Tuesday, January 24, 2017
The Future is Woman, The Future is Asian


Pushing his bike through the thronging Women's March in NYC, Asian American Arts Centre (AAAC) Executive Director Bob Lee marveled at how nice people were being to him. He had decided to join an Asian American group on 47th street and take pictures. With no poster to bring, he instead pulled out an old T-shirt of the Asian American Arts Alliance, once an offshoot of AAAC, with the words "RESHAPING AMERICAN CULTURE THROUGH ASIAN-AMERICAN ART" emblazoned on the front. An appropriate description of what the AAAC has envisioned as its mission since the 70's- to create an identity different from the mainstream, to grow the cultural presence of Asian-Americans and to explore the hyphen in our hyphenated American identities.  



  

Reflecting, Lee wondered about how this previous mission feels altered in the present day. From a Buddhist view the slogan might read "Reshaping Oneself". From the view of some Asian-American artists today, the sign might simply read "Shaping Culture". In such a way the art is not distinguished by its "Asian-American" nature and seen instead as an equal voice amongst distinct forces, all absorbed into a giant miasmic "culture". 

Yet it was through the coining of the hyphen, a resistant stroke that set "Asian-Americans" apart from "Americans", that artists and activists in the 60's and 70's identified themselves and created a political movement. The hyphen gestured towards our difference, a direction for action. How now will Asian ideas and instincts seep into American consciousness while retaining their own integrity? 

Perhaps the answer lies within the Women's March. In one of the many Women's March posters, Coretta Scott King's quote is framed by multi-colored versions of the raised woman's fist. "Women, if the soul of the nation is to be saved, I believe that you must become its soul. This Women's March was a march against a seething plague of social ills rising in America, from toxic masculinities to rising fascism, that were legitimized in this year's election. Asian-Americans rose as a politicized body to resist the Vietnam War, fighting instead for a world of empathy and compassion. Nowhere else is this illustrated better than at the Women's March. From the graciousness shown to a cumbersome biker in a packed crowd to the myriad affirmations displayed in the posters, these are the tools of the resistance. This is where Asian instincts and impulses lead. The Asian American Arts Centre has always sought to promote the artists whose work exudes these traits. 

"Asian American artists will continue to go in multiple directions," said Lee. "One core direction will assimilate, blossom and flourish as women take the lead." 


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Sunday, January 15, 2017
ZONED OUT!


At the Abrons Arts Center on Dec 12 2016, the authors of the book "Zoned Out!" and community organizers gathered to discuss the racial segregation, gentrification and displacement in neighborhoods like the Lower East Side and Chinatown.

Speakers:
Tom Angotti is Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College, the Graduate Center, and City University of New York, and Director of the Hunter College Center for Community Planning & Development. He is author of New York For Sale: Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate, which won the 2009 Davidoff Book Award.

Samuel Stein is a PhD student in Geography at the CUNY Graduate Center and holds a master’s degree in Urban Planning from Hunter College. In addition to teaching and studying urban geography, he worked as a researcher, organizer, and planner on numerous New York City union campaigns, tenant mobilizations, and public policy initiatives. 

Louise Velez is a native Puerto Rican and a long-time Lower East Side resident. In the 1970s she began organizing with fellow residents against unsafe housing conditions, evictions and displacement in the neighborhood. Velez is a member of Mujeres y Hombres Luchadores, and a Board Member of National Mobilization Against SweatShops (NMASS), where she is currently organizing public housing residents to demand repairs and to stop the sale of public land and assets.

Jei Fong is a staff member of Chinese Staff & Workers' Association with over 10 years of experience organizing workers in the workplace and community.

Sylvia Morse received her Master of Urban Planning degree from CUNY Hunter College, where she focused on housing and participatory planning. She is a lifelong New Yorker who has worked with community-based and nonprofit organizations dedicated to affordable housing, community-based planning, and racial and economic justice. 





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