Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Luck, Love, and Resistance: The Chinese Experience on Both Sides of the Pacific
Book reading & discussion

with Author Ruthanne Lum McCunn

Above: graphic design by Amy Lam

Date & Time: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 @ 7 PM

Location: International Hotel Manilatown Center, 868 Kearny Street, at Jackson, San Francisco, CA 94108

Cost: Free and open to the public.

Acclaimed author and San Francisco Chinatown native Ruthanne Lum McCunn will read from her newest historical novel God of Luck on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 from 7-9 pm at the I-Hotel Manilatown Center.

In God of Luck, Ah Lung and his beloved wife, Bo See, are separated by a cruel fate when, like thousands of other Chinese men in the nineteenth century, he is kidnapped, enslaved and sent from his village in southeastern China to the deadly guano mines off the shore of Peru. Bo See never loses hopes of being reunited with him and employs all of her resources to ensure his return—including praying to the God of Luck.

McCunn will also read excerpts of her novel Wooden Fish Songs (1997), newly revised for re-publication by University of Washington Press. The remarkable true story of 19th century immigrant-cum-renown horticulturalist Lum Gim Gong, Wooden Fish Songs has been adapted for stage and has been presented nationwide.

The event is co-presented by Manilatown Heritage Foundation, Chinese Culture Center, Chinese Historical Society of America, Kearny Street Workshop, and Asian American Women Artists Association.

“Never separating history from its impact on individual people, McCunn has reached into her characters’ hearts to bring readers a story of emotional depth and truth”

--Lisa See, author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

“A meticulously researched and beautifully written tale of early Chinese migration to the Americas…God of luck is a splendid read.”

--Franklin Odo, Director, Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program, Smithsonian Institution

About Ruthanne Lum McCunn

Born in 1946 in San Francisco's Chinatown of Scottish and Chinese descent, Ruthanne Lum McCunn grew up in Hong Kong, where she was educated first in Chinese and then British schools. In 1962 she returned to the U.S. to attend college.

Her first novel, Thousand Pieces of Gold, first published in 1982, depicted a Chinese American pioneer’s experiences as a slave and free woman in the Pacific Northwest. Acclaimed as a "stunning biography" by the Los Angeles Times, the book was twice a Quality Paperback Book Club Alternate and was adapted for film in 1991. McCunn’s other titles include Pie-Biter, Sole Survivor, Chinese American Portraits: Personal Histories 1828-1988, and The Mood Pearl.

McCunn’s work has been translated into eleven languages and published in twenty-two countries. She has taught at Cornell University, University of California at Santa Cruz, University of San Francisco, and lectures frequently at community organizations, schools, and libraries.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Kearny Street Workshop and Manilatown Heritage Foundation present

The Journey So Far: 35 Years of Activism

A discussion with Nancy Hom, Oscar Peñaranda, and Min Paek
Moderated by Alison Satake
an Activist Imagination event

Join Kearny Street Workshop, the Manilatown Heritage Foundation and a panel of activists, artists, and organizers for a compelling, honest, and dynamic discussion about activism, the arts and community.

The Journey So Far: 35 years of activism takes place Tuesday, November 27, at the International Hotel Manilatown Center, located at 848 Kearny Street, at Jackson. The panel features community activists, artists, and organizers Nancy Hom, Oscar Peñaranda, and Min Paek, and is moderated by author and writer Alison Satake. The discussion, which encourages questions and comments from attendees, will take a look at the last three and a half decades of activism and arts in our communities--what forms has activism taken? what methods have proven effective or ineffective? what lessons can we learn from looking back, and how can we find inspiration for the present and future of engaging in activity that effects real social and political change?

The Journey So Far is part of Kearny Street Workshop's 35th anniversary program, Activist Imagination, a series of conversations with community activists and artists and an arts exhibition with visual artists Bob Hsiang, Christine Wong Yap, and Donna Keiko Ozawa. For more information about the Activist Imagination program, please click here.

Date & Time: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 @ 7 PM

Location: International Hotel Manilatown Center, 868 Kearny Street, at Jackson, San Francisco, CA 94108

Cost: Free and open to the public.

Join the conversation! Visit the Activist Imagination blog at
http://kearnystreet.wordpress.com/category/activist-imagination/

The Activist Imagination project is made possible in part by a grant from the Creative Work Fund through support from the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the James Irvine Foundation. Activist Imagination is also supported in part by a grant from the San Francisco Foundation and from KSW's members and individual donors.

Above: graphic design by Jenifer Wofford | www.wofflehouse.com.

For more information contact KSW at 415.503.0520 or info@kearnystreet.org, or visit us online at www.kearnystreet.org To support this program and contribute to our fundraising efforts, please click on the link below.

About the moderator and panelists

Nancy Hom is an artist, writer, organizer, and arts administrator with over 30 years of experience in the non-profit arts field. Widely known for her silkscreen artwork, she has created numerous images for community events, political and social causes, and has been a graphic designer and children's book illustrator. She is currently  a freelance curator, grantwriter, and arts consultant for several small non-profits in the Bay Area. Her visual and written work has been published in numerous books and anthologies. In her 30+ years of involvement with San Francisco based Asian American arts organization Kearny Street Workshop, she served as its Executive Director from July 1995 through September 2003. She received a San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant as a visual artist in 1995. She was awarded a Gerbode Fellowship in 1998, nominated for the 1999 Women of Achievement Awards, and received the KQED Local Hero Award in 2003.  She is on the boards of Heyday Institute and the Asian American Women Artists Association, and is an advisory board member of Kearny Street Workshop. She serves on the Community Arts Distribution Committee of the Zellerbach Family Foundation.

A longtime community activist, advocate for ethnic studies in the schools, teacher and writer, Oscar Peñaranda was born in Barugo, Leyte, in 1944. He attended the Philippine Normal School in Manila. At 12, his family moved to Canada, and later relocated to San Francisco, California. At San Francisco State University, Oscar graduated with a B.A. in Literature and an M.A. in Creative Writing. After graduating, he became an activist whose involvement has included participation in the longest-running student strike, which lasted from 1968 to 1969. Since then, he has spent many years teaching in northern California, including Everett Middle School and, more recently, James Logan High School in Union City, California. However, his expertise is not limited to creative writing and English composition, as his curriculum has included the teaching of Tagalog to second-generation Filipinos. Beyond the classroom, his studies in Ethnic and Filipino Heritage has spurred him to lead organizations such as the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) and the Filipino American Educators Association of California (FAEAC). Currently, Oscar has two published works, voicing his passion and life stories called Seasons by the Bay and Full Deck.

Min Paek is the founder and Executive Director of Korean American Women Artists and Writers Association (KAWAWA). In 1994, after working with Korean small store owners who lost their businesses during the 1992 L.A. Riots, Min co-founded the Inter-Cultural Youth Program with Lefty Godon of Ella Hill Hutch Community Center. Min has organized several art exhibitions, panel discussions and performances related to the Korean/Korean American experience, and has taught Asian American Culture and Contemporary Korean Community classes at San Francisco State University, and Graphic Communication classes at City College of San Francisco. Min has produced numerous educational posters and brochures, working with Tom Kim of Korean Community Service Center during the 1970s and 1980s, and is the author and illustrator of Aekyung's Dream (Children's Book Press. 1979), the first Korean/English bilingual children's book published in the U.S. Presently, Min is a Ph.D. Candidate in Korean Studies with an emphasis on Art History at the University of Hamburg, Germany. Her scholarly research focuses on the issues of the intersection of modernist aesthetics in the colonial and post-colonial world, the traditional and contemporary visual art and culture of Korea, diaspora and art, Asian visual culture, colonial and post-colonial cultural theory, and Asian American Art and culture. Min also has been a Commissioner since 1994 for the City and County of San Francisco.

Bay Area local, Alison Lee Satake has worked with various Bay Area non-profit organizations on issues of education, environmental justice, and media for the last seven years.  Most recently, she led workshops and forums for KQED on the complex issues of modern China and U.S. immigration.  An aspiring non-fiction book author, she currently is sharpening her craft at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism (expected M.J. '09).  She received her B.A. ('98) from Barnard College in New York City.

About Manilatown Heritage Foundation

The mission of Manilatown Heritage Foundation is to promote social and economic justice for Filipinos in America by preserving our history, advocating for equal access, and advancing our arts and culture. For more information please visit www.manilatown.org.

About Kearny Street Workshop

KEARNY STREET WORKSHOP is a San Francisco-based multidisciplinary Asian Pacific American arts nonprofit organization. Founded in 1972 and now celebrating our 35th anniversary year, the mission of Kearny Street Workshop is to produce and present art that enriches and empowers Asian Pacific American communities.Our vision is to achieve a more just society by connecting Asian Pacific American (APA) artists with community members to give voice to our cultural, historical, and contemporary issues.
Through our programs, KSW:

* nurtures the creation of new and innovative artwork inspired by the APA experience
* brings forth the stories of diverse communities
* develops artists and leaders in the Bay Area
* encourages inclusivity through collaboration and community involvement
* promotes cross-cultural and intergenerational understanding and
* celebrates the spirit of our community

For more information, visit www.kearnystreet.org