Exploring Our Roots Music and Art Festival
June 23-24, 2023
Arcata Playhouse, Arcata
Explore your family roots and community’s heritage and history through music, dance, poetry and film! Humboldt Asians & Pacific Islanders in Solidarity (HAPI) presents the first-ever “Exploring Our Roots Arts Festival”, with performances by touring and local artists whose music, poetry, film and dance illuminate and reflect the histories, culture, and stories of Pan-Asian and BIPOC people.
FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
Friday, June 23, 2023
6:30 P.M. Performances by Hiroya Tsukamoto and Julian Saporiti
The festival kicked off with internationally renowned guitarist and songwriter Hiroya Tsukamoto, followed by No-No Boy, aka Nashville-born songwriter Julian Saporiti, who performed an immersive multimedia work blending original folk songs, storytelling, and projected archival images all in service of illuminating hidden American histories. Saporiti was inspired from his own family’s history living through the Vietnam War as well as many other stories of Asian American experience.
Saturday, June 24, 2023
12:00 - 2:30 P.M. Free performances by local performing artists
Featured Humboldt Taiko, Soul-A-Mente, Lorenza Simmons and Jenny Villaseñor, ‘prayer-formers’ Bamidele and RA MHTP, Rachel Noel, and Humboldt County Lao Dancers!
3:00 - 5:00 P.M. Aireene Espiritu’s Color-Coded Symphony Our Town
Aireene Espiritu, folk singer-songwriter, carried listeners through familiar and unfamiliar songs and sounds from around the world via a ‘Color-Coded Symphony, Our Town,’ an experience with local musicians from diverse ethnic backgrounds. The multicultural ensemble improvised on rhythms from their ethnic origins and created a new musical piece while connecting their roots.
6:00 - 7:00 P.M. Humboldt Premier of “Many Moons” film by Chisato Hughes
Arcata native filmmaker Chisato Hughes presented the Humboldt premiere of their short documentary, “Many Moons,” about Chinese immigrant Charlie Moon, the fabled “last Chinese Man of Humboldt County” after the purging of its Chinese community in 1885– and his descendants, known as the Moons, whose families touch all local native tribes in the area. This film has been shown at the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival, and recently at the CAAMFest at SFMOMA. After the screening, there was a Q&A with the film’s director about the local filming of the documentary with the help of Yurok, Hupa, and Asian American residents, and with Sheila Moon, relative of Charlie Moon, who shared about her great, great uncle’s legacy and her family’s memories.
TICKET COST: $25 for each day of the festival, or $40 for both days of the festival. The free public concert is 12-3 P.M. on June 24.
The festival was cosponsored by Humboldt Area Foundation and Wild Rivers Community Foundation, Playhouse Arts, and Humboldt Folklife Society.
