EYES ON PITTSBURGH
Artist’s film of Oh’s speech makes Google’s year-end video
Emmai Alaquiva wasn’t expecting to document “one of the most powerful speeches in American history” that day in Oakland. No one was, really. Alaquiva, a North Hills resident and president and CEO of the Pittsburghbased digital multimedia agency Ya Momz House, had his camera ready when actor Sandra Oh, in town filming the Netflix series “The Chair,” showed up at a Stop Asian Hate rally in Oakland that was taking place after six Asian Americans were killed during a shooting spree in Atlanta. She had quite a bit to say, and Alaquiva captured her powerful speech in real time on that March day.
“I do this not for the glamour. I do it for the culture of fossilizing history in a way that is easily digestible for a lot of people,” Alaquiva told the Post-Gazette. “When I filmed Sandra Oh, I was literally fossilizing a moment in American history. But I had no idea how much of American history it would be.”
Oh’s impassioned message in Pittsburgh — “I am proud to be Asian!” — quickly spread across the country and world thanks to the power of social media. It now can be viewed as part of Google’s “Year in Search 2021” video, in which a few seconds from her speech are spliced in with footage from other events from the past year that exemplify the power of healing. Alaquiva received a contributing director credit on Google’s final video.
It capped a breakout 21 months for Alaquiva, who last year saw his Black Lives Matter PSA about diversity in the deaf community called “Unspeakable” receive national attention from the likes of “Good
Morning America.” Being included in a Google video that currently has been viewed more than 110 million times on YouTube was more than Alaquiva could have ever dreamed of earlier in his life and career.
“Here’s a high school dropout, formerly homeless,” he said of himself. “To really have the arts save my life to the point where my art is impactful on a global level is utterly remarkable.”
Alaquiva likes to use the term “artivism” to describe the place where art and activism connect. In addition to his work
for Ya Momz House, he serves on Gov. Tom Wolf’s Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the board of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh.
While the COVID-19 pandemic obviously presented many challenges, it also underscored the importance of digital media content “now so more than ever before,” he said, and became a “platform of realization.”
“We know how to get out, but we also
know how to get up,” he said of Ya Momz House. “We get out into the community, but we get up with the people that make the community together.”
That renewed energy led Alaquiva to film multiple Black Lives Matter marches following the murder of George Floyd and, eventually, to that Stop Asian Hate rally in Oakland. He wasn’t even aware Oh was in town filming a Netflix show and, like many other attendees, was surprised when she showed up and grabbed a megaphone to express solidarity with other Asian Americans “to voice our fear and our anger.”
“To be at this rally was one of the first times I had an opportunity to see what it was like to be an ally,” he said. “Being a better ally makes you a better individual, I strongly believe. This rally reminded me of how human we all are and ... at times like this, we have to process that and support American history, because we all make American history.”
That day, he took a photo of Oh that he printed, framed and handed directly to her within 24 hours of the rally. He also posted his video of her speech to TikTok; Google discovered it while searching for clips to stitch together for its “Year in Search 2021” compilation.
After receiving an initial email from Google on Nov. 30, Alaquiva promptly deleted it because he assumed
it was spam. Google tried again on Dec. 2, and this time he got the message. Google put out its “Year in Search” video on Dec. 8. It has been shown and discussed by news outlets worldwide and by prominent late- night hosts such as Jimmy Kimmel, Trevor Noah and Stephen Colbert.
He praised Google for “recognizing the importance of healing” in another pandemic-marred year and for giving artists like him the opportunity to have their work seen on the biggest possible stage.
“Regardless of how big Google is, Google understands that it always needs humans to produce emotions that really help to make Google what Google is,” he said.
Being a part of a Google “Year in Search” video reminds everyone of the vibrancy
of Pittsburgh’s creative community, Alaquiva said.
“What a project like this does for Pittsburgh is allowing the world to really orbit around the incredible city that has produced some of the most prominent artists of our time,” he said. “Whether it’s George Benson or Phyllis Hyman or August Wilson or Wiz Khalifa ... it allows people to orbit around the rich artistic history that Pittsburgh has to provide for the rest of the world.
“I would only continue to pray that other artists from Pittsburgh realize the reach we have on a global level. I want this to inspire other artists to keep rising, continue to elevate and never stop producing.”