“THE JINGWEI BIRD” with Del Sol Quartetand The Last Hoisan Poets weaves music by Asian-American composers with powerful bilingual poetry by Genny Limand Nellie Wong, using storytelling and mythology to deepen our understanding and awareness of the nature around us.
TheCommunity Innovation Lab, a tech, sports and recreational programming hub for the Bayview-Hunters Point community, opened in October 2023. The Lab is an expansion of the park’s Tech Hub, which has offered free Wi-Fi access, laptop and tablet lending and technical support, and a variety of community services to neighborhood residents since 2021. https://ibwaterfrontparks.com/programs
The India Basin Waterfront Park project is guided by an Equitable Development Plan (EDP), a first for San Francisco. It ensures that the waterfront park will benefit current Bayview-Hunters Point (BVHP) residents while preserving the culture and identity of the historic neighborhood. It provides a blueprint for delivering a park designed by and for the community while improving economic opportunity and environmental health for its residents.
CATS has curated 6 highly-anticipated feature films, documentaries and shorts for the in-person screenings at the Sunnyvale AMC Dine-In Theatre on October 20-22, along with 70+ films to view online (on-demand from October 20-29) — a wide variety of films that will make you laugh, cry, and even learn more about AAPI cultures.
Announcing the premiere screening of “Drawn from Life: The Creative Legacy of Flo Oy Wong” at SVAPFF 2023!
“Drawn from Life: The Creative Legacy of Flo Oy Wong” is our first professionally produced film, and what an amazing journey it has been! We are grateful for the invaluable support provided by CATS and SVAPFF to create this special gift in celebration of Flo Oy Wong’s 85th birthday. We are so excited to see our short film on the big screen!
As the sixth daughter of Chinese immigrants living in Oakland’s Chinatown in the 1940s-1960s, FLO OY WONG was determined to break free of a life of pre-destined invisibility. She began her art career at the age of forty. Her poetry career started at seventy-five. Now eighty-five, her life comes full circle when The Community Rejuvenation Project proposes to paint a mural at 723 Webster, the former site of her family’s restaurant, The Great China. Flo’s beginnings in Oakland’s Chinatown come to life once more— this time through the eyes of another artist.
We’d like to thank the many people whose contributions helped to bring this short film to light.
Thanks to generous support from Contemporary Asian Theatre Scene, AARP, and Friends of CATS, we have been able to document Flo’s involvement in the 723 Webster Mural Project. We are so excited to share Drawn from Life: The Creative Legacy of Flo Oy Wong with audiences at SVAPFF 2023 and beyond. Whether you made a donation to CATS, bought a ticket to the October 22 screening, or told a friend about the film, we are grateful for your support.
Thank you to William Wong and Nellie Wong, for sharing their insights on their sister’s “fighting spirit” and to Diana Argabrite, Director of the Euphrat Museum of Art for shining a light on Flo’s artistic legacy. We are most grateful to Ed Wong for his dedicated efforts to record and preserve Flo’s artwork over the years. What a truly wonderful moment it was when Ed found the set of archival slides documenting Flo’s Oakland Chinatown drawings, created between 1938 – 1991.
A mural-sized thank you to the 723 Webster Mural Project team: Muralist Desi Mundo of the Community Rejuvenation Project, Roy Chan, Director of the Oakland Chinatown Oral History Project, Denise Chinn of 723 Webster Street and Jack Chen, owner of Imperial Soup in Oakland’s Chinatown. Their collaborative initiative on behalf of Oakland Chinatown is so inspiring! Please support Oakland Chinatown’s Legacy Businesses!
A deep bow of respect for the many artists who supported this project by generously sharing their creative contributions and light – Thanks to multimedia journalist Juan Carlos Guerrero; filmmaker/director Allie Light; musicians Kenneth Nash, Del Sol Quartet, and Marcus Shelby, who celebrated Flo’s 75th birthday with Gwah Gai: Crossing the Street in 2013 and crosses the street once again with his musical contribution in 2023!
A giant tip of the cap to our Director of Photography and Editor Chris Wong for his keen eye and steady camera! A big hug of forever gratitude to Leianne Wong Lamb for her encouragement and guidance throughout the entire film-making process.
We hope that this film conveys our collective love and respect for our dear friend Flo Oy Wong, who continues to have the courage to follow her creative impulses and the tenacity to realize her dreams. Through her art and poetry, Flo attends to the beauty in the every day; she finds dignity in the details. How lovely to behold Oakland Chinatown – past, present and future – through her eyes.
THE JINGWEI BIRD explores the complexity of climate change and our relationship to the planet through multi-disciplinary performances with Del Sol Quartetand The Last Hoisan Poets.
“THE JINGWEI BIRD” weaves brand-new music by Asian-American composers with powerful bilingual poetry, using storytelling and mythology to deepen our understanding and awareness of the nature around us.
“THE JINGWEI BIRD” is a mythical creature that appears in the Shan-hai jing, The Classic of Mountains and Seas, a Chinese classic text (third century BC to second century AD) and compilation of mythic geography and beasts. The story of the Jingwei Bird involves Nüwa, a girl who is drowned and transformed into a bird, determined to fill up the sea one pebble at a time to protect others from perishing as she did. The story captures the importance of perseverance, even against seemingly impossible odds, and reminds us of our vital connection to the planet.
THE JINGWEI BIRD features poetry written and performed by Genny Lim & Nellie Wong of The Last Hoisan Poets.
Poets Nellie Wong, Genny Lim & Rumi. May 2022. Photo by Mark Shigenaga
Continuing the collaboration begun with The Angel Island Project, Chinese-American poets Genny Lim and Nellie Wongjoin the quartet to create this new program of music and poetry exploring themes of eco-futurism, climate change, and our relationship to the planet. By immersing audiences in the sound of the music, delicately woven together in conversation with the poetry, the artists acknowledge the importance of community storytelling and the sharing of cultural knowledge across generations.
THE JINGWEI BIRD music, by Asian-American composers who draw on their cultural heritage, will be curated and performed by the Del Sol Quartet.
Benjamin Kreith & Hyeyung Sol Yoon, violins; Charlton Lee, viola; Kathryn Bates, cello. Photo: AFW Productions.
Fascinated by the feedback loop between social change, technology, and artistic innovation, the San Francisco-based Del Sol Quartetis a leading force in 21st-century chamber music. They believe that live music can, and should, happen anywhere – whether introducing Ben Johnston’s microtonal Americana at the Library of Congress or in a canyon cave, taking Aeryn Santillan’s gun-violence memorial to the streets of the Mission District, or collaborating with Huang Ruo and the anonymous Chinese poets who carved their words into the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station. Since 1992, Del Sol has commissioned and premiered thousands of new works.
FREE public performance – SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 2023, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm; Seaplane Lagoon Promenade, 1801 Ferry Point, Alameda, CA
Presented in partnership with DOER Marine, a free outdoor performance by the Del Sol Quartet & The Last Hoisan Poets will be held at Seaplane Lagoon Promenade in Alameda on Saturday, August 19, 2023, from 1pm – 2pm.
Those attending the 8/19 Alameda performance were also invited to stop by the Deep Ocean Explorer Store, located at 650 W Tower Ave, Alameda, CA 94501, a short walk away from Seaplane Lagoon Promenade for a special pre-performance talk with artist Leon Sun and Liz Taylor of DOER Marine presented at 11:30am, with light refreshments to follow at Seaplane Lagoon Promenade picnic area #1, 12:30pm-1:00pm.
Based in Alameda, California, DOER Marine(Deep Ocean Exploration and Research) was founded in 1992 by Dr. Sylvia Earle as Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, a marine consulting firm. The company is now headed by her daughter, Liz Taylor along with subsea specialist Ian Griffith, who expanded the firm’s scope and capabilities to include ROV and submersible support services. DOER Marine committed to changing the way we think about oceans, and the creatures who call them home. Partnership with DOER Marine will support our project efforts to engage audiences in Alameda and San Francisco more deeply in thinking about their relationship with water, including our Bay and ocean.
The Jingwei Bird @ NEMS SF Chinatown PACE Center
FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 2023, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm; NEMS Chinatown PACE Center, San Francisco, CA
North East Medical Services(NEMS) will host a performance on Friday, August 18, 2023 at their Chinatown PACE Center (Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) as part of promoting well-being and community for the elderly. NEMS is one of the largest community health centers in the United States targeting the medically underserved population. Based in San Francisco, the non-profit community health center offers comprehensive health care services to a variety of patients, a majority of whom are uninsured or low income. NEMS offers linguistically competent and culturally sensitive health care services in many languages and dialects, including English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Toishan, Vietnamese, Burmese, Korean, Spanish, and Hindi.
Leon Sun is a San Francisco based printmaker, photographer, painter, and writer. His art came out of the anti-war and social movements of the 1960s and 70s. He had always wanted his art to be socially relevant. Up until the 1990s he worked as photographer and graphic designer for Left publications while holding down various “day jobs.”
He first learned screenprinting in 1979 at the Japantown Art and Media (JAM) Workshop in San Francisco. He has printed continuously up to the current period. His work was based mostly in the Asian American Movement, but he has also contributed to international solidarity actions.
Around 2000 he began to relocate his art from political activism to spiritual practice. He took a break from the visual arts and began to teach himself landscape art. He spent three years building a garden informed by Buddhism, Asian and indigenous cultures. This experience did much to formulate a new orientation for his art. In 2013 Sun set up his own print studio and began to produce art that expresses his love for nature and concern for the environment.
Leon Sun was born 1948 in Shanghai, China, migrated to Hong Kong in 1957 and moved to the United States in 1966. He lives with his wife Karen and their dog Rocky in San Francisco and works out of his home. His work has been shown nationally and around the San Francisco Bay Area.
Explore Terrastories: “JINGWEI’S JOURNEY”
Explore a world of sounds & stories gathered with The Jingwei Bird.
Explore Terrastories allows you to access the maps of communities who have chosen to make a selection of their stories public. We are grateful for Terrastories support of our collective exploration to discover and preserve the sounds & stories gathered on Jingwei’s Journey!
Terrastories are audiovisual recordings of place-based storytelling. This application enables local communities to locate and map their oral storytelling traditions about places of significant meaning or value to them.
Terrastories is entirely free and open-source, built with principles of offline-first and data sovereignty, and aligned with the following two UN Sustainable Development Goals:
These and other communities are nurturing Explore Terrastories as a new growing window to a diversity of place-based stories that they consider important to share and position in this shared map. As Rudo Kemper, founder of Terrastories explains,
“This is a way to visualize a different kind of traditional knowledge, which can be stories, poetry, and song. It is also about visibility and representation, with the ability to control what gets represented”.
We The Arts: Civic Engagement Through Artis an ArtsEd4All project taking place from June 17 – July 4, 2023, in celebration of Civic Season 2023.
From Juneteenth to the 4th of July, we invite you to participate in the third annual #CivicSeason through self-guided public art visits in San Francisco, as well as in-person and online events that invite civic engagement through the arts. We’re teaming up with hundreds of history museums and sites across the country through @HistoryMadeByUs, in partnership with the next generation shaping our democracy to launch a new tradition that makes room for all of our stories – and write the next chapter together.
FREE – Saturday, JUNE 17, 2 pm – 8 pm Healdsburg Plaza, Corner of Healdsburg Avenue and Matheson Street, Healdsburg CA.
Healdsburg Jazz Festival kicks off its 25th Anniversary Season with Juneteenth. Enjoy free music and arts & crafts workshops!
Healdsburg Jazz is proud to present a diverse range of music, art, culture and education in honor of this holiday, free to the public in the Healdsburg Plaza. Our Juneteenth performances celebrate the wide range of Black music and art including gospel, early blues, New Orleans jazz, funk, R&B, spoken word, and straight ahead modern swing.
FREE JUNETEENTH Celebration in the Healdsburg Plaza with the Charles McPherson Quintet featuring Terell Stafford, Randy Porter, Akira Tana, and Marcus Shelby, vocalist Martin Luther The Real McCoy, The Robin Hodge Williams Gospel Choir, MJ’s Brass Boppers, Healdsburg Jazz Poet Laureate Enid Pickett and KCSM’s Greg Bridges.
Educational Activities – Families and young people are invited to join ArtsEd4All in the plaza to learn more about Juneteenth and check out the exhibit celebrating 25 years of Healdsburg Jazz Festival. Fold a zine, make a flag, pinwheel, fan or decorate your own musical shaker at the art table. This year, the public is also invited to join teaching artist Amelie Anna Hinman for music workshops at 2:30 pm-3:00 pm and 4:30 pm-5:00 pm to play and learn about the origins of a variety of percussion instruments.
Imagining “TOMORROW” with DWeb Camp
The Internet Archiveis an American digital library with a mission to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge. DWeb is a global network of builders and dreamers working to create a better, decentralized web. The goal of DWeb Camp is to create a collaborative space for people to connect, learn, share, and have fun as we work towards building a better, decentralized web.
At camp, Del Sol Quartet and composer Erika Oba conducted an open workshop demonstrating the give-and-take process that goes into creating and performing a new musical composition. Erika’s composition, “Behold the Sea,” is inspired by a story of friendship between two artists, Bill Zacha & Japanese artist Toshi Yoshida which resulted in a sister city relationship between Mendocino, California (USA) and Miasa, Nagano (Japan). Continuing the tradition, Erika and the Del Sol Quartet are using music to highlight the importance of building friendships and networks of community in order to protect the water and environment to help build a better world.
Composer Erika Oba invited DWeb campers to make music using stones in the dry bed of the Navarro River.
This plaque, dedicated in a community ceremony held on July 4th, 1982 reads, “The citizens of the sister cities of Mendocino, California and Miasa, Japan dedicate this plaque to the peaceful pursuits of the peoples of the Pacific Basin and to the protection of its environment that all living things there-in may exist in perpetual harmony.”
FREE on ZOOM – Thursday, JUNE 22, 12-1 pm PT | 3-4 pm ET.
This year at DWeb Camp, we’re tuning into the Plastic Pollution Coalition’s global webinar, Plastic-Free Seas: Diving Into How Plastic Impacts Health, Climate, and Our Oceans, on Thursday, June 22, 12-1 pm PT | 3-4 pm ET. On June 22, we will dive deep into the challenges that plastic pollution poses to our oceans and our bodies, how polluted waters disrupt the “Blue Mind” mental health benefits we gain from access to healthy oceans and waterways, and how we may restore our planet as well as our own physical and mental well-being.
DWeb Camp is using imaginative live action role play to dream of a better internet.
Build new networks and find your flow in Nature.
FREE – Saturday, JUNE 24 (or anytime, anywhere, as you please)
Technologists at DWeb Camp are hosting a LARP Worldbuilding session, using play to imagine how the Internet of Tomorrow might be transformed for the better. A LARP is a a live-action role-playing game in which a group of people enacts a fictional scenario (such as a fantasy adventure) in real time typically under the guidance of a facilitator or organizer.
Here are some ways to play along and join in the DWeb Camp experiment.
UNPLUG
– Take time out from the Internet and spend time recharging with a walk in nature. – Reflect upon your relationship with technology. Make a list of the ways that technology has changed your your life – for better and for worse. – What might be different? Are there aspects about your relationship with the Internet that you would like to change? “Think Different” was a slogan created for a 1997 ad campaignfor Apple.
– Design yourDWeb Alter Ego (with or without technology!)
“A Place for Poetry” with The Last Hoisan Poets
Anytime, in-person or virtual, FREE exploration of San Francisco public art
Take a poetry tour of the public spaces at the de Young Museum in San Francisco with The Last Hoisan Poets.
Write a poem with The Last Hoisan Poets.
Poets Genny Lim, Nellie Wong, and Flo Oy Wong — trace their roots to China’s Hoisan villages. They conduct special poetry readings in English and Hoisan-wa (a.k.a. the Toisanese/Taishanese Chinese dialect), to pay homage to their mother language which is at risk of fading from collective memory.
A Place for Poetry is a collection of poems by The Last Hoisan Poets inspired by the de Young Museum’s art and architecture. “One Eye” is a community poem begun by The Last Hoisan Poets, inspired by the sculpture of Ruth Asawa. The Last Hoisan Poets welcome poet of all ages and abilities to write a cinquain of their own. Listen toAsawa’s Gift to San Francisco, an audio tour sharing stories from the Asawa family. Take an ASL Tour of the Asawa sculpture installation the de Young Museum docent Jim Brune.
“When you put a seed in the ground, it doesn’t stop growing after eight hours. It keeps going every minute that it’s in the earth. We, too, need to keep growing every moment of every day that we are on this earth.” — Ruth Asawa
The book Your Brain on Art by Ivy Ross and Susan Magsamen shares that “neuroarts” is the transdisciplinary study of how the arts and aesthetic experiences measurably change the body, brain, and behavior and how this knowledge is translated into specific practices that advance health and wellbeing. The Aesthetic Mindset Index is based on a research instrument called the Aesthetic Responsiveness Assessment or AReA,developed by Ed Vessel, cognitive neuroscientist and his colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt, Germany. The authors invite you to take the short survey, and then take it again in a month or two after you’ve had time to go out in the world and build your aesthetic mindset.
San Francisco is home to one of the largest and most diverse public art collections in the country. All city residents, workers and visitors have access to world-class art in everyday settings. Here are additional resources that will introduce you to some of the most engaging public art that San Francisco has to offer.
Join 400 cultural and civic institutions across the country for the third annual Civic Season, a new summer tradition for learning and action co-designed with Gen Z, the future inheritors of our democracy. Civic Seasonunites our oldest federal holiday with our newest, going beyond hot dogs and fireworks to invite meaningful reflection on our country’s past and our role in shaping its future.
The Last Hoisan Poets & Friends have been drawing inspiration from the de Young Museum, using poetry to reflect upon the sights and sounds of silence.
Read Poetry inspired by the de Young by the Last Hoisan Poets in the March 16, 2023 Stories article by the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco.
In conjunction with the March 25th celebration of World Poetry Day with The Last Hoisan Poets & Friends at the de Young, poets of all ages and abilities are invited to write a short poem inspired by the work of two American artists – sculptor Ruth Asawa (1926-2013) and poet Adelaide Crapsey (1878-1915).
We welcome your participation!
Celebrate Women’s History Month 💗
Poetry in Motion: Participate in the creation of a community poem.
In 2005, artist Ruth Asawa donated 15 sculptures to the deYoung museum.
Write a cinquain inspired by Ruth Asawa’s looped wire sculptures.
Poet Adelaide Crapsey(1878-1915) is credited with invention of a new poetic form: the American cinquain. Her poems share a similarity with the Japanese tanka, another five-line form, in their focuses on imagery and the natural world.
“… these poems grew—flowers of a battlefield of the spirit.”
— Verse, Adelaide Crapsey’s first book of poems which includes 28 cinquains, was published posthumously in 1915.
Use this form to write your own poem about Ruth Asawa’s art.
Line 1 has two syllables. ____________________________________________________________
Line 2 has four syllables. ____________________________________________________________
Line 3 has six syllables. ____________________________________________________________
Line 4 has eight syllables. ____________________________________________________________
Line 5 has two syllables. ____________________________________________________________
If you wish to share your cinquain, please email your contribution to andi@artsed4all.blog. We will loop these short poems together to create a collaborative community poem.
The Asian-Pacific Islander Cultural Center (APICC) proudly presents GENERATIONS OF POWER, a multi-disciplinary showcase featuring The Last Hoisan Poets & Del Sol Quartet (spoken word with live instrumentation), Autonomous Region (jazz fusion), First Voice (story theater), Asian American Dance Performances (contemporary dance), Leela Youth Dance Company (classical North Indian dance), and tashi tamate weiss (movement/ritual).
This FREE, ALL-AGES, OUTDOOR event is part of the 25th annual United States of Asian America Festival (USAAF): Generations of Power. We are proud to host this event at the historic Japantown Peace Plaza as a visual symbol of community resilience and resistance during this period of increased Anti-Asian sentiment.
ANGEL ISLAND IN SIGHT 2021is a visual storytelling project focused on Angel Island — a collective portrait of Angel Island drawn from a multitude of views — near and far, past and present. Del Sol Performing Arts Organization’s ANGEL ISLAND INSIGHTexplores the history of the Angel Island Immigration Station by offering a suite of virtual and in-person programs that examines the musicality of the disappearing Hoisan-wa dialect by The Last Hoisan Poets and The Del Sol Quartet. public engagement with Del Sol Quartet & Huang Ruo’s Angel Island – Oratorio for Voices and Strings.
MEGAN and CHRIS WONG’s grandfathers were held in the Angel Island Immigration Station barracks. In 1929, Edmund Fong (Gung Gung) arrived in the belly of his mother Wun Shee Fong, who was five months pregnant. Gew Thet Wong (Ye Ye) arrived on Angel Island in 1931.
In 2021, the siblings offer their behind-the-scenes portrait of Beloved Community for Angel Island Insight.
Angel Island Insight. Directed and Edited by Chris Wong. 2021.
This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit http://www.calhum.org
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this website do not necessarily represent those of California Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
ANGEL ISLAND: IN SIGHT 2021 at the Angel Island Immigration Station is made possible with support from North East Medical Services (NEMS). https://www.nems.org/
ANGEL ISLAND IN SIGHT 2021is a visual storytelling project focused on Angel Island — a collective portrait of Angel Island drawn from a multitude of views — near and far, past and present. Del Sol Performing Arts Organization’s ANGEL ISLAND INSIGHTexplores the history of the Angel Island Immigration Station by offering a suite of virtual and in-person programs that examines the musicality of the disappearing Hoisan-wa dialect by The Last Hoisan Poets and The Del Sol Quartet. public engagement with Del Sol Quartet & Huang Ruo’s Angel Island – Oratorio for Voices and Strings.
Photo: Lenore Chinn. Angel Island Immigration Station Dedication Ceremony for The Immigrant Heritage Wall. July 23, 2011. Photo: Lenore Chinn. Angel Island Immigration Station Dedication Ceremony for The Immigrant Heritage Wall. July 23, 2011.
“Quite a few years ago I was with Flo Oy Wong and family during a 2000 opening of her art exhibit, made in usa: Angel Island Shhh at the Angel Island Immigration Station.
I couldn’t find any image files from that far back. But today I came across a set I had taken years later on the occasion of a dedication there on July 23, 2011. Again, I was there with Flo and family and quite a few notables from our Chinese American community, like Buck Gee, Board President of AIISF, musician Frances Wong and photographer Frank Jang. Historian Judy Yung, who died last month, was in attendance.”
I am a San Francisco based artist who focuses on the depiction of a wide spectrum of people in all their diversity and color.
Portraiture is at the core of my visual art practice whether it is painting or photography – both are employed in my creative process.
A moment in time spontaneously captured by my digital bridge camera, transmitted to acrylic on canvas, conveyed in modern archival print or Shared on Facebook, these images document everyday life.
As a body of work they are visual narratives that constitute an art history largely hidden from the public’s perception of society and our particular collective experience.
My focus as a photographer is capturing images and documenting cultural landscapes from a painter’s point of view.
This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit http://www.calhum.org
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this website do not necessarily represent those of California Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
ANGEL ISLAND: IN SIGHT 2021 at the Angel Island Immigration Station is made possible with support from North East Medical Services (NEMS). https://www.nems.org/
ANGEL ISLAND IN SIGHT 2021is a visual storytelling project focused on Angel Island — a collective portrait of Angel Island drawn from a multitude of views — near and far, past and present. Del Sol Performing Arts Organization’s ANGEL ISLAND INSIGHTexplores the history of the Angel Island Immigration Station by offering a suite of virtual and in-person programs that examines the musicality of the disappearing Hoisan-wa dialect by The Last Hoisan Poets and The Del Sol Quartet. public engagement with Del Sol Quartet & Huang Ruo’s Angel Island – Oratorio for Voices and Strings.
“While there are inscriptions by immigrants from many different nations that can still be found on the walls of the detention barracks, it’s the 200+ poems left behind by Chinese detainees that helped to save the site’s buildings from being torn down and that secured the site’s status as both a California Historic Landmark and a National Historic Landmark. These poems give us a glimpse into the emotions and experiences of immigrants who were held in detention then.”
Edward Tepporn, Executive Director, Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation
Photo: Edward Tepporn. Angel Island Chinese Monument. July 20, 2019.
ANGEL ISLAND IMMIGRATION STATION FOUNDATION (AIISF) raises awareness of the experience of Immigration into America through the Pacific. AIISF collects and preserves the rich stories and personal journeys of thousands of immigrants and shares them with visitors and everyone living in America through education initiatives and public programs. The Angel Island Immigration Station reminds us of the complicated history of immigration in America. It serves as a symbol of our willingness to learn from our past to ensure that our nation keeps its promise of liberty and freedom.
Photo: Russell Nauman. Return to Angel Island – Calvin Ong (Ong Doon). June 26, 2021.
In 1937, ten-year-old Calvin Ong (Ong Doon) was detained on Angel Island by immigration officials on his way into the country. Eighty-four years later—on June 26, 2021—Calvin returned to the U.S. Immigration Station with his family. He briefly spoke about his time as a detainee, and a hospital patient, on Angel Island.
In this photo, Calvin was looking out the window of the former immigration hospital when he noticed the hillside below. He could remember sitting on the hill and watching the ferry arrive with new immigrants each day. Later, we went outside so Calvin could look out over the water with his children and grandchildren.
— Russell Nauman, Operations Manager, Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation
THE DEL SOL QUARTET revels in the risk of constantly reimagining the string quartet, building community around art, artistic process, our environment and our culture. Supported by the nonprofit Del Sol Performing Arts Organization (DSPAO), the Del Sol Quartet shares living music with an ever-growing community of adventurous listeners.
Committed to advancing art’s place in society and providing access to a diverse range of audience, the Quartet focuses on commissioning and performing new works, forming unusual and provocative collaborations, and sharing its work globally through recording and education projects.
THE ANGEL ISLAND ORATORIO PROJECT fits squarely into Del Sol’s tradition of adventurous collaborations between artists and community organizations to create new work with a lasting place in the repertoire and to broaden audiences. These goals are integrally connected to shared experiences and socially-relevant themes. The oratorio provides a new way of examining immigration and the clash between governmental policies and national ideals — relevant both to our history and our current political climate. The work also reflects our individual values of what it means to be American, the stories of how we got here, and the history of our city and state.
Photo: Kathryn Bates, View on Island. 2021.
Photo: Edward Tepporn. Angel Island Immigration Station Barracks. July 20, 2019.Photo: Kathryn Bates. View of Island. March 13, 2021.Photo: Kathryn Bates. View from Island. March 13, 2021.Photo: Edward Tepporn. Hope. Angel Island. June 16, 2019.
This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit http://www.calhum.org
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this website do not necessarily represent those of California Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
ANGEL ISLAND: IN SIGHT 2021 at the Angel Island Immigration Station is made possible with support from North East Medical Services (NEMS). https://www.nems.org/
Del Sol Performing Arts Organization’s ANGEL ISLAND INSIGHT explores the history of the Angel Island Immigration Station by offering a suite of virtual and in-person programs examining the musicality of the disappearing Hoisan-wa dialect by The Last Hoisan Poets and Del Sol Quartet.
These presentations expand public engagement with composer Huang Ruo’s Angel Island – Oratoriofor Voices and Strings. World premiere performance with Del Sol Quartet and Volti, directed by Robert Geary on October 22 2021, 8pm at the Presidio Theatre in San Francisco, with performances on Angel Island on Saturday, October 23, 2021, pending safety restrictions.
“As an Asian American artist, this opportunity to showcase a history that has both a direct connection to my ethnicity as well as a global connection is incredibly empowering.”
– Charlton Lee, Del Sol’s founder & Artistic Director
In a journey that flows from anger and sorrow, using gratitude as a way to find joy, this Zoom program weaves together their poetry with performances by the Del Sol Quartet, music by Asian-American composers Kui Dong, Theresa Wong, Jungyoon Wie, Huang Ruo, and a collaborative composition performed by The Last Hoisan Poets with the Del Sol Quartet. Artist Q&A moderated by Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation’s executive director Edward Tepporn.
Online program held via Zoom on Saturday, May 22, 2021, 2pm.
Three descendants of Angel Island immigrants, The Last Hoisan Poets – Genny Lim, Flo Oy Wong and Nellie Wong – use poetry to speak their individual truths and creatively reclaim the Hoisan-wa language and culture, with performances by the Del Sol Quartet, music by Asian-American composers.
Recording of 5/22/21 APIIC USAAF presents: ANGEL ISLAND INSIGHT with The Last Hoisan Poets and Del Sol Quartet
APICC USAAF 2021 Digital Program
Haw Meong Suey (Good Life’s Water)
This collaborative poem written by poets Nellie Wong, Flo Oy Wong, and Genny Lim, was performed with accompaniment by the Del Sol Quartet on Saturday May 22, 2021 for the United States of Asian America Festival 2021, presented by the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center. “Haw meong suey” is a Hoisan-wa phrase that translates as “good life’s water.” A person who has “haw meong suey” is a vessel of blessings.
This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit www.calhum.org
ArtsEd4All 