Are you mixed? Yeah, half woman, half bitch!

This was just one of the memorable highlights, courtesy of Yellow Rage, from this year’s Creative Explosion.

As part of the fourth annual Creative Explosion: The Spirit of API Feminism Through Performance, the Washington DC chapter of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF-DC) featured Look Again, The Pinstriped Rebel, and Yellow Rage.

Creative Explosion is NAPAWF-DC’s signature fundraising event; “an opportunity to empower APA women, to inspire them to get more involved in their community through NAPAWF-DC, and to enable them to attend the NAPAWF 10th Year Anniversary Gather in Los Angeles in September 2006.”

Although many of us arrived too late to enjoy any of the food donated by eight various businesses, it was definitely good to see the venue packed. I was also really impressed by the strong showing that APIQS—Asian Pacific Islander Queer Sisters—made at the event, evidenced by two rows of us wearing red tops!

The first of the two main acts, Look Again: An Original Short Play Inspired by the Vagina Monologues showcased local writers and performers. While I applaud all the writers and performers who put themselves out there, I particularly enjoyed the first vignette, “One Asian American Vagina’s Story” written by Darshan Khalsa and performed by Carmela Clendening, Victoria Tung, Nayyer Haq, and Debiyani Ker.

Then, of course, there was Yellow Rage:

A dynamic duo of Philly-based Asian American female spoken word poets. Through their voices, Catzie and Michelle hope to provide an awareness that is not often heard. Exploring topics from fetishes to cultural appropriation to ethnic pride, Yellow Rage challenges mainstream misconceptions of Asianness.

They certainly brought a lot of energy to the night’s performance, and best of all, illustrated the possibility of entertaining political performances. Yeah Yellow Rage! Definitely check out their website (where in addition to learning more about them, being able to purchase their CDs, you can read their blog, and check out their links to other fabulous APA performers) and their myspace.com page.

PS. Just have to give a quick shout-out to Catzie’s performance of “Laos in the House”—it was great!