How does ‘place’ resonate with you? Where does this concept fall in your narrative as an Asian Pacific American? Is it your migration story? Do you witness it through displacement? Is it your experience with reclaiming something that once was? Or is it through the intersections of your own identity? This year’s theme, RE:place, is limitless and multidimensional -- our participating artists did just that, saw no bounds, and contributed to one of the most exhilarating APAture festival seasons to date.

For 17 seasons, APAture has been an imperative platform for emerging Asian Pacific American (APA) artists in the San Francisco Bay Area. As the only multidisciplinary arts festival of its kind in the country, Kearny Street Workshop (KSW) is honored to provide the space, exposure, recognition, and audience for local creatives.

APAture 2018: RE:place ran from October 13 to November 4 with over 60 participating artists in performing arts, visual arts, book arts, literary arts, film, and music. At the Opening Reception we honored Barbara Jane Reyes and Taraneh Hemami as this year’s Focus Award recipients for their contributions and impact that has shaped our community. We then wrapped things up at the Closing Reception as artists and organizers recounted their gratifying experiences and reflected over the four weekends that the festival was held.

We kicked off this year’s APAture at the Asian Art Museum with the Performing Arts Showcase that closed with an electric multimedia performance by Jyun Jyun and missTANGQ that combined music, modern dance, puppetry, animation, and more! Week Two was the visual arts opening reception highlighted by our APAture Focus Awards ceremony and the unveiling of new works by 15 local APA visual artists including Re-imagining Idols, a large scale mixed media installation that explored ancestral threads and shared lineage by our feature artist, Malaya Tuyay. We also held our Book Arts showcase at the San Francisco Public Library as our guests took a stroll through our always popular artist’s alley and attended panels by our featured artist, Jess Wu-O, and a panel on incarceration in refugee communities hosted by APAture 2015 featured artist, Thi Bui. Week Three led off with the Ignite Youth Open Mic, hosted by YOHANA, where local youth took their turn on the mic to share songs, poems, performances, and more! The next day featured artist, Janice Sapigao, headlined a stellar line-up of writers at the Literary Showcase, and we had a full house at Z Space for our Film Showcase showcasing ten local filmmakers including featured artist, Jody Stillwater. Week Four of APAture we closed out the festival with the community coming out strong to pack the legendary Hotel Utah for the music showcase headlined by Sikh rapper, Seti X.

APAture 2018 would not have been possible without the time and energy of our 15 member General Planning Committee (GPC), 14 festival co-presenters, media and fiscal sponsors, outstanding volunteers, and over 1000 attendees. To the familiar faces who showed up, thank you for your continued support. To the large wave of new faces who attended APAture for the first time, welcome to our community.

But the increase of new attendees wasn’t the only generated success we saw. We met our Indiegogo Campaign goal of $3000 as well as surpassed a goal of $500 during our flash fundraiser at Opening Reception! There was also a significant increase in online and network coverage as well as visitor engagement.

APAture was featured in local news outlets such as SF Chronicle, SF Examiner, and Thrillist. A handful of our artists were interviewed through the weekly radio show, APEX Express. Jody Stillwater and Cloud Like Steps represented on NBC Bay Area’s Asian Pacific America with Robert Handa. We also partnered with Bay Area Buzz for a APAture festival pass giveaway that garnered an exponential amount of attention.

Our sincerest thanks to Paloma Concordia, Pia Cortez, and Selena Navarro of PapaLoDown Agency for making this happen!

The end of the season always surmounts to a bittersweet feeling, however, we are looking forward to APAture 2019. To get involved as a GPC member, participating artist, or volunteer, be on the lookout for announcements early next year. Until then, light and gratitude to everyone involved for a notable season!

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