to do every year, not only asking for support, but twisting our arm and making us all participate and help us to understand how important this is to so many of our asian

communities around the city. thank you for being a real advocate for the a.p.i. community in san francisco. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: thank you, everyone. [speaking chinese language] >> so understand board president norman yee's here with all his colleagues, and

from the dinner we have in chinatown recently, i was shocked to hear that every single one of the board members of supervisors speak beautiful chinese, japanese, all kinds of languages. so in the interest of time, because i understand that mayor breed might have to leave, so i'm going to ask you to maybe just say two lines of greetings in your own language, whatever you prefer. and try not to repeat what the -- what the preceding speaker have said, okay? but maybe we should start with president yee. >> president yee: thank you, claudine. [speaking native language] >> president yee: happy new year to every one of you. this is a great celebration that happens every year. i want to thank the a.p.a.

heritage foundation to sponsor this every year because it really means a lot to our community. yes, mayor breed, it's true. in san francisco, we embrace our diversity. in san francisco, and probably the only city, the public school actually gets a day off for lunar new year. probably the only district -- we should give them a big hand. [applause] >> president yee: and that was made possible because of the leadership of supervisor fewer and myself and a few other a.p.i. school board members that were able to provide to say you know, it makes a difference to 50% of your students, and they made it happen. now another thing, every year, we get to look at the new stamp. by the way, claudine, i still

have the original one, 1993, when you unveiled that, that was such a happening. this is something that took a little while to get the federal government, the post office to actually engage and make this happen for us because they didn't -- there was a little rip resistance there, but after a while, they said wow, this is pretty good. to all of you, to all of my colleagues here, we are here to celebrate, and we are here to honor the a.p.a. heritage foundation. so on behalf of the full board of supervisors, we'd like to give you this certificate. claudi claudine scott, would you come up and accept it?

[applause] >> president yee: so come on up. just say happy new year. >> supervisor fewer: [speaking native language] [applause] >> good evening, everyone. my name is matt haney. i'm supervisor from district six. congratulations and thank you for all your work to the a.p.a. heritage foundation. i have to say i've been to a few celebrations around the year of the pig, but this is the first one that i've seen where there's a whole pig to

eat. happy to celebration with you. >> supervisor brown: hi. i'm vallie brown, the proud supervisor of japantown. unfortunately, can you please tell me how to say happy new year in japanese? [inaudible] [applause] >> supervisor safai: good evening. my name is supervisor ahsha safai. happy new year. very happy to be here for the third or fourth year. congratulations to claudine and all the leadership for a.p.a. this is a wonderful celebration. i actually am also an asian supervisor from western asia, from the -- from the country of iran, so i'm going to say happy new year in farsi. [speaking native language]

>> supervisor safai: thank you. [applause] >> thank you. ve we want to acknowledge d.b.i., the head, tom, and mohamed nuru from the department of public works. we have captain link from central station, and commander lozar. so the highlight of today's program is unveiling of the lunar new year stamp. as board of supervisors president yee mepgsed, inntion u.u u.s. post office issued the first series of stamps in 1993. this is the last year of the

series of stamps. we are not sure if we're going to get the new ones. so there is a pgs for all of you to sign after the program because we want to make sure the united states postal service unders we in san francisco, just like many people around the country, we love our stamp that celebrate our cultural heritage. i would like to invite post master abraham cooper. >> good afternoon. or i should say good evening. you know, it's an honor to unveil the 12th and very last stamps and celebrating the lunar new year. as the post master of san francisco, i'm proud to present such a beautiful and meaningful stamp. it represents a lot of significance not only to the community but also to the people that we serve in san

francisco, but our employees, as well as we celebrate, and they also celebrate lunar new year. the lunar new year stamp is currently available for sale at the local postal service and also independently also as booklets. the board believes to represent luck and good fortune but also symbolized hard work and generosity as trust and also sincerity. i'd also like to think that the postal service fits that description well as the relationships between the san francisco district community and the leaders that's in the room today. and without further adieu, i'd like to bring up the mayor as well as norman yee and claudine chan for the unveelg of tilinge

chan for the unveiling of the stamp. [applause] [inaudible] [applause] >> welcome to "culturewire."

today we are at recology. they are celebrate 20 years of one of the most incredibly unique artist residency programs. we are here to learn more from one of the resident artists. welcome to the show, deborah. tell us how this program began 20 years ago. >> the program began 20 years ago. our founder was an environmentalist and an activist and an artist in the 1970's. she started these street sweeping campaigns in the city. she started with kids. they had an exhibition at city hall. city officials heard about her efforts and they invited her to this facility. we thought it would coincide with our efforts to get folks to recycle, it is a great educational tool. since then, we have had 95

professional artists come through. >> how has the program changed over the years? how has the program -- what can the public has an artist engage with? >> for the most part, we worked with metal and wood, what you would expect from a program like ours. over the years, we tried to include artists and all types of mediums. conceptual artists, at installation, photographers, videographers. >> that has really expanded the program out. it is becoming so dynamic right now with your vision of interesting artists in gauging here. why would an artist when to come here? >> mainly, access to the materials. we also give them a lot of support. when they start, it is an empty studio. they go out to the public area and -- we call it the big store.

they go out shopping, take the materials that, and get to work. it is kind of like a reprieve, so they can really focus on their body of work. >> when you are talking about recology, do you have the only sculpture garden at the top? >> it is based on work that was done many years ago in new york. it is the only kind of structured, artist program. weit is beautiful. a lot of the plants you see were pulled out of the garbage, and we use our compost to transplant them. the pathway is lined with rubble from the earthquake from the freeways we tour about 5000 people a year to our facility, adults and children. we talk about recycling and

conservation. they can meet the artists. >> fantastic. let's go meet some of your current artists. here we are with lauren. can you tell us how long have been here so far and what you're working on? >> we started our residency on june 1, so we came into the studio then and spent most of the first couple weeks just digging around in the trash. i am continuing my body of work, kind of making these hand- embroidered objects from our day-to-day life. >> can you describe some of the things you have been making here? this is amazing. >> i think i started a lot of my work about the qualities of light is in the weight. i have been thinking a lot about things floating through the air. it is also very windy down here. there is a piece of sheet music up there that i have embroidered third. there is a pamphlet about

hearing dea -- nearing death. this is a dead rabbit. this is what i am working on now. this is a greeting card that i found, making it embroidered. it is for a very special friend. >> while we were looking at this, i glanced down and this is amazing, and it is on top of a book, it is ridiculous and amazing. >> i am interested in the serendipity of these still life compositions. when he got to the garbage and to see the arrangement of objects that is completely spontaneous. it is probably one of the least thought of compositions. people are getting rid of this stuff. it holds no real value to them, because they're disposing of it. >> we're here in another recology studio with abel. what attracted you to apply for

this special program? >> who would not want to come to the dump? but is the first question. for me, being in a situation that you're not comfortable in has always been the best. >> what materials were you immediately attracted to when you started and so what was available here? >> there are a lot of books. that is one of the thing that hits me the most. books are good for understanding, language, and art in general. also being a graphic designer, going straight to the magazines and seeing all this printed material being discarded has also been part of my work. of course, always wood or any kind of plastic form or anything like that. >> job mr. some of the pieces you have made while you have been here. -- taught me through some of the pieces you have made while you have been here. >> the first thing that attracted me to this was the printed surface. it was actually a poster. it was a silk screen watercolor, about 8 feet long.

in terms of the flatwork, i work with a lot of cloddish. so being able to cut into it come at into it, removed parts, it is part of the process of negotiating the final form. >> how do you jump from the two dimensional work that you create to the three-dimensional? maybe going back from the 3f to 2d. >> everything is in the process of becoming. things are never said or settled. the sculptures are being made while i am doing the collages, and vice versa. it becomes a part of something else. there's always this figuring out of where things belong or where they could parapets something else. at the end goal is to possibly see one of these collage plans be built out and create a structure that reflects back

into the flat work. >> thank you so much for allowing "culturewire" to visit this amazing facility and to learn more about the artists in residence program. is there anything you like our viewers to know? >> we have art exhibitions every four months, and a win by the public to come out. everybody is welcome to come out. we have food. sometimes we have gains and bands. it is great time. from june to september, we accept applications from bay area artists. we encouraged artists from all mediums to apply. we want as many artists from the bay area out here so they can have the same experience. >> how many artists to do your host here? >> 6 artist a year, and we receive about 108 applications. very competitive. >> but everyone should be encouraged to apply. thank you again for hosting us. >> thank you for including us in "culturewire." ♪

i'm nicole and lindsey, i like the fresh air. when we sign up, it's always so gratifying. we want to be here. so i'm very excite ied to be here today. >> your volunteerism is appreciated most definitely. >> last year we were able to do 6,000 hours volunteering. without that we can't survive. volunteering is really

important because we can't do this. it's important to understand and a concept of learning how to take care of this park. we have almost a 160 acres in the district 10 area. >> it's fun to come out here. >> we have a park. it's better to take some of the stuff off the fences so people can look at the park. >> the street, every time, our friends. >> i think everybody should give back. we are very fortunate. we are successful with the company and it's time to give back. it's a great place for us. the weather is

nice. no rain. beautiful san francisco. >> it's a great way to be able to have fun and give back and walk away with a great feeling. for more opportunities we have volunteering every single day of the week. get in touch with the parks and recreation center so come