We lower the scale half a step from C# major to C major, a natural pentatonic GACDE.

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No-No Boy is an immersive multimedia work blending original folk songs, storytelling, and projected archival images to illuminate hidden American histories.

Taking inspiration from his own family’s history living through the Vietnam War, as well as interviews with World War II Japanese Incarceration camp survivors and other stories of Asian American experience, Nashville born songwriter Julian Saporiti has transformed years of doctoral research at Brown University into an innovative project bridging a divide between art and scholarship. By turning archival study and fieldwork into a large repertoire of folk songs and visuals Saporiti has been able to engage audiences with difficult conversations through song and storytelling, performing with a revolving cast of collaborators everywhere from rural high schools and churches to New York City's Lincoln Center.

In the spring of 2019, Saporiti expanded the project's scope, embarking on a trip to the Mexican border. Playing concerts for asylum seekers and aid workers in Laredo, Crystal City (former home of a WWII Internment Camp), and Dilley, TX (current home to the largest family detention center), the experience was jarring and formative.

After this trip, No-No Boy eschewed traditional touring focusing instead on performing in spaces where this work can connect with audiences holding wide ranging points of view. Offering music and service, No-No Boy has continued to travel along the southern border working with a school for refugee children in Tijuana, serving as scholars/artists in residence in Shishmaref, Alaska, and collaborating with dozens of diverse organizations across North America.

No-No Boy has evolved into a project aimed at recovering difficult pasts, making connections across communities, and imagining better futures. A second album, entitled 1975, was released in early 2021 on the Smithsonian Folkways label.

I heard about a place called Little Saigon
Everybody’s got my face, so, mine won’t have to grow so long
Palm trees, a terrace seat, a café where I belong
Oh, I think I’d like to go to this place, Little Saigon

One day I’d like to go to a place called Little Saigon
Buy shoes in a little shop and silks from Vietnam
Take lessons on the Đàn bầu and play an old folk song
Oh, I think I’d like to go to a place called Little Saigon

Un jour, je vais aller à Little Saigon
J’enverrai une lettre en Français à ma maman
C’est pas Saigon, maman, mais je serais content longtemps.
Un jour, je voudrais aller à Little Saigon

One day, I’m gonna go to a place called Little Saigon
Listen to the CBC Band loud with my headphones on
Walk around the indoor mall where the language sounds like song
Oh, I think I’d like to go to a place called Little Saigon
Oh, I think I’d like to go to this place, Little Saigon