Monday, February 11, 2008

6:00 pm Registration/6:30 pm Program

Chinese Culture Center

750 Kearny Street, Third Floor, San Francisco, CA

This program brings together a range of artists of mixed Asian descent -- a musician, a visual artist, a filmmaker and a writer -- in a panel discussion moderated by mixed Asian scholar Dr. Wei Ming Dariotis.

Is there a mixed Asian community? What kinds of experiences define it? How do mixed Asian artists relate to loaded labels like Hapa, Eurasian, Afroasian, Amerasian, etc.? How is art used to express mixed Asian identity? How does artistic expression help to create a mixed Asian community? Though the panel is diverse in terms of artistic disciplines and ethnic identities, the discussion will focus on the common experiences and creative interpretations that help hold the mixed Asian community together.

Dr. Wei Ming Dariotis is an Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies, with an emphasis on Asians of Mixed Heritage and Asian Pacific American Literature, Arts, and Culture at San Francisco State University.

Dr. Anthony Brown is a percussionist, composer, and ethnomusicologist. Dr. Brown received his Ph.D. in music from U.C. Berkeley, where his research focused on the musics of his mixed heritage. Widely known for his use of Asian musical instruments in jazz, he founded the critically acclaimed Anthony Brown's Asian American Orchestra in 1998.

Lori Kay is a sculptor and mixed media artist who has held exhibitions and received public commissions in various cities including San Francisco. Her work has been widely exhibited on the local, national and international levels.

Stuart Gaffney has been making films and videos about queer and Eurasian identity since 1994. His works have screened at APAture, the Guggenheim Museum, the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, as well as on KQED Television.

Dr. Persis Karim is a Bay Area native who writes about the Iranian diaspora. Her poetry has been published in numerous literary journals, and she is the author of numerous articles on Iranian American literature. Dr. Karim is currently an associate professor of English and Comparative Literature at San Jose University.