For thousands of
years, rivers -
both East and
West - have been
used as a source
of food and
drinking, for
energy, and for
navigation. Culturally
and politically,
rivers have also
been used to
delineate the
boundaries of
nations,
regions, and
communities. New
York City's East
River, for
instance, is a
"navigation"
passage way for
the city's
natives,
immigrants, and
refugees alike.
Other rivers,
both East and
West, be it the
Yangtze, Tigris,
Thames, Los
Angeles, or the
Mekong, and
their
tributaries,
have both linked
and demarcated
cultures,
countries, and
politics.
Curated by
Russell C.
Leong, AAARI's
CUNY Thomas Tam
Scholar at
Hunter College;
and Yibing
Huang, Professor
of Modern
Chinese
Literature at
Connecticut
College, Leong
and Huang hope
that this
program will
lead to more
bilingual and
bicultural
dialogue.
Program
Images of
Exclusion and
Inclusion
Zhang Dali
in
Conversation
with
Curators
Yibing Huang
and David
Rong
(Bilingual
Program)
*Chinese
artist Zhang
Dali's work
focuses upon
the constant
revision,
erasure and
exclusion of
certain
moments and
figures in
modern
history,
particularly,
late
20th-Century
Chinese
history. By
exposing the
man-made
blank or
absence
beneath
various
official
news and
photographical
documents,
Zhang shows
that there
is always a
"second
history"
that needs
to be dug
out and
restored
against
collective
amnesia and
silence.
Corky Lee in
Conversation
with Prof.
Peter Kwong
*Chinese
American
artistCorky
Lee selects
images from
his 250,000
images of
Asian
America.
Lee has for
40 years
sought to
"include"
what has
been
neglected by
the mass
media: the
expression,
politics and
culture
"inside"
communities
rather than
from the
outside,
viewing his
subjects as
the
determining
"subjects"
rather than
as the
"objects" of
history.
Turning a
stereotype
on its head,
Corky refers
to his work
and
forthcoming
book as
"what's not
on the
menu"-in
other words,
both as what
is absent
and what is
authentic
and cannot
be located
in the
tourists'
guidebook.
Into East
River(s): An
Asian American
Poetry Reading
To Recognize
All those
Who Enter
America
On June 6,
1993, at
around 2AM,
the Golden
Venture - a
ship bearing
286
immigrants
from China
(mostly from
the province
of Fujian)
along with
13 crew
members -
ran aground
on Rockaway
Beach in
Queens, New
York after a
mutiny by
the
smugglers.
The ship had
set sail
from
Thailand,
stopped in
Kenya and
circled the
Cape of Good
Hope en
route.
Speakers
include:
-
Meena
Alexander
(CUNY
Graduate
Center &
Hunter
College/CUNY)
-
Ken Chen
(Asian
American
Writers'
Workshop)
-
Jennifer
Hayashida
(Hunter
College/CUNY)
-
Andrew Hsiao
-
Lisa Chen
-
Audrea Lim
-
Mai Mang
-
Russell C.
Leong (UCLA
& CUNY
Thomas Tam
Visiting
Professor)
-
Huang Xiang
-
Jiayan Mi
-
Zhang Zhen
Literary
Affiliate:
Asian American
Writers'
Workshop
