Hasan Minhaj, Padma Lakshmi celebrate immigrants in the arts at New American Festival, Sept. 14-15

Padma Lakshmi, Arturo Castro, Aparna Nancherla, Jonny Sun, Ronny Chieng, Marcus Samuelsson, Min Jin Lee, and Yasmin Khan to headline New American Festival in New York City

In a celebration of immigrants' contributions to American art, food, film, comedy, fashion and more, foodie queen and model Padma Lakshmi will give a keynote address.

New American Economy (NAE) has announced the complete lineup of events comprising the inaugural New American Festival, a groundbreaking event that brings together a wide range of immigrant cultural luminaries this weekend, Sept. 14-15.

The festival will take place at NeueHouse (Madison Square – 110 East 25th Street), in New York City.

Following its debut in New York, NAE will bring the New American Festival to cities across the U.S., including Anchorage, Atlanta, Boston, Kansas City, Nashville, Houston, and Oakland, among others.

“The New American Festival celebrates the visionary contributions that immigrants make to the fields of art and culture,” said New American Economy’s Katherine Steinberg. “Immigrants have revolutionized cuisine, and altered our perceptions through convention-breaking comedy, music, literature, and performance. The festival highlights how our cultural diversity is our national strength across each of these fields.”

According to NAE’s recent analysis of the 2017 American Community Survey, more than 400,000 immigrants are working in creative or artistic occupations, helping support the nearly $1 trillion creative industry sector in the United States. There are more than 25,000 immigrant actors, producers, and directors; nearly 23,000 immigrant musicians; more than 17,400 immigrant photographers; and more than 16,000 immigrant writers and authors nationwide.

Josh Wyatt, CEO of NeueHouse, said, “NeueHouse is honored to partner with the New American Festival to host its inaugural festival and call our space their home this month. The NeueHouse creative community thrives in an inclusive environment regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation and socio-economic backgrounds, a vision that is shared and celebrated by the New American Festival. NeueHouse deeply values and supports the diversity of members through thoughtful programming, community forums and business platforms that enable success for all.”

New American Festival headliners include established and emerging artists whose work has changed their respective fields and art forms.

New York Times best-selling author, host, and executive producer Padma Lakshmi will give the keynote address which kicks off the celebration Saturday morning.

In addition, the festival will also offer conversations with award-winning host, comedian, writer, and producer Hasan Minhaj (Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, Homecoming King) and sex therapist, radio and television show host and author Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer and a performance by America’s leading Latino dance organization, Ballet Hispánico.

Other headliners include renowned chef, restaurateur, and author Marcus Samuelsson (Red Rooster Harlem, Marcus B&P), Big Friendship co-author and Call Your Girlfriend podcaster Aminatou Sow, author Min Jin Lee (Pachinko, Free Food for Millionaires), and author, broadcaster and cook Yasmin Khan (Zaitoun, The Saffron Tales).

The festival will feature a panel discussion with Comedy Central talent and executives and a stand-up hour featuring comedians, including Ronny Chieng (senior correspondent for Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Trevor Noah), Aparna Nancherla (Comedy Central’s Corporate, Netflix’s The Standups, Bojack Horseman), Vladimir Caamaño (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Marvel’s Runaways, Jimmy Kimmel Live), and more.

BoJack Horseman writer, everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too author, and illustrator of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s New York Times best-seller Gmorning, Gnight! Jonny Sun will bring an interactive multimedia piece to NeueHouse with collaborating artist Hannah Davis.

The musical lineup features artists across genres, including Canadian singer-songwriter Ruth B, and Japanese Breakfast, the indie-rock solo music project of Korean-American musician Michelle Zauner.

Also joining the festival will be America’s leading Latino dance organization Ballet Hispánico, author Daniel José Older, The Splendid Table podcast host Francis Lam, 2018 James Beard Foundation Book of the Year winner, Michael W. Twitty, Chinese-American bilingual rapper and hip-hop artist Bohan Phoenix and many other guests.

All tickets can be purchased at www.newamericanfestival.com. Tickets will not be sold at the door.

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It's a wrap for 'Crazy Rich Asians', the movie

INSTAGRAM / JIMMY O. YANG

The remaining cast members of Crazy Rich Asians gather for the last day of shooting in Singapore

FRIDAY (June 23) was the last day of filming in Singapore for the movie adaptation of Kevin Kwan's Crazy Rich Asians. 

Director John M. Chu created a congenial environment for bonding for the cast members so the end of Singapore shooting was bittersweet - more like the last day of high school. A great experience, new friendships made and being part of something historic coming to and end.

It is the first Hollywood motion picture with an all-Asian cast since the Joy Luck Club 25 years ago.

Comedian Ronny Chieng of The Daily Show summed it up in a social media posting:

From their social media postings, you can tell the cast members from around the world were having a good time in Singapore. Judging by some of the gorgeous photos of the production, this movie will be an ode to Singapore, much like Woody Allen did films centered around Paris, New York City and San Francisco.

In many of the scenes of Crazy Rich Asians, Singapore will be a star.

Kris Aquino and lead actress Constance Wu.

Several of the supporting actors were sworn to secrecy to not reveal what roles they would be portraying. Such is the case with Ken Jeong and Manila's "Queen of All Media" Kris Aquino, the latter rumored to be playing a member of Burmese royalty.

As author Kevin Kwan said, part of the fun is guessing who will be playing certain characters. Jeong could be one of the patriaarchs of one of the super wealthy Singaporean families or he could be the role of "Eddie," one of the innumerable cousins trying to live up to family standards. The frantic character could make use of Jeong's physical comedic skills.

Anyone who's read the novel knows that the cast of characters is huge including numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins and the clusters of friends.

The worldwide search for actors proved dating for director Chu, who opened up casting calls on the internet, hoping to find the perfect actors for each role. The search netted Henry Golding, a Singaporean TV personality who has never appeared in a motion picture before being cast as Nick Young, the male lead in the novel and movie.

RELATED: How would you cast Crazy Rich Asians?

Actors, many of whom had to be able to speak with the Singaporean accent, a bit British, came from as far away as London (Gemma Chan), Australia (Ronny Chieng, Chris Pang, Remy Hill) and the United States (Constance Wu, Nico Santos, Jimmy O. Yang, Harry Shum Jr., Ken Jeong, Awkwafina).

The cast went out to dinner together and had a thing about Karaoke. They apparently had pretty much had a good time, according to their social media feeds and Singapore's gossip columnists.

What happens on the last day of filming and you host of people who are definitely not camera-shy? You end up with this photo.

What actors do when a camera is pointed their way.

The cast, as you can tell from the Instagram and Twitter photos, is one of the most attractive-looking casts ever - no matter what ethnicity.

The scene now moves to Hollywood for editing, scoring and marketing. No date has been announced for its premiere.

By the time filming ended, stars Constance Wu was back in the U.S.  preparing for the fourth season of Fresh Off the Boat and Michelle Yeoh was filming the CBS product, Star Trek: Discovery. that will debut this fall.

Kevin Kwan is making the rounds promoting the concluding novel of the Rich Asians trilogy, Rich People's Problems that was published last month. Will there be a second movie in the franchise based on the middle novel, China Rich Girlfriend.? Stay tuned.

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Comedian says what we all want to say to host of racist segment on The O'Reilly Factor

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The Daily Show's Ronny Chieng interviews a person in New York City's Chinatown.

THE HORRENDOUS offensive racist interview conducted by Jesse Watters on the Fox Network's The O'Reilly Factor brought an immediate backlash from the AAPI community, a half-hearted apology from Watters and the story isn't over.

On Thursday evening, fighting fire with fire,  The Daily Show’s senior media correspondent Ronny Chieng delivered a beautiful response that all of us want to say to Watters.  He hurled an avalanche of insults at the so-called comedian (who has not tweeted since half-apologizing on Wednesday). 

“If you’re going to be racist, at least get your stereotypes right, you ignorant sack of shit!” Chieng said. “Karate isn’t Chinese, it’s Japanese, and you’re doing it in a Tae Kwan Do studio which is Korean, you f--king jack-off!”

Chieng then proceeded to interview some Chinese passers-by in Mandarin and Cantonese and received some cogent and politically knowledgeable responses including the final interview that was probably a scripted set-up. 

When asked about Watters, the man responded:

“The chickenshit reporter who came down here?” the man asked Chieng, in reference to Watters’ segment. “The one who was sent here by the larger chickenshit who didn’t come to Chinatown because he was afraid to do it himself? The one with no testicles, the one who came down here and said, ‘Let me talk to some old people, let me put them on camera without asking them, and put them on national television and make fun of them in the worst possible way?’ That asshole?”

Watch it here:

The Asian American Journalists Association wrote to David Tabacoff, executive producer of The O'Reilly Factor on Wednesday to protest the skit and Tabacoff responded by inviting AAJA President Paul Cheung to appear on the show on Friday.

The journalists' organization declined the invitation but in turn, invited Tabacoff to have a dialogue with the AAPI community in a town hall slated for Sunday. "We believe meaningful engagement can occur only if there is significant dialogue not just with us, but with the broader community," read the AAJA statement.

The town hall will take place Sunday (Oct. 10) between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. EST at the Museum of Chinese in America in New York's Chinatown.

“We encourage Jesse Watters, his producers and other Fox News staff members to attend,” the organization stated.

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