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Asia Pacific Forum Records

Call Number

TAM.629

Date

1997-ongoing, inclusive

Creator

Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions
Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (Role: Donor)
Mei, Leyla (Role: Donor)

Extent

4 Linear Feet in 4 record boxes.
14.81 Gigabytes on 4963 computer files
4 websites in 4 archived websites.

Language of Materials

Materials are in English

Abstract

Asia Pacific Forum (APF), founded by a collective of journalists and political activists, is a weekly pan-Asian radio show based in New York City that began in broadcasting 1998 on 99.5 WBAI, a non-commercial and listener-sponsored radio station. The program covers stories from Asia and on Asian American communities and individuals, focusing on culture and politics. Its records document approximately 500 of APF's on-air shows between 1998-2009, in scripts, research notes, electronic records of e-mail messages posted to the APF's internal listserv and public e-mail list, audio cassette tapes, reel-to-reel audio tapes, compact discs, mini-discs, VHS tapes and DVDs. Among the audio recordings are airchecks for some of the shows, as well as full-length unedited recorded interviews with notable Asian Americans. An archived link to APF's website provides a connection to complete APF broadcasts from August 2006 forward.

Historical Note

Asia Pacific Forum (APF) is a weekly pan-Asian radio show based in New York City that broadcasts on WBAI 99.5 and streams live on the Internet. Focusing on culture and politics, APF's broadcasts cover underreported stories from Asia and on Asian American communities and individuals, exploring topics including social and political movements, civil and human rights, foreign policy, immigration, history, labor, literature, pop culture, and the performing arts. WBAI is part of the Pacifica Foundation, a non-commercial and listener-sponsored national radio network.

APF was founded in 1998, when Samori Marksman, program director of WBAI, and Sybil Wong, former business director of WBAI, brought together a group of journalists and progressive political activists to organize a weekly program focused on New York's Asian communities. Founding members included Kil Huh, John Kim, Jungwon Kim, Suen-yi Meng, and Doualy Xaykaotao. APF was organized as a collective and has continued to operate as one. A formal application process to join the collective was instituted in 2005. As of 2011, core collective members included Amna Akbar, Vivek Bharathan, Michelle Chen, Andrew Hsiao, Hyun Lee, Leyla Mei, Dorian Merina, Silky Shah, Naureen Shah, and Irene Tung.

Soon after the founding of APF, the show began a partnership with SAMAR magazine, the South Asian Magazine for Action and Reflection, a New York-based publication that explores the politics and culture of South Asia and the South Asian diaspora. During this time, members of the SAMAR collective, including Ananya Bhattacharjee, Aniruddha Das, Satinder Jawanda, Chandana Mathur, S. Shankar, and others, produced and hosted one show per month. The arrangement ended in 2001, when several SAMAR members joined the APF collective. APF quickly expanded its coverage to encompass East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the Pacific as well as Asian America.

The show's content is local, national, and international in scope. Among the Asian and Asian American newsmakers that have been featured on APF are Arundhati Roy, Tariq Ali, David Henry Hwang, Monique Truong, Edward Said, Maxine Hong Kingston, Vijay Prashad, Cathi Tactaquin, Grace Lee Boggs, Bhairavi Desai, Lois-Ann Yamanaka, Margaret Fung, Mike Honda, John Liu, Stacey Ann Chin, Jeff Chang, and DJ Rekha. In 2006, APF began podcasting and making its weekly broadcasts available as downloads on the Web, allowing the show to reach a broader audience both nationally and globally.

Arrangement

Arranged into eight series. In most cases original folder and audio tape titles have been retained. Series I and IV, and are arranged chronologically; Series II and III have been arranged in alphabetical order. Series V, VI, and VIII are unprocessed and have not been arranged by archivist.

  1. Asia Pacific Forum Scripts and Background and Research Materials
  2. Asia Pacific Forum - Administrative
  3. WBAI - Pacifica
  4. Reel to Reel Audio Tapes
  5. Unprocessed Audio Cassette Tapes, Mini Discs, Digital Data Tape (DAT), Videotapes and DVDs
  6. Unprocessed Compact Discs
  7. Archived Websites
  8. 2021 Accretion

Scope and Content Note

The Asia Pacific Forum Records document approximately 500 of APF's on-air shows from 1998-2009, including scripts (some annotated with hand-written notes), preparatory materials, and research notes for shows (including biographies of guests and background articles), along with some documentation of APF's publicity efforts. In addition, there are electronic records (mainly stored on compact discs) consisting of e-mail messages posted to the collective's internal listserv and discussion board, as well as its public e-mail list. A significant portion of the records also include audio cassette tapes, compact discs, mini-discs, and reel-to-reel audio tapes. Some of these materials contain airchecks (complete recordings of APF's live broadcasts, recorded in the studio by the host(s) of these shows). Of particular significance among the collection's audio recordings are full-length unedited recorded interviews with notable Asian Americans including activist Yuri Kochiyama, novelist Jessica Hagedorn, and musician and activist Chris Iijima. A small part of the records consists of VHS tapes and DVDs sent to APF by outside producers or distributors for promotional purposes or for consideration for possible inclusion in its programs. In addition, an archived link to APF's website makes it possible to directly listen to APF broadcasts from August 2006 forward. The collection does not contain a complete set of recordings of all of APF's shows, nor does it include a comprehensive list of all of APF's broadcasts (at present no such document exists) or any transcripts for the shows.

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) held by the Asia Pacific Forum were transferred to New York University in 2014 by Leyla Mei. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection must be secured from the repository. Please contact the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive, special.collections@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.

Preferred Citation

Identification of item, date; Asia Pacific Forum Records; TAM 629; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.

To cite the archived website in this collection: Identification of item, date; Asia Pacific Forum Records; TAM 629; Wayback URL; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated by Leyla Mei on behalf of the Asia Pacific Forum in 2014. The accession number associated with this gift is 2013.001. An accretion consisting of a download of the APF website was donated in April 2021; the accession number associated with this gift is 2021.026.

http://www.asiapacificforum.org/ was initially selected by curators and captured through the use of The California Digital Library's Web Archiving Service in 2009 as part of the Alternative Mass Media / News Web Sites Web Archive. In 2015, this website was migrated to Archive-It. Archive-It uses web crawling technology to capture websites at a scheduled time and displays only an archived copy, from the resulting WARC file, of the website. In 2021, https://anchor.fm/asiapacificforum/ was added. The accession number associated with this website is 2021.050. In 2023, https://radiopublic.com/asia-pacific-forum-6BwPem/ and https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/asiapacificforum/ were added. The accession number associated with this websites is 2023.107.

Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures

Access to audiovisual materials in this collection is available through digitized access copies. Researchers may view an item's original container, but the media themselves are not available for playback because of preservation concerns. Materials that have already been digitized are noted in the collection's finding aid and can be requested in our reading room. Materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact special.collections@nyu.edu with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.

Appraisal

No materials were separated from this collection.

Take Down Policy

Archived websites are made accessible for purposes of education and research. NYU Libraries have given attribution to rights holders when possible; however, due to the nature of archival collections, we are not always able to identify this information.

If you hold the rights to materials in our archived websites that are unattributed, please let us know so that we may maintain accurate information about these materials.

If you are a rights holder and are concerned that you have found material on this website for which you have not granted permission (or is not covered by a copyright exception under US copyright laws), you may request the removal of the material from our site by submitting a notice, with the elements described below, to the special.collections@nyu.edu.

Please include the following in your notice: Identification of the material that you believe to be infringing and information sufficient to permit us to locate the material; your contact information, such as an address, telephone number, and email address; a statement that you are the owner, or authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed and that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; a statement that the information in the notification is accurate and made under penalty of perjury; and your physical or electronic signature. Upon receiving a notice that includes the details listed above, we will remove the allegedly infringing material from public view while we assess the issues identified in your notice.

Bibliography

Most of the information for this guide was drawn from an historical sketch written by Andrew Hsiao and Leyla Mei, Asia Pacific Forum Collective members, that was cited in the description of the records on the webpage for the Asian/Pacific American Documentary Heritage Archives Survey. The Asian/Pacific American Documentary Heritage Archives Survey was a joint project of the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives and the Asian/Pacific/American Institute, both of New York University, carried out in 2011.

Asia Pacific Forum Records. Accessed October 10, 2014. http://dev-dl-pa.home.nyu.edu/tamimentapa/?q=node/209

Collection processed by

Erika Gottfried

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-11-29 11:55:43 -0500.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Description is in English

Processing Information

All materials were removed from hanging files in which they were originally received, but remain (with a few exceptions) in their original file folders. These folders were then re-boxed into archival records boxes.

In 2021, creator-supplied titles containing harmfully euphemistic language regarding the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II were identified, but have been retained to convey important contextual information regarding time and place in which the documents and titles were created.

In 2021 and 2023, additional archived websites were added to the finding aid and description was updated.

Revisions to this Guide

February 2021: Updated by Amy C. Vo to note review of legacy description about the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II
May 2021: Updated by Rachel Searcy to reflect 2021 accretion
November 2023: Edited by Nicole Greenhouse to reflect additional administrative information and added archived websites.

Repository

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012