Asian American Leadership
Forum for Youth
ZOOM LINKS.
1:00-2:00
Panel.
2:15-3:15
Workshops - Track 1.
Biopower, mediascapes and the politics of fear in the age of COVID-19 (Noël Um)
This workshop will begin with a presentation that outlines existing anthropological theory on statehood and governmentality in order to interrogate the ways in which Asian bodies are being (and have historically been) Otherized as a means of justifying their control. We will examine the pathologization of Asian immigrants through historic examples and contemporary mediascapes. Students will analyze several case studies of COVID-19 mediascapes as a means of better understanding the relationship between statehood and the citizen-body.
https://huntercollege.zoom.us/j/99130965511
The World in Words: Writing as Activism & Revelation (Purvi Shah)
How do you express longings for change and for discovery? How do you make sense of the world and yourself? I came to writing as a way of addressing immigration, inequity, and homelands. In this session, I’ll share some of my poetry from Terrain Tracks and Miracle Marks and lead a generative writing activity. We’ll share out some of our writing and generate a collective poem – mobilizing our words into change and community revelation.
https://huntercollege.zoom.us/j/94903713135
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From Immigration Exclusion to Police Raids and Imprisonment: White Rescues of Asian Women in American History (Kai Zhang)
In 1875, Chinese women were barred from entering the United States on the premise that they were all likely to be prostitutes. The Page Act prevented Chinese women and "coolies" from entering the country because of the "slavish nature" of the Chinese, was followed by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first immigration code in the U.S. to outlaw a group of people based on nationality. Today, racial targeting of Asian sex workers in police raids, continue to discriminate against Asian women, imprisoning them while falsely alleging to protect them. American fetishization of Asian sexuality, as seen in the Hollywood depictions of Anna May Wong, portrayed as either a villainess or a sex slave -- justifies the reduction of all Asian women throughout American history to objects for white desire and white heroism. This workshop will talk about the fetishization (and reduction) of Asian sexuality, both female and male, as a national instrument of silence, exclusion and segregation, for the promotion of white supremacy.
3:30-4:30
Workshops - Track 2.
From Kinship to Liberation: Movement Organizing Across Solidarity Lines (YELLOWJACKETS COLLECTIVE)
As a group of self-identified yellow queer femmes collaborating towards radical futures, we will discuss how to move from an affinity model of organizing to building towards the liberation of all people. This workshop is invested in helping you navigate and support a history of black liberation and anti-capitalist struggles.
https://huntercollege.zoom.us/j/97351890233
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Future Tense (K-Ming Chang)
'Future Tense' is a writing workshop on harnessing your voice to explore identity and tell personal and collective stories. We will read poems by Safia Elhillo, Franny Choi, and Fatimah Asghar in order to imagine new possibilities of belonging and existing. This workshop will provide a space to confront anti-Blackness, practice writing as a form of self expression and as an agent of social change, and create a generative and safe place to exercise our voices.
4:30-5:00
Closing and Debrief.