DJ hit replay! Or shall we manually rewind this nostalgic cassette tape with a discerning finger to your favorite awkward 1990s multiculti blunders? The ’90s gave us “Sister Souljah moments,” the OJ Simpson hearings, the rise of xenophobic legislation (Prop 187 and 209), and homophobic punditry on national television (Jerry Falwell vs the Teletubbies). Carolina González (WNYC, Nueva York: the Complete Guide to Latino Life in the Five Boroughs) discusses the rise of “The Crossover,” by which ethnic pop products migrate to the mainstream. Music producer Sophia Chang talks Wu-Tang Clan and John Kuo-Wei Tchen (New York Before Chinatown: Orientalism and the Shaping of American Culture) sits us down for the origin stories of “heritage holidays” and “multiculturalism centers.” Vijay Prashad (The Karma of the Brown Folk) gives a short talk on how the demise of multiculturalism has left racism alive and kicking in colorblind Obama-America. Prashad joins a panel conversation with dream hampton, Vibe contributing writer and collaborating author of Jay-Z’s Decoded, and Rinku Sen (Accidental American: Immigration and Citizenship in the Age of Globalization), president of the Applied Research Center and publisher of Colorlines. See www.aaww.org/1989for more details.

Exhibits: Wu-Tang Clan, “Heritage Holidays,” Gender + Hip Hop

A project of The Asian American Writers’ Workshop, where we’re inventing the future of Asian American intellectual culture.