Aloha! In celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, the DePaul Humanities Center gave a lecture and-performance that combined philosophy, art, history, dance, and several other disciplines in order to investigate the nature of ethics, finding moral inspiration in the culture of Hawaii, and in the being of rocks. Yes, we are talking about ‘rocks’! According to the Hawaiian culture, rocks tell us a lot by their existence and shape. The lecture was given by professor H.Peter Steeves, with Halau I Ka Pono – The Hula School of Chicago.

The lecture started with an introduction and was followed by six acts from the Hawaiian myth “Pele and Hi’iaka”. The story involves a journey, and professor Steeves took that story and transposed it into the literary scaffolding of another classic journey, the novel Ulysses by James Joyce. Between every act, professor Steeves talked about ethics by using the Hawaiian rocks to explain how Hawaiians look at ethics. The Hula School of Chicago visualized the acts by singing and dancing. (more…)

Hi everyone! My name is Ha and I’m currently interning at Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Chicago (Advancing Justice-Chicago). Since this is my first time in Chicago, Advancing Justice-Chicago has given me the best task ever! During Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM) in May, I will visit several cultural events and update everyone about my experiences through Advancing Justice-Chicago’s blog. As a student from the Netherlands, it is very interesting for me to see Chicago from a non-tourist perspective. Every week I will give you a recap of my experiences at one of the events, I hope you like it!

Since I’m living in Uptown, my first event was the Uptown Asian Pacific Heritage Month Kick-off Celebration.  This event highlights the rich and vibrant traditions of the Asian Pacific American community by organising workshops, performances and artistic displays in Uptown. On a sunny spring day, I’ve walked from Argyle to Wilson to see art-work by local artists. The beautiful Japanese blossoms paintings make Broadway much more colourful and attractive. I hope I could see more beautiful paintings the next few weeks on Broadway! (more…)

With just 4 days to our Milestone Awards Benefit it’s time to catch up with another awardee, Chicago restaurant and entertainment entrepreneur, Billy Dec. (more…)