May events celebrate Asian culture

Although IU celebrates Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in April, it's officially celebrated in May. Several organizations are holding Asian arts events in Bloomington over the next two weeks in the spirit of the month.\nThe Mathers Museum of World Cultures co-hosts "An Afternoon with Local Asian Artists" with the Asian Culture Center from 2 to 4 p.m., Saturday at 601 E. Eighth St. Bloomington residents James Min-Ching Yang and Kwang Cha Brown and Terre Haute residents Valerie Jelski and Pat Grigg will display their work at this event.\n"One of the objectives in celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is to recognize the accomplishments of people of Asian descent," said Melanie Castillo-Cullather, director of the Asian Culture Center. "This will be a time to showcase the talent of our guest artists."\nYang will play a musical instrument called an erhu. Yang said the instrument is similar to the cello, but has only two strings and the bow is placed between the strings. Yang plans to play a couple of Chinese folk songs and one or two erhu instrumental pieces at the event. Yang, who earned a doctorate in English and American literature from IU, began playing the erhu as a freshman in Taiwan.\n"I heard someone playing it and I immediately fell in love with it," Yang said.\nBrown, who teaches art classes at the Waldron Arts Center, plans to show her work of landscape and still life. In January, Brown opened the Kwang Cha Studio Gallery at 120 E. Sixth St. to display her paintings.\n"I do mostly oil paintings right now," Brown said. "That's what I'm going to show on Saturday."\nBrown plans to give an oil painting demonstration by drawing a scene from a photograph.\n"It will give people an idea of how to do oil paintings and landscape," Brown said.\nJelski will display her work using batik, an art form in which a fabric is dyed while wax covers portions of the fabric not intended for the dye. Jelski plans to present works consisting of African design and geometric design. She anticipates not have enough time to do an entire piece of artwork because of drying time, so she intends to show stages of the process.\nJelski first became interested in Batik while living in Uganda after she convinced a resident to teach it to her kids and grew fascinated in the art herself.\n"I'm the one doing it now, and they quit." Jelski said.\nShe said her son, a first-grader at the time, convinced her to pursue her artistic talent.\n"He said 'Mom, what you've done looks like it was done by a professional,'" Jelski said.\nJelski has won several awards including Wabash Valley Art Guild's Artist of the Month in March of 2002. This past weekend, Jelski won a $150 first prize in an art show competition in Terre Haute.\nJelski has taken lessons from a variety of artists including Grigg, who makes murals and paintings on gourds. Jelski said a gourd is similar to a squash but with harder skin.\nThe night of the Mathers Museum exhibit, the Drepung Gomang Tour Group of 11 Tibetan Buddhist monks will hold a cultural pageant at 7 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church. The Cultural Pageant of Tibet will highlight the visit from the Drepung Gomang Tour Group which is on a 10-month tour of over 20 states and 30 locales.\nThe pageant will include several chants and three dances -- a religious dance called a Dakini dance, and two cultural dances -- a Tashi Shopa dance and a yak dance. In the Tashi Shopa dance, performers dance in masks of white hair and beard to symbolize longevity and good health.\n"The yak dance consists of two monks in a large yak costume, one is the head of the yak and the other is the back," said the tour coordinator, Mary Pattison. "It's very entertaining."\nThere will also be a debate demonstration and a slide show presentation depicting Tibetan culture and people. According to the Web site, www.gomang.org, debate is an important method in learning Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and is used to fully understand Buddhist doctrine and to dispel any misconceptions.\nHandcrafted merchandise made in the Drepung Gomang Monastery in South India will be on sale at the pageant and at various locales throughout the monks' stay in Bloomington from Wednesday through next week. Times and locations are listed at www.gomang.org/btown.htm. The merchandise includes bells, dresses, skirts, T-shirts, tablecloths and Indian jewelry. \nThe tour group of 11 Tibetan Buddhist monks began its American tour in September in Bloomington with the dedication of the Chamtse Ling Temple at the Tibetan Cultural Center by the Dalai Lama. The group will make a final stop in Bloomington in July before returning to India.\nPattison said the group has a three-fold mission -- to spread a message of wisdom and compassion, to promote Tibet's arts and culture, and to provide funds for the Food Foundation to help feed the over 1700 monks at the monastery.\nThe Asian Culture Center also co-hosts "AsianFest" as part of the Bloomington Community Farmers' Market at the Showers Common and City Hall atrium from 8:30 a.m. to noon, Saturday, May 22 at Eighth and Morton Streets. The event features Asian cooking demonstrations with dishes from the Philippines, India, Korea, China and Thailand. Asian artists will play music and dance. Performances include Malaysian, Indian, Filipino and Chinese Sword dances.\nIU alumnae and accordionist Sophia Travis will perform traditional Korean songs and some of her original pop music. Her music, which includes "Music for Picnics" and "Music for Swimming," is played on WFHB radio 98.1 and 91.3. "Music for Swimming" is currently in the top 20 on WFHB's playlist.\n"I will possibly sing in Korean to the best of my abilities," Travis said. "My father is of Finnish-American descent, so I may throw in a Finnish song to complement the set with a fair reflection of who I am."\n-- Contact staff writer Steven Chung at stchung@indiana.edu.