Contestant Luke Patterson will represent Great Leap at Mr. Hyphen 2007. Founded by Nobuko Miyamoto, Great Leap is a multicultural performing arts organization rooted in the Asian American community that promotes cross-cultural exchange through the creative and collaborative process of performances, workshops and community residences.

About Luke:

Rapper. Graffiti artist. Non-profit office hooligan. Mentor. Luke Patterson is many things to many people. He's an MC for the L.A.-based hip-hop group Aesthetics Crew. He's an organizer against police brutality. He's a role model to youths who need it the most, through his work at the APA Youth Resolution Center. Most importantly though, Luke wants to bring together the multi-cultural communities and he'll even tame a lion while riding a unicycle blindfolded to do so. With a multi-talent like this it shouldn't take much to make that great leap to Mr. Hyphen infamy!

I would hope to do a lot of work in building bridges between the Asian & Asian American communities with other communities of color. Through my work I have seen that there is still a lot of ignorance, stereotypes and mis- or non-communication between our community and other Black and Brown people. I would like to do a lot of work breaking down stereotypes and pre-conceived notions of who “Asians” are, what we can be beyond the model minority ideas, and how strong we can be politically and community organizing-wise. I think that if our communities are all united on a deeper level of understanding and respect, not just on the surface of acceptance of each other, then we can make real progressive change for all of us together.

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Mr. Hyphen 2007 will take place on Saturday, June 9
at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center.
Buy tickets here.