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WORKSHOPS View Workshop Calendar Our in-house taiko, classical Japanese dance and shamisen programs periodically offer beginner workshops ranging from one-day to five-week sessions. All workshops take place at our AIRMW building (4875 N. Elston)　 Taiko Shamisen Dance ↓ Current offerings below ↓ Taiko UPCOMING WORKSHOP DATES 1.5 hour beginner workshops Monday, April 20 All adult workshops from 6:30-8pm *Kids class from 5:30-6:15pm (ages 4-10) when offered AT THE AIRMW HUB 4875 N Elston Ave Chicago, IL 60630 Register Minimum of 5 participants required for workshops to proceed. Maximum of 20 participants. Payment due upon registration and is non-refundable. For questions email: tsukasataiko@airmw.org Shubukai UPCOMING WORKSHOPS New workshop dates coming soon Register For questions email: rika@airmw.org Shamisen UPCOMING WORKSHOPS New workshop dates coming soon Register For questions email: info@airmw.org

ARTS INITIATIVE PROGRAM The Arts Initiative Program is an incubation program where AIRMW provides organizational structure, financial support and other resources to Asian and Asian American artists and smaller organizations outside of AIRMW; with the ultimate objective being to increase the capacity of both partners to create and produce work in a sustainable manner. SELECT PROJECTS AIRMW at Elastic Arts (2023-24) In collaboration with Elastic Arts Foundation, AIRMW presents a monthly AIRMW at Elastic Arts series inviting local and national musicians and performers for an evening celebrating Asian and Asian American artsists. Jackie Andres, Inangbayan / Motherland (2023) AIRMW presents Jackie Andres's debut solo show Inangbayan / Motherland at Hairpin Arts Center. In the exhibition, we are given the unique opportunity to follow a gentle and restless investigation of the ‘inbetween’. Motherland offers insight into drawing the lines and making connections for ourselves. To be both outside and inside, to be at home and far away, but more than anything, to chase a feeling that feels so close, yet is unreachable. Andres reaches from her own experience as a child of Filipino immigrants and as a young person in the world experiencing a primitive desire to belong. The show features hand manipulated film, Super 8 footage, and print media to lead her audience with care to an intimate look into the peripheral details of the Asian American diaspora. More about this event HERE . NOBLE Exhibition by Nancy Wong (2022) AIRMW hosted Nancy Wong's solo exhibition at the Hairpin Arts Center, featuring her ongoing photo project titled Noble. This work seeks to build a diverse, multigenerational archive of contemporary Asian America through portraits of its constituents. Each portrait acts as a visual acknowledgement of the vast and varied stories – the dreams, the fears, and everything in between – that constitute the Asian American community. Wong’s subjects are invited to select the clothing in which they are photographed, and to bring an object of significance to their Asian American identity to be photographed with as well. Our Perspective with Mia Park (2019-2021) Mia Park is a Chicago actress, TV show host and co-founder of A-Squared Theater Workshop. Mia’s project is the Our Perspective: Asian American Play Readings, which is a staged play reading series intended to provide inspiration, space, and audiences for Midwest Asian Pacific American playwrights, directors, and actors. They are script-in-hand concert readings where actors read plays written and directed by Asian Americans, and is the first ever Asian American play reading series in the Midwest. As the sponsored artist, Mia is given full curatorial and creative agency to organize event proceedings. Chicago Obihiro Exchange Project | 思考回路 • Shikoukairo: Patterns of Thought (2018-2022) Initiated in 2018, the Chicago Obihiro Exchange Project is a program produced by Asian Improv aRts Midwest that facilitates an immersive exchange between Japanese-American artists in Chicago and artists from the Obihiro & Tokachi region of Japan. The exchange began in 2018 with AIRMW artist Kioto Aoki's residency and exhibition in Obihiro City, then a series of exhibitions titled 思考回路 / Shikoukairo: Patterns of Thought between 2019–2021. The 2022 programming realized the release of Hiroshi Mehata’s solo album through Asian Improv Records, recorded during his visit to Chicago in 2019 as part of the first 思考回路 • Shikoukairo presentation.

DONATE Support from our community is vital for us to be able to continue our educational efforts and to produce high-quality arts presentations, raising the awareness of the Asian American experience on an international level. Donations help us support the in-house programs and artists, as well as our collaborative, curatorial and artistic production ventures. Your contributions are meaningful and help us to continue our work. PAY WITH CREDIT CARD ON PAYPAL CHECKS / CASH Asian Improv aRts Midwest (AIRMW) 4875 N Elston Ave, Chicago IL, 60630 Checks can be made out to: Asian Improv aRts Midwest OR FIND US ON PAYPAL / VENMO / ZELLE admin@airmw.org @AIRMW admin@airmw.org THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT

TSUKASA TAIKO taikolegacy.com Artists History Taiko Workshops Tsukasa Calendar Taiko Legacy Contact TSUKASA TAIKO is a program of Asian Improv aRts Midwest that aims to preserve, develop, and pass on the traditional concepts of Japanese art as a cultural legacy, while expanding and evolving the art of taiko. Dedicated to understanding and strengthening Japanese American, Asian American, and Japanese identities, Tsukasa Taiko offers taiko instruction, workshops, educational presentations, and performances that advance the understanding of taiko within the context of the cultural, performing and musical arts. Special workshops also include, shamisen (3-stringed lute), and shinobue (bamboo flute) to all ages and skill levels. It works closely with schools, companies, and organizations to provide special performances and presentations on the history of taiko and Japanese music. As an active performing group, Tsukasa Taiko presents over fifty shows a year, both locally and internationally, including venues and events such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Steppenwolf Theater, the Chicago Cultural Center, The Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Harris Theater, Millennium Park, the Chicago Jazz Festival, the Chicago Symphony Center, the Smithsonian, and the Malta International Theater Festival in Poland among others. Tsukasa Taiko’s director, teachers, and staff are all dedicated professionals, recognized as world class, working artists. Director Tatsu Aoki is a renowned musician, composer, and recording artist, who works in traditionally based Japanese music as well as experimental and jazz idioms. Guest artist Noriko Sugiyama has returned to Chicago from Japan, to work with Tsukasa Taiko. Lead performer Kioto Aoki is Chicago's sole taiko artist, working on solo musical projects and installations while simultaneously maintaining a visual arts practice. With strong leadership and aesthetic vision, Tsukasa Taiko works to cultivate artistic excellence and is positioned to further expand and advance Japanese music in Chicago, and to develop as a cultural beacon for the future. NATIONAL PRESENCE, COMMUNITY ROOTS Tsukasa Taiko maintains an active national performance schedule and has presented its works at venues outside of Chicago including the Smithsonian, Krannert Art Museum, Indiana State Museum, Saint Louis Art Museum, San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco among others. Tsukasa Taiko established The National Gintenkai Project, regularly collaborating with GenRyu Arts (GRA) in San Francisco to expand our professional unit activities and partnership across the nation. This National Gintenkai is the premier performing ensemble dedicated to reviving compositions from 1970’s Tokyo to maintain the traditional aesthetics of the Japanese arts through taiko. 司太鼓は、シカゴ定住者会を拠点に活動するシカゴ地域で唯一の日本人太鼓グループです。プロ指導陣により、太鼓を通して日本の文化・ 伝統を継承すると共に、より進化した太鼓芸術をめざして活動を続け地域の日系・アジア系コミュニティーの発展に尽くしています。 また、年間を通してシカゴ市内のみならず海外においても幅広く活動しており太鼓クラス、ワークショップ、レクチャー等で太鼓の叩き方を教えるだけでなく、文化・芸術活動がコミュニティーの歴史・伝統を反映する大きな存在であるという認識を深めてもらうことにも努めています。 太鼓ワークショップには4歳以上なら参加者年齢、経験を問わず体験して頂けます。 詳細、ご質問、メッセージ等々メールにてお問い合わせください。日本語・英語と双方随時受け付けておりますので、以下のアドレスへお気軽にご連絡ください： tsukasataiko@airmw.org Specific inquiries about Tsukasa Taiko can be directed to tsukasataiko@airmw.org or info@airmw.org

OUR MISSION Asian Improv aRts Midwest’s (AIRMW) mission is to build a vital, self-empowered Asian American Community in the Chicago area by advancing the understanding and profile of Asian American cultures through the traditional and contemporary cultural arts. Our work at AIRMW is grounded in an understanding of tradition as an aesthetic lineage. We believe that we represent and offer something more than a simple image of tradition and culture. Our resident artists are part of a legacy that one is born into or dedicates truly a lifetime to and as such is an immensely valuable and irreproducible experience. In an effort to continue preserving these experiences that only express themselves through the non-canonized pedagogical model, we offer training sessions in lieu of "classes" that are more applicable to folk art and craft histories. We recognize however, that it is becoming increasingly difficult to preserve this form of rigidity of pedagogy, even in the classical arts, and especially in the US. But we believe there is a way to retain the aesthetic and philosophical principles that still can flourish within the contemporary world. Our artistry is founded in the preservation of a philosophy that is rooted in traditional performing, musical and visual arts: the aesthetic lineage. AIRMW artists are more than just craftsmen or artisans, but artists who can recontextualize the practical applications of our technical expertise to create new and contemporary works relevant to the current cultural landscape. To do this, one must understand the underlying aesthetics of what makes a work "traditionally Japanese" or "traditional," and it is this philosophy that AIRMW continues to share through taiko, nihon-buyou and shamisen. Through our in-house programs and collaborative projects, AIRMW is dedicated to creating productive relationships with artists, communities and institutions. We continually strive to maintain the responsibility of professionalism as part of cultural preservation by producing high quality arts programs that accurately reflect the multicultural, multi-ethnic reality of Chicago and the nation.

NEWS ARCHIVE *We're currently working on updating this section – thank you for your patience!* 2026 • Daniel A. Brown, Globe Unity – Miminari Album Review , The New York City Jazz Record Issue 287, March, 2026. • Akira Saito, 『青木希音＋小林春日＋杉本舞 / miminari』 JazzTokyo. January 17, 2026. • Akira Saito, “30th Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival.” Jazz.in VOL.027, February, 2026. 2025 • Malachi Favors away from the Art Ensemble of Chicago , Andrey Henkin for Bass on Top (2025) • With its own home base, Asian Improv aRts Midwest and its jazz festival are here to stay, Hannah Edgar for the Chicago Tribune (November 2, 2025) • Crescendo: How Art Makes Movements (1981-1999) – exhibition at the Asian Arts Initiative curated by Joyce Chung (March 1 - June 28, 2025) • Midwest Buddhist Temple Bulletin – Happenings , January 2025 (Vol. 30, No.1) • Review: Hyde Park Jazz Festival conquers federal funding cuts with historic attendance, Chicago Tribune (September 29, 2025) 2024 • Review: Genres and Cultures Meld as Taiko, Jazz, and Shubukai Dance Fusion Perform on MCA Stage Third Coast Review (December 17, 2024) • Tatsu Aoki / AIRMW feature in the Wednesday Journal (December 10, 2024) • Chicago Tribune's "Things to Do This Weekend" (December 13, 2024) • Around Town with Ana Belaval stops by AIRMW to learn taiko and dance. (December 3, 2024) • Stooping to Talk to a Cat on a Doorstep (Asian Improv Records) reviewed in The New York City Jazz Record (Nov 2024) • Taiko Legacy 21 in Newcity's Today in Culture (October 30, 2024) • AIRMW is a recipient of a 2024 CityArts Program grant from the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (September 23, 2024) • "Carrying on Tradition Through Music: Tatsu Aoki and the Toyoakimoto legacy of innovation and tradition in the Japanese cultural arts of Chicago," Pacific Citizen Vol.179, No.6 (September 20, 2024) • The MIYUMI Project mentioned the Hyde Park Jazz Festival preview on Chicago Reader (September 18, 2024) • Tatsu Aoki selected for 2024 Avant-Garde Masters Grants, awarded by The Film Foundation and the National Film Preservation Foundation (September 10, 2024) • Stooping to Talk to a Cat on a Doorstep (from AIRecords ) reviewed in Dusted Magazine (June 2024) • Toyoaki feature on Chicago Shimpo, English version , Japanese version (June 2024) • Tatsu Aoki's The MIYUMI Project mentioned as a Quick Pick feature in 10 must-see shows happening during EXPO Chicago for EXPO ART WEEK (April 2024) • Asian Improv Records' newest releases Sunlight Filtering Through Leaves by Chicago-based musician Mai Sugimoto is on recommended new release list of The New York City Jazz Record's annual “ Women in Jazz Issue "(March 2024) • View the archived recording of Haruhi Kobayashi's interview of Tatsu Aoki on Fred Anderson's legacy. Event co-presented by AIRMW & Experimental Sound Studio (February 2024) 2023 • Tatsu Aoki interview for Jazz Tokyo: https://jazztokyo.org/interviews/post-89664/ (July 1, 2023) • AIRMW awarded a Chicago Arts Recovery Program grant from the Chicago Mayor’s Office & the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (May 9, 2023) • Tsukasa Taiko on WGN's Daytime Chicago segment (May 8, 2023) • BEST EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC ON BANDCAMP: APRIL 2023 featuring Tatsu Aoki's new album "Actual Music Now" (May 3, 2023) • CHICAGO SHIMPO “Grand Opening of New Dojo, AIRMW Cultural Hub” (March 30, 2023) • 2022 • Tsukasa Taiko on NBC Chicago Today (August 10, 2022) 2021 • Chicago’s Cultural Treasures: 40 OF CHICAGO’S BIPOC ARTS ORGANIZATIONS RECEIVE $14.4M (July 16, 2021) *news prior to 2021 not listed*

CONTACT US Email us at: info@airmw.org Or use this form ↓ First Name Last Name Email Write a message Submit Thank you for your submission. We will respond to you soon. Stay upated with our activities!

CONTEMPORARY PRACTICES In addition to traditional performing arts programs, AIRMW and its artists are active within the contemporary performing, music and visual arts landscape. Learn more about our in-house and collaborative projects below. the MIYUMI project LEARN MORE Tatsu Aoki's ensemble, The MIYUMI Project, is one of the longest-standing amalgams of Chicago's avant-garde jazz and Japanese traditional music. Drawing from aesthetics rooted in the Japanese tradition and Japanese taiko drumming permeate the laboratory of sound where he explores the nexus of cultures: Asian and American; Japanese and African; past and present.

AIRMW EVENTS March 2026 Today Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun 23 24 25 26 6:00 PM Conversations at the Edge - Kioto Aoki: Findings 27 28 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 5:00 PM Tsukasa Taiko at Stomping Ground 23 24 25 26 27 8:30 PM AIRMW at Elastic Arts: Takashi Shallow 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5

ARCHIVE Archive of a few past programs held at our AIRMW space, including Happening at AIRMW and AIRMW Presents series. AIRMW Artist Presentation Series A series featuring artists within the AIRMW network to talk about their practice within the context of AIRMW's missions of empowering Asian and Asian American artistic diaspora. Find AIRMW and affiliate artists' albums our record label, Asian Improv Records asianimprovrecords.com Visit our livestream episode archives from AIRMW airmw.org/stream Chicago Obihiro Exchange Project An AIRMW Arts Initiative Program, the Chicago Obihiro Exchange Project was a program produced by Asian Improv aRts Midwest that facilitates an immersive exchange between Japanese-American artists in Chicago and artists from the Obihiro & Tokachi region of Japan from 2018 - 2022. chicagobihiro.org The Asian American Cultural Legacy is an AIRMW project which documents the overlooked histories of Asian and Asian American musicians and music in Chicago & beyond aaclchicago.org Founded in 1995 as the Asian American Jazz Festival by partner organization Asian Improv aRts, the Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival continues the tradition of hosting a yearly festival of creative music and jazz by Asian diasporic musicians. aajazz.org Tatsu Aoki Collection at Experimental Sound Studio Selection from Tatsu's private collection of recordings during his time with the Fred Anderson Trio at the Velvet lounge, made publicly available through ESS. https://ess.org/audio-archive/collections/tatsu-aoki-collection-29/

DOJO PROJECT Welcome to the AIRMW Cultural Hub! AIRMW is delighted to share that we now own a permanent home at 4875 N. Elston in the North Mayfield neighborhood. In February 2023 we officially opened to the public and have since been hosting our in-house rehearsals, affiliate programming, and performances. As of winter 2024, we have completed the in-house lighting and projection systems. We are still working finalizing installation of stage equipment, adding to necessary inventory for the media rooms, and furnishing our office and kitchen spaces. We look forward to welcoming everyone to our space and we continue to update our home. Land Acknowledgement This AIRMW arts hub is located on traditional, unceded homelands including the heart of the Bodewadmiakiwen (Potawatomi) Nation, as well as lands of the Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo), Myaamia (Miami), Oceti Sakowin (Sioux), and Peoria Nations. For time immemorial, the region has been a center for indigenous people to gather, trade, and maintain kinship ties. Most tribes were removed to states including Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and other western states. Chicago, due to the 1956 Indian Relocation Act removing tribal members from their tribal lands to cities, is now a city with one of the largest urban American Indian communities in the United States. Members of this community (representing 175 tribes) continue to contribute to the life of this city and to celebrate their heritage, practice traditions, and care for the land and waterways. We embrace our commitment to Indigenous rights, racial justice, and cultural equity. See how our new space is being used in our programs archive and a view of our facilities The Dojo Project sponsored in part by the Chicago Cultural Treasures Grant by IFF At AI RMW our mission is to build a vital, self-empowered Asian American community in the Chicago area by maintaining traditional practices and recontextualizing them within the contemporary arts landscape—keeping traditions alive while informing new works with an underlying artistic value. As we consider the sustainability of our organization and cultural mission, we began our Dojo Project Campaign to officially fund our move to a new space in 2019. We envision our new space to be not only AIRMW’s foundational base but as an art center that can support other smaller organizations, projects and individual artists within the Chicagoland community. We are looking to create a small black-box theatre space to support performances and productions of AIRMW and by other artists and organizations within the community. We would like to thank our early fundraising do nors, dedicated organization members who sh ape our programs, community supporters, and the Chicago Cultural Treasures Grant by IFF for making this drea m possible. We could not have done it without your investment and support. If you would like to contribute to help our move, or our ongoing and future organizational activities, you can make a tax-deductible donation below: DONATE Campaign Asian Improv aRts Midwest is a registered 501(c)3 organization February 2023: Soft Opening! On February 24 & 26, AIRMW hosted a two-day private celebration at our new arts hub at 4875 N. Elston. Our very first event at the space included a warm welcome from the Pulaski Elston Business Association and local Alderman, support from the Consul-General of Japan, our affiliates fro m the West Coast, and concluded with a traditional kagami-biraki ritual. – Behind the Scenes – When we bought the building it was mostly unfinished, so we have installed doors, windows, electricity, plumbing, HVAC system, and more for our move. Take a look at the development of our space below. We continue to update the interior as we begin to make this building our home and community hub.

AIRMW Artist Presentation archives AIRMW Artist Presentation Series - Archive In-house series creating a space for artists, educators, academics and community members to present and discuss their various practices. AIRMW Presents The first season of the AIRMW Artist Presentation Series featured our in-house and close collaborative artists. Each will be presenting their artistic practices with a performative element followed by a discussion moderated by AIRMW Executive and Artistic Director, Tatsu Aoki. Spring 2025 Curated and organized by Kioto Aoki