This is from the in class exercise from Kris’s work shop on Monday. I was in group 2 and was asked to rewrite my project proposal on a note card. This is a slightly more polished and longer version of this new vision.
Metaphorical or otherwise, my home has always had food and music and both have always been multicultural in origin. The food is best described as fusion – or Cajun depending on the day and the dish. The music I have most closely associated with home has been jazz. Asian American and Pacific Islander American (AAPIA) people’s are a part of both the world of fusion food and jazz but only come up in most mainstream American’s (white or other wise) minds when fusion food is brought up. AAPIA peoples have contributed to the world of jazz just as much as they have contributed to the world of food, and yet its not in the conventional story’s and history’s of jazz that is taught.
An additional component of my home has also always been the study of the social sciences. Even as a child, studying history and anthropology was just something that was done as a pass time on the weekends. What I want to do with this project is to combine these interests all into one, and look at how different acknowledgments of ethnic origins are between food and jazz as a microcosm of the larger issue of race relations in America. In food, creating a dish that has mixed origins and specifically an AAPIA influence is something that is (currently) an asset and a positive attribute. In jazz, there is not even a clear acknowledgment that AAPIA peoples have made any contributions to the development of the style in the mainstream history. Why is it that AAPIA people’s contributions are cool in food, but out of place in jazz and what have I been missing because of these ideas?