No-No Boy: Trailer Julian Saporiti 2018-04-29 | facebook.com/nonoboyalbuminstagram.com/thenonoboyprojecthttp://www.nonoboymusic.comNo-No Boy is a multimedia concert performed by Julian Saporiti and Erin Aoyama. Taking inspiration from interviews with World War II Japanese Incarceration camp survivors, his own family’s history living through the Vietnam War, and many other stories of Asian American experience, Saporiti has transformed his doctoral research at Brown University into folk songs in an effort to bring these stories to a broader audience. Alongside Aoyama, a fellow PhD student at Brown whose family was incarcerated at one of the 10 Japanese American concentration camps, No-No Boy aims to shine a light on experiences that have remained largely hidden in the American consciousness.Performing everywhere from universities and cultural centers to rural churches and bars, No-No Boy aims to illuminate an understudied past and in doing so, generate conversations about the present with diverse audiences. Using music to process their research and family legacies, Saporiti and Aoyama return often to a refrain they’ve heard spoken by those who have lived through the trauma of war and incarceration, “Do not let this happen, again.” For booking information please contact nonoboy@brown.eduSongs featured: "Boat People," "Instructions To All Persons," "Heart Mountain"Musicians featured:Emilia Halvorsen, Noah Choi, Michelle Bazile, Stefanie Miller, Kishi Bashi, with production from Seth Boggess. Film clips shot by Justin Smith and Max Ritter as part our work on Kishi Bashi's "Omoiyari" documentary. omoiyarisongfilm.comTo learn more, google the following topics about the stories behind our work: - Chinese Exclusion- Rohingya Crisis- Boat People- Imperialism in Southeast Asia (US, Japanese, Dutch, British, French)- American War In Vietnam- Japanese Internment- Hawaii Imperialism- Philippines Imperialism- Khmer Rouge- Forgotten War- Laos Secret War- DACA- Comfort Women
Two Candles In The Dark Julian Saporiti / No-No Boy. Kitchen table, Spry Bay, Nova Scotia. Julian Saporiti 2018-01-02 | On New Year's Day, 2018, in the small community of Spry Bay, Nova Scotia, local do-gooder / raconteur Kenneth Boutilier came a knockin' and requested an encore performance of a song he had heard me sing at the No-No Boy concert a few nights earlier which took place at the Legion Hall in nearby Sheet Harbor. Of course, I obliged, and he and his wife Susan sat down for tea while I sang "Two Candles In The Dark." My hosts Glen (Kenneth's brother) and Julie prepared supper in the background. Stefanie Miller filmed the proceedings. The song was written about the root cellar at the Japanese Concentration Camp in Heart Mountain, WY. It imagines to young people (Nisei-Second Gen Japanese-Americans), finding a way to survive and occupy themselves despite being imprisoned behind barbed wire and removed far from their California homes Although the characters are fictional, the scenes and actions are culled from interviews I've conducted, as well as other research I've done on the Heart Mountain camp. Lyrics: Don’t it feel like a movie, teaching this girl how to waltzLeft feet, she might have three, but she sure feels nice in my armsOld folks sing an old song, play in the agreed upon keyMy eyes are stuck on her, her eyes don’t leave her feetThis girl, no class ring, maybe this is more than a larkBrown boots, a dirt floor, dancing like two candles in the darkPretty outlaw call a quarter past, light knuckles on a barrack doorShe got a brother down in Topaz, I saw that name once in a jewelry storeWind around past the skaters and pond, looking for a cut in the wireShe’s got a key to the cellar door, don’t ask questions, man, just stand there inspiredThis girl, gets why, I miss the garden at the Golden Gate ParkYoung blood and old songs, dancing like two candles in the darkI tell ya man it’s like some movie and she’s just tailor made for the partLamps licking the roof beams, she’s got good looking down to an artHear the old folks sing them old songs, the background just fades awayOur coffee can fire’s almost gone, she says, “I gotta get out of this place” This girl, a pin point, that moment ya feel a sparkBrown boots, a dirt floor, dancing like two candles in the dark Dancing like two candles in the darkDancing like two candles in the dark
