Hearing VoicesHearing Voices
Life, legends, history and fairytales come alive through the magic of storytelling.
April 11–18, 2009
Storytellers
Alton Takiyama-Chung
Alton Chung grew up with the stories, superstitions, and magic of the Hawaiian Islands. This combined with his Japanese and Korean roots, gives him a unique perspective to tell cultural tales and personal stories with a deep sense of reverence and authenticity. Not only does he breathe life into traditional Asian folktales with sensitivity and deep connection, but he can also touch into the fire of ancient Hawaiian legends and tell them with passion and respect. Alton also enjoys telling true stories of the Japanese-Americans during WWII, but his true passion is telling ghost stories.
Chung was recently interviewed on OPB radio in a segment that ran during Morning Edition. The OPB website has that interview (click on listen), as well as Chung performing the story of Fred Korematsu (click on the caption beneath Chung's picture). Korematsu was a Japanese-American citizen whose Civil Rights case stemming from the internment of the Japanese rose to the level of the US Supreme Court.
See photos of Chung's family in 1951 (warning, bandwidth intensive)
His performances during Hearing Voices 2009Website: http://www.altonchung.com/
Eth-Noh-Tec
Eth-Noh-Tec was founded in 1982 and is the combined performance chemistry of Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo and Nancy Wang. Eth-Noh-Tec performs throughout the United States and abroad with several storytelling theater programs, workshops and residencies. Together they mix an alchemy of music, theater, dance and the spoken word to challenge the borders between theater, movement, mime and storytelling.
Eth-Noh-Tec has enjoyed tremendous success in this focused fusion of traditional and contemporary art forms, truly meeting the goals of their name Eth-Noh-Tec: The weaving [tec] together of distinctive cultural elements of the East and West [eth] to create new possibilities [noh].
Their performances during Hearing Voices 2009
Website: http://www.ethnohtec.org/
Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo
Growing up in the late 60’s with a Japanese and Filipino American heritage, Robert was provided with a rich cultural environment from which to explore the creation of an Asian American identity. His music background as a songwriter and composer, his interest and talents in Asian ethnic music, dance and theater, and his innate comedic ability merged with his social and political philosophy to place Robert in the exciting art form of storytelling. Synthesizing the spoken word with kinetic sensibilities, interlacing music to create interludes and atmosphere, and engaging his audiences into playful participation, integrates all of the elements Robert values for conveying his philosophy through performance.
See photos of Kikuchi's family in 1914 and 1940 (warning, bandwidth intensive)
Nancy Wang
Drawing on her background in modern dance, ethnic dance, theater and playwriting, Nancy Wang co-scripts and sculptures Eth-Noh-Tec’s synchronistic and seamless tandem movements. With lyricism, rhythmic and visual counterpoints drawn from Nancy’s masterful choreography and staging skills, Eth-Noh-Tec’s stories provide evocative visuals to stimulate the imagination as audiences listen to their rhythmic dialogue. Nancy is also a practicing psychotherapist and brings to her performances a strong belief and a community activism that provides her art of storytelling with the goal of making a difference in people’s lives.