Section A · Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Monday, March 6, 2000
Members of the La Table Française spacak French while drinking coffee at La Prima Tazza, 638 Massachusetts St. The group, which includes students, graduate teaching assistants and professors meets every Thursday from 4:30 to 6:00 at the cafe. Photo by Lucas W. Krump/KANSAN
Skits illustrate Asian-American issues
Under the watchful eye of the Jayhawk plaque at Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union, the theatrical group Here and Now performed for about 90 people Saturday.
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
By Ryan Blethen
The Los Angeles-based group came to the University of Kansas for this year's Asian-American festival. The 10 members of Here and Now addressed Asian-American issues.
But the show's themes weren't aimed exclusively at that group, said Binh Thai, Larned junior.
"You don't have to be Asian to understand it," Thai said.
The show began as the performers filtered through the crowd and
grabbed about 15 people from the audience for a game of red light-green light. The audience members onstage were told to walk in different styles, like Batman or someone who needed to go to the bathroom. The crowd cheered when the participants broke into an uncoordinated stagger when told to walk like someone from Kansas State University
After the game of red light-green light, the audience members stayed onstage and participated in an exercise — a kaleidoscope of movement and sound. Each person had to perform a motion that signified what the person next to them was doing. Then each person incorporated sounds into the act.
Once the audience members took their seats, Here and Now moved into the heart of its performance. It
started off with a folk story about the Vietnamese holiday Tet.
One skit dealt with how whites viewed Asian Americans. A woman from the group danced to center stage, where she stopped and told the story about a Caucasian woman who asked if she would order her sushi. She described the woman as having a patronizing look that implied to say, "You speak English well for an American."
"You know that look," she said. "I think to myself 'Who is this lady? Is she from Johnson County?' "
She went on to tell the crowd she had never been to Japan but faked a Japanese accent to fit others' perceptions of Asian Americans.
Here and Now ended its performance with the members telling childhood stories with acoustic guitar
accompaniment.
After the program, the group field ed the crowd's questions.
John Miyasaki, the group's founder and director, was asked if all stories performed were true. He said that they were and that people should be allowed to tell their stories, which in some societies is not always possible.
Frank Liu, China junior, said that he had not seen Here and Now before but that he enjoyed the show and could relate to the issues raised in the performance.
"I feel they are the same issues I have experienced," Liu said.
The Asian-American festival continues this week and ends with the Taste of Asia banquet 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 1204 Oread Avenue.
Students, teachers bring language skills to French Table
By Karen Lucas
Special to the Kansan
University of Kansas students can brush up on their French while savoring a cup of espresso at a local cafe.
La Table Française, sponsored by the department of French and Italian, meets from 4:30 to 6 p.m. every Thursday at La Prima Tazza, 638 Massachusetts St.
"It is a social event and also a learning experience," said Tom Stout, McLouth resident and former French student. "You'll get more opportunity to speak French at the French Table than you would going to class five days a week."
Graduate teaching assistants in French have held the meetings at the cafe since the fall. They have had better attendance there than at the Kansas Union, where they met last year, said Daniela Teodorescu, French GTA and Lawrence graduate student.
"This provides a much more informal atmosphere than the Union," said Shammuga Purushothaman, Madras, India, graduate student. "It's like hanging out with friends."
Teodorescu said two other things helped increase turnout — a later meeting time and strong GTA support. Some GTAs have attended every meeting and have encouraged their students to come as well, she said.
At last Thursday's meeting, about 20 participants, including students at different levels, two professors and four GTAs, gathered in the cafe. Laughter punctuated the various French conversations.
Although La Table Francaise mainly inspires informal conversation, sometimes creativity takes center stage.
Travis Swink, Sioux Falls, S.D., freshman and regular participant, said at one meeting he wrote a poem in French about a waterfall and shared it with the others.
"It was great." Teodorescu said. "It had images that were incredibly original."
And even though Stout does not take a French class this semester, he comes to the meetings at La Prima Tazza, which he said had a French-like setting.
"Cafes are a major part of French life," he said.
"This is as close to Paris as you'll get in Lawrence."
Celebration marks colorful Hindu holiday
Day marked with cultural dances, food
By John Audlehelm writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
The University of Kansas Cultural India Club celebrated the upcoming Hindu holiday Holi — the Festival of Colors — Saturday night with a dinner of Indian food and Rangoli, a show with Indian song and dance.
Club president Sandeep Misra, Faridabad, India, senior, said the show's name came from a design of colors used in Indian celebrations.
He said that although the March 19 holiday was called Holi, Rangoli was a nickname the club used.
Giri Gokulrangan, club treasurer and Madras, India, graduate student, said the dinner, which was held at Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 1204 Oread Avenue, featured mild- to medium-spicy northern Indian food.
After the dinner, the roughly 200 diners went to the ballroom in the Kansas Union to see the show.
Gokulrangan said that most people who attended the event came for both the dinner and the show but that the show had an audience of about 230.
The performance started with a traditional Hindu prayer.
"Anything that is supposed to start right, you start with a prayer," Misra said.
But after that, the show was mostly modern Indian song and dance — along with three fashion shows.
The last fashion show featured four women in colorful Indian dresses and four men in Western-style business suits.
"I would say it's about 70 percent
modern, 30 percent traditional," Misra said.
Between the dances and fashion shows were skits about an American-Indian family traveling from the United States to Indian cities, including Bombay, Punjab and Delhi. Misra played the father in the skit.
In each location the family saw, along with the audience, performances that represented that part of India.
Misra said the performers were not all club members.
Adam Martz, Wichita junior, played guitar in an American song, the Eagles" "Hotel California."
Makarand Patil, Bombay, India, graduate student, said Holl was a celebration of the triumph of good against evil.
"It's a time to enjoy," he said. "Forget all your worries and tensions."
During the holiday, Patil said, Hindus also combine colored powders with water and decorate one another to signify that life is colorful.
Monica Bhatnagar, club member and Overland Park junior, said she had been in India for the holiday.
She said that when she was in India she and her friends filled up their water guns with colored water and sprayed each other.
"At the end of the day you end up all colored up," she said. "It's a lot of fun."
Anand Sundaram, Bombay, India, graduate student and cultural chair of the club, said India was made up of many different cultures.
The purpose of the show, he said,
was to put that diversity together
and present it to both themselves
and the world.
Snigdhag Das dances to "Chamma Chamma..." during the Cultural India Club's Holi celebration Saturday night at the Kansas Union Ballroom. The celebration included food, fashion shows and cultural dances. Photo by Melissa Thornton/KANSAN
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