Historian of race, migration, and empire in Asian America, focus on Filipinos in Louisiana. Faculty Fellow
@SCAatNYU
Sidewalk educator
@bloodandwaterbk
Last week, I got hooded and finished my PhD journey off strong!
My dissertation on race-making and empire in Filipino Louisiana received outstanding dissertation awards from
@NYUHistory
,
@NYUGSAS
, and the University-Wide Dissertation Award in Humanities 🥳🥳🥳
My new walking tour, "The Original," explores the strange, hilarious, and radical life of pioneering Chinese American author H.T. Tsiang in 1930s Greenwich Village.
Thanks to the
@APAInstitute
grad working group for the chance to preview this last week!
For
@aaww
, I wrote about George Gardaya, a virtually unknown Filipino American writer in 1930s NYC.
I discuss his private frustrations, his deranged anticolonial revenge novel, and my conversations with his son.
Enjoy!
I recommend these tours about Filipinx history in Brooklyn so highly!
I went in the spring and
@MSalgarolo
is so informed and smart and such a fun, engaging guide. I have literally never thought about the Brooklyn waterfront the same way again- get your ticket ASAP!!
the list brought us to one of the central premises of the class - that in some way or another, nearly all Asian Americans are "bad Asians," thus making it a category worth interrogating.
The Encyclopedia of Filipina/x/o American Studies is finally here. I published entries on "Filipina/x/os in Louisiana" and "Settlement at St. Malo, Louisiana." Proud to see my name alongside such an esteemed list of contributors.
I asked students to consider a more radical version of Asian Am history, one foregrounding empire, white supremacy and Asian diasporic anticolonial and anticapitalist traditions (inspired by Moon-Ho Jung's Menace to Empire)
TOMORROW: NYU grad students are invited to join
@SCAatNYU
Faculty Fellow
@MSalgarolo
for "The Original," a walking tour through Greenwich Village exploring the life and legacy of radical Chinese American author H.T. Tsiang. Register:
It's going to be a fun semester. This class is FULL and the students bring a ton of energy to the room. So glad to see so much interest on here. I'm going to try to post updates every week for those who want to follow along. if you want pdfs of the readings, shoot me a dm.
I made the case that understanding the history of "bad Asians" would challenge the liberal narrative of (Asian) American history that we're used to hearing (aka the "Barack Obama" version of US history)
great vibes at the h.t. tsiang walking tour this weekend
thanks to
@PenguinClassics
for sending everyone home with a copy of The Hanging on Union Square!
I'm more than excited to reintroduce the world to BLOOD + WATER, my historical walking tour about early Filipino communities on the Brooklyn waterfront. May 20 + 27 in Brooklyn Bridge Park!
BLOOD + WATER is coming back this May (AAPI Heritage Month) - join us on the Brooklyn waterfront May 20+27!
BLOOD + WATER is an immersive walking tour that tells the stories of early Filipino American communities on the Brooklyn waterfront.
@clizzin
@SCAatNYU
@APAInstitute
From the radical Asian American magazine Gidra, 1971. A satirical response to a book that claimed to teach men how to pick up Japanese girls
Here's one of those little stories you come across in the archives and can't get out of your head - Nicholas de la Cruz, likely NYC's first Filipino resident, who ran a boarding house in the Five Points, married a German woman and had run-ins with local gangs.
back at it for the spring - join us on the Brooklyn waterfront on Sunday, April 7
presented in collaboration with our friends from the Future Ancestors podcast
Blood and Water is an immersive walking tour telling the stories of early Filipino American communities on the Brooklyn waterfront. Coming October 2022.
I love this piece, also by HTP. Students pointed out the ancestral shrine and the tiger skin that provide background for the Vietnamese and American figures and the visual pairing between the Viet woman and the Am man (white clothes, binoculars vs. Mickey mouse hat)
Full of energy after two awesome tours yesterday. So happy to share histories of migration, empire and activism in Filipino Brooklyn. Closing this run off with two tours next Saturday, 10/15. Ticket link below.
Thanks to everyone who came out for two SOLD OUT tours on the Brooklyn waterfront yesterday. What a pleasure to share stories and connect with all of you. Great vibes!
Let's do it again next weekend! 11 am and 2 pm tours on 10/15. Still a few tickets left. Link in bio!
This news is infuriating. The very same employer (Louisiana's Grand Isle Shipyard) was sued a decade ago for holding Filipino workers in "involuntary servitude." According to these complaints, conditions have gotten worse during COVID.
10 Filipino workers who are suing their former employer, major offshore oil industry company Grand Isle Shipyard, alleging they were virtual prisoners at their bunkhouse and that the company abandoned them there during the storm."
So proud to contribute to the HIDDEN VOICES: AAPI History curriculum guide, which is available now for free download - a tremendous resource for teachers nationwide! HIDDEN VOICES: ASIAN AMERICANS AND PACIFIC ISLANDERS IN US HISTORY is now available for free download.
Can't wait for this to get into NYC classrooms. I wrote a profile on the Filipino settlement at St. Malo, Louisiana - one of my proudest moments as a scholar!
A quick preview of
@NYCSchools
’s HIDDEN VOICES: ASIAN AMERICANS & PACIFIC ISLANDERS IN US HISTORY! Heading to schools in late June. ~450 pages w/ pedagogical essays, 4 Portrait of an Era essays, 40 Profiles of AAPI figures from the past & today, many primary sources, and more!
one of my favorite things about h.t. tsiang was that he made cameo appearances in his own novels as an bitter, annoying weirdo desperately trying to hawk his self-published books. legend.
I recorded a short reflection on the radical vision and modern legacies the historic Filipino settlement at St. Malo to accompany Cheyenne Concepcion’s fantastic sculpture “Disappearing St. Malo”
@SocratesPark
Yesterday, I successfully defended my dissertation, "Transimperial Histories and Racial Formations in Filipino Louisiana, 1860-1949." I'm a doctor!
I'm grateful for the support and guidance of my advisors and for the many friends and family members who celebrated with me.
Mine is a small contribution to a HUGE project. 400+ pages of essays, activities, and primary sources. s/o to
@HSGlobalHistory
@cath_goulding
and the many, many others who got this off the ground!
I’m so proud to be introducing my first walking tour. In the early 1900s, Filipino seamen, students, and activists built community and battled racism + imperialism in Brooklyn. Come hear their stories + more on Oct. 9 and 15!
Tickets on sale NOW for Blood + Water, an immersive historical walking tour centered around Brooklyn’s early Filipino communities! October 9 + 15 at Brooklyn Bridge Park.
It’s
#FilipinoAmericanHistoryMonth
and my Filipinx comedy group have been working towards a big lil’ dream:
Show NYC’s Filipino community we’re out here repping the kultura & our complex history.
Join us Oct 27 at
@caveatnyc
w/ THE
@rexnavarrete
🇵🇭🔥
h.t. tsiang walking tour coming at ya this saturday!
and I'll have some free copies of THE HANGING ON UNION SQUARE to give away thanks to
@PenguinClassics
@HC_Richardson
@HilaryGreen77
Thank you! It'll be in the Journal of Southern History, coming out in February. I'll be sure to send an update when it goes live!
Mini-thread (with photos) on the Manila Karihan restaurant, an early haunt for Filipino sailors near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Still tickets available for the 11 am walking tour this Sunday! (Link below)
A BRIEF HISTORY OF… the Manila Karihan restaurant at 47 Sands St., one of the earliest Filipino community hubs in Brooklyn. It was both a target of police harassment and an important site for community building and activism.
There's more to say here about OFWs, neoliberalism, etc. but for now: solidarity to the Renato Decena, Rosel Hernandez, and the dozens of other plaintiffs in this suit. Grand Isle Shipyard has demonstrated a clear pattern of abuse and needs to be held accountable.
we discussed how the men's creation of a semi-sovereign settlement unnerved whites in the post-Reconstruction South. So did the St. Malo's apparent lack of women and multiracial composition
Great vibes last night as
@ignatius_sancho
regaled us with wisdom on history, narrative, performance, and and shared how he adapted the remarkable life of Charles Ignatius Sancho into a novel. Can't wait to read the book!
💙Thank you, Brother
#KamauWare
and Fam for hosting my Publication Day USA Bash. Beautiful people and a magical night. Perfect balance of humour, history, truth and challenge. Felt safe and loved. Thank you, New Friends and True.💙
@BlackGotham
#TSDOCIS
@HenryHolt
If you'd like to learn more about my research, I did an in-depth interview with my friends over at
@NTKODPodcast
earlier this year. I really enjoyed our conversation.
Many of these activists consciously evoked the memories of Louisiana's early Filipino communities. In 2013, they held a "Kalayaan/Freedom Ride" at the historic marker for Manila Village, a Filipino shrimping settlement.
we started things off with my research on St. Malo, where Filipino sailors built a refuge from colonialism in the bayous of Louisiana in the 19th century
Big news for my extremely talented spouse,
@yeahyeahyasmin
who is now a full-time staff writer
@TheAtlantic
!! Follow Yasmin for the latest on COVID, science, and the future of food. as a bonus, you might get to read acerbic one-word editorials from yours truly 🙃
hello! some✨personal news✨—i'm joining
@TheAtlantic
as a staff writer! while i continue to write about the pandemic, i'll also be covering the future of food and its intersections with science and culture, among other topics. see you there nov. 8!
for week 3 (entitled "original gangsters") we examined the legacies of Chinatown's tongs - often sensationalized as violent mobsters, but also well-integrated into the web of family and regional organizations that built the US's early Chinatown communities
Special thanks to my dissertation committee,
@MarthaHodes
@A_NeedhamNYU
@ProfStevenHahn
, Michele Mitchell and Dorothy Fujita-Rony. It was a pleasure to hear your thoughtful feedback on my work.
we did this by reading snippets of "Chains to Lose" by Amir Haider Khan, who narrated how his experience as a sailor led him to join the Indian independence movement, and eventually, the Communist Party
The suit attracted national attention after the tragic deaths of Ellroy Corporal, Jerome Malagapo, and Avelino Tajonera, GIS employees who had been subcontracted to work on an offshore rig owned by Black Elk Energy.
Japan, in many ways, tried to position itself as a defender of the world's "colored" peoples and inspired many across the colonized world - including many African Americans
Mark your calendar: Our free virtual session is happening in just two days! Louisiana history lovers, don't miss this discussion: "Filipino and Chinese Fishermen of Coastal Louisiana" featuring historians like
@MSalgarolo
and
@randygon
. Just use Zoom ID 847-307-0446 to join us!
we discussed the rise of the US empire in the Pacific (Hawaii, Philippines) and how Japan's victory over Russia in 1905 spurred fears of a challenge to "white world supremacy"
The historic site of St. Malo is in LA’s coastal wetlands, which are at risk of destruction due to rising seas and erosion. Cheyenne’s sculpture offers a space of community-building and connection the face of loss and erasure.