**This event has been postponed**
“Asian America(n)” is a term fraught with contradictions. It obscures as much as it illuminates, for it seeks to collapse a diversity of experiences, cultures, histories, and people into a monolithic category of identification. Its construction is that of both an identity–something claimed–and an identification–something imposed. How do those who claim this identity make sense of these contradictions? How do the stories we tell, and the ways in which we tell them, give meaning to the identity and shape to the category?
Thus far, food, racism, and intergenerational conflict have dominated as conduits through which to explore and understand Asian America and Asian diasporic identities—so much so that those themes seem no longer to reflect the identities, but rather to constrain them. But we are more than our food, more than our family conflict, and certainly more than the racism we face. How can we tell stories in creative media that push beyond these themes, and in doing so, expand the construction and understanding of “Asian America(n)”? What is Asia America, and how can we tell stories that engage with the depth, complexity, and diversity of what it means to be Asian American?
Join us as we explore this question through a roundtable conversation that draws on the perspectives of storytellers of different approaches and media.
Panelists
Mimi Biyao Bai, a Brooklyn-based artist whose practice encompasses sculpture, drawing, and film. Bai's work draws connections between labor, assimilation, camouflage, and survival as both a lived reality and fantasy.
Neha Gautam, a community organizer, educator and media professional. Dedicated to helping make marginalized communities more visible and heard, Gautam believes that visual media are powerful tools for creating social change and giving voice to communities living on the margins or in exile.
Lucy Yu, owner of Yu & Me Books, the first female Asian-American bookstore/bar/cafe in New York City. Yu has a background in chemical engineering, supply chain and logistics, line cooking, food distribution, and of course, a love for literature. Yu & Me Books opened in December 2021.
Rohan Zhou-Lee, Blasian March Founder and Executive Director, and an award-winning dancer, writer, and community organizer. A 2023 Open City Fellow at the Asian American Writers' Workshop, 2023 FIYAH Grant Winner, and 2022 Bandung Resident, they have written for Newsweek, Truthout, Prism Reports, Reckon News, and more. Spotlight features include CNN, NBC Chicago, USA Today, WNYC, AJ+, and more. Zhou-Lee has spoken at New York University, Yale University, Oberlin College, University of Tokyo, the 2022 Unite and Enough Festivals in Zürich, Switzerland, Harvard University, and more. Zhou-Lee holds a Bachelor of the Arts in Ethnomusicology from Northwestern University.
As we will be discussing subjects both personal and political, we will not be recording this event, and we request that our audience members not record any part of the event either.
Presented by
Asian America(n): An Exploration through Creative Media is organized by Autumn Galindo and Samuel Niu. The symposium is administered by the Columbia University Department of History. The organizers would like to thank the following sponsors for generously supporting this event:
Columbia University | Department of History
Columbia University | Office of Academic Diversity and Inclusion
Columbia University | The Lehman Center for American History
Columbia University | Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race
Columbia University School of the Arts | Film and Media Studies