Up first: Can Pop Culture Save The World?

Mod: Jeff Yang. Panel: Tananarive Due, Krista Suh, MILCK, Ira Madison III #AACC

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

. @TheNerdsofColor & @originalspin welcome everyone to #AACC pic.twitter.com/cMX4cnpcwK

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

Here's a look at the panel pic.twitter.com/qHZu4elUbp

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

Also on the panel: Filmmaker Renee Tajima-Pena.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

OK, so we're here at the #AACC summit. I'm going to live-tweet as many panels as I can. Mute me NOW. Reg. programming resumes at 5pm PST.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

JY: We find ourselves in a period of time when diversity and creativity are under assault. Being a POC has become a mark like a target.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

JY asks MILCK about her song, "Quiet." What was it like singing it at #WomensMarchDC?

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

Milck: Filmmaker crossed paths with me and choir during our 7th flash mob that day. She posted it on TW/FB.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

Milck: I have been a DIY musician for 8-9 years. On video: "I happened to hit the light at the perfect time."

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

Milck: Separate flash mobs in Europe were singing the song about a month later.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

Milck: A lot of times stories are projected upon us: The "Shy" or "demure" Asian. "Quiet" was my song on that.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

Milck: I don't think the public is dumb. When they sense something is honest, they'll pass it on.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

JY: Oddly enough, WOC were kind of in the shadow during #WomensMarch

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

JY asks Krista about putting together the Pink Pussyhat Project.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

KS: "I was a very typical Asian girl for 10 years .. I was supposed to be pre-med." AsAm creators have to break away from what's expected.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

KS: I think we were primed to say things that weren't popular among our families.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

KS: Dealing w/shame of being an AsAm creative gave me the chutzpah to do this.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

KS: Had I just been a scriptwriter I would have thought differently after this election. Came up w/hat idea in my parents' car.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

KS: I didn't think of something until I realized it would be cold in D.C. "If I can knit this hat anyone could."

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

KS: I think working in Hollywood, I had to get used to pitching things. It was so from my heart I didn't have to do "contrived showmanship."

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

KS: I think a lot of people on this panel have been political for a long time.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

KS: I think a lot of women felt like they had to have some sort of resume before they could speak up.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

JY asks Ira: Has there been a "democritization" of culture?

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Ira: What we're seeing now is more people in the forefront. More of the cultures we consume now have a platform for critique.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

Ira: We're at a point where we're introducing diff. cultures to each other.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

JY cites the Rihanna/Lupita pic that was willed into existence via Twitter.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

JY: Basically, they packaged this whole movie and Netflix made it happen.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

Ira: You have to think about where projects were created: in peoples' networks. Ava DuVernay has made her space online.

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Ira: I feel like it's culture dominating culture. Look at the Emmys: Barb from ST got a Guest nomination.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

JY hilghlights Jon M. Chu (in the audience) and Crazy Rich Asians: "It's like our Star Wars."

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

Jon: I had a lot of sleepless nights thinking about friends/family who complained about representation in film.

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Jon: I knew this was our chance to do it right. But there a lot of factors in casting a movie.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

Jon: I'm not saying we got it completely right, either. Our goal was just to do a movie and hope people like it.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

JY: One thing that people were doing for CRA was fan-casting. But even having that space is pretty remarkable.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

TD: My parents were civil rights activists. I grew up hearing those stories.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

TD: My mom told me that NAACP put a lot of resources into Hollywood branch, in hopes of influencing culture.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

TD: "I can cry for the white character, but how much more impactful is it to cry for your own characters?"

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

TD: I consider afrofuturism to be all of us who were not represented in the original Star Wars.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

TD: It's a very deep thing to be erased from your future. That's why afrofuturism/black spec. arts are so important.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

TD: We're lucky to be living in a world where we're seeing a very rapid change.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

TD: I had the worst nightmare I had in yrs last night – I was being chased by a racist mob through a neighborhood. "I wonder why."

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

TD: If my parents had said I should be a lawyer like my sister, I probably would have done that.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

JY on murder of Vincent Chin: "Stories kill. Narratives can kill."

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

JY asks Renee: any thoughts on where we can go to make culture that can change culture?

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

RTP: I think AsAms now grapple with question of racial privilege as much as racism because we're used as a cudgel against other POC.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

RTP: Movies don't make social change; people make social change. People work collectively w/a strategic plan.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

RTP: Rosa Parks didn't just get in that bus. She was embedded with CRM. She captured the imagination but that was a long-term strategy.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

RTP: the Vincent Chin case helped bring a lot of existing AsAm energy together.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

JY: All the actions took place before there was an Internet were part of larger strategies to create awareness.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

Milck: My resp. as an artist is to create truth that I'm exploring. People will project their reality on it. I'm constantly learning.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

KS: I love listening to the panelists. Common theme I see is ease – soc. media makes things easier. But SJ means you have to calibrate it

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

KS: When I campaigned for HRC in OH, we did a lot of early voting. We'd tell people it was easy but they preferred to go on election day.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

Q: I find that being bold as an artist in activist spaces is seen as an act of aggression. How do you navigate that?

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

TD on variety of actions: anonymous donations, writing letters to police chief. "It's a matter of finding your comfort zone."

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

RTP: Something interesting has been happening re: AsAms decolonializing their minds.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

RTP: Park and Kim's H50 salary demands were very smart.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

RTP: AsAms who had accepted their marginality are now asserting themselves. People are making their changes.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

Former Chief Diversity Officer at NBC/Universal recounts enacting a forum with AsAm actors years ago.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

Q: I said I would consider myself successful if I cast an AsAm man as a romantic lead. They looked at me like, "why would we do that?"

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

Q: I asked the actors where they went to school – every one of them had been in the sciences, and hid acting from my parents.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

Q: Is there something cultural that has to be overcome? Is it possible that there will have to be a flipping of the switch?

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

KS: I grew up as a people-pleaser as a woman and an AsAm. "There is safety in being nice."

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

KS: White male patriarchy benefits if I stay quiet. But if I speak up, somebody else feels heartened.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

JY: I think "people-pleasing" is inherently a very AsAm thing. We as immig/post-immig communities have a lot in trying not to be noticed.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017

RTP: Movies don't make social change; people make social change. People work collectively w/a strategic plan.

— Arturo R. Garcia (@aboynamedart) July 15, 2017