Tentative
Workshops
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Writing
Ourselves Into Existence
Workshop Facilitator: Anida
Yoeu Ali
Because we’ve been told to go back home. Because we know its more than
about
folkdances and food. Because being Asian American is not solely kung
fu, Chinese
take out, and dry cleaners. Because we’ve been called a dothead, chink,
jap, mut
and terrorist. Because we are not stereotypes! How does our perception
of who we
are conflict with images and stereotypes of who we are not? This
workshop will
explore the complicated truths of what it means to be Asian American.
Stereotypes
of Asian Americans are no longer simply the seductive images of the
Orient made
for consumption by white audiences. Instead, they have become
internalized into
complex ideals we have about identity, community, and gender. Through
popular
theater games, exercises, and writing prompts, participants will learn
to write about
their lives. We will address issues related to our names, home,
neighborhood, family
life, childhood memories and more. This workshop is meant to provoke,
inspire, and
extract stories from our personal experiences so that we may better
understand our
identity politics.
Spilling Ink for Blood
Workshop Facilitator: Anida
Yoeu Ali
Everyone has a story to tell and everyone’s story is worth telling.
What are the
stories we choose to speak and what are the stories that still remain
silent and
hidden? There is power in our personal stories. “This is what I’ve
seen. This is
what happened to me. This is how I feel.” Personal stories have the
power to
pierce walls of misunderstandings and humanize our struggles. This
workshop (re)
defines power as the ability to personally move and connect with people
through the
energy of creation. The focus will be on ensemble and collaborative
performance
as a way to expand our creativity and exchange ideas. We will reconnect
with our
matrilineage, reclaim our bodies, and explore our personal truths &
contradictions.
Participants will be asked to risk with each other and dig deeper into
our personal
lives. Fusing popular theater exercises with writing prompts, this
workshop will
provide participants with the tools to tell their own stories through
their own creative
ways – whether through monologues, movement, song or poetry. Dress
comfortably,
bring your journals and an open heart.
Exploration of Asian-American Health
in the Context of the Model Minority Myth
Workshop Facilitator: Ethan
Nguyen
Asian Americans continue to suffer tremendous health disparities,
including high rates
of cancer and poor access to health care services. Through analysis of
media, cultural
ideals and institutional policies, the causes and possible solutions
for this problem will be presented for consideration.
Redefining the North Korea Crisis
Facilitator
name(s)/organization: Brenda Abel / LiNK|Liberty in North Korea
Monsters, Messiahs, or Something
Else? Mixed-Race in Science Fiction
Movies
Workshop Facilitator: Eric
Hamako
Popular movies are telling stories about Mixed-Race but what are they
saying? Will
vigorous hybrid messiahs herald racial salvation? Will degenerate
hybrid monsters
cause a racial apocalypse? Are you prepared to talk about and talk back
to the movies
that students love? We’ll explore White Supremacist and Christian
Supremacist
ideas about Mixed-Race prevalent in current science fiction movies like
Harry
Blade, and Underworld and why people shouldn’t believe the hype…
Zombie Orientals Ate My Brain!
Orientalism in Contemporary Zombie Film &
Fiction
Workshop Facilitator: Eric
Hamako
Since 2001, US popular culture has produced a glut of material about
zombies:
including movies, books, toys, games, and graphic novels. How can we
understand
this surge in interest? I suggest that zombies currently contain
displaced Orientalist
anxieties about Arabs, Muslims, and East Asians – particularly Chinese.
Various
authors have explored Orientalist representations of these groups in
film. However,
I connect analyses of Orientalism in film to the zombie subgenre of
horror film
and fiction. I explore similarities between current representations of
zombies
and Orientalist representations of various groups. Symbolizing the
racial and
socioeconomic “Other,” popular culture is imbuing zombies with
Orientalist qualities
such as an insatiable yet asexual hunger for the flesh,
unintelligibility, implacability,
and a hordelike social-structure that threatens to pollute
heteronormative White family
structures and racial purity. Such stories often implicate state and
corporate entities
in the creation of the threat, yet also absolve zombies’ creators and
suggest archly
conservative solutions. I also point out counternarratives in the
zombie subgenre that
play with and resist these Orientalist ideas.
When Hate Hits You: Responding to
Anti-Asian Sentiment
Workshop Facilitator: Bill
Yoshino and Christine Munteanu (JACL)
This workshop will explore the history of the Asian American community
and the historical
context in which anti-Asian sentiment and stereotypes have evolved.
Participants will learn
about the history and causes of anti-Asian sentiment, learn to
recognize the differences between
hate crimes and hate incidents and engage in real life scenarios
dealing with defamation and
hate crimes. Essentially, the workshop will leave participants with the
tools to become effective
advocates for their community by empowering them to identify and
respond to anti-Asian
sentiment and racism.
Multiracial/Multiethnic Identity
Workshop Facilitator:
Christine Munteanu (JACL)
With the election of the first multiracial president and the ability to
check more than one box
on the 2000 Census, the multiracial movement in America is growing. Yet
the way race and
ethnicity are perceived in our society ignores the complexities of
racial classifications that are
exposed by the multiracial experience. This workshop will explore the
issues involved in racial
identity formation, examine the history of racial categorization and
mixed race in America, and
focus on the unique experience of multiracial and multiethnic Asian
Pacific Americans.
A Penny for a Peso
Workshop Facilitator:
UniPro
In
2009 alone, overseas Filipino workers contributed approximately $17
billion in remittances to the Philippines economy. As a result,
Philippines' GDP for the fiscal year magnified in paper, patting the
back of the former federal administration. However, what strikes as a
hopeful phenomenon on paper seems to be a veneer of the reduced social
and living standards for the majority of the Filipinos living in the
Philippines.
Hence we ask, what are the idyllic long terms and short term functions
of remittances, and are we fulfilling them? How would you define
remittances in the context of your own personal experiences? And how
can we apply your definition to better understand the impact of this
monetary assistance in the interplay of both economic and social
progressions?
We invite you in this discourse to explore the Philippines' dire thirst
for remittances, as well as the economic and social consequences of
this national dependency.
