‘Asian men are valid and beautiful’: 2022 BAM! Calendar celebrates sexy Asian men of Broadway
January 14, 2022
Unapologetically Asian recently dropped its 2022 Broadway Asian Men (BAM!) Calendar and will dedicate part of its proceeds to Stop AAPI Hate’s nonprofit efforts.
The Asian empowerment brand action campaign partnered with Japanese photographer Mari Uchida to create the calendar as a way to dispel the negative stereotypes that Asian men face in America.
“I think something I’ve seen time and time again is an assumption that Asian men cannot be the leading man and lead complex, nuanced lives,” Uchida told NextShark. “I want those looking at this calendar to feel that each guy on there is a hero to his own story and is an attractive, sexy, multi-dimensional being.”
Uchida is a performance and portrait photographer based in New York City. She is also an actor and a stage performer. Her project with Unapologetically Asian is supported by the Broadway Diversity Project and Tremendous Communications.
“I hope that this calendar will be a celebration of the Asian American community and our members, and inspire us to take up more space because we are all the main characters in our own stories, and [we] deserve to be celebrated and heard,” she said.
The calendar features Asian men from different Broadway productions, including Zachary Noah Piser, the first Asian actor to portray the titular character of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical “Dear Evan Hansen.”
The calendar lineup includes the following actors:
- Adam Hyndman (“Hadestown”)
- Adam Jacobs (“Aladdin”)
- Al Guerzon (“Mama Mia!,” “Ghost”)
- Alan Ariano (“Miss Saigon”)
- Austin Ku (“Soft Power”)
- Darren Lee (“Allegiance”)
- Devin Ilaw (“Miss Saigon”)
- Karl Josef Co (“The Unsinkable Molly Brown”)
- Kevin Schuering (“The King and I”)
- Zachary Noah Piser (“Dear Evan Hansen”)
Most of the 2022 BAM! Calendar’s proceeds will go to Unapologetically Asian’s community programming, while the rest will go to Stop AAPI Hate’s nonprofit efforts.
The coalition “tracks and responds to incidents of hate, violence, harassment, discrimination, shunning, and child bullying against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States.” According to a press release by Unapologetically Asian, Stop AAPI Hate partnered with CollaborAzian in 2021 on a fundraiser that featured an abridged online concert with Asian theater artists from the Tony Award-winning musical “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.”
“You are valid,” Uchida stated in Unapologetically Asian’s press release. “Your photos should reflect that. I wanted to provide a space for people to celebrate the beauty and talent of Asian men, and this calendar shows that Asian men are valid and beautiful. After the challenges we’ve faced from 2020 and even now, I can’t think of a better way to usher in the new year.”
All Images via Unapologetically Asian
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