2011 NYCAASC Workshops:
- Track 1 (10:40AM - 11:55AM)
- Activism Ink - Writing Resistance
- BAM!- A New Generation of Food
- Break the Chains: Taking a Stand Against Human Trafficking
- iVOW to Fight Violence Against Women
- Laugh Out Loud with Jen Kwok
- Slicing Up the Pie: Towers and Tenements in Chinatown and the Lower East Side
- The Superhero Alter-Ego: Comics and Asian American Identity
- Track 2 (2:10PM - 3:25PM)
- Activism from the Korean Diaspora: Bridging a Movement of Social Change
- Fashion Forward: Asian Americans in the Fashion Industry
- From Graffiti to Tattoos: Understanding Asian American Youth Gangs
- Invent, Re-invent: Social Entrepreneurs of Today
- LGBT Issues in Intercountry Adoption: Queer API Adoptees Speak Out
- Lights! Camera! TAKE ACTION! The Fundamentals of Street Theatre
- PROJECT Community - Out of the Classroom, Into the Streets
- Track 3 (4:20PM - 5:35PM)
- Behind the Silver Screen: Reflections on the Asian American Film Industry
- The Cost of Success: Challenging the Model Minority Myth for AAPIs
- Crisis at South Philadelphia High: Student Leaders Enacting Change
- Decolonize Your Jack Off Session
- A Genealogy to Structural Racism
- Queer Asian America: Organizing towards Awareness and Acceptance
- Unmasking Mental Health: Youth on College Campuses
Track 1 (10:40AM - 11:55AM)
Activism Ink - Writing Resistance
Speakers: Deanna Fei, Russell Leong
Description:
This workshop will highlight how literature can be viewed as a tool to push for social change. Literature is constantly informing the social landscape, however, the agency of writers is often undermined. Asian American literature has had a history of responding to and interrupting mainstream discourse. Speakers Deanna Fei and Russell Leong speak of how they create works that complicate and resist dominant narratives, continually producing important counter-narratives.
BAM!- A New Generation of Food
Speakers: Eddie Song, Hung Huynh, Kenny Lao
Moderator: Chichi Wang
Description:
As media and the internet play an increasing role in the lives of our generation, Asian American chefs are entering the limelight of the nation for revolutionizing the way Americans view Asian American foods. We are moving beyond being confined to only small family-run restaurants, as media and the Internet create efficient outlets to popularize Asian American foods. Ranging from the enchanting family-run restaurants to the bold approaches towards fusion cuisine, Asian American foods are no longer just known for the stereotypical images of lo mein, sushi, and phở. These Asian American chefs and food entrepreneurs are redesigning the way we view our food and how we eat it.
Break the Chains: Taking a Stand Against Human Trafficking
Speakers: Haemy Lee, Ivy Suriyopas, William Xu
Description:
Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for sexual or forced labor. It is a serious worldwide issue affecting millions of women and young children. A fast-growing criminal industry, human trafficking involves forms of involuntary actions that traumatize survivors both physically and emotionally. What complicates this issue more are the false assumptions that circulate about the survivors themselves. Experienced speakers such as Haemy Lee, William Xu, and Ivy Suriyopas will discuss how to interact with human trafficking survivors, provide firsthand accounts of anti-trafficking work, debunk the general myths about human trafficking, and finally, discuss some legal remedies.
iVOW to Fight Violence Against Women
Speakers: FiRE
Description:
Have you taken the Vow? This workshop seeks to expand the definition of and awareness around violence against Filipino women to include not only those experienced in the physical realm, but also those that are emotional, psychological, and are results of political repression and economic migration. We will discuss and critically analyze ―The 7 Deadly Sins Against Women.‖ By fully recognizing its presence in our community, both Pinays and Pinoys can work together towards designing collective actions that combat violence against women in our daily lives. This workshop is congruent with GABRIELA-USA’s national campaign ―Voices of Women vs. Violence Against Women‖ (VOW vs. VAW).
Laugh Out Loud with Jen Kwok
Speakers: Jen Kwok
Description:
Comedy, as a form of social entertainment, is constantly informed and defined by the social and political discourses taking place. Its content often represents the values and beliefs of the United States as a whole. Therefore, it becomes important that Asian American comedians make use of their platform in productive ways—complicating the popular imagination of funny Asian Americans. Comedian, Jen Kwok responds to the social, the political and the personal through her humor. Stand-up, however, is only one of her mediums—Kwok plays the uke, can sing, doubles as a YouTube star, and wants you to "Date an Asian Man."
Slicing Up the Pie: Towers and Tenements in Chinatown and the Lower East Side
Speakers: Bethany Li
Description:
Have you noticed the towering, luxurious "affordable housing" condos sprouting up in New York City's Chinatown and the Lower East Side (LES)? Squeezed between the bustling business centers of Midtown and Wall Street, Chinatown and LES have been the target of profitable real estate plans, involving many "affordable" development projects built in low-income, immigrant communities. Yet we ask ourselves: affordable for whom? This interactive workshop will explore the true definition of "affordable housing,‖ reasons for this overdevelopment, and how low-income tenants of Chinatown and the Lower East Side are engaging in anti-gentrification campaigns to protest being out bid for their own homes. We will step into the shoes of various players at the table including tenants, landlords, government, small business owners, and developers (including universities). Then, we will ask ourselves: What is our role in this problem as college students? Is gentrification of our communities really inevitable?
The Superhero Alter-Ego: Comics and Asian American Identity
Speakers: Greg Pak, Tak Toyoshima
Moderator: Jeff Yang
Description:
Comics, as a creative medium, is exceptional in its accessibility to children and adults, as well as its potential for presenting widely diverse themes and genres, through its political caricatures, racial commentary and the myth of superheroes. Comics act as a cultural phenomenon that illustrates American fantasies of power, individual identity and the overcoming of conventions. In this panel, Tak Toyoshima, the creator of Secret Asian Man, and Greg Pak, a writer for Marvel, discuss the issues they address in their works, such as the representations of Asian Americans in American comics and the ontological status of the Asian American Superhero, and share their experiences creating and producing their works. Copies of Tak’s Secret Asian Man and Greg’s graphic novel ―Vision Machine‖ will be available to attendees.
Track 2 (2:10PM-3:25PM)
Activism from the Korean Diaspora: Bridging a Movement of Social Change
Speakers: Andy Marra, Mark Ro Beyersdorf
Moderator: Hyein Lee
Description:
Nodutdol for Korean Community Development seeks to provide a space on how to analyze and act on events going on both in the Korean peninsula and local events. Throughout the presentation, Nodutdol seeks to make clear its political perspective of anti-imperialism and anti-neoliberalism, as well as its critiques of common ways of analyzing North Korea and South Korea. The goal of this workshop is to provide students with a clear way to get involved in the work Nodutdol is doing. To do this, Nodutdol will describe its past exposure programs, such as the Peace Treaty Campaign, and KEEP (Korean Exposure & Education Program), with participants giving brief presentations or engaging in a Q&A. Nodutdol will then give a brief presentation on the upcoming KEEP-D trip.
Fashion Forward: Asian Americans in the Fashion Industry
Speakers: Brooke Kao, Jake Choi, Janice Chou, Kim Phan
Moderator: Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu
Description:
We always hear about big name Asian designers in the fashion industry, but what factors contribute to the success of Asian Americans in the fashion industry as a whole? This workshop seeks to inspire those who are interested in fashion, as well as reveal the underlying cultural implications of the Asian American presence. Expanding from the often-limited understanding of fashion, this workshop will spotlight a multifaceted perspective of fashion that acknowledges not only the presence of designers and models, but also bloggers, magazine editors, and academics. With a diverse panel of speakers, we will get a holistic understanding of the Asian American experience in the fashion industry.
From Graffiti to Tattoos: Understanding Asian American Youth Gangs
Speakers: Cliff Akiyama
Description:
Not all Asian Americans are as uniformly educated, acculturated, and financially stable, as the myth of the "model minority" would have us suggest. Although adults from many nationality groups between Asian and Pacific Islanders have adapted well to life in the United States, serious problems have emerged among Asian American youth. In particular, youth gang violence in the Asian and Pacific Islander community has dramatically increased in the last few years by nearly 20% nationwide according the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. In Los Angeles County, California alone, there are currently 155 Asian youth gangs, with a total gang membership of over 6,000. In neighboring Orange County, California, gang involvement has reached an all time high with over 65 documented gangs and a membership of 2,000. Demographics sow gang member (male and female) age average of 15 with a range of 8-22 years. Even more disturbing is the increase of Asian females involved in gang activity. In Orange County, where the Asian gang population makes up 12%, there are 140 Asian female gang members, up 60% from last year. Other surrounding counties in California and the cities of Philadelphia Pennsylvania, Fairfax County Virginia, New York New York, and Portland
Oregon have seen similar trends in the rise of Asian youth gangs.
The purpose of this workshop is to present timely data on API youth gangs; offer strategies on how to recognize and interpret various tattoos and graffiti associated with these gangs, while offering strategies for prevention and intervention to help stop this epidemic before it’s too late. Back to the TopInvent, Re-invent: Social Entrepreneurs of Today
Speakers: Christina Seid, Jack Tchen, Wayne Ho
Moderator: Anna Leung
Description:
Our new generation of leaders creates, invents, and serves in the name of public service. Social entrepreneurship uses the tools of business & profit with the objective of serving a people and providing a voice to impact a specific population. Social entrepreneurial work is the product of a people with a vision and cross-disciplinary skills. One may ask, through what means do people go about achieving business-oriented social good? Come listen to a diverse panel comprised of individuals from various fields, such as food, education, and community advocacy. Activate the entrepreneur in you by learning about their experiences and accomplishments that speak to the common goal of serving and giving a voice to the APA community.
LGBT Issues in Intercountry Adoption: Queer API Adoptees Speak Out
Speakers: Anh Ðào Kolbe, Jenna Ness, Pauline Park
Description:
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered adoptees face distinct challenges in forging their identities at the intersections of race, ethnicity, national identity, culture, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. In trying to find a place in the growing community of intercountry adoptees as well as within the white-dominant LGBT community, LGBT adoptees are often marginalized and their experiences are often ignored or dismissed. Three queer adoptees will share their perspectives and experiences in constructing identity, finding community and putting their commitment to social justice into action.
Lights! Camera! TAKE ACTION! The Fundamentals of Street Theatre
Speakers: Kalaya'an Mendoza
Moderator: Chand Nirankari
Description:
As Activists, Organizers and Rabblerousers one of our many challenges is finding effective strategies to convey our message to the general public in an accessible and dynamic way, while inspiring them to take action on an issue or campaign. This workshop will be focused primarily upon the strategic use of street theatre as a tactic in your overall campaign. There will be a brief background in the theory and implementation of Theatre of the Oppressed, a methodology of interactive theatre created and pioneered by Augusto Boal to give a voice to the voiceless. This will NOT be a sit down, non-participatory, unilateral workshop. This WILL be an interactive and dynamic space designed specifically to get you out of your comfort zone. You will be expected to challenge yourself mentally and physically. You will be asked – nay, demanded - to participate to the fullness of your ability. You will embarrass yourselves and watch your co-Actors embarrass themselves. This will be an intentional space where creativity, growth and vision are fostered and nurtured. By the end of the workshop participants/actors will have rudimentary tools and resources to incorporate Street Theatre into their own activist toolkit and a means to distill down their campaign into an engaging theatrical forum in their respective communities.
PROJECT Community - Out of the Classroom, Into the Streets
Speakers: Liz Rhee, Sooji Lim, Tarry Hum
Description:
Flushing, Queens is a diverse immigrant neighborhood undergoing much development and dynamic change. In recent years, there has been a great deal of dicussion around the revitalization of the Flushing waterfront and Downtown Flushing. Megaprojects like Flushing Commons aim to turn an immigrant neighborhood into the next chic destination. Tarry Hum’s Queens College Urban Studies class has partnered with a Flushing community-based organization, the MinKwon Center for Community Action, to conduct a study of the ongoing planning efforts for Flushing’s waterfront. This panel, featuring Tarry Hum, urban studies students and representatives from the Minkwon Center, will explore the possibility and agency of community based-organizations creating partnerships with universities.
Track 3 (4:20PM-5:35PM)
Behind the Silver Screen: Reflections on the Asian American Film Industry
Speakers: Christine Choy
Description:
With the development of film as a dominating force in the entertainment industry, it became globalized as many countries began to make films in their own languages, and at the same time became nationalized as it began to represent and embody the particular culture of its makers and their people: classical Hollywood cinema, Japanese films of the 50’s, Hong Kong Kung Fu wave, and Asian American film, which began in the 1960s and the 1970s as a reaction against the Asian representations in mainstream Hollywood films. In this workshop, Professor Christine Choy, as a director of Asian American films, will discuss the phenomena of the Asian American film industry and the issues of identity, generational conflict and history raised in the films. She will present parts of her recent work about the Chinese in Africa, and share her own experiences working within the American industry, the conflicting relationship with Hollywood and the difficulty of producing Asian American films in America.
The Cost of Success: Challenging the Model Minority Myth for AAPIs
Speakers: Mitch Wu, Robert Teranishi, Tu-Lien Kim Nguyen
Description:
A number of factors contribute to the exclusion of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) in America’s discourse on equity in higher education. A primary reason is that race in American society is defined, for the most part, in Black and White terms, which challenges scholars, policy makers, and educators to place AAPIs within this racial paradigm. Because inclusion is so important in higher education, this workshop will discuss strategies for responding to the unique issues and challenges AAPI students experience during college, and how practitioners can better engage the community.
Crisis at South Philadelphia High: Student Leaders Enacting Change
Speakers: TBA
Description:
On December 3 2009, more than two dozen Asian immigrant students were beaten inside and outside of school in a series of assaults at their South Philadelphia High School - a school where community advocates had raised concerns for more than a year about dramatic anti-Asian violence against recent immigrant students. In response, more than 50 Asian immigrant students conducted an 8 day boycott of South Philadelphia High in order to raise attention to anti-Asian violence and demand a District response. In the process they raised citywide, national and international awareness of the issue and built a platform to combat racial violence by demanding accountability and responsibility from school and District administration. In this panel this dynamic team of student leaders and activists of South Philadelphia High School and the Asian American community of Philadelphia will share the story of their activism that continues into the present-day, two years after the incident. The efforts and triumphs of these activists are proof of the possibility to bravely overcome adversity through leadership, team work, and determination.
Decolonize Your Jack Off Session
CHANGES: DUE TO UNFORSEEN CIRCUMSTANCES, THIS WORKSHOP HAS BEEN CANCELLED
Speakers: Kalaya'an Mendoza
Description:
Pornography - the last great unexplored frontier of mass media. This multi-billion dollar industry does more than help one get their respective rocks off. It has the power to influence and shape how one's identity is constructed within a sexualized framework. This workshop is by no means attempting to demonize or consent - rather, it is meant to be a point of discussion and debate about the effects that pornography, notably Gay Western produced pornography, has on Asian Pacific Islanders consuming it. The audience will be encouraged to offer their analysis on issues ranging from gay male representation in pornography, the consequences Western produced porn has on young Queer People of Color, the exploitation of Asian Pacific Islanders from the Global South and proactive ways to reclaim and decolonize sexualized media.
A Genealogy to Structural Racism
Speakers: Nico Cary
Description:
How do we understand racial disparities if they are not explained by personal discrimination or explicit laws and policies? The fluid concepts of race and racism are persistent challenges for coalition building today. How do we begin working together, let alone interrupting racialized operations of power if we do not share an accurate definition of what it is we are fighting? In this workshop, iLL-Literacy begins to lay out some common language for those interested in understanding structural racism and engaging anti-racist movements.
Queer Asian America: Organizing towards Awareness and Acceptance
Speakers: Charlie Solidum, Olympia Moy, Pauline Park, Ryan Natividad, Suma Reddy
Description:
Marginalized by ethnicity and sexuality, Asian Americans identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender must navigate systems and communities of exclusion that work to antagonize based on ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation. A number of LGBT APA organizations have arisen in the past decades, creating spaces of acceptance and working towards awareness of the issues surrounding the Asian Pacific American LGBT community. APA LGBT organizers and activists come together to speak about their involvement in bringing about change for the LGBT community. The panel will feature representatives from Gay Pacific Islander Men of New York (GAPIMNY), South Asian Lesbian & Gay Association of New York (SALGA), Asian & Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS (APICHA), Q-Wave, and the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA).
Unmasking Mental Health: Youth on College Campuses
Speakers: Dr. Calvin Chin, Justin Li
Description:
Among all ethnicities, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are the least likely to seek help for mental illness. Yet, studies show that Asian American youth exhibit high rates of depression, anxiety and suicide and that elderly Asian American women have the highest suicide rate of all women aged 65 and over. As the APA population grows and statistics continue to reveal striking mental health disparities, how can we address mental health issues, specifically in the world of higher education? In addition to the general social stigma associated with mental health, there exists a number of cultural, economic and language barriers that further prevent access to quality mental health care for the Asian American community. This panel seeks to examine these difficulties and explore the linkages between mental health and social well-being, specifically in the college population.
