This afternoon four of us at Pacific Ties attended the Imagined Futures Conference at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo.  It was a free one-day conference to inspire and network with Asian Pacific Islander American artists of all disciplines.

One of the keynote speakers was Eric Nakamura, co-founder and publisher of Giant Robot magazine, which focuses on Asian pop culture in the U.S.

Nakamura’s presentation was really inspiring.  We’re at an exciting point in time in which Asian Pacific Islander Americans are becoming more prominent in American culture, media, and politics.  Even though many are “under the radar” right now, Nakamura predicts that API artists and actors will be making headlines within the next few years.

Phil Yu of the popular blog Angry Asian Man spoke about the history and content of his blog and facilitated discussion among us participants.

Workshops included filmmaking, anime/comics, blogs/new media, spoken word/hip hop, fiction, and clothing.

Left to right: Ray, Evelina, Shirley, Phil Yu of the blog Angry Asian Man, and me.

Enjoying an early dinner of ramen in Little Tokyo after the conference.

– posted by Debbie Chong