This Zoom event is free and open to the public. Advance registration is requested.
This new writing workshop conducted by Genny Lim brings together young and mature writers from across the AAPI/BIPOC/LBGTQ diaspora. Their fresh, powerful voices celebrate and reclaim their identities from the destructive narrative of the white lens. From writing prompts designed to penetrate layers of the subconscious and memories hidden or suppressed as the result of generational trauma and racism, their stories unravel the broken histories, the pain and their personal journeys to reconciliation and healing.
Diaspora Writing Workshop Reading | The 26th United States of Asian America Festival
Diaspora Writing Workshop Reading is co-presented by the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center, as part of the 26th United States of Asian America Festival (USAAF). For the full calendar of events: https://tinyurl.com/usaaf2023.
Memory, Meaning and Memoir Reading | The 26th United States of Asian America Festival
This event is free and open to the public. Advance registration is requested.
APICC is proud to present this live-streamed reading by artists, educators, veteran activists and writers of all levels from the AAPI community. They will share their stories and poems written in the course of a memoir writing workshop conducted by poet-playwright, Genny Lim.
The on-going, online workshops have met every week throughout the pandemic, providing a safe haven for building community through shared writing that excavates the truths buried by historic racism and deep, generational trauma.
These memoir pieces were written in response to weekly writing prompts provided by Genny Lim. The writers are proud to share their new work.
Participating Artists
Leon Sun, Leslie Yee Murata, Casimiro Tolentino, Susan Hayase, Grace Morizawa, Lynn Huang, Carole Chinn-Morales, Lisa Oyama, and Noah Kawaguchi
About the Artists
Susan Hayase is a long-time activist in the San Jose Japanese American community. She played taiko from 1980 to 1990 with San Jose Taiko, and was involved in the grassroots movement for redress/reparations. She is a co-founder of San Jose Nikkei Resisters, a multi-generational community organization in San Jose Japantown.
Lynn Huang is a dancer, aspiring writer, and GYROTONIC(R) trainer. Originally from New York City, she currently dances with Lenora Lee Dance and is also a 2023 AsianImprovArts fellow.
Carole Chinn-Morales: Carole Chinn-Morales was born and raised in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Carole came to writing late in life, after retirement from teaching at City College of San Francisco. She is thrilled to belong to Genny’s writing group, grateful for the chance to explore, listen to writers with diverse voices, and to discover her own.
Noah Kawaguchi is a musician and writer from Ohio. He plays the shakuhachi and often creates work that reflects his perspective as a mixed shin-nisei Japanese American from the Midwest.
Lisa Oyama enjoys gardening, Japanese flower arranging, volunteering with various API organizations, and dancing when nobody is watching. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband and dog, but will always be a Gardena girl at heart.
Leon Sun is a San Francisco based visual artist whose work was embedded in the social activism of the 1970s to the 1990s. He currently works mainly in silkscreen printing, inspired by the spirituality of Asian and indigenous cultures. Sun writes from his memories of growing up in Shanghai, Hong Kong and as an immigrant in America. He is also trying his hand at poetry and enjoys writing haiku.
Casimiro U. Tolentino is a retired Judge and practiced as a civil rights attorney. He has taught AAPI history classes and enjoys reading, photography and continuing writing about AAPI history and issues.
Grace Morizawa is a former elementary school teacher in Oakland and a former San Pablo principal. She is the education coordinator for the National Japanese American Historical Society, writing and teaching about Japanese American incarceration during World War II. After decades of teaching and dabbling in writing, Genny Lim’s class opened the door to add her voice to the increasing scene of Asian American stories.
Leslie Yee-Murata
Writer Artist Healer Lover of Learning the Mysteries of Inner and Outer Space
The Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center of San Francisco announces and celebrates the 26th Annual United States of Asian America Festival.
USAAF 2023: REIMAGINING HORIZONS
Each year, the United States of Asian American Festival (USAAF) presents up to 20 different programs reflecting the artistic accomplishments and cultural diversity of San Francisco’s Pacific Islander and Asian American communities. USAAF showcases artists representing a diverse range of ethnic and cultural groups and aims to heighten the visibility of Asian and Pacific Islander (API) artists working in all disciplines – theater, music, dance, film, literature, visual arts, and more! Our goal is to nurture and empower these groups to be self-sufficient while providing the support they need to grow.
A presentation of readings by a diverse, intergenerational, cross-section of writers, who include visual artists, educators, activists and professionals from the AAPI community, who will share their stories and poems, ranging from immigration stories and family memoir to gender and racial oppression, anti-Asian hate and police violence, written during the course of a writing workshop conducted by poet-playwright, Genny Lim. The online APICC workshops have met every week, throughout the pandemic. These memoir pieces were written in response to weekly writing prompts provided by Genny Lim. All levels and ages, from emerging to advanced writers, were welcomed and encouraged to explore and develop their individual voices and craft in a safe and communal atmosphere that allowed for constructive critique, dialogue, mutual support and growth.
FEATURED WRITERS
Vickie Chang Andres Tangalin madhvi trivedi-pathak Susan Hayase Susan Kitazawa Grace Morizawa Noah Kawaguchi Leon Sun
Leslie Yee/Murata Carole Chinn-Morales Lynn Huang Lisa Chiu Yenkuei Chuang Sharleen Boumer Ignacio Mei Lam Don Tow
Legacy and Lineage is a series of short films profiling the unique journeys of 5 Asian American community artists – Sammay Dizon, Genny Lim, Isabelle Thuy Pelaud, Sami See, Francis Wong – whose works consistently place community at the center. The films explore the reasons that drive these outstanding artists and legacies that may point to the direction of the future of Asian American artists in San Francisco. Produced by Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center.
DESCRIPTION: “When you have that power, that ability other people don’t have, it’s how you use your authority and your power that counts. It’s not that you have it. It’s what you do with it.” From broadcast journalism to creative writing, Genny discusses the power of poetry and art to speak truth and transform systems.
About the filmmakers: Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center’s (APICC) mission is to support and present multidisciplinary art reflective of the unique experiences of Asians and Pacific Islanders living in the United States. APICC was founded in 1996 by representatives of five nonprofit arts groups: Asian American Dance Performances, First Voice, Asian Improv aRts, the Asian American Theater Company, and Kearny Street Workshop. Since 1998, the center has promoted the artistic and organizational growth of San Francisco’s API arts community by organizing and presenting the annual United States of Asian America Festival (now in its 24th year) as well as commissioning contemporary art for and by the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.
