Artist Glenn Kaino is is a product of the Greatest Generation: Gen X. It’s a generation that gave us hip-hop and the internet, and — the work of Glenn Kaino.
his artist career has led him to a role as Chief Creative Officer of the 2.0 era of Napster and the Senior VP of Digital at OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network. His art has been seen worldwide, and now, he has tested his filmmaking chops with the short film Hoops, Hopes, and Dreams.
Debuting at Sundance earlier this year. Hoops, Hopes, and Dreams follows the overlooked story about how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. connected with the community through one of the country’s favorite sports: basketball. By doing so, King, along with a roster of Civil Rights activists as well as former President Barack Obama, rallied young voters. With the short,
Through interviews with legendary civil rights activist Andrew Young, journalist Jemele Hill, Michael Straughtmanis (Executive Vice President of The Obama Foundation), Reginald L. Love (Obama Special Aide), and NBA Hall of Famer Jerry West, Kaino unpacks how the basketball court served as a hot spot for activists and politicians to mobilize communities and win their hearts.
Ambassador Andrew Young
“I just think this is a story just left on the pile that hadn’t been told yet,” Kaino pointed out in a recent interview with DIASPORA. “I’ve been engaged in my studio and my artwork, sort of set with an intention of producing work that helps to connect people, places, and ideas with those that don’t normally have a chance to connect. Through art, we create moments of connection.”
With MLK’s daughter, Dr. Bernice King, on board as an Executive Producer, the film stems from the work Kaino did with Tommie Smith, who, along with John Carlos, took the Olympic medal podium in 1968 and raised their black-gloved fists as an act of Black power and unity.
At one of Smith’s gala dinners for his foundation, Kaino spoke to Andrew Young, who was being honored that night. Young casually told a story about how Young used to play basketball with King. Immediately, Kaino wanted to tell this story.
As soon as Kaino got the green light to tell the story, he immediately called producer and activist Michael Latt to partner on the project. Kaino had been looking for a reason to work with Latt, and he thought that Hoops, Hopes, and Dreams was the film for them.
“Unfortunately, Michael was killed in the process of making this film… and that was the personal reason why I was interested in making it,” he said. The tragic death of Latt was felt by the folks of the industry, and Kaino stayed the course for him. “Everything you see on screen, Michael and I pretty much worked on. I was really excited about it.”
If you go to Kaino’s studio, you can see work of many mediums that live at the intersection of advocacy and art — and it should be said that Kaino is one of the first renowned artists of color in the contemporary art scene.
He said his civic-mindedness is a direct reflection of his “troubled youth”. Kaino added: “I didn’t really understand how damaging it was for me to not see myself as reflected in media.”
“I grew up with severe trauma,” Kaino said. “I never thought I’d live past 19 years old… every day past 19 has been a gift.”
In retrospect, Kaino said that he was grappling with his identity. “My upbringing was a casualty of lack of representation; of Asian masculinity and an understanding of what that was.”
Kaino had quite a journey in his upbringing. He said he was kicked out of five high schools and got involved in the gang scene, but then he discovered a creative outlet. “There was a very tactical transition out of gang stuff from hip hop,” he said. “I was a B-boy in elementary school doing egg rolls, head spins, and dancing.”
He continued, “I would ride my bike to what are now famous musicians’ and DJs’ houses and we would all hang out together – I was in fifth grade doing this stuff.”
As he navigated the DJing, MC’ing, breakdancing, and tagging, he found his way through the creativity via the four elements of hip hop.
“It was a meritocracy,” Kaino explained. “If you could spin on your head longer, you would win. If you could accomplish this scratch, you could end up DJing a junior high party and accomplishing that scratch on stage in front of 400 people. You’re dope.” He pointed out it wasn’t about how you looked, it was about what you could do.
Through it all, he knew that art was his calling. “I felt that I needed to put myself in a position to try to express ideas that help people understand us and me — and to be kind and generous.”
As a fourth-generation Japanese-American, he didn’t quite connect with other AAPI media makers. “Largely, they didn’t like me because I worked in diverse spaces… they didn’t quite embrace that,” Kaino said. “I didn’t, weirdly, fit myself into what was then being defined as an Asian American mediated experience.”
He ended up building his own path. He found an early mentor in Jim Valentino from Image Comics, and he worked for Oprah. Can’t get better than that. “They really helped me learn craftsmanship from a media perspective,” he said
You’d think that he would feel resentment for not being totally embraced by his AAPI peers during this career, but Kaino is all about giving them grace. “For me, it’s a standard stop in post-coloniality, where that generation of Asian creators did not have any support and founded amongst themselves. Then the first thing they did by necessity was to create a rubric from which they had to operate and to support them and each other.” And for them, when the new generation comes in and diverts from the original rubric, that’s when people start puffing their chests.
“What I want to do is put stuff together because I see visions of a world that includes me,” explained Kaino. “I want to spend my life building the tools to tell stories that allow for people to connect and build… and I’m gonna appreciate the shit out of all my cynical friends, because without that dismantling and without poking holes, there are no holes to fill.”
This brings us back to Hoops, Hopes, and Dreams. The short has garnered praise, and Kaino said he and Latt had enough footage to make a feature documentary or a series. But Kaino wanted to honor the work that he and Latt did together and keep it as a short.
“I decided to finish the project that we started,” Kaino said. “It felt very clear that the film you saw was the film that Michael wanted to be made.”
