* Taking place Monday, May 18 at 5 pm EST, in person (come!) or livestreamed *

Back in 2015-2020 I worked at an arts non profit in Manhattan called the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, where asian diasporic literary figures, activists, and artists would all converge for small readings, talks, and workshops; we were all knowingly or unknowingly doing small parts to will forward an imperfect and boundless future for asian american culture and identity. If you knew me back then, I was that person in the back of the dark room quietly running sound, setting up the live stream, and occasionally popping up on stage to make sure the microphones were the right height for the readers.

Working here was one of the most formative experiences of my life. It was my political education and shaped my understanding of the world as I see it now. I learned so much about queerness, critical race theory, class solidarity, and the colonial histories of British and American imperialism; how it’s affected so much of Asia and the world. (In fact maybe I learned too much as we ended up unionizing our staff in 2018 🤷‍♀️ )

Since covid began and I left the organization, I’ve somewhat fallen out of touch with my literary self, trading readings and panels for raves and experimental music gatherings. Besides my personal music and film scoring, I started a residency at The Lot Radio in Greenpoint championing new and underrepresented asian diasporic music, which I titled Stray Dogs. Then I subsequently had to learn how to DJ.

Fast forward to end of last year: I was sitting in Chinatown with my friend June who is doing a PHD at Rutgers. She told me she’s been researching sounds from the Vietnam War casually brought up the idea of doing a DJ set that incorporated archival audio from the 1970s surrounding the Vietnam War. For me, this was an exciting idea that bridged my older self and my current self. I love experimenting with what a DJ set can be, which can be anything, something I learned from listening to DJ sets from Bobby Beethoven (fka Total Freedom) and Juliana Huxtable. I saw Total Freedom open for Arca at the Shed in 2018 and they played motorcycle sounds for 10 minutes. Juliana often speaks about politicizing the dance floor.

So now I’m inviting you to tune into a special APIA Heritage Month set this Monday, 5 pm EST that June and I are doing at The Lot Radio, which we are titling The Hauntology of War. We’re blending archival audio from the Vietnam War (sonic warfare used by american troops, propaganda radio broadcasts, anti war speeches at columbia that are achingly similar to today’s anti-imperialist/war movements), with my practice of spinning contemporary east and south east asian club and experimental music, much of which purposefully makes connections in the music with the region’s post-colonial legacies.

And letting you know that this is a major trigger warning set as some of the sounds are from speeches from Nixon, actual military sounds from the war, which may be upsetting to people, especially people whose lives have been displaced and directly affected by the war. However while there are sounds that may be upsetting, we’re also highlighting much of the anti-war movement during the time; songs from black G.I.s refusing to fight for white america, anti-imperialist punk songs, and speeches condemning the war, all of which I find very moving.

If you would like, you can come to The Lot Radio in Greenpoint. It will be a beautiful sunny day. It is also livestreamed on thelotradio.com. If you can’t tune in live, it will be archived and we’ll post the audio and video afterwards!

Thank you for reading.

<3 OHYUNG