Understudy: Discovering Asian-American Radicals Through Poetry

This is a free event, open to all BIPOC folks, but RSVP via this Eventbrite is required as space is limited.

Understudy is a generative poetry workshop and archival project centering the narratives of five radical Asian American artists and thinkers from and with roots in the Bay Area—Merle Woo, Oscar Peñaranda, Haridas Chaudhuri, Janice Mirikitani, and Jessica Hagedorn.

This event is an invitation for community members to engage with the archives and write in conversation with our shared histories of belonging, otherness, oppression, mutual aid, and identity-making through the arts. The mission of this workshop is to foster an anti-imperialist Asian American gathering space and dialogue, and to inspire active forms of community solidarity through writing. Follow the archive @understudysf on Instagram for updates on the project and for more on the organizing artists.

In addition to the generative writing workshop, the artists will also distribute a zine with original pieces generated throughout their archival research process, crafted to serve as a keepsake and educational resource for the participants’ continued exploration of the archives. Understudy seeks to bridge the past with the present political moment through artistic dialogue and reflection on themes of belonging, resistance, and solidarity.

Understudy is part of the United States of Asian America Festival (USAAF) 2024, and is curated by five-emerging Asian American artists—Kristin-Faith Avenis, Angel Bista, Celadon Loo, Ryan Nakano and Percy Schumacher.

About the Artists:

Kristin-Faith Cohitmingao Avenis is an immigrant Filipina-American poet and essayist, living on unceded Ramaytush Ohlone land (San Francisco, CA). Her work centers around the fragmentation of time and the performance of family in diasporic communities. She approaches her writing through multidisciplinary play, engaging with food, dance, and visual arts. 

Angel Bista is a queer, Lhotsampa refugee poet residing on unceded Ramaytush Ohlone land. Her work explores mythmaking as it pertains to ancestral memory, and the liminal spaces inhabited by those who live in multiple languages and cultures. You can find her work at Tiny Seed Literary Journal, Irshaad Poetry, and forthcoming in The Heritage Journal. 

Celadon Loo is a Taiwanese-American poet living and creating on unceded Ohlone land. In all they do, Celadon seeks to create art that celebrates queerness and its intersection between art and the environment. Their art practice is multidisciplinary, utilizing dance, writing, photography, and videography to explore themes of sensuality, nature, and love. 

Ryan Nakano is an Okinawan/Japanese American poet, journalist and aspiring birder currently living in Huchiun, on the unceded lands of the Lisjan Ohlone (Oakland, CA) with his wonderful partner and cat. His poems have been published in Riksha Magazine as well as Voicemail Poems. When he has time, he contributes to the Nichi Bei Weekly as a freelance writer. His debut chapbook I Am Minor came out in February 2023 by Nomadic Press and will continue on through Black Lawrence Press. 

Percy (Miki) Schumacher is a queer Filipino American writer who spends their time editing webcomics and writing poetry. They have worked as a junior editor for F(r)iction magazine and an intern for Graywolf Press. You can find their work in The Offing, Sinister Wisdom, The Tower, and more.