Asian Pacific America is beyond borders. It exists in the ethnoburbs of the San Francisco Bay Area where Sriracha can be found in Mexican restaurants. It is embodied in neighborhoods in the Deep South where a single household encompasses an entire demographic. It can even be found in the window seat of an airplane, through the eyes of a Chicago-born artist’s first trip to Laos to explore her family’s history.
This May, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center collaborates with Flickr to capture the vast and nuanced universe of experiences that embody Asian Pacific America.
We invite people far and wide to capture snapshots of their experiences as Asian Pacific Americans on May 10, 2014 – wherever you are, whatever you’re doing. From immigrants to hometown legends, global citizens to refugees, fringe artists to medical practitioners – through our lenses we can illustrate the vast array of experiences throughout the world that make up today’s Asian Pacific America.
— From Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, on A DAY IN THE LIFE OF ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICA
To kickoff the A DAY IN THE LIFE OF ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICA on May 10, 2014, Asian CineVision is hosting a special event at Ran Tea House in Brooklyn, Williamsburg (269 Kent Ave, Brooklyn) on Sunday May 4th, 6:30pm – 8:30pm.
FREE ADMISSION
RSVP NOW
with Music Performance and Your First Beer Free!
Beer sponsored by Jinro Hite
Time: 6:30-8:30 pm, May 4 (Sunday)
Location: Ran Tea House / Ran Space, 269 Kent Ave, Brooklyn
(L Train to Bedford Ave. 10 min walk from the stop.)
What: On May 4th, Asian CineVision is hosting the kickoff event for A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A/P/A to inform and invite people to capture snapshots of their experiences as Asian Pacific Americans or what APA experiences they have witnessed in NYC on May 10th. We will have several NYC-based photographers, from high-profilers to grassroots, to talk about the A/P/A experiences they have captured and what they have in mind for May 10th.
Who: Presenters expected to attend include: Corky Lee, An Rong Xu, Stephen A. Yang, Mitsuko Brooks and Sara Francini.
Corky Lee is widely known as “the undisputed Asian American Photographer Laureate.” The Queens-born legendary photographer and activist has captured numerous iconic images of Asian Pacific Americans in political movements and social contexts in the past 40 years, from labor struggles, protests and resistance to celebration and everyday community events. His works have appeared in more than 50 books.
Ang Rong Xu is a Chinese-American photographer based in NYC. Xu graduated with a BFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts in 2012, he is currently the Artist in Residence at East Meets West. anrongxu.com/
Stephen A. Yang is an NYC-based freelance photographer specializing in portraiture and reportage. morningsidephoto.com
Mitsuko Brooks is a NYC-based hapa haole bricolage artist and member of The Asian American Women Artists Association. She earned her B.F.A. at Cooper Union, and also attended The Oxbow School in Napa Valley, CA. mitsukobrooks.com
Sara Francini resides in the Lower East Side. She has been documenting Chinatown on photos and building her Tumblr page, The Border: thebordernyc. tumblr.com/
Why May 10th: In the historic photo taken in 1869 to celebrate the construction of the Utah Central Railroad, the 12,000 Chinese laborers who had worked on the construction were not included and none of them was recognized as part of it. As May marks the 35th Anniversary of APA Heritage Month as well as the 145th Anniversary of Transcontiental Railroad in Utah, and May 10th the 7th Amtrak’s National Train Day, we would like to encourage everyone to create visual materials to deliver the underrepresented realities and revamp the historical memories of Asian American heritage.
SPECIAL THANKS TO FJ Music. As young musicians and students at Pratt Institute, Jiaju (Sylvia) Shen and Feifei (Sophia) Yang founded FJ Music Fusion in 2013, the first band of its kind in NYC that performs fusion music with traditional Chinese musical instrument (Er-hu and Pipa). Since founding in 2013, they have performed together or individually at the Met, Rubin Museum, the Summer Stage, Asian American Arts Alliance, Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month, among many venues. fjmusicfusion.com/