during what some consider the height of the agricultural movement making it the oldest disciplinary arts organization in the country. nurturing that creative spirit is the spiritual director jason biani. welcome. >> thank you very much. >> give us a little start for people who have heard about it. a little bit of the history and how it got started. >> it's the oldest multi-disciplinary asian pacific american organization in in this country. we're entering our 45th street this year. we started on kearny street in the i hotel and what happened there when they were effected from the hotel, we were, too, as well. we've moved around all over the city in those 45 years and spent most of it in the south market area. >> i used to work there. it was a thriving area. give us an idea. multi-disciplinary. give us an idea. it's hard to focus on one. your group was dedicated to make sure a lot of the arts were covered. how difficult is that? >> it's a balancing act but we try to make sure we give equal time where we can get it but there are other arts forms that do different arts like the studio and theater. but our focus has been art arts, literary. we sit it apz around six disciplines, music, literature, critical arts and also film. we're also open to different types of arts. we do a fashion show every year called celebrate your body and that's also -- >> always branching out, huh? >> mm-hmm. >> i look the word "workshop" too. in the arts, for an artist to be able to work it out. start with the idea and premise and work it out and get it to a form where you can kind of present it. that's a very crucial stage and one that is very lacking, especially for asian american artists. >> yeah. from the very beginning, you know, folks knew the way to support each other is to create a space where we can create our together and also help develop our skills. and so what we try to do through our programming is to support the artist at every step and every stage of their artistic career. so, you know, we have our programs, we have a fiction workshop coming up. we just did a story-telling workshop with a local comedian. she's awesome. >> how do people get involved? how do aspiring artists get involved with their group? you can hit us up at www.kearnystreet.org, go to our website and get on our mailing list from if there. you can visit our social media pages and kind of drop us a line. >> i think that's very important. that's very crucial that you've created kind of a community of artists because it's very difficult to thrive on your own without some support even if it's just emotional support, huh? >> yeah. i think people have this idea that arts, you know, is some kind of like lonesome process. it duct have to be. we believe in it being a communal process. >> and you relate to that because you're an artist yourself. >> yes. >> you have a show coming up? >> yes, i do. in about two weeks over at z space in san francisco. it is part of a festival commemoration. my show is called "locusts in control" and it's a mixture of poetry, storytelling and other different types of multi-media. and, you know, being able to put those types of things together, it doesn't happen alone. >> yeah. you get to do it from both kind of an administrative and creative end. that's great. >> yeah. >> congratulations. >> thank you. >> to see jason bayani and "low cuts in control" it runs february 14 through march 8 at z space. you can get more information by going to nbcbayarea.com. stay with us. we look at western ter rule ya. that's next. (burke) at farmers, we've seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. even a "truck-cicle." [second man] how you doing? [ice cracking] [second man] ah,ah, ah. oh no! [first man] saves us some drilling. [burke] and we covered it, february fourteenth, twenty-fifteen. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ street is was born in hawaii. with me is westin ter rule ya, a visual artist who has visited a number of bay area museums as well as museums in new york, atlanta, and tokyo. and now you get to see some of his work here. welcome to the show. >> thank you very much. >> people probably feel like they know, but generally speaking essentially what is a visual artist? >> so i think a visual artist is someone who takes a piece of art and elevates it or isolates it and gets people to respond, get them to think about something to make it sort of strange in some way so that people reconsider what's going on in our modern society. >> that's exactly what i thought it was. i'll tell you what. i focus on the neighborhood or community as a way of looking at the textures and community. so this project that you're looking at here was an insulation of the college art museum. and i worked with a number of businesses in the 25th and telegraph neighborhood of oakland and sort of created specific cultural exchanges that i had with those businesses. so in the mid ground there you can see a big open sign and that was actually with telegraph cleaners and the propry ter there. alters clothing and cleans it. i made some paper clothing and asked him to alter it with thread so you can see what he did. >> okay. that will be interesting to keep that perspective as we look at some of your other work. give me an idea, are you always there to talk about it or are they more subject to interpretation as people look at it? >> i think that's one of the nice things about visual arts or disadvantage depending on the way you look at it. art is meant to stand in honor for you. i think the nice thing about that is for people who may not respond to direct sort of conversati conversation that it's a way to transcend language or other things. >> sometimes it's kind of limiting to explain it, huh, because if people get something out of it that maybe you weren't even intending, that's actually a good thing, right? >> yeah. so it's a flexible medium. >> how about you? what's your back ground and training in terms of getting ready to do this and being able to do it now? >> i went through sort of the formal education process. got a studio art undergrad b.a. and msa. but i also have a background in community arts. so disney arts and community pop. i try to blend both of those perspectives. >> when you were going through your education and awareness there, were you all right kind of feeling constricted with what you were seeing? did you va v that feeling about wanting to take things and break out and break new ground? >> hmm. >> did you have that feeling when you were doing that or did it come later? >> i'm not sure if -- i'm not sure it comes around as place of constriction but a place of wanting to imagine the proactive. that's nice about art. you can create something different. so it's always been sort of this proactive positive outlet for me. >> yeah, yeah. i meant more in terms of being restricted to the sort of traditional things you were learning and then breaking beyond that. and you've been able to do that. i notice, though, you have had showcases in a lot of different places. i know, of course, tokyo -- is tokyo different than say trying to open an exhibit in atlanta? do you try to keep those things in mind or are your exhibits pretty universal as far as you're concerned? >> that's always a challenge trying to figure out what the different concepts are. that varies from project to project. pieces we look at is specific to a particular neighborhood but some of the work i do hopefully can transcend some of those things and open up bridges with other cultural real sort of contexts. >> i know. looking at your work, i think you're doing that. all right. >> thank you. >> all right. well, next up, poet michelle lynn. study with us. i did everything i could to make her party perfect. almost everything. you know, 1 i n 10 houses could get hit by an expensive septic disaster. but for only $7 a month, rid-x helps break down waste. avoid a septic disaster with rid-x. ♪ strummed guitar you can't experience the canadian rockies through a screen. you have to be here, with us. there's only one way to travel through this natural wonder and get a glimpse of amazing. and that's with a glass of wine in one hand, and a camera in the other, aboard rocky mountaineer. canada's rocky mountains await. call your travel agent or rocky mountaineer for special offers now. welcome back. our next guest is a kearny street poet. the artist and poet is michelle lynn who has released a book "a poetry collection: a house made of water" which will have a release celebration event in san francisco later which we'll talk about. welcome to the show. >> thank you for having me. >> of course, "a house made of water" and you're going have a performance later on. tell us how you got started as a poet and also your connection as a workshop. >> i guess i started writing really, really young and this book itself, i guess, it's gone through many permutations. i would say i've been working on it for about seven years. i started writing really young and i was drawn to poetry since i was a kid because i was a nonnative even glish speaker. so i was learning english. so as i was learning english, i was learning taiwanese and mandarin. so i got confused. it offered me a way to push with languages and play, a way i was playing with tongue. it pushed the limits. a lot of it is playing with the language that i can then explore other things too. >> when you were doing so much work and putting so much into it, how do you decide what gets put into the book? >> it's very difficult. >> yeah. >> i was very fortunate to be able to study poetry at the university of california riverside and i was able to work with poets, like the current u.s. poet laureate and then i went to university of pittsburgh and i worked with poets there. so they really did guide me a lot through this book. a lot of it was -- i had a lot of material that's accumulated over the years and trying to figure out what is the story or stories i want to express. >> yeah. because it kind of has to feel -- that personal connection has to be made so a lot of what you choose is a lot about you. >> yes. >> now, you were nice enough to pick a poem to read for us. >> mm-hmm. >> what are we going to hear and why did you pick this poem? >> i pickactually picked a poem that's a little more new. i'm not sure why i picked this one. i actually wrote this near the conclusion of working on this book and i thought it is kind of the next step after this book because for me as a poet, as someone who's constantly working on my art, it doesn't end with a boochlkt it doesn't end with -- i guess like the project is never finished. >> right. >> so i was thinking a lot about the scenes and what was going on in the book and what more i wanted to say about it like family, immigration, history, and kind of and playing wo those stories and gender as well, speaking about that. >> okay. >> the year of the horse is dead, and so is the year of breaking unbrokenness. this beach and you upon my back, wielding your heaviest sword. i reeb back to a line of jet haired women before me, unstable, forever yours, on knocked knees, pinned up heart for discovery. the sides of see you see breaching there is a dark opening and listly on itself. like so i hooved my soul to stand on stones and then i furled the dread tail and daylight and the tail by anybody bu dawn, but down a bit you gave me, melted me to the point of weapon, drew the dagger down my own throat and then i spit the jewel back to you to where, yes, they will point to your own pale, throat, yes, there was the bride unbridled in her mouth but first i felt the cling of english and then i bit down. >> very nice. >> thank you. >> it's very lyrical. i mean that's one thing in a way that you touched on, which is poetry can be something that can touch our entire community because in a way the rhythm and lyrical feeling of a poem can be translated and used by a lot of different communities. >> definitely, yes. >> how about for you, the performance part of it? you know what i mean? you wrote it. you have all those thoughts in there. but now in reading out loud, have you discovered yourself so you have a way to present it so itz reflects what you want it to reflect? >> i think poetry for me is kind of a communal act. i read a lot, i hang out with a lot of other poets and artists and we're always talking about what kind of work we want to do. and so for me my poems are always way of speaking to other poets and well and joining the conversation and asking the questions and furthering the conversations with them. so when i'm writing the poems, it's actually also an oral act for me too. i read it aloud. several times i record myself reading it and i listen to it, so that's the way i edit and revise the music. i always think about the performance as well for it. >> you did a great job. >> thank you. >> well, again, the concerny street workshop presents michelle lin, diana li and kazum chin. that will be march 17 at the arc gallery and studios in san francisco. for more information go to nbcbayarea.com. coming up a performance from an original unique duo. astralogik is next. stay with us. my name is jamir dixon and i'm a locate and mark fieldman for pg&e. most people in the community recognize the blue trucks as pg&e. my truck is something new... it's an 811 truck. when you call 811, i come out to your house and i mark out our gas lines and our electric lines to make sure that you don't hit them when you're digging. 811 is a free service. i'm passionate about it because every time i go on the street i think about my own kids. they're the reason that i want to protect our community and our environment, and if me driving a that truck means that somebody gets to go home safer, then i'll drive it every day of the week. together, we're building a better california. and welcome back. astralogik is a unique duo what they call a queer duo. they have r & b and others. with me is as extra logic who hail from san diego. welcome to the show. >> hi. >> give us a quick history of your group and how far you've been able to progress. >> well, we literally met just like in a garage and through a mutual friend. he had been wanting to connect for a long time, saying we were so like each other. it's been magic ever since. we progressed. >> you put out a -- >> we put it out a while ago but we just released a music video for the first time. it's our first ever and it's a huge step for us as artists so we're really happy to have that out there. >> give me an idea here, what are we going to hear? >> you're hearing "here and now." it's an original tune. >> all right. thank you very much for being here. all right. astralogik. please enjoy. ♪ ♪ ♪ in this constant history ♪ no place for jealousy ♪ ♪ ♪ it's here and now ♪ ♪ constant flying energy as far as my eyes will see ♪ ♪ in this constant mystery let the strength set me free ♪ ♪ so fly on fly away ♪ ♪ ♪ it's here and now ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ applause ] >> all right. all right. thank you very much. stay with us for one more song? >> yeah, sure. >> okay. well, if you want to hear more about information about the kearny street workshop and its events go to nbcbayarea.com. we're also on twitter and facebook and we're going to go out with more from as extra logic. see you next week, and thanks for watching. ♪ with the xfinity tv app, anything with a screen is a tv. stream 130 live channels, plus 40,000 on demand tv shows and movies, all on the go. you can even download from your x1 dvr and watch it offline. only xfinity gives you more to stream to any screen. download the xfinity tv app today. officially putting iran on notice. >> ends up with that gridlock. >> i think they should get with the program or they can go. >> why don't we switch jobs? good morning. welcome to sunday "today" on this super bowl sunday, i'm willie geist. the battle that stretched into the wee hours of the morning. and a defeat in court for the trump administration. the bid for the travel ban reinstated. plus, the president in an interview that will air during the super bowl makes a comment comparing russia to t

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