Happening @ Michigan https://events.umich.edu/list/rss RSS Feed for Happening @ Michigan Events at the University of Michigan. Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2022: Opening Ceremony (March 14, 2022 5:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/93297 93297-21702260@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, March 14, 2022 5:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Multi Ethnic Student Affairs - MESA

This year's AA&PI Heritage Month theme is: "Are You Listening? Oral Histories and Storytelling from the AA&PI Communities." To kick off our month-long series of events, we will be joined by keynote speaker Dr. Sy Stokes, a scholar whose work is focused on addressing campus racial climate, equity, and student activism. He was a 2020 NCID Postdoctoral Fellow and serves as a lecturer at the University of Michigan. The Opening Ceremony will consist of a keynote speech from Dr. Stokes followed by an audience Q & A session. Register via Sessions today!

https://sessions.studentlife.umich.edu/track/event/session/54381

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Ceremony / Service Thu, 10 Mar 2022 20:59:03 -0500 2022-03-14T17:00:00-04:00 2022-03-14T18:30:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Multi Ethnic Student Affairs - MESA Ceremony / Service AA&PI Heritage Month 2022 logo in bottom right corner (drawn cassette tape with “AA&PI HM,” “‘22” and a star sticker). MESA logos in bottom left corner (block yellow M with "Student Life Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs" next to white "MESA 50"). The background is light pink with two shapes on the top left corner. On the left side reads, "Join us! AA&PI Heritage Month 2022 Opening Ceremony w/ Dr. Sy Stokes. March 14th, 5-6:30 PM, virtual. To kick off our month-long series of events, we will be joined by keynote speaker Dr. Sy Stokes, a scholar focused on addressing campus racial climate, equity, and student activism in his work."
Bridging 1982 to 2022 (March 16, 2022 1:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/93002 93002-21698989@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, March 16, 2022 1:00pm
Location: Haven Hall
Organized By: Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies

"Bridging 1982 to 2022" features an intergenerational panel of Asian American activists, including those who were instrumental on campus and local organizing efforts after the murder of Vincent Chin in 1982 and young Asian American activists who have led efforts to combat racism on campus today. The conversation will facilitate a space for discussion to address the interconnections between the murder of Vincent Chin and the recent incidents of anti-Asian violence in Atlanta, Indianapolis, and elsewhere.
The panel will be moderated by PBS Newshour Community Correspondent Frances Kai-Hwa Wang.

The event is hybrid.
The panel will take place in 3512 Haven Hall at 1-2:30pm.
In addition, participants who would like to view the panel online, must register at https://umich.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcscOqhrjwvH9wYDLUr7yu0sbh91VvE8eN7

In addition to the afternoon panel, the Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month Committee has organized an evening discussion from 7-8pm (Angell Hall, G115).
Please join for a student-driven community forum space to further discuss the themes and thoughts that these events bring up. Registration Required (see AA&PI Heritage Month website for further details: https://mesa.umich.edu/article/aa.pi)

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Lecture / Discussion Fri, 04 Mar 2022 11:07:39 -0500 2022-03-16T13:00:00-04:00 2022-03-16T14:30:00-04:00 Haven Hall Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies Lecture / Discussion Event Poster
March Togetherness: QTBIPOC Gathering (March 17, 2022 6:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/93018 93018-21699119@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, March 17, 2022 6:00pm
Location: Michigan Union
Organized By: Spectrum Center

Register: https://bit.ly/LGBTQ-UM-Events

The Togetherness: QTBIPOC Gatherings are a collaboration between MESA and the Spectrum Center focusing on centering the experiences of Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, Students of Color through sharing meals, discussions, and creating connections with people in the QTBIPOC community at UM and in the surrounding areas. This month's host will be Mark Chung Kwan Fan and is a part of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. As with all Togetherness Gatherings, this is a space and meant to allow those with a similar identity to find one another and connect over shared experiences, something we ask allies to consider before making the decision to register or attend.

Mark Chung Kwan Fan comes with a decade of higher education experience focused on student affairs and supporting diverse students. He currently serves as the director of student life at the U-M Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design. Born and raised in Mauritius, he refers to the State of Michigan as a second home since arriving as a first-year university student. Mark is a Taurus sun, world traveler, and Asian food lover. He’s been involved on various local and national boards of LGBTQ+, art-related, and professional associations.

Spectrum Center Event Accessibility Statement:
The Spectrum Center is dedicated to working towards offering equitable access to all of the events we organize. If you have an accessibility need you feel may not be automatically met at this event, there is space to report that in the registration, or you can fill out our Event Accessibility Form, found at http://bit.ly/SCaccess. You do not need to have a registered disability with the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) or identify as disabled to submit. Advance notice is necessary for some accommodations to be fully implemented, and we will always attempt to dismantle barriers as they are brought up to us. Any questions about accessibility at Spectrum Center events can be directed to spectrumcenter@umich.edu.

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Social / Informal Gathering Fri, 04 Mar 2022 17:23:42 -0500 2022-03-17T18:00:00-04:00 2022-03-17T19:30:00-04:00 Michigan Union Spectrum Center Social / Informal Gathering Event and host information as provided in event page text. In the lower left-hand corner is a picture of Mark, who is outdoors in a forested area wearing a blue jacket over a blue, yellow, and white plaid shirt. He is smiling at the camera. Additionally, the logo for AAPI Heritage Month 2022 is featured above his biography.
AA&PI HM: Introduction to Degrowth (March 23, 2022 6:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/93872 93872-21709206@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, March 23, 2022 6:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Multi Ethnic Student Affairs - MESA

Attend a teach-in with Erica Jung from DegrowNYC on March 23rd. Degrowth is a climate justice and economic movement that critiques the idea of infinite economic growth and instead provides alternative solutions to overconsumption and production. Erica Jung will be talking about how the theory and origins of degrowth, and also how global Asian communities are affected by the pressure of economic growth in conjunction with imperialism. There will also be time for questions and discussion on the origins and applications of degrowth.

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Livestream / Virtual Wed, 23 Mar 2022 14:50:44 -0400 2022-03-23T18:00:00-04:00 2022-03-23T19:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Multi Ethnic Student Affairs - MESA Livestream / Virtual The graphic includes a light green background. In wrapping text at the top reads "An Introduction to Degrowth" with a subheader reading "with Erica Jung from DegrowthNYC". The subheader follows along the edges of a circle portait of Erica Jung. At the bottom left is a text box including details of the event - date, time and location. "March 23rd, 7-8 PM EST Virtual".
AA&PI HM: Burmese Americans: Weaving a Liberated Life Through Coups, Narratives, & Organizing (March 24, 2022 6:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/93876 93876-21709214@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, March 24, 2022 6:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Multi Ethnic Student Affairs - MESA

"Burmese Americans: Weaving a liberated life through coups, narratives, & organizing” is a panel and conversation with Michigan-based organizers Dim Mang and Tha Par. This event will discuss the history of Burmese-Americans in Michigan, and related political organizing such as the founding of the Burma Center in Battle Creek, MI. This conversation will also center ethnic and religious minorities in Burma, and how these identities play into Burmese American organizing. We will end by asking how community members and activists can integrate the identities and histories of Burmese ethnic minorities in our efforts for collective liberation.

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Livestream / Virtual Wed, 23 Mar 2022 16:00:00 -0400 2022-03-24T18:00:00-04:00 2022-03-24T19:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Multi Ethnic Student Affairs - MESA Livestream / Virtual The graphic includes a light blue solid background. At the top in orange text it reads, "Burmese Americans." Below is the text, "Weaving a liberated life through coups, narratives, & organizing" followed by, "Join the Burma Center and AA&PI Heritage Month for a panel and conversation with Michigan-based organizers Tha Par & Dim Mang." Two photos of Par and Mang in circular frames are shown next to their respective names. The date, time, and location are listed at the bottom as "Thursday, March 24th from 6-7PM over Zoom."
NOBUKO MIYAMOTO (March 30, 2022 1:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/93972 93972-21712971@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, March 30, 2022 1:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies

The Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies Program in the Department of American Culture presents

NOBUKO MIYAMOTO
- dance and theater artist -
- Asian American Movement activist -
- songwriter and author of
Not Yo' Butterfly:
My Long Song of Relocation, Race, Love, and Revolution

in conversation with
Prof. Emily P. Lawsin
ASIANPAM/AMCULT 353/HISTORY 454: Asians in American Film and Television course
in commemoration of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month

REGISTER for Zoom Link: tinyurl.com/NobukoWebinar


ABOUT THE BOOK:
Not Yo' Butterfly
My Long Song of Relocation, Race, Love, and Revolution

By NOBUKO MIYAMOTO
(University of California Press, 2021)

www.ucpress.edu/9780520380653

A mold-breaking memoir of Asian American identity, political activism, community, and purpose.
Not Yo’ Butterfly is the intimate and unflinching life story of Nobuko Miyamoto—artist, activist, and mother. Beginning with the harrowing early years of her life as a Japanese American child navigating a fearful west coast during World War II, Miyamoto leads readers into the landscapes that defined the experiences of twentieth-century America and also foregrounds the struggles of people of color who reclaimed their histories, identities, and power through activism and art.
Miyamoto vividly describes her early life in the racialized atmosphere of Hollywood musicals and then her turn toward activism as an Asian American troubadour with the release of A Grain of Sand—considered to be the first Asian American folk album. Her narrative intersects with the stories of Yuri Kochiyama and Grace Lee Boggs, influential in both Asian and Black liberation movements. She tells how her experience of motherhood with an Afro-Asian son, as well as a marriage that intertwined Black and Japanese families and communities, placed her at the nexus of the 1992 Rodney King riots—and how she used art to create interracial solidarity and conciliation.
Through it all, Miyamoto has embraced her identity as an Asian American woman to create an antiracist body of work and a blueprint for empathy and praxis through community art. Her sometimes barbed, often provocative, and always steadfast story is now told.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Nobuko Miyamoto is a third-generation Japanese American songwriter, dance and theater artist, and activist, and is the Artistic Director of Great Leap. Her work has explored ways to reclaim and decolonize our minds, bodies, histories, and communities, using the arts to create social change and solidarity across cultural borders. Two of Nobuko’s albums are part of the Smithsonian Folkways catalog: A Grain of Sand, with Chris Iijima and Charlie Chin, produced by Paredon Records in 1973, and 120,000 Stories, released by Smithsonian Folkways in 2021.

ABOUT THE ALBUM:
120,000 Stories
Nobuko Miyamoto
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 2021.
https://folkways.si.edu/nobuko-miyamoto/120000-stories?mc_cid=e752c698a4&mc_eid=4d22403658

Nobuko Miyamoto is an icon of Asian American music and activism. Since the early 1970s, she has been exploring ways to reclaim and respirit our minds, bodies, histories, and communities, using the arts to create social change and forge solidarity. 120,000 Stories collects powerful new songs, reinterpretations of old ones, and recordings from across her career, including from the seminal 1973 album A Grain of Sand and the band Warriors of the Rainbow. These songs speak to past and present struggles—for self-determination, Black Lives, the environment. They chronicle difficult histories, they celebrate resilient traditions, and most of all, they endeavor to connect communities.
www.nobukomiyamoto.org

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Livestream / Virtual Fri, 25 Mar 2022 10:09:47 -0400 2022-03-30T13:00:00-04:00 2022-03-30T14:20:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies Livestream / Virtual Poster with a picture of the artist and information about the event.
Frances Kai-Hwa Wang's Reading (April 26, 2022 6:30pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/94790 94790-21768311@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, April 26, 2022 6:30pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies

Long time Ann Arbor writer and American Culture's Lecturer Frances Kai-Hwa Wang reads from her new book, You Cannot Resist Me When My Hair Is in Braids.
With many stories set on the streets and in the cafes of Ann Arbor, this is a mischievous and fierce collection of lyric essays and prose poems deftly navigating the space between cultures, punctuated by wise children, bossy aunties, unreliable suitors, and an uncertain political landscape that is Asian America. With artwork and stories behind the stories, we will discuss the challenges of writing in these political and pandemic times.

Downtown Library: 4th Floor Meeting Room

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Lecture / Discussion Fri, 22 Apr 2022 14:26:39 -0400 2022-04-26T18:30:00-04:00 2022-04-26T19:30:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies Lecture / Discussion Poster of the event
Screening of film "Who Killed Vincent Chin" and panel discussion (June 23, 2022 7:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/95707 95707-21790727@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, June 23, 2022 7:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies

In 1982, a 27-year-old Chinese American named Vincent Chin was beaten to death with a baseball bat by two auto workers who blamed the Japanese for the U.S. auto industry’s troubles. The men were fined $3,000 and never spent a day in jail. Such a light sentence for such a brutal killing brought Asian Americans together across ethnic lines to form multiethnic and multiracial alliances, to organize for civil rights, advocating for change.

As the fortieth anniversary of Chin’s death, this story that is so Michigan and so important to the Asian American community is still poorly known. However, in today’s political landscape which is increasingly racist, sexist, violent, and exacerbated by COVID19-inspired anti-Asian American sentiment—it is not enough to know about this one case of injustice, but to harness that outrage and use it for good today.

Join us for a special anniversary screening of the Oscar nominated 1987 documentary produced and directed by Christine Choy and Renee Tajima-Pena.

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SCHEDULE

7:00pm Welcome

7:15-8:45pm Screening

8:45-9:30pm Panel Discussion + Q&A

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TICKETS + DONATIONS

This event is free and open to the public. Registration and masks are encouraged. Seating is in the main theater and should allow for social distancing.

A $10 donation is recommended and will support:

A book anthology of Asian American activists and artists about how this case has inspired them and connects to contemporary issues. It will be published by Wayne State University Press with a foreword written by Asian American civil rights icon Helen Zia. By: Frances Kai-Hwa Wang;

as well as Stop AAPI Hate Organization The coalition (AAPI Equity Alliance (AAPI Equity), Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), and the Asian American Studies Department of San Francisco State University) tracks and responds to incidents of hate, violence, harassment, discrimination, shunning, and child bullying against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. Their mission is to advance equity, justice and power by dismantling systemic racism and building a multiracial movement to end anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) hate.

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PANEL DISCUSSION

Moderator:

Manan Desai is the author of The United States of India: Anticolonial Literature & Transnational Refraction (2020), published by Temple University Press as part of the Asian American History and Culture Series. His essays have been published in Comparative Literature, the Journal of Popular Culture, and the forthcoming volume of Asian American Literature in Transition. He has served on the Board of Directors for the South Asian American Digital Archive (saada.org). He is currently the director of the University of Michigan Program in Asian/Pacific Islander American (A/PIA) Studies in the Department of American Culture.

Panelist:

1. Ayesha Ghazi Edwin has dedicated her career to helping to mobilize and fight for the rights of the Asian American community. She previously served as the Executive Director of American Citizens for Justice, worked for APIAVote-Michigan, and currently serves as the Governor Whitmer appointed Chair of the Michigan Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission. Ayesha is an award-winning social justice activist, having previously worked in health equity, labor rights, for immigration reform and for voting rights. Ayesha’s family is of Indian descent, and she grew up in Ann Arbor after immigrating here from London at the age of 3. Currently Ayesha serves as the Deputy Director of Detroit Disability Power, is an award-winning lecturer at the University of Michigan School of Social Work, an appointed Ann Arbor Human Rights Commissioner, and a current candidate for Ann Arbor City Council, Ward 3.

2. Frances Kai-Hwa Wang is a poet, artist, essayist, and activist focused on issues of Asian America, race, justice, and the arts. Her writing has appeared at PBS NewsHour, NBCAsianAmerica, PRI GlobalNation, Cha Asian Literary Journal, Kartika Review, Drunken Boat. She teaches Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies at University of Michigan and creative writing at Washtenaw Community College. She was formerly Executive Director of American Citizens for Justice and Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce. She co-created a multimedia artwork for Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. She is a 2019 Knight Arts Challenge Detroit artist creating an anthology of essays and a digital arts archive about Vincent Chin. Her book of poetry, “You Cannot Resist Me When My Hair Is in Braids,” is just out at Wayne State University Press. Franceskaihwawang.com @fkwang

3. Chien-An Yuan is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, and educator based in Ann Arbor, MI. Yuan runs 1473, a record label specializing in improvisation, electronics, and collaboration. He is also a founding member of IS/LAND, a performance collaborative comprised of AAPI movers, artists, and collaborators. His work has been featured in The New Yorker, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, NewCity, Salon, ArtSlant, Huffington Post, and WNYC. Past performances and exhibitions include Detroit Institute of Arts, The Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Gene Siskel Film Center, Museum of Chinese in America NYC, Syrup Loft, Zhou B Arts Center, Asian American Cultural Center of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Hyde Park Art Center, and Gallery 312.

4. Dim Mang (they/she) is a Community Organizer with Rising Voices, an Asian American non-profit committed to building power with Asian Americans in Michigan. Dim was born in Mandalay, Burma to two Tedim Chin parents, and they immigrated to the US with their family in 2005. She was raised in a working-class family in Tulsa, Oklahoma and went to college at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, majoring in History and Political Science. Outside of her day job, Dim is an At-Large Vice President of APALA (Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance), and helps run a mutual aid network and fundraiser to aid anti-coup protesters in her home country, Burma. They are fluent in English and Tedim Chin, and hope to relearn Burmese. Dim currently lives with her partner and their two cats on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Potawatomi, Fox, and Peoria. They hope to one day help co-create a Burmese community center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where her immediate and extended family still live. They hope to organize for collective liberation for the rest of their life.

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And out in the lobby:

Kizuna Tree art installation (w/o dancers)

Kizuna Tree is an interactive installation/performance collaboration between Detroit Public Television, WDET, Rising Voices, and IS/LAND Asian American Arts Collaborative. Comprised of an Ikebana Tree designed by Celeste Shimoura Goedert of Rising Voices, sound recordings from the collaborative series ‘Kizuna Stories’ from DPTV and WDET by Zosette Guir and Dorothy Hernandez, and dance by AAPI Performance Collaborative IS/LAND, Kizuna Tree is an exploration of communal healing for AAPI peoples, across generations, communities, and ethnicities, connected through words, visuals, and movement. The restorative and healing properties through this physical movement and storytelling offers the audience an experiential exploration of the interactive connections between the dancers with each other, the audience, and the tree itself.

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Thank you to our Sponsors; CultureVerse & The New Foundry.

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Film Screening Mon, 20 Jun 2022 13:36:09 -0400 2022-06-23T19:00:00-04:00 2022-06-23T21:30:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies Film Screening An image from the documentary "Who Killed Vincent Chin?"
Subtitling “Ram ke Nam” (October 20, 2022 11:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/100375 100375-21799680@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, October 20, 2022 11:00am
Location: North Quad
Organized By: Asian Languages and Cultures

Free and Open to the Public

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Lecture / Discussion Tue, 18 Oct 2022 09:01:08 -0400 2022-10-20T11:00:00-04:00 2022-10-20T13:00:00-04:00 North Quad Asian Languages and Cultures Lecture / Discussion Subtitling “Ram ke Nam” Poster