Intertrend Creative Complex Opens its Doors
Last month, we hosted a series of events during the California Democratic Presidential Forum including a live podcast of “They Call Us Bruce” at our newly renovated Edison Theatre and Psychic Temple.
On Thursday, November 14, Intertrend hosted a night focused on the Asian American experience with a live podcast of “They Call Us Bruce” with hosts Jeff Yang and Phil Yu. Special guests for the night included Tess Paras (CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND), Thuc Doan Nguyen (TV writer and founder of The Bitch Pack) and Shirley Li (writer for The Atlantic).
It was an enthusiastic discussion panel peppered with funny anecdotes, story sharing, and also emotional moments. As the Thanksgiving episode of the podcast, Phil and Jeff opened with stories from everyone's family experience of embracing American culture and the significance of the spirit of this holiday - from awkward family moments to new immigrant attempts at finessing the traditional Thanksgiving cuisine. Phil coerced Tess to share her priceless experiences of playing the Pochontas role on the Disney Cruise Line. Thuc shared about her Bitch Pack List, that features screenplays with prominent roles for women and women of color. Shirley reminisced about being the only Asian on staff at EW when the Crazy Rich Asian issue was in development.
There was denouncing of "othering," "white feminism," nativism, "bad Asians," ignorance, and moving exchanges about the angst of school shootings as society's new normal. The night also had a strikingly warm sense of camaraderie and community building, with celebrations of more Asian representation in media, and communal pride that this event existed with the speakers grateful to have a voice. The importance of having opportunities for the community to gather live and discuss the state of now, while mobilizing towards building the future that we all want to live in is critical. As Jeff summarized, we are entering an exciting "new chapter of collective cultural history." In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we are incredibly thankful to be participating in the dialogue and happy to provide the space and platform to facilitate this.
On Saturday, November 16, the Edison Theater also hosted a special live taping of KCRW’s “Press Play”. The discussion centered around the impact the state of California will have in the upcoming 2020 elections. Madeleine Brand moderated a panel which consisted of Josh Barro (host of KCRW’s “Left, Right and Center”), Gustavo Arellano (Los Angeles Times writer and national columnist), political commentator Nomiki Konst, and Ben Christopher (covers California politics for KCRW).
The week's dual programming events kicked off the highly curated content that we at Intertrend plan to host in these spaces.