 Welcome to Perspectives on Global Justice. This is your host Beatrice Cantelmo. Today's show, we will address deep wounds that our country and our globe are currently struggling with. Islamophobia, which is rooted on hate and fear, well-known public figures in social media all over the world that are exploiting the public's genuine need for security in ways that have disastrous consequences for human rights. As a result, a wave of anti-refugee legislation, harassment on Muslims, and a call to respond to terrorism by committing torture and war crimes are plaguing our world and our hearts. We cannot talk about Islamophobia without talking briefly about bigotry. Bigotry comes from the French word, the bigotry. It sounds too sophisticated and beautiful, doesn't it? Bigotry? Oh, but don't be fooled because the meaning of bigotry is far from being beautiful or sophisticated. A bigot is intolerant and unwilling to recognize and respect differences and the opinions and the beliefs of all those. And it is this intolerance that sustains prejudice and discrimination against people based on their gender, values, social, age, disability, religion, sexuality, race, and ethnicity, language, nationality, building, occupation, and education. And that happens in our state, our country, and around the globe. If man created borders and divisions, artworks as bridging agents to help us learn and in some cases unlearn, reflect, heal, and feel connected with the children. Today, we have a special guest with us, Taylor Chang, director of the Doris Du Pioto Nululu Museum of Arts. Taylor will be talking about the Seventh Arts Stand, which is a nationwide act of cinematic solidarity against slumophobia. Well, welcome to our show, Taylor. Thank you for having me. So before we jump in and talk about this amazing opportunity that the State of Hawaii and the Nululu will be gifted with, I always like to take a little time to talk about our guests and say, where you from? So Taylor Chang was my name, and I was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, in Kaimuki. And I'm just really glad to be working at home and being able to work in the arts and exhibit films and music that have a message and can be a platform for conversation. Yeah, well, what an honor to have not only you directing such a beautiful space and doing such important meaningful work for our community, but also being more meaningful that you are from here and you chose to continue to be here. So we're going into our program and let us know a little bit about what prompted our nationwide movement to create Seventh Arts Stand. Yeah, so the Seventh Arts Stand is a nationwide series that venues from across the United States are jumping board or are participating in. And so far I believe there's over 20 organizations who are participating in the Seventh Arts Stand in the month of May. We jumped on board really early on and we committed to screening films representing the seven countries affected by the travel ban from the beginning, from the first travel ban. And with that we selected a series of films from the different countries or depicting the issues in the different countries. And we also decided to expand upon that and have music and concerts and to tie the film exhibition to the visual exhibitions that take place at the museum. So our program locally is very specific to our community and every single organization is independently putting together their own programs. And we're really excited about the program that we put together and we look forward to basically working with the community to engage people, to elevate the conversation and to inspire people not only to feel empathy for the issues that are at play but also to get our audiences to act outside of the space. And I hear that the starting date is May 27th. And we have a very special guest of open Art is Amazing event which is our Tony General. So tell us why you picked Tony General as main speaker to open this event. Well, so our media sponsor is Honolulu Civil Beat and we're really fortunate to be able to work with them and in collaboration with them we are presenting the opening talk featuring Attorney General Doug Chen. And of course that was, we did that just based off of Hawaii's current role in legislation and in freezing the Muslim ban for the time being hopefully. And it's a very timely subject matter. And the fact that the program is taking place at the end of May, it will give us a lot of, a lot is gonna happen to me now and then. And so to be able to have him frame the conversation for the program before the films and the contours kick off is kind of the perfect way to set the stage for our audience to engage and to sort of be thinking about these films and the messages that they have. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, absolutely. And I think for most people who have never had a chance to go to the Middle East countries in Africa, which Somalia was based in Africa, Egypt, those are countries, a couple of the countries they will ban with the new executive order proposal. I think arts is such a nice way to show the richness of a person's language and the cultural values in history. That's how I travel around the world and gain appreciation and respect, not only for differences, but also keen curiosity for the unknown. Right. I think that there's a lot of fear and a lot of hatred and stealing people's minds and hearts, but if we shed those layers and learn, or unlearn, look at situations and cultures and places from a place of curiosity and openness, perhaps part of this dialogue will shift in big ways. Right. And that's really sort of the purpose of cinema really is to move people through the moving image and to inspire wonder, as you said, about other places and people. And I think it's a testament to kind of the power of art to be able to bring people together and to have and to make issues personal and to inspire empathy and to get the general public emotionally invested in what's happening outside of our communities. And film, music tend to be seen as one of the most accessible forms of art, but all art forms essentially function in that way. So it's inspiring to see art organizations come together and to get involved and to not be afraid to take a stand. And yeah. And I think that the collective effort and having the museum framing that in a safe platform and having artists from around the globe not only to show that beauty through their art, but also the ability now with technology to be able to have Skype conferences. Right. To film makers. Right. Which is what we're hoping to do. We're hoping to frame each film with some form of dialogue and definitely trying to engage the filmmakers as much as we can. And yeah, the technology is allowing us to be able to connect with filmmakers from around the world and it definitely elevates the conversation. So what are the hopes that you have as someone who really had put so much thought into this beautiful program as you think about the audience's response and you talk about engaging people in dialogue and changing the narratives that we currently carry. What are the topics that you hope will surface from some of these movies and the exhibit? Right. And about moving forward too because unfortunately, Seven Arts Tender will have an end date and then what? Right, exactly. So there's a lot of things there. In terms of conceptualizing how to create space for dialogue, that's definitely something that's on my mind every single day and part of the work that goes into addressing that is to strategically and effectively work with the community to get people in the door first off so that people can physically be in the same space to have that conversation. And now we did our best to select films that would provide platforms for different conversations and each film is very different from each other and it's portraying very different narratives and very different stories. So every single event will have a different dialogue and it's not necessarily our place as an organization to editorialize that dialogue but it is our role to create a safe space so that dialogue can happen. And the people who come and the people who we ask to perhaps either introduce the film or do a post-credits Q and A, whether it's a filmmaker or a community leader or an academic or someone, the people who are in the space are the ones who are gonna be creating that dialogue when it happens. We try our best to be able to facilitate that and we can anticipate things but at the end of the day, when the event happens, whatever dialogue happens is that's gonna be it and it tends to be, you know, we have a lot of Q and A's in our space for so many different films and so many different topics and you can never anticipate what's gonna happen. You just have to select the right people to collaborate with to kind of set the stage for it. Some of the things that I think would be great to kind of arise to the surface in these conversations is to talk about, you know, what does Islamophobia look like here locally? How do we make this sort of national conversation feel like a personal one, you know, and having the Muslim Association of Hawaii involved in that conversation is incredibly important to kind of raise awareness that we do have a Muslim community here. Also, to kind of, also, you know, yeah. Oh, that's okay. Oh, also, I mean, there's a lot of, I think, even for myself, there's a lot of misconceptions around what's happening politically. Everything's happening so fast and it doesn't necessarily, you know, affect us on a day to day basis. We just know that, you know, we just know that things are happening across the group. So, you know, how do we make things personal? How do we make people, inspire people to act and to make changes in their lives, to combat this kind of, you know, I can keep going. And I think, you know, you're right, in your exposure through awareness and education in the dialogue at the first steps. And so we will be taking a quick break very shortly and I will continue with our second part of the show. And I've dove in a little bit deeper into the program. I'm so excited to talk about it. Thank you. Aloha and Hau'oli Makahiki Hau, which is Happy New Year. And I hope it's a happy and prosperous new year for you. I'm Kelea Ikeena with the Grass Root Institute. Every week we partner with Think Tech Hawaii and produce a program called Ehana Kako. Let's work together. We bring together movers and shakers who are making a difference here in Hawaii, making a better Hawaii for everyone. If you're interested in improving the economy, the government and society, join us every week on Mondays at two o'clock p.m. for Ehana Kako on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. Until you see me then, aloha. Aloha, Kako. I'm Marcia Joyner, inviting you to navigate the journey with us. We are here every Wednesday morning at 11 a.m. and we really want you to be with us where we look at the options and choices of end-of-life care. Aloha. Welcome back to Global Justice, Perspectives on Global Justice, with our Taylor Chang. We were just lighting up on the break here. Oh, for good reasons, of course. So here we are talking about a lovely opportunity that the State of Hawaii has to invite our community to talk about Islamophobia and also to bridge our preconception notions on the topic and hopefully heal and engage in much needed dialogue over the subject through a nationwide initiative through a Seventh Arts Standa. So as we were... We're too much to talk about. Too much to talk about it. So we know that the opening day, May 27th, we're gonna have our Tony General opening and blessing this beautiful opportunity and event and reframing the dialogue, which is so amazing that the State of Hawaii actually was the state that stopped the executive orders from being in effect. And then we have, I hear, a music performance in the evening. You wanna talk a little bit about that? Sure. And who is our guest? So we are opening the program with a... Not only a talk, but also with the live performance featuring a Syrian artist. His name is Akebord Murad. He's a New York-based artist originally from Syria, but he paints live to musical accompaniment. So we're pairing him with Iggy Yang, who is the concertmaster of Hawaii Symphony Orchestra and one of the premier violinists locally. And so they are collaborating and they're collaborating now. They're in the process of crafting what they're going to perform. But it's gonna be a concert, but also a live painting experience. And Kevork, his art really does comment on conflict and trauma and reconciliation. And it should be really beautiful and it's gonna be highly improvised as well. So, and it's kind of, to be honest, quite early on to really know for sure what exactly they're gonna be doing, but it's gonna be an hour long, basically live painted painting. It's gonna be projected onto our screen in accompaniment with a violin. And it should be really beautiful. I should say that the program, it includes nine films total and it's book-ended by two live performances. So the first one being featuring Kevork Murad and then the closing concert features Syrian violinist from Aleppo. Her name is Mariela Shaker. And she came to the U.S. to grant. And since then, she's been traveling around the world, playing the violin and sharing her personal story and to elevate the conversation around the crisis happening in Aleppo, Syria, which is incredibly timely now, given recent things. And so we're book-ending the film series with live performer, live performance featuring Syrian artists. Yeah. So before we talk about the film screenings, I wanted to ask if you could share a little bit over the information on the new exhibit that the museum carries on Islam culture. Yeah, so there are two galleries on view right now. One is, we call it the Islamic Gallery, which is newly renovated and it features artifacts from our Islamic art collection. And where does it come from? Where does the collection come from? It comes from all over the different countries within the Middle East. There's, I believe we have artifacts from almost every single country. And I don't think they're all on view, but it's also the artifacts that we have is also, we have them because of our partnership with the Doris Duke Foundation, Shangri-La organization. And the museum and Shangri-La have a long-standing partnership. And so many of the artifacts comes from the Shangri-La and the Doris Duke Foundation's collection, which we exhibit at the museum. Yeah, we're so lucky to have them both. Yeah. And how long did it take for the new galleries to be built? You know, that information is actually beyond my current knowledge, but it was reopened this past year within the last year. And I believe it took them about a year to re-renovate it and sort of rearrange how the objects were displayed. But again, you know, it was, the artifacts were, the art objects were repositioned within the gallery to elevate the conversation and to, you know, kind of... Yeah. And I'm really excited to see, I haven't been to the new galleries yet. Yeah. And I can't wait in that. For me as a child, growing up in Brazil was really nice, you know, through the eyes of the young soul, you know, in heart and then that openness, being able to see the museums and through arts, the beauty of Islamic culture. And so the Thai book and the Quran and the food and the poetry, I fell in love with Rumi when I was six years old. And I did not know he was from Pajah, you know, like his words spoke to my heart because of words, you know, of love. He talked about community faith and the hopes and pain sometimes and reconciliation. And these are all common themes that unites all cultures, regardless of where you come from, regardless of what you believe in. And if I as a child had that chance, you know, I mean, I really hope that the galleries, you know, get to be really visited by many children, many adults, and that people can look, you know, into different parts of cultures and ask more questions and reflect more. And change those preconceptions and also the narratives that we have about, you know, the Muslim community. So you're gonna have the exhibit in conjunction with the films. And so how would you like to cover the films? Because we have several from different countries. We have the films from Iran. Yeah. So should we go through the entire list? Yeah. So, or I can try to... Talk to you. So we have two films from Iran, The Salesman, which recently won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, and quite... So it's a thriller, right? It's a psychological, yeah, the psychological, I guess you could say, thriller or drama. And, you know, the director, Asghar Farhadi, famously did not attend the Oscars in protest of the travel ban. And we actually premiered the film here for a few screenings and it really resonated with people. So it was a perfect way to kind of bring the film back and kind of contextualize it within this series. The second film we're screening is Under the Shadow. And that one is a horror film. And it came out a year ago and it's kind of rare to see a horror film set in Iraq, or sorry, Iran. And it premiered at Sundance Film Festival and it left a huge impact. I remember being there at the festival at that time and just hearing everybody talk about this film. And so, so we're screening Under the Shadow. Then for Yemen, we have the Old Day on Old Sana'a. It's the only feature narrative to come out of Yemen thus far. And we felt it was important to screen that film. What is that? Well, it's been, it's being the only film, narrative drama that has come out of Yemen in the past 10 years. And hopefully there will be more, but in a way it kind of, first of all, most people don't even know of the film. And then second, we wanted to screen it so that one, we can educate people about that this film exists. And that too, we can sort of make the film relevant again. And then hopefully that will sort of set the stage for us to kind of continue to support filmmakers from Yemen. And it's so hard, I think, to do independent film in countries, any country in the world that does not have a large budget. But I imagine places that really does not have very well developed in the sense of the training and the facilities, the censorship that may be involved with safety as extra layer. So I look at these films as really exquisite piece of art about such an amazing call. Which is really important to be able to conceptualize the film appropriately and to get people to introduce the films, whether it's a filmmaker or a scholar to really kind of help the audience sort of digest and understand what they're seeing because it's true, the aesthetics are completely different and the sensibilities are completely different and the codes are completely different. And so you mentioned censorship. And you really need to be at, even myself, and I'm still in the process of educating myself on how to kind of spot the kind of inversions of aesthetics and coding. And I'm still at one-on-one, you know. And so yes, we need people to help us contextualize these films and to appreciate them. Otherwise, we don't know how to... How to bring meaning to the narrative that we're going to be really creating in their exposures. The dialogues need to come out of it, too. And same thing with a visual art or a fine arts exhibition. If it's on the gallery or the Shazia Secunda Parallax exhibition, it's the reason why there is text on the wall to help the viewer contextualize what they're seeing and to appreciate it. It's why there are gallery tours and things like that. I think I can keep going in terms of, you know, there's... So we got Somalia, Fishing Without Nets. And that is, it's a drama, it's a narrative drama. We're going to have the filmmaker, the director, who's going to fly out and he's going to be with us to do an introduction and a post-screening Q&A. Oh, that's wonderful. They're from Iraq. We have two films that actually both focus more specifically on the Yazidi people and the Kurdish culture. And sort of, you know, we made the decision to screen two films from Iraq that focused on that issue. Because it's a very, it's an important one. For Syria, we also have two films. We have a free screening of Last Men in Aleppo, as well as a documentary After Spring, which looks at refugee camps in Syria and sort of what are the next steps. It was produced by John Stewart. And it's a really, it's a very powerful documentary as well as is Last Men of Aleppo. And that one is sponsored by Hawaii J-20. And we are working with them to craft a post-screening discussion. I'm really excited about that. Yeah, that's really nice. And then you have a film from Sudan. Yep, God, who tired of us. And what is this movie gonna cover? It follows Sudanese immigrants who came to New York. And it follows their experiences as they're getting settled in a new culture and a new environment. And you see them go through all the challenges and the struggle in being the Sudanese immigrant in the US. And so it does unearth a lot of questions of surrounding immigration. Yeah. So we have two minutes left. Okay. Let's go up.