activist imagination. & irrelevant side notes.

in what could be considered a response to (or therapy for dealing with) the myth/existence of the apathetic asian american*, the venerable Kearny Street Workshop (an asian pacific american arts nonprofit based in san francisco) is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, and one of its 35th anniversary programs, Activist Imagination, kicks off tonight at the Manilatown Center International Hotel in San Francisco’s chinatown. Wah! how exciting.

as an arts organization, KSW is rooted in activism, and the Activist Imagination program is recognizing that history while also inviting a group of visual artists, as well as activists and other community members, to consider the past and present of activism, and imagine (hence the imagination part of the program’s title….) forms of activism that might hold relevance and be effective in the future. the full AI program runs tonight through may 2008, and includes a series of discussions as well as a visual arts exhibition at KSW’s space180 in SF’s mission district. Tonight’s event is a discussion focusing on the last three and a half decades of activism–quite a broad area, but it’s an impressive line up of panelists–nancy hom, oscar penaranda, min paek, and alison satake–so i think they will tackle the subject matter admirably, with enthusiasm & precision. The event is free, as are all the AI events, and the full description is here; information on the full AI program is here.

Also, in true APA spirit, they’ve started a blog about the program. Viva the APA bloggers. and APA activists.

*asterisked note to my own post–when you google “apathetic asian,” what should come up first? a february 2007 post from 8asians‘ own.

**mystery double-asterisk not referencing any particular point in my post: have ‘a-p-a’ ALways been the first three letters of the word ‘apathetic’? why have i not noticed this before? now i can go around saying “[insert name of asian-american-person-to-be-insulted here] puts the APA in apathetic.” we ALL can.

anyway, that was an irrelevant side note. yay irrelevant side notes.