No-No Boy is American musician Julian Saporiti (born in Nashville) whose multimedia work blends 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 Saporiti 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 engages 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. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.