Asian Americans of Achievement
2 total works
Born in 1904 to an American mother and a Japanese poet father, Isamu Noguchi split his childhood and adolescence between two countries in which he never felt he belonged. But creating art made him feel at home, and Noguchi traveled the world and worked with some of the most renowned artists of the 20th century. The ingenious ways he blended both his American and Japanese heritages into sculpture, furniture, stage sets, and public gardens made Noguchi a world-renowned artist. This detailed biography examines how Isamu Noguchi was able to nurture his artistic vision, and in turn mold a striking aesthetic legacy.
From her first moment onstage as a teenager with her high school improv group, Margaret Cho knew that performing was her destiny. It didn't matter if she became rich or famous - she knew that being onstage and making people laugh would make her happy. At age 16, she began doing standup at the comedy club above her parents' bookstore in San Francisco. In 1994, Cho landed a sitcom, ""All-American Girl"", about a rebellious daughter in a conservative Korean-American household. Though it made television history as the first sitcom to feature a mostly Asian cast, the show was short-lived, and its failure hit Cho hard. In her early twenties, she struggled with body-image issues, low self-esteem, and drug and alcohol addiction. Ultimately Cho rebuilt her confidence and decided to use her comedy as a cathartic vehicle to help others. Since then, she has launched several wildly popular comedy tours, written a few books, and built a huge fanbase. Read about how this brash, trail-blazing talent became, in the words of the Washington Post, ""the patron saint of anyone who has ever felt like an outsider.