Check out this article on joke-telling Artificial Intelligence—featuring Joe Toplyn (SB ‘75/MBA ‘79). (TIME)

Keanu Reeves in Talks to Join Martin Scorsese's Devil in the White City TV Adaptation for Hulu, with executive producer Sam Shaw (AB '99). (Collider)

Phat Tuesdays Docuseries From Guy Torry & Reginald Hudlin (AB ‘83) Gets Prime Video Series Greenlight, Premiere Date. (Deadline)

Archive 81 Trailer: Mamoudou Athie & Dina Shihabi Uncover Sinister Secrets In Netflix’s Podcast-Inspired Horror Series, with executive producer Michael Narducci (AB ‘97). (Deadline)

Nicholas Britell (AB ‘03) Is Top Nominee at 2022 Society of Composers & Lyricists Awards. (Billboard)

18 HBO and HBO Max Original Series to Be Excited About in 2022, including one from David Mandel (AB ‘92). (IndieWire)

BET HER Presents Becoming: Michelle Obama In Conversation - Watch the former first lady and open up to actress Yara Shahidi (AB ‘22) for a heart-to-heart conversation. (BET)

Nanny becomes the first horror movie to win the Sundance Film Festival's US dramatic Grand Jury Prize! Sumalee Montano AB '93 is Executive Producer. Many congrats! 

Children Of Blood And Bone, written by Tomi Adeyemi AB '15, has an adaptation coming from Paramount, produced by Marty Bowen (AB '81). (Slashfilm)

Listen to Adam Grant (AB ‘03) and Corey Keyes discuss the pandemic-fueled feeling called 'languishing'. (NPR) 

Steve Zahn (MFA ‘90) and Amy Brenneman (AB ‘86) shows both make it on the list HBO Max's 7 most dysfunctional TV families. (Collider)

Feeling burned out lately? Listen to Michel Martin (AB ‘80) talk with Jonathan Malesic about the changing nature of how we work. (NPR) 

Lifetime’s Vanished: Searching for My Sister a twin challenge for Tatyana Ali (AB ‘02). (Boston Herald)

Marilyn Monroe was “Never a Victim”: watch Mira Sorvino (AB ‘89) and others reflect on Monroe’s life and career in a new CNN docuseries Reframed: Marilyn Monroe. (Vanity Fair)

Cristin Pescosolido (AB ‘91) is a Visual Effects Supervisor on Sundance film Master, directed by Mariama Diallo. (Sundance)

Julia Belanova (AB ‘18) booked a recurring role on MAYANS M.C. (FX/Hulu)

Gregg Hurwitz (AB ‘95) is hosting a launch event for his book "Dark Horse" on Tuesday, February 8. (Diesel Bookstore)

JEFF YANG launched one of the first Asian American national magazines, A. Magazine, in the late 1990s, and is now a frequent contributor to CNN, Quartz, Slate, the New York Times and National Public Radio. He has written/edited three books—Jackie Chan’s New York Times bestselling memoir I Am Jackie Chan, Once Upon a Time in China, and Eastern Standard Time—and three graphic novels, Secret Identities, Shattered and New Frontiers. His elder son, Hudson Yang, starred as Eddie Huang in ABC's groundbreaking sitcom Fresh Off the Boat. Yang was born in New York and lives in Los Angeles. He holds a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Harvard University and was a Harvard National Scholar with coursework in Asian languages, literature, and civilizations, media studies, and economics.

Yang was born in Brooklyn, and raised in the white, conservative community of Staten Island. As a child, he struggled with his Asian American identity, and often wanted to “become invisible and erase [his] identity.” However, at Harvard, Yang was able to embrace his heritage and connect with other Asian Americans. While Yang initially believed he might go into medicine or law, he soon realized that he wanted to be a writer. Yang joined the Harvard Lampoon and, with a group of other Asian American students, relaunched East Wind, a Harvard student publication about East Asian American politics, identity, and culture. East Wind evolved into A. Magazine, an East Asian American focused magazine that, until it ceased publication in 2002, was the largest publication for English-speaking East Asian Americans in the United States.

After graduation, Yang decided to pursue a career in journalism, with a focus on Asian American identity and issues. Early in his career, he grappled with the idea of being pigeonholed as someone who only wrote about these issues. When he would reach out to interview artists and other personalities for A. Magazine, they would often downplay their Asian identities, saying things like “I'm not an Asian American writer. I'm a writer who happens to be Asian American.” This mentality frustrated Yang, who said that these statements felt like “direct assertions that being Asian American was a liability.” Yang purposefully chose to focus on Asian American identity in his reporting, and went on to become a columnist for publications such as Alternate Weekly and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Yang spoke about the importance of collaborating with other Asian Americans on projects such as Angry Asian Man (an Internet blog founded in 2001 with blogger Phil Yu), multiple graphic novels, and his newest book, RISE: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now, which comes out in March 2022. “I think that collaboration, intrinsically, is how creativity happens. We are stronger when we come together,” Yang said.

Yang also spoke about how increased anti-Asian hate during the COVID-19 pandemic made him fear for the future of Asian American representation in entertainment and media. “We [Asian Americans] realized that everything that we thought we'd built on, from Fresh Off the Boat to Crazy Rich Asians, to the rise of the Gold Open, was in danger of going away. And we knew how long it took to build all that, and the kind of sweat and sacrifice that it took from predecessors of ours to get us here,” Yang said.

Yang’s desire to document this history was the driving force behind his newest book, RISE: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now. The book, co-authored with film director Philip Wang and Phil Yu, comes out in March 2022. Yang emphasized that representing a diversity of Asian American voices in the book was important to him, as well as providing guidance to future generations. “We just said, we need to document this for future generations in case it all has to be rebuilt, in case we have to do it all over again, because we could be all torn down in an instant. That's the early lesson we thought we were getting from this pandemic,” Yang said.

Yang believes there is still progress to be made, especially in terms of uplifting multiracial perspectives and other identities that are underrepresented within the Asian American community. Yang also said that he felt encouraged by the growing numbers of Asian Americans who are involved in politics, and urged more Asian Americans to speak up and become more politically active in their communities.

Despite the setbacks of the COVID-19 pandemic, Yang remains hopeful for the future of Asian American representation. “I feel like we are resilient and stronger than we had feared and bigger than we'd hoped. I'm really looking forward to what happens next for all of us,” Yang said.

Lastly, Yang advised Asian American students to believe in themselves, pursue their goals, and collaborate with others. “Just know that there are people who are out there who are more willing to support and give you a chance than ever before,” Yang said.

RISE: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now is available for pre-order.

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Sophie Kim is an award-winning performance poet, playwright, filmmaker, lyricist/librettist, and author of the poetry collection, SING THE BIRDS HOME (2019, Penmanship Books). Kim served as the 2018-2019 Los Angeles County Youth Poet Laureate. Kim co-wrote THE FORTUNATES, an original musical that premiered virtually at Harvard College in spring 2021. Kim is currently working on a queer, heretical musical comedy about Judas Iscariot. Find Kim at thesophiekim.com. 

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