Exciting Upcoming APICC Events in San Francisco
Exciting Upcoming APICC Events in San Francisco
Creatively exploring themes of loss, resilience, cultural identity, community engagement, and Be(long)ing Here
I have been honored recently to collaborate with Badri Valian on a series of workshops that combine guided co-storytelling with textile art and mapmaking to amplify individual voices, explore collective memory and create visual narratives of the experiences of immigration, displacement, and what Be(long)ing Here means. (Learn more here.) The workshops have been truly inspiring. I’ve been touched deeply by what people have shared and created. I’ll be telling you more about that in the future, as I need some time to process my own thoughts and experiences before writing too much about it.
Upcoming workshop: Join us May 20th from 4-9 pm for our next workshop hosted at Center for Art and Public Life. Details here.
In the meantime, I wanted to share some work that others are creating for the festival of which these workshops are a part. These workshops have kicked off thanks to a grant from APICC and as part of the USAAF 2024 Festival for Asian American Heritage Month. So, in the meantime, I wanted to share a few more events that are upcoming from that festival. If you’re local to the San Francisco Bay Area, do support the arts and check some of these out. If you’re not local, you might still enjoy perusing the artist’s websites or socials to see the fascinating things that they’re working on.
Megan Lowe Dances presents Just a Shadow (World Premiere)
This one is such a powerful collaboration around a topic that is both deeply personal and incredibly universal. From the press release:
Just a Shadow, by Megan Lowe Dances, is a performance journey in service to artists who have lost loved ones prematurely. With a title inspired by a poem Artistic Director Megan Lowe’s mother wrote shortly before she died, the project stems from Megan’s desire to process the loss of her mother and sister through art, and co-create a space of mutual support with collaborators who are also dealing with recent loss. Just a Shadow brings together 7 powerful artists—AJ Gardner, Sonsherée Giles, Josh Icban, Megan Lowe, Frances Teves Sedayao, Roel Seeber, and Shira Yaziv—to make 6 distinct duets that highlight the unique strengths and creative modalities of each collaborator, including contemporary dance, site-specific dance, vertical dance, turf dance, contact improvisation, and live music.
This project aspires to nourish the soul, support healing, acknowledge resilience, celebrate life, and honor the memories of loved ones. It welcomes diverse perspectives, cultures, and backgrounds, recognizing that the narratives surrounding death and processing grief are multifaceted and deeply personal. Through dance performance, MLD aims to provide a platform for catharsis, empathy, and collective understanding, fostering connections that transcend individual stories and unite us in a shared journey toward solace and healing.
When: May 31 - June 9, 2021, Friday, Saturday, + Sunday at 7:30pm
Where: The Joe Goode Annex, 401 Alabama Street
Duck Soup, Directed and Produced by Ramon Abad
Ramon’s show looks inspiring, uplifting, and dynamic.
Duck Soup is an immersive theater experience for children and families at Bindlestiff Studio. The one-hour show will engage the audience by guiding them to various sections of the theater, where they will witness short stories brought to life through captivating puppet performances.
The title of the show, "Duck Soup", is Depression-era slang for something that's "easy to do" or a "piece of cake." No actual ducks will be cooked. Tickled perhaps, but not cooked!
When: Saturdays, June 8 & 15, 11:00 am–12:00 pm & 3:00–4:00 pm; Sunday, June 9, 11:00 am–12:00 pm & 3:00–4:00 pm
Where: Bindlestiff Studio, 185 6th Street
Also at Bindlestiff Studio in June: My Ancestors' Worst Dream
has an interview with Ramon Abad that is absolutely worth reading:
And a big thanks to Ramon for attending our workshop at the Chinese Culture Center last week.
Soul of The City by Brenda Wong Aoki and Mark Izu
The Storyteller’s beloved city, San Francisco, seems to have lost its way. Does a city have a soul? This perplexing question haunts The Storyteller. Feeling useless and lost, set upon by demons and ghosts, she hovers between life and death. Four precious talismans – a jade bracelet, a fan, a necklace, and a music box – the touchstones of her life, comfort her. Based on autobiographical stories of her mixed ethnic family tree, Master Storyteller Brenda Wong Aoki takes us on a magical journey to find the soul of San Francisco. Each of these talismans, like time capsules, reveal her rich family history that’s woven into the origins of San Francisco Japantown and Chinatown. Remembering these stories, she realizes that her family was instrumental in the creation of San Francisco Japantown and that her family stories are reflections of our lived American history – the good, the bad, and the ugly. Each of us has a story. Our stories connect with one another and over time, these stories become one big story. This Story lives on, long after its storytellers are gone and becomes the “Soul of the City.” - Learn more.
When: June 1 at 7 pm and June 2 at 4 pm
Where: Presidio Theatre
Also at Presidio Theatre in June: 20th annual Queer Women of Color Film Festival
Evolved Herstories: "With a Twist: Stories of Her Own" Artist Talks
Artists will regale the audience with the original stories from their heritages, the reasons for changing these tales, and their evolved herstories - new narratives that the artists have created to enact justice for API women.
Artists have changed the original stories in ways that:
1) Reflect their values, hopes, beliefs, and desires,
2) Resolves racial and gender-based injustices, and
3) Reimagines what it means to exist, live, and thrive as API women in a society when and where we are eternally respected, celebrated, and cherished. - Learn more.
When: May 26, 2-5
Where: Arc Studios & Gallery, 1246 Folsom Street
There are so many events happening as part of this festival. And this is just one festival celebrating resilience and identity through art in San Francisco. Support local art.