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"No-No Boy": Asian American History through Music

Julian Saporiti, the musician and scholar behind the "No-No Boy" project, joins library staff to watch, listen to and discuss his work connecting Asian American history to the present through song.

"No-No Boy" is an immersive multimedia work blending original folk songs, storytelling, and projected archival images to illuminate hidden American histories. Taking inspiration from his own family’s history living through the Vietnam War, as well as interviews with World War II Japanese Incarceration camp survivors and other stories of Asian American experience, Nashville born songwriter Julian Saporiti has transformed years of doctoral research at Brown University into an innovative project bridging a divide between art and scholarship. By turning archival study and fieldwork into a large repertoire of folk songs and visuals, "No-No Boy" has evolved into a project aimed at recovering difficult pasts, making connections across communities, and imagining better futures. Learn more about the project here: https://www.nonoboyproject.com/

Saporiti joins library staff member Nathalie Levine in conversation about his work. We’ll be streaming songs and videos from his two albums, "1942" and "1975," and there will be time for audience Q&A.

Julian Saporiti is a Vietnamese American songwriter and scholar born in Nashville, Tennessee. His work "No-No Boy" has transformed his doctoral research at Brown University on Asian American history into concerts, albums and films which have reached a broad and diverse public audience. Saporiti holds degrees from Berklee College of Music, University of Wyoming and Brown University.

Nathalie Levine is a library associate at Princeton Public Library and graduate student at Rutgers University. She is passionate about sharing stories from Asian American history and drawing connections to the present moment.

Presented with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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