Oakland Asian Cultural Center

Quarantini Mixer: Spritz, Mix, & Drink From Home with Viridian and OACC
2020-09-25 17:00 - 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | CA
“The Theory of Cocktails” Featuring Viridian
OACC is excited to bring you Quarantini Mixer — an online mixology class and social club! This first mixer focuses on “The Theory of Cocktails” — learn the foundations of flavor to create easy cocktails at home with everyday ingredients featuring your friends at Viridian!
On Friday, September 25 at 5:00 pm, come hang out with us over zoom, enjoy a signature drink while learning how to recreate the tasty libation for yourself at home, and get a chance to win great auction items and raffle prizes! This event is a virtual fundraiser, in which proceeds from ticket sales and auction support both Viridian and OACC.
GENERAL ADMISSION INCLUDES ZOOM LINK ACCESS TO EVENT/DEMO ON SEPTEMBER 25, RECIPE FOR SIGNATURE COCKTAIL, RAFFLE TICKET FOR A CHANCE TO WIN SOME VIRIDIAN SWAG & 4 BOTTLES OF WINE
PRICE:
$30 — General Admission and a ready-for-pick-up bottled cocktail ($20 value) from Viridian​
$45 — General admission and delivery service by OACC Staff of Viridian cocktail, recipe, and raffle ticket in a 10-mile radius of Oakland, CA
$55 — General admission and delivery service by OACC Staff of Viridian cocktail, recipe, and raffle ticket in a 15-mile radius of Oakland, CA
$65 — General admission and delivery service by OACC Staff of Viridian cocktail, recipe, and raffle ticket in a 25-mile radius of Oakland, CA
IMPORTANT DELIVERY NOTE: Please order by Thursday, September 24. The delivery service ends at 2 pm on Friday, September 25. The delivery fee covers staff mileage and a small portion serves as a general donation towards OACC’s programs.
Deadline to place all orders: Thursday, Sept. 24 at 6:00 pm
RAFFLE PRIZE:
Viridian T-Shirt & Hat plus 4 Wine Bottles and 2 wine glasses
LIVE AUCTION ITEMS:
1) Viridian E-Book & 12 piece cocktail kit and stand. Qty: 1 | Value: $90 | Starting Bid: $30
2) “Cook at Home with Chef Tu” Kit — $40 digital gift card towards Chef Tu Virtual Cooking Classes and 3 Pack of Tumami Spice Blends: 3 Vietnamese Queen Pineapple Jerky Artisan Vietnamese Fish Sauce [Son Fish Sauce, 5 oz. bottle]. Qty: 2 | Value: $136 | Starting Bid: $40

"In the Land of My Ancestors" Film & Conversation
2020-10-12 18:00 - 19:30 | CA
Missed the event? View the recording here.
“In the Land of my Ancestors” celebrates the living legacy of Ann Marie Sayers, a beloved Ohlone elder. Ohlone people are not federally recognized as indigenous nations in the San Francisco Bay Area. Ann Marie used the Indian Allotment Act of 1887 to reclaim her traditional land in Indian
Canyon, which is the only federally recognized Indian territory for over 300 miles from Sonoma to the coast of Santa Barbara in California. The film screening will be followed by a conversation with filmmaker Ruch Chitnis and special guest Kanyon Sayers-Roods.
Learn more about Rucha’s work at www.awomanslens.com.
Learn more about Indian Canyon at www.indiancanyonlife.org.
This event was broadcast on Zoom and YouTube Live.

Banchan Cooking Workshop 1
2020-10-16 18:00 - 19:00 | CA
Download: Uhmuok Bokkeum recipe
Download: Yangpa Jangahjji recipe
View the recording here.
What is banchan? Find out with this special cooking workshop!
Watch Korean cooking instructor Sarah Kim Lee as she teaches simple, delicious recipes for several types of banchan dishes that you can enjoy making this Fall! Workshop details including ingredient list will be shared with RSVPed participants prior to the workshop. Follow Sarah’s cooking activities on Instagram (@sarahkim_lee) and learn more about the new EATogether program that ARTogether has been providing for our communities at www.artogether.org/eatogether/.
This event was presented in partnership with ARTogether and broadcasted on Zoom and YouTube Live.

Chinatown Pretty Book Talk
2020-10-17 13:00 - 14:00 | CA
Missed the event? Catch the recording here.
Chinatown Pretty features beautiful portraits and heartwarming stories of trend-setting seniors across six Chinatowns located in San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, and Vancouver. Andria Lo and Valerie Luu have been interviewing and photographing Chinatown’s most fashionable elders on their blog and Instagram, Chinatown Pretty, since 2014. The book talk will be followed by a Q&A session with the audience.
RSVP to receive the Zoom link to participate in the live Q&A! The event will also be streamed via YouTube Live.
This event is presented by OACC in partnership with Eastwind Books of Berkeley.
Follow the authors at @chinatownpretty (IG) and www.chinatownpretty.com.

About the Authors
Valerie Luu is a writer and one-half of the Vietnamese pop-up restaurant Rice Paper Scissors. She lives in San Francisco.
Andria Lo is a freelance photographer whose work has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, the New York Times, and Wired. She lives in Berkeley.

Sari-Sari Story Time 1: Amina and the City of Flowers
2020-10-24 10:00 - 10:30 | CA
Click here to watch the livestream.
Enjoy children’s stories featuring Filipinx folklore narrated by Christina Newhard! Each story is accompanied by fun, at-home craft activities. This event was broadcast on YouTube Live.
Featured story for October 24th: Amina and the City of Flowers: a Chavacano Tale
Amina, a young Yakan weaver, is homesick for Basilan, but she finds inspiration for her loom in the diversity and color of her new home, Zamboanga City.
Christina Buhain Newhard is a designer, publisher, and former New Yorker who now lives in Oakland. Learn more at www.sarisaristorybooks.com.

Oakland Chinatown Today, Oakland Chinatown Tomorrow
2020-10-24 13:00 - 14:30 | CA
View the event recording here.
Oakland Chinatown is at a critical turning point. What are the issues affecting this historic neighborhood and how can we address them?
Moderator William Gee Wong is joined by Ted Dang (Commercial broker/developer, also EBALDC co-founder), Alvina Wong (APEN Campaign & Organizing Director), Tiffany Eng (Friends of Lincoln Park co-founder), and Joyce Pisnanont (CAPACD Director of Economic Empowerment) to discuss complex, interwoven factors such as immigration and gentrification trends affecting Oakland Chinatown. Learn from their expertise and lived experiences as well as discover local resources and ways to support Oakland Chinatown today and tomorrow. Part of the “Community Voices to Empower Change” series.
This event is presented in partnership with Eastwind Books of Berkeley and will be broadcast on Zoom and YouTube Live for free with a suggested donation of $5 to help support our program expenses. Donations are appreciated and no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit calhum.org.

PANELISTS

Photos from left to right: Ted Dang, Alvina Wong, Tiffany Eng, and Joyce Pisnanont.

Ted Dang is one of the original members of the grass roots group of students and community activists who started the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC). He is an Oakland native and grew up in the Chinatown area. For over 40 years, he has been in the commercial real estate business as a broker, manager, investor, and developer as well as involved with organizations such as the Oakland Housing Authority, Shoong Chinese Cultural Center, Oakland Chamber of Commerce, and Family Bridges.
Alvina Wong is the Campaign & Organizing Director at the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN). In her role, she fights the displacement of low-income and working-class Asian immigrants and refugees while building their leadership to fight for environmental justice. Leading her team in intergenerational organizing towards community governance and power at the neighborhood, city, and regional levels, she has led campaigns to stop evictions of SRO tenants and win major community benefits. Alvina began organizing in the Chinese immigrant community as an Eva Lowe Fellow at Chinese Progressive Association, SF and prior to this, spent eight years developing and organizing young people around education access and youth incarceration issues.
Six generations of Tiffany Eng’s family have lived in and around Oakland Chinatown since 1906. She is a co-founder of Friends of Lincoln Square Park, an exciting initiative to build an expanded recreation center in Oakland Chinatown. She is also a Founding Member of Old Oakland Neighbors, a Founding Family Member of Yu Ming Mandarin Immersion Public Charter School, and co-founder of Family Friendly Oakland. She is a passionate advocate for public parks, civic engagement and family friendly cities. Tiffany earned a Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from UC Berkeley, and is a Program Director for Grounded Solutions Network, a national affordable housing nonprofit dedicated to creating more inclusive and equitable cities. She lives in Oakland with her husband, two daughters and a pitbull.

Joyce Pisnanont has over 15 years of experience working with Asian Pacific Islander community development organizations, including for several National CAPACD members in New York, California, and Washington. Most recently, Joyce worked with Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority as the Director of IDEA Space – an economic development resource and design center. Her previous experiences have ranged from fund development and grants management, to advocacy and community organizing, to establishing and growing programs that build local leadership capacity. Joyce is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley’s Masters in Social Welfare program.
MODERATOR

William Gee Wong, a retired journalist and author, was born and grew up in Oakland, California’s Chinatown, and has written for, among others, the Wall Street Journal, Oakland Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, Asian Week, East-West Chinese American Journal. He is author of Yellow Journalist: Dispatches from Asian America, and Images of America: Oakland’s Chinatown. He is writing a memoir that includes Oakland Chinatown history and the issues of immigration, race, exclusion, inclusion, multiculturalism, identity, and what it means to be American. Headshot Photo Credit: Jim Stevens/Bay Area News Group

Banchan Cooking Workshop 2
2020-10-30 18:00 - 19:00 | CA
VIEW WORKSHOP RECORDING
Download Oii Muchim recipe
Download Pa Kimchi recipe
Join Korean cooking instructor Sarah Kim Lee as she teaches simple, delicious recipes for several types of banchan dishes that you can enjoy making this Fall! Follow Sarah’s cooking activities on Instagram (@sarahkim_lee) and learn more about the new EATogether program that ARTogether has been providing for our communities at www.artogether.org/eatogether/.
This event was presented in partnership with ARTogether and was broadcast on Zoom and YouTube Live.

Sari-Sari Story Time 2: Kalipay and the Tiniest Tiktik
2020-10-31 10:00 - 10:30 | CA
WATCH THE RECORDING
Enjoy children’s stories featuring Filipinx folklore narrated by Christina Newhard! Each story is accompanied by fun, at-home craft activities. This event will be broadcast on YouTube Live.
Featured story for October 31st: KALIPAY AND THE TINIEST TIKTIK a Cebuano Tale
Daydreaming comes easily to Kalipay, but she doesn’t know how to make bullies leave her alone. One day, she makes an unusual new friend in Gamay, who tells the school bully, Juan, to stop teasing Kalipay. Other children are afraid of Gamay—her strange tongue, split body, and bat wings—but Kalipay is fascinated by the things that make her new friend different. Together they learn how friendship can overcome differences and create happiness for everyone.
Christina Buhain Newhard is a designer, publisher, and former New Yorker who now lives in Oakland. Learn more at www.sarisaristorybooks.com.

140 LBS: How Beauty Killed My Mother Virtual Screening
2020-11-14 16:00 - 18:00 | CA
OACC is excited to bring 140 LBS: How Beauty Killed My Mother to a broader API audience through a virtual screening event hosted on Saturday, November 14. The solo theater work is written and performed by Susan Lieu, a first-generation American born to Vietnamese refugees. The performance weaves together several through-lines: inter-generational trauma; parent-child relationships; body insecurity and shame; repression and healing from personal loss; lack of accountability in the medical system; Vietnamese folkloric practice of spirit channeling.
Two hours into surgery, Susan’s mother loses oxygen to her brain and the plastic surgeon deliberately does not call 9-1-1 for fourteen minutes. Five days later, while in a coma, she flatlines. The surgeon is charged with medical negligence and her family falls apart; no one talks about what happened. Nineteen years later on her wedding day, Susan’s mother’s seat sits empty and Susan realizes she can no longer ignore what she’s always wanted: to know who her mother was. Sifting through thousands of deposition pages and reaching out to the killer’s family, Susan uncovers the painful truth of her mother, herself, and the impossible ideal of Vietnamese feminine beauty.
140 LBS speaks to a wide variety of communities as it lies at the intersection of different identities and lived experiences. The show brings forth questions of medical ethics, psychology, family narrative, and gender, and intersects with theater and performance, memory studies, Vietnamese language and culture, mental health and wellness, female empowerment, trauma and healing, and Asian American identity.
This program is supported by a grant from the Alameda County Arts Commission

Before the screening event, OACC will host a preview of the screening with a virtual panel discussion on Saturday, August 29, from 2-3PM PST via ZOOM. Love Me As I Am: How to Have an Inter-generational Conversation on Beauty Standards and Self-Worth includes panelists Susan Lieu (artist and producer of 140LBS), Cindy Nguyen (a postdoctoral fellow teaching Southeast Asian history at Brown University), and Nelly Nguyen ( a retired CM analyst and Vietnam War refugee) as they hold difficult conversations about parent-child relationships in Asian families. Inspired by the themes conveyed in 140LBS, the panel will approach parent-child communication with genuine anecdotes and helpful tools that provide a better understanding of family relationships and improve personal growth for a healthier mindset.

San Francisco's Chinatown: Resilience, Survival, and Celebration
2020-11-19 18:00 - 19:00 | CA
View the event recording.
Newly-released photo documentary book, San Francisco’s Chinatown, brings history, culture, tourism, and traditions to life with never-seen-before images. In this dynamic slideshow with commentary, project originator and photographer Dick Evans and New York Times freelance writer Kathy Chin Leong shed light on a community that has proven to be resilient against all odds. Participants are encouraged to pull up a computer, pour a cup of jasmine tea, and cut a slice of mooncake while enjoying this one-hour romp, celebrating Chinatown’s past, present, and future.
Presented in partnership with Heyday Books. Learn more and purchase the book.
This event was broadcast on Zoom and YouTube Live.

About Dick Evans, the Photographer
Dick Evans is a San Francisco–based photographer with an interest in documenting the colorful and rapidly changing neighborhoods of the city. Born into a ranching family in Eugene, Oregon, he graduated as an engineer from Oregon State University and subsequently obtained a master’s degree in management from Stanford. He has spent his fifty-year career in the global metals sector, living in five countries and multiple locations in Africa, Europe, and North America. It was during these travels that he developed an appreciation for the diversity and richness of different culture—both global and local—and an interest in documentary photography.
About Kathy Chin Leong, the Writer
Kathy Chin Leong, a lifetime career journalist, covers travel, technology, business, art and architecture, and anything that piques her interest. Her writing has been published in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, National Geographic Books, Sunset Magazine, and other nationally-recognized publications. Growing up in a bi-cultural environment, Chinese at home and American at school, she is typical of many ABCs who struggled with identity issues and eventually learned to embrace their Chinese heritage. While she has travelled the globe to the Middle East, Europe and Asia, rediscovering her Chinatown roots through collaboration on this book has been the journey of a lifetime. She lives in Sunnyvale, California.
About Heyday
Heyday is an independent, nonprofit publisher founded in 1974 in Berkeley, California. Heyday promotes civic engagement and social justice, celebrates nature’s beauty, supports California Indian cultural renewal, and explores the state’s rich history, culture, and influence. Heyday works to realize the California dream of equity and enfranchisement. For more information, visit its website: heydaybooks.com/

Write Now! SF Bay: Claim Ourselves, Connect with Each Other
2020-11-22 13:00 - 15:00 | CA
View the recording.
A virtual presentation by the Oakland Asian Cultural Center in partnership with Asian Health Services and the UC Berkeley Public Service Center.
The San Francisco Bay Area is 60% people of color. How can we connect with ourselves and each other during this time of unceasing change? What can we learn from each other about the rich multicultural history of the Bay Area? Beyond the headlines are personal stories that help us truly see the overlooked, reclaim hidden histories, and support each other with compassion. Listen to the realities of these Black, Latinx and Asian Americans, and then share your own perspectives by submitting to Write Now!’s upcoming anthology: Essential Truths: The Bay Area in Color (Submissions open Oct 15-Dec 31).
Featuring:
Shizue Seigel, director of Write Now! SF Bay
Roberto Lovato, author of Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs and Revolution in the Americas
Sandra Bass, PhD, director of UC Berkley Public Service Center
Mark Harris, San Francisco artist and social activist
Dr. Sriram Shanasunder, Co-founder of UCSF HEAL Initiative
Specialty Mental Health Clinic of Asian Health Services
Readings and discussion by the panelists will be followed by a creative writing exercise where the audience can share their own essential truths as a person of color or an ally.
This workshop is presented in partnership with Write Now! SF Bay, Asian Health Services, and University of California Public Service Center. This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a partner of the NEH. Visit www.calhum.org
NOTE: The workshop will be hosted on Zoom and YouTube Live with a suggested donation of $10 to help support our presenters, organizers, tech and labor costs. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

SPEAKERS

Shizue Seigel is a Japanese American writer born just after her family’s release from WWII incarceration. She’s led community writing projects for Centers for Disease Control/UCSF, National Japanese American Historical Society, African American Arts & Culture Complex, and others. She was written or edited six books, and her memoir and poetry have been widely published elsewhere. She directs Write Now! SF Bay, which supports Bay Area writers of color through workshops, events and anthologies.
Recent Works:
CIVIL LIBERTIES UNITED, Pease Press, San Francisco, 2019. www.peasepress/com
ENDANGERED SPECIES, ENDURING VALUES. Pease Press, San Francisco, 2018
“Who Do You Think You Are?”, L. D. Green and Kelechi Ubozoh, eds,
We’ve Been Too Patient: Voices From Radical Mental Health – Stories and Research Challenging the Biomedical Model, North Atlantic Books 2019
“Swimming in the New Normal,” Deborah Santa, ed, All the Women in My Family Sing, NTTB Press 2018. https://aerbook.com/maker/productcard-3248263-3202.html
Write Now! SF Bay, fiscally sponsored by Intersection for the Arts, has supported civil liberties and social justice though community stories since 2015 under the direction of Shizue Seigel, a third-generation Japanese American whose family was incarcerated by the U.S. government during World War II. Racism survives by suppressing stories. To increase compassion and community, we must claim and share all of our stories.
Submissions for a new anthology, Essential Truths: The San Francisco Bay Area in Color, are open Nov 15-Dec 31. More information to come at https:/ www.WriteNowSF.com
Write Now! SF Bay’s anthologies (https://www.writenowsf.com/buy-books):
CIVIL LIBERTIES UNITED: Diverse Voices from the San Francisco Bay Area
Edited by Shizue Seigel • Pease Press, San Francisco, 2019
300pp (with 60+ b/w images). ISBN: 978-0-9904173-9-2
​200+ works of prose, poetry and visual art by 100 San Francisco Bay Area
writers/artists of color and allies responding to today’s erosion of civil liberties.
https://www.writenowsf.com/civil-liberties-united
ENDANGERED SPECIES, ENDURING VALUES: San Francisco Area Writers and Artists of Color
Edited by Shizue Seigel • Pease Press, San Francisco, 2018
272 pp. (90 color pages). ISBN: 978-0-9904173-4-7
150+ works of prose, poetry, art and photography by 70 creatives of color responding to the question “What keeps your going in hard times?” https://www.writenowsf.com/endangered-species-anthology
STANDING STRONG! FILLMORE & JAPANTOWN
Edited by Shizue Seigel • Pease Press, San Francisco,
140pp. (with b/w artwork) ISBN: 978-0-9904173-2-3.
Exploring multiple layers of displacement in two San Francisco neighborhoods impacted by immigration, World War II incarceration and migration, redevelopment, and gentrification.
Out of print. Excerpts here: https://www.writenowsf.com/read

Roberto Lovato’s Unforgetting (Harper Collins) was hailed by the NY Times as a “groundbreaking memoir.” Lovato is an educator, journalist and writer based at The Writers Grotto in San Francisco. As a Co-Founder of #DignidadLiteraria, he helped build a movement advocating for equity & literary justice for the more than 60 million Latinx persons left off of bookshelves in the U.S. and out of the national dialogue. A recipient of a reporting grant from the Pulitzer Center, Lovato has reported on numerous issues—violence, terrorism, the drug war and the refugee crisis—from around the hemisphere and the world. https://robertolovato.com/

Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs and Revolution in the Americas
Roberto Lovato
Harper Collins (2020)
ISBN : 0062938479
Roberto Lovato’s memoir excavates family history and reveals the intimate stories beneath headlines about gang violence and mass Central American migration, one of the most important, yet least-understood humanitarian crises of our time. The child of Salvadoran immigrants, Roberto Lovato grew up in 1970s and 80s San Francisco as MS-13 and other notorious Salvadoran gangs were forming in California. In his teens, he lost friends to the escalating violence, and survived acts of brutality himself. He eventually traded the violence of the streets for human rights advocacy in wartime El Salvador. Upon his return, he channeled his own pain into activism and journalism, focusing on how trauma affects individual lives and societies.

Dr. Sandra Bass currently serves as Associate Dean of Students and Director of the Public Service Center at UC Berkeley. Upon receiving her doctorate in political science, Dr. Bass was appointed as an assistant professor of Criminology and Political Science at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she integrated service learning into both her undergraduate and graduate courses. In 2002 Sandra joined the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and in 2010 she was selected to lead the Foundation’s girl’s education, women’s leadership, and reproductive health program in Sub-Saharan Africa, and later was appointed the executive director of Teach With Africa, an organization focused on cross cultural learning for K-12 teachers in the US and South Africa. Sandra has published numerous articles and essays in academic journals and on various platforms, and has co-edited three volumes. She currently serves on the regional board of Multiplying Good, the UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund, the Osher Center for Lifelong Learning Diversity and Equity Advisory Board. She is also a nonviolence trainer and educator. Sandra holds a BA from San Jose State University, and an MA and PhD from UC Berkeley, all in political science.
Readings:
https://paceebene.org/blog/2020/6/29/an-open-letter-to-my-neighbor-who-accused-me-of-stealing
https://blogs.berkeley.edu/2020/06/05/we-need-to-move-from-ritualized-responses-to-reparations/
https://www.laprogressive.com/empire-consciousness/

Mark Harris is an award-winning artist, activist and educator. He has combined his passions for art making and activism to create a unique visual vocabulary that he uses to engage his audience on critical issues facing society today. He has established a strong independent voice and is one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s most controversial artists. The Metro Silicon Valley News called his work “brilliantly subversive.” His evocative, elegant and dynamic creations have caught the eye of international and domestic art collectors alike. A native of Durham, N.C. Harris grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, but he now lives in San Francisco, California.
http://www.artofmarkharris.com
http://www.theartivistsf.com
http://www.artofmarkharris.com
Social Media: MarkHarrisArt
http://cbldf.org/2017/02/california-school-district-removes-black-history-month-art-exhibit-after-parent-complaints/
https://openspace.sfmoma.org/2017/05/state-of-denial/

Dr. Sriram Shamasunder, Co-founder, UCSF HEAL, is a doctor/poet who started writing poetry during college at UC Berkeley where he studied and taught with June Jordan’s Poetry for the People. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco, and co-founder of the HEAL Initiative, a health workforce strengthening fellowship working in Navajo Nation and 7 countries around the world.

Asian Health ServicesSpecialty Mental Health Services division provides mental health services to Medi-Cal clients in Alameda County since July 1, 2016. Their clinicians and staff work collaboratively with AHS medical providers, dental providers, and behavioral specialists to provide specialized services to children, youth and adults experiencing moderate to severe mental health illness, including: assessment, therapy, medication, case management, crisis intervention, hotline response, prevention and education, advocacy, support and referral services.
More about AHS’ Specialty Mental Health: https://asianhealthservices.org/specialty-mental-health-clinic/

Quiz For a Cause! Trivia Night with Geeks Who Drink
2020-11-23 17:00 - 19:00 | CA
On Monday, November 23rd, OACC is raising money with the power of a well-attended pub quiz – now on Zoom!

Quiz For A Cause is our philanthropic endeavor to unite geeks with great individuals, charities, and organizations in their community who want to raise funds towards a worthy goal – all while showing off how smart you are.

The Oakland Asian Cultural Center (OACC) is the only pan-Asian arts and cultural center in the East Bay, welcoming over 25,000 guests each year. We aim to build a stronger, more vibrant community through robust arts, cultural, and social justice programming to connect different generations, cultures, and identities. Your ticket purchase goes towards ensuring OACC’s continued innovation and our staff’s ability to provide critical online programming for East Bay API communities. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, there has been a noted rise in reports of racism, violence, and discrimination against APIA communities throughout the country. Now more than ever, OACC’s mission, commitment, and dedication towards the APIA community of artists, culture, and social justice is most important. We have initiated several new projects including the “Open E.A.R.S. for Change” anti-racism series, a performing arts series featuring four accomplished local API artists, and building virtual educational resources to remotely stand-in for our suspended school tours program. We are newly imagining exhibitions to be virtually accessible and exploring remote-friendly presentation formats to elevate and support the visual arts while our physical space remains closed.
You can donate directly here: https://oacc.liveimpact.org/fundraiser/li/8737/D/113686

Please follow the link to our Monday, 11/23 event, scheduled at 6pm Mountain. https://withribbon.com/s/14348
Look for the Quiz For A Cause logo! And look for more fundraisers coming soon… it’s a strange world right now and we still need to help wherever we can. You can help us do that while playing pub quiz in the safety of your own home!

The rest of this is the usual Zoom Quiz FAQ!

FAQ
How do we play?
Virtual quizzes are run live on Zoom. We will use Zoom’s breakout rooms to create a private space for you and your team. Plan to play solo? Breakout rooms can get lonely by yourself, instead of a breakout room you’ll get to party down in the main room with the Quizmasters.

How do I get the room link?
The link will be embedded in the confirmation email you receive after purchase.

How do we communicate during the quiz?
After each round is over, we’ll send you into breakout rooms with your teams* to discuss the answers before submitting them. We’ll even give you a copy of the questions to review while you’re there. You won’t be able to talk during the round though, so feel free to take notes while you’re playing.

How do I submit my answers?
When you enter the Zoom meeting we’ll provide you the link for the night’s digital answer sheet. Only one person will need to fill it out.

How do you prevent cheating?
We have a very, very complex system that detects cheaters with 99.999% accuracy. We could explain how it works but, you know, character limits…

How long is the quiz?
About 90 minutes, with five rounds of six questions and an 8 question visual round.

What are the team sizes?
Teams can be up to 6 people.

Do I have to buy tickets for my whole team?
No, you can buy 1-6 tickets each.

Can I add more people to my team later?
Yes, but we do recommend purchasing all tickets at once. Either the team captain may purchase additional tickets, or an individual can purchase a ticket and join an existing team by providing the team name.

Can I join after the quiz starts?
Sorry, no. Ticket sales close 1 hour prior to the start time so we can prepare the quiz.

Can I change my team name?
Again, sorry, no. We’ll ask for your team name at checkout and will use that name to create a team’s breakout room.

Are there any prizes?
Bragging rights galore… and the winning team will get to choose their victory song, played to close out the quiz.

What is your refund policy?
All purchases are final. In the event of a cancellation, or technical issues on our end that prevent the quiz from continuing, refunds will be processed as soon as possible.

I didn’t find my answer here.
That’s totally intentional. We love hearing from you so drop us a line at virtual@geekswhodrink.com and we can talk about it!

Quarantini Mixer: Beer Tasting 101 With Trappist
2020-12-04 17:00 - 18:30 | CA
“The Theory Of Beer” Featuring The Trappist
OACC is excited to bring you Quarantini Mixer — an online social club! This mixer focuses on “The Theory of Beer” — learn the basics of beer tasting featuring Ruben Dominguez from The Trappist!
On Friday, December 4 at 5:00 pm, come hang out with us over zoom, enjoy a flight of beer, and get a chance to win great auction items and raffle prizes! This event is a virtual fundraiser, in which proceeds from ticket sales and auction support both Trappist and OACC.
GENERAL ADMISSION INCLUDES ZOOM LINK ACCESS TO EVENT/TASTING ON DECEMBER 4TH, A FLIGHT OF BEER OR NON-ALCOHOLIC BEER, RAFFLE TICKET FOR A CHANCE TO WIN SOME SWAG & TRAPPIST DRINKING GLASSES.
PRICE:
$35 — General Admission: a ready-for-pick-up flight of beer (3 bottles) or non-alcoholic beer (1-2 bottles) ($25 value) from Trappist​ and a raffle ticket for a chance to win Trappist swag and a home-brewing kit
$45 — General Admission and delivery service by OACC Staff of Trappist flight and raffle ticket in a 10-mile radius of Oakland, CA
$55 — General Admission and delivery service by OACC Staff of Trappist flight and raffle ticket in a 15-mile radius of Oakland, CA
$65 — General Admission and delivery service by OACC Staff of Trappist flight and raffle ticket in a 25-mile radius of Oakland, CA
IMPORTANT DELIVERY NOTE: Please order by Wednesday, December 2. The delivery service ends at 2 pm on Friday, December 4. The delivery prices cover staff mileage based on distance and a small portion serves as a general donation towards OACC’s programs.
Deadline to place pick-up & delivery orders: Wednesday, Dec. 2 at 6:00 pm
RAFFLE PRIZE:
Trappist Drinking Glasses and Swag
LIVE AUCTION ITEMS:
1) Vintage Beer from Trappist. Qty: 1
2) Home Beer Brewing Kit & Kombucha Brewing Kit. Qty: 1

Celebrating Our HeART-filled Heritage: Vanessa Vân-Ánh Võ
2020-12-19 17:00 - 18:30 | CA
Emmy Award-winning musician Vanessa Vân-Ánh Võ kicks off OACC’s new performing arts series by sharing original music featuring Vietnamese instruments such as the đàn tranh (Vietnamese zither). A fearless musical explorer, Vân-Ánh Võ is an award-winning performer of the 16-string đàn tranh (zither) and an Emmy Award-winning composer who has collaborated with Kronos Quartet, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, and Yo-Yo Ma. In addition to her mastery of the đàn tranh, she also uses the monochord (đàn bầu), bamboo xylophone (đàn t’rung), traditional drums (trống) and many other instruments to create music that blends the wonderfully unique sounds of Vietnamese instruments with other genres, and fuses deeply rooted Vietnamese musical traditions with fresh new structures and compositions.
Her performance will be followed by audience dialogue in partnership with the United Vietnamese Student Association | Northern California.
More about Vân-Ánh Võ: https://www.vananhvo.com/bio.

About the Series
“Celebrating Our HeART-filled Heritage” champions local Asian and Asian Pacific Islander performing artists, with the goal of providing a platform for accomplished local performing artists and exposing our diverse community in the East Bay to compelling, culturally relevant artists and performances that inspire intergenerational and cross-cultural exchange. The performing arts series is supported in part by the Walter and Elise Haas Fund.
RSVP to receive the Zoom link. Donations are appreciated and no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Book Talk: Women and the Legacy of Imperialism in the Pacific
2021-01-09 13:00 - 14:00 | CA
Missed it? Click here to view the recording
At the southern end of the Japanese archipelago lies Okinawa, host to a vast complex of U.S. military bases. A legacy of World War II, these bases have been a fraught issue for decades—with tensions exacerbated by the often volatile relationship between islanders and the military, especially after the brutal rape of a 12-year-old girl by three servicemen in 1995. In Night in the American Village, Akemi Johnson takes readers deep into the “border towns” surrounding the bases—a world where cultural and political fault lines compel individuals, both Japanese and American, to continually renegotiate their own identities.
Joining Akemi in conversation is author of Green Island and former Fulbright scholar, Shawna Yang Ryan. In a story that sweeps across six decades and two continents, Green Island traces the course of Taiwan’s history, from the end of Japanese colonial rule, to the decades under martial law, and finally to Taiwan’s transformation into a democracy. This lush, lyrical novel depicts a family and a nation grappling with the nuances of complicity and survival, raising the question: How far would you be willing to go for the ones you love?

About the Authors

AKEMI JOHNSON is the author of Night in the American Village: Women in the Shadow of the U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa, which has been shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Akemi has contributed to The Nation, NPR’s All Things Considered and Code Switch, Travel + Leisure, Roads & Kingdoms, Anthony Bourdain’s Explore Parts Unknown, and other publications. She has been the recipient of a Fulbright grant to Japan, a Pushcart Prize nomination, and the James D. Phelan Award from the San Francisco Foundation. Akemi earned an MFA in fiction writing from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and an AB in East Asian Studies from Brown University. She has taught writing at the George Washington University, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and the University of Iowa. She lives with her husband and daughter in Northern California. Learn more about Akemi.

SHAWNA YANG RYAN is a former Fulbright scholar and the author of Water Ghosts (Penguin Press 2009) and Green Island (Knopf 2016). She teaches in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. Her work has received the Association for Asian American Studies Best Book Award in Creative Writing, the Elliot Cades Emerging Writer award, and an American Book Award. Learn more about Shawna.

"Padmavyuha": A Conversation Behind the Scenes
2021-01-22 18:00 - 19:00 | CA
Watch the recording here.
In “Padmavyuha”, a mysterious phone call draws an Indian-American religious studies professor into a dark labyrinth of mystic Indian puzzles, the answers to which will reveal a nefarious global conspiracy – and shake the foundations of the world’s biggest religions.
Go behind the scenes with director Raj Krishna, producer Sean O’Hare, and lead actor Nikhil Prakash to learn about the making of this short film. Shot entirely in San Jose, CA, “Padmavyuha” world premiered as the opening night gala film at the International Indian Film Festival of Toronto (IIFFT) on August 9, 2020, and went on to play at festivals such as the Silicon Valley Asian Pacific Film Festival, the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, and the Indian Film Festival of Cincinnati.
About the Speakers

Raj Krishna is a producer, writer and director. Raj began his career by producing several shorts and documentaries which played at film festivals around the world and won awards. Raj then transitioned into writing with his cannibal horror script Varna Heights, which was selected as one of ten projects to be featured at the India’s Film Bazaar Co-Production Market in 2019. In 2020, Raj directed his first film, Padmavyuha, starring Nikhil Prakash, Ross and Pooja Batra. Padmavyuha was shot entirely in San Jose, CA, and world premiered as the opening night gala film at the International Indian Film Festival of Toronto (IIFFT) on August 9, 2020.

Born and raised in San Jose, CA, Sean O’Hare graduated from San Jose State University with a BA in Sociology. Soon after, he accepted an internship and gradually became the Senior Producer of Guerilla Wanderers Films, a full service production company in the San Francisco Bay Area. Working at Guerilla Wanderers Films for over 10 years, Sean produced over 100 projects, which include; commercials, music videos, films, and shows. With these projects, he has also won over 50 awards through many prestigious film festivals. Sean currently is a freelance Producer working with various production companies and agencies in California and New York, running under his alias, “Sean the Producer” (www.seantheproducer.com). Sean has worked with several Asian-American directors, including Pari Mathur on his feature film Lucky Fifty (world premiered at Cinequest), and Raj Krishna on his debut film Padmavyuha.

Nikhil Prakash is an award-winning filmmaker, producer and actor known for his roles in NCIS: New Orleans (2014), Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders (2016) and MacGyver (2016). He is the lead actor for Padmavyuha, playing the role of Professor Shaki Ramdas.

OACC 2021 Lunar New Year Celebration
2021-02-12 - 2021-02-19 | CA
OACC is celebrating the Lunar New Year differently this year!

Happy Lunar New Year | 恭喜發財 新年快樂 (Gong Xi Fa Cai! Xin Nian Kuai Le!) | Chúc mừng năm mới | 새해 복 많이 받으세요 | Шинэ жилийн баярын мэнд хvргэе | 明けおめ ことよろ | Losar Bey Tashi Delek

Happy Year of the Ox to all! OACC envisions vibrant, healthy, and just communities where diverse APIA identities and heritage are affirmed and celebrated. Due to COVID-19 challenges, we are shifting our celebration to a week-long festival of virtual/online programs that highlight various Asian countries that celebrate the Lunar New Year such as China, Vietnam, Korea, and more. Together with our community partners and local artists, OACC will present engaging, diverse pre-recorded content with performances, demonstrations, and more accessible content linked to the schedule thumbnails below.

All week long (and beyond), we hope you engage with us and support AAPI-owned and AAPI-ally businesses, artists, and creatives who are our beloved community.

Fill out our survey by Friday, March 19, 2021 at 5pm PST to be entered into a special raffle drawing for OACC-exclusive goods!

Enjoy our kick-off broadcast originally aired on Friday, February 12, 2021.

CONTENT SCHEDULE:
All pre-recorded content is about 15-30 minutes long ~ but we encourage you to explore the pages for any downloadable activities or visit the Virtual Community Night Market to support our community!

About the Virtual Community Night Market
The Virtual Community Night Market (Night Market) will be a virtual “one-stop-shop” marketplace featuring Oakland/Bay Area-based and Oakland values-inspired businesses and creatives from AAPI-owned and AAPI-ally restaurants and small businesses, including BIPOC businesses and artists. The Virtual Community Night Market will serve as an online directory, which will be active from February 12, 2021, to April 19, 2021, timing its first and final weeks with OACC’s new year-related programming in mid-February and mid-April.
To participate as a virtual vendor, please fill out this google form. There is a $30 vendor booth fee associated with the application. We will still be accepting vendors even after the launch.
Become a New Year Celebration Sponsor!
To undertake such an initiative requires the assistance and partnership of more than 20 local artists, organizations, and instructors as well as financial support to offset various event costs such as tech equipment and artists’ stipends. Support of the OACC New Year Celebration will provide your organization or company with an effective way to communicate your message and service to thousands of potential customers in the Bay Area. New Year sponsors will receive a range of recognition and benefits. We look forward to working with your team to ensure that your organization is highlighted to the maximum level possible. Click here to learn more.
Special thanks to our New Year Celebration sponsors who helped make our programming possible:
Presenting Sponsor

Platinum Sponsor

Silver Sponsor

Anders Yang, JD in memory of Dr. Pai Cheng Shen
Friends of Lincoln Square Park

Bronze Sponsor

The Asian and Pacific Islander Staff Association at UCOP
OCA-East Bay
Wa Sung Community Service Club | Oakland

Media Sponsor

Inquirer.net

In-Kind Community Sponsor

Kevin Oskow – Martech Consulting and Deployment
United Vietnamese Student Associations of Northern California

Quarantini Mixer: Celebrating with Food and Drink
2021-02-19 18:00 - 20:00 | CA
“Celebrating with Food and Drink” Featuring Chef Tu David Phu, Adam “Boots” Brogan, and Alkali Rye
OACC is excited to bring you Quarantini Mixer — an online mixology class and social club! To close out the Lunar New Celebration, this mixer focuses on “Celebrating with Food and Drink” — learn how to make wontons at home from Chef Tu David Phu! Afterward, learn how to pair your meal with a tasty cocktail you can make at home using a cocktail kit from Alkali Rye as demonstrated by Adam Brogan! Cocktail kit includes (4oz) San Zanj – a tropical and bright Haitian Clairin rum, (4oz) Greenbar Orange liqueur, (4oz) Smith & Cross Jamaican Rum, (3) limes, (8oz) Coco Lopez, and (4oz) Small Hands food pineapple syrup—makes a total of 4 servings.
On Friday, February 19 at 6:00 pm, come hang out with us over zoom and enjoy a signature drink with a cocktail kit from Alkali Rye ($35 value). As you learn how to make wontons and ways to pair a tasty cocktail, you will also get a chance to win great auction items and raffle prizes! This event is a virtual fundraiser, in which proceeds from ticket sales and auction support OACC and Alkali Rye. Read “OUR STORY” to learn more.

GENERAL ADMISSION INCLUDES ZOOM LINK ACCESS TO EVENT/DEMO ON FEBRUARY 19, RECIPE FOR WONTON RECIPE, COCKTAIL KIT, AND RAFFLE TICKET.
PRICE:

$10 — Bring-your-own-cocktail Admission: Zoom link access and wonton recipe
$45 — General Admission and of Alkali Rye cocktail kit, wonton recipe, and raffle ticket ready for pick up at OACC.
$55 — General admission and delivery service by OACC Staff of Alkali Rye cocktail kit, wonton recipe, and raffle ticket in a 10-mile radius of Oakland, CA
$65 — General admission and delivery service by OACC Staff of Alkali Rye cocktail kit, wonton recipe, and raffle ticket in a 15-mile radius of Oakland, CA
$75 — General admission and delivery service by OACC Staff of Alkali Rye cocktail kit, wonton recipe, and raffle ticket in a 25-mile radius of Oakland, CA

IMPORTANT DELIVERY NOTE: The delivery service ends at 3 pm on Friday, February 19. The delivery pricing covers staff mileage based on distance and a small portion serves as a general donation towards OACC’s programs.
Deadline to place pick-up & delivery orders: Wednesday, February 17 at 6:00 pm
RAFFLE PRIZE:
We will call 4 lucky winners to win a gift bag of the following items:
(1) Friendsgiving Box, (1) set of Red Boat Fish Sauce & Salt, and (1) Bottle of white wine
LIVE AUCTION ITEMS:
1) Han Huang, Five Bulls hand-made paper scroll. Value: $100; Opening Bid: $45

Special thanks to our New Year Celebration sponsors who helped make our programming possible:
Presenting Sponsor

Platinum Sponsor

Silver Sponsor

Anders Yang, JD in memory of Dr. Pai Cheng Shen
Friends of Lincoln Square Park

Bronze Sponsor

The Asian and Pacific Islander Staff Association at UCOP
OCA-Eas Bay
Wa Sung Community Service Club | Oakland

Media Sponsor

Inquirer.net

In-Kind Community Sponsor

Kevin Oskow – Martech Consulting and Deployment
United Vietnamese Student Associations of Northern California

Return to OACC’s Lunar New Year page

預防跌倒平衡太極課程 | Fall Prevention Tai Chi: A 12-Week Series
2021-02-22 11:00 - 2021-05-19 12:00 | CA
Schedule Updates (3/24/21): March 31st class will be canceled in observance of Cesar Chavez holiday. This series has been extended one more week till May 19th to make up for the class cancellations.
*REGISTRATION IS CLOSED*
If you missed the deadline to sign up and would like to join, please email the instructor Donna (email address below).
FOR REGISTRANTS: Download and submit this Tai-Chi Waiver Form prior to attending your first session. Please email your form to Donna at Donna@kcceb.org.
Schedule: This series will run 12 consecutive weeks from February 22nd to May 12th on Mondays and Wednesdays at 11am PST on Zoom. RSVP to receive the meeting link.
此為期12周的課程將免費提供給阿拉⽶达县内的居⺠

每年每四位⽼⼈中就有⼀位因跌倒⽽造成傷殘。此⼋式太極平衡課程源⾃傳統太極拳，是特別為年⻑者設計步驟簡單可站練也可坐練，⾒效特別快。
經美國臨床驗證可強健下肢穩定性、鍛煉腦⼒清神定⼼，更能幫助訓練腦部疾患使⽤腹式呼吸以調和⼼肺功能。

Free of charge only within Alameda county

Each year, one out of four elders will fall which causes injury or death. Originated from traditional Tai Chi Quan, this 12 week course is easy to learn and can be done standing or sitting.
Clinically studied and tested its effectiveness, it can strengthen leg muscles, increase stability, improve cognitive function, and promote wellness.

For more information, contact Donna Jung at (510) 214-3758 or Donna@kcceb.org.
This 12-week series is presented in partnership with OACC, Korean Community Center of the East Bay, Moving for Better Balance, Alameda County Social Services Agency, and California Department of Aging.

Three Coins: A True Story of Kidnappings, Slavery, and Romance in San Francisco's Chinatown
2021-03-13 13:00 - 14:30 | CA
Missed the event? Stay in touch with Russell to learn of his upcoming works and appearances at threecoins1@yahoo.com.
Three Coins tells the true story of Ah Ying, who in 1880 was kidnapped and brought to America as a 9-year-old child slave. With her friend Sue Lee she survives, and takes control of her life. Her indomitable spirit takes her from one trial to the next as she is rescued, elopes, and is kidnapped yet again in her search for freedom and true love on the streets of San Francisco’s Chinatown.

About the Author
Russell Low is a physician with a passion for discovery and storytelling. Discovering the 1903 Hong family photograph among the belongings of 100-year-old great Uncle Kim sparked a decades-long search for the stories behind the photograph. Russell frequently lectures on Chinese-American history, and his family’s story has been featured on the History Channel, National Public Radio, Public Radio International, the Voice of America, the California State Railroad Museum, and the Smithsonian Museum of American History.
Learn more at: https://www.russlow.com/

Celebrating Our HeART-filled Heritage: Parangal Dance Company
2021-03-20 16:00 - 17:30 | CA
OACC’s performing arts series continues with a showcase of captivating dances from various regions of the Philippines and a live workshop with members of Parangal Dance Company, a Filipino folk dance group based in the SF Bay Area. Parangal Dance Company’s mission is to give tribute to Philippine heritage by preserving and promoting ethnic attire, music, and dance through research, workshops, and performances.
More about Parangal Dance Company: http://www.parangal.org/.
Event Access: This event was broadcast live to Parangal’s Facebook Page and OACC’s YouTube channel on March 20th.
Enjoy a special preview clip for the March 20th program!
https://oacc.cc/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/OACC-Preview-Clip.mp4

Media Sponsor:

About the Series
“Celebrating Our HeART-filled Heritage” champions local Asian and Asian Pacific Islander performing artists, with the goal of providing a platform for accomplished local performing artists and exposing our diverse community in the East Bay to compelling, culturally relevant artists and performances that inspire intergenerational and cross-cultural exchange. The performing arts series is supported in part by the Walter and Elise Haas Fund.

New Year Celebration: South and Southeast Asia
2021-04-12 - 2021-04-17 | CA
Spring into the New Year!

Following a successful virtual Lunar New Year Celebration, OACC is excited to continue the new year festivities for our Oakland Chinatown neighborhood and our broader communities this Spring. Enjoy engaging South and Southeast Asian cultural demonstrations, performances, and children’s story time, all from the comfort of your home! Together with our community partners and local artists, OACC will present engaging, diverse pre-recorded content with performances, demonstrations, and more accessible content linked to the schedule thumbnails below.

This celebration week will be the last chance to access our inaugural Virtual Community Night Market before it closes on April 19th.

Enjoy our celebration kick-off reel!

Check back for the latest updates!

Did you enjoy our Spring New Year content?

CONTENT SCHEDULE:
The Virtual Community Night Market (Night Market) is a virtual “one-stop-shop” marketplace featuring Oakland/Bay Area-based and Oakland values-inspired businesses and creatives from AAPI-owned and AAPI-ally restaurants and small businesses, including BIPOC businesses and artists. The Virtual Community Night Market is an online directory accessible online from February 12, 2021, to April 19, 2021, timing its first and final weeks with OACC’s new year-related programming in mid-February and mid-April.
Special thanks to our New Year Celebration sponsors who helped make our programming possible:
Presenting Sponsor

Platinum Sponsor

Silver Sponsor

Anders Yang, JD in memory of Dr. Pai Cheng Shen
Friends of Lincoln Square Park

Bronze Sponsor

The Asian and Pacific Islander Staff Association at UCOP
OCA-East Bay
Wa Sung Community Service Club | Oakland

Media Sponsor

Inquirer.net

In-Kind Community Sponsor

Kevin Oskow – Martech Consulting and Deployment
United Vietnamese Student Associations of Northern California

Quarantini Mixer: Afternoon Tea with Malaya Tea Room
2021-04-17 15:00 - 16:00 | CA
“Afternoon Tea” with Malaya Tea Room
OACC is excited to bring you Quarantini Mixer — an online social club! To close out the New Year Celebration: South & Southeast Asia, this mixer focuses on enjoying “Afternoon Tea.” Join us and Leena Lim from the Malaya Tea Room to learn how to create an afternoon tea experience for yourself and others at home!
On Saturday, April 17 at 3:00 pm, enjoy an exclusive Quarantini Tea Box from Malaya Tea Room ($18 value). As we enjoy the beauty of spring, join us for an afternoon tea with fun conversation and a chance to win some raffle prizes! This event is a virtual fundraiser, in which proceeds from ticket sales support OACC and Stop AAPI Hate. Read “OUR STORY” to learn more.

GENERAL ADMISSION INCLUDES ZOOM LINK ACCESS TO EVENT/DEMO ON APRIL 17, RECIPE FOR CUCUMBER SANDWICH, QUARANTINI TEA BOX (3 types of tea sachets, 2 scones, clotted cream, and lemon curd), AND RAFFLE TICKET.
PRICE:

$10 — Bring-your-own-Tea Admission: Zoom link access, raffle ticket, and sandwich recipe
$28 — General Admission ready for pick up at Malaya Tea Room
$38 — General admission and delivery service by OACC Staff in a 10-mile radius of Oakland, CA
$48 — General admission and delivery service by OACC Staff in a 15-mile radius of Oakland, CA
$58 — General admission and delivery service by OACC Staff in a 25-mile radius of Oakland, CA

IMPORTANT DELIVERY NOTE: The delivery service ends at 3 pm on Friday, April 16. The delivery pricing covers staff mileage based on distance and a small portion serves as a general donation towards OACC’s programs.
Deadline to place pick-up & delivery orders: Thursday, April 15 at 12:00 pm
RAFFLE PRIZE:
We will call 4 lucky winners to win:

Small Raffle Prize – Lottie Gift Set, Tea, & Saly’s Tea Pot (value $35)
Medium Raffle Prize – Lottie Gift Set, Tea, & Funky Fresh Tuk Tuk Box (value $68)
Big Raffle Prize – Lottie Gift Set, Tea, & BRONCA $50 e-gift card (value $80)
Grand Raffle Prize – Tea, Friendsgiving Box, & delicious A5 Japanese Wagyu Steak ~ 1lb from Papa Wagyu (value $200)

Special thanks to our New Year Celebration sponsors who helped make our programming possible:
Presenting Sponsor

Platinum Sponsor

Silver Sponsor

Anders Yang, JD in memory of Dr. Pai Cheng Shen
Friends of Lincoln Square Park

Bronze Sponsor

The Asian and Pacific Islander Staff Association at UCOP
OCA-Eas Bay
Wa Sung Community Service Club | Oakland

Media Sponsor

Inquirer.net

In-Kind Community Sponsor

Kevin Oskow – Martech Consulting and Deployment
United Vietnamese Student Associations of Northern California

Return to OACC’s Lunar New Year page

Fighting for Immigrant and Refugee Rights: Perspectives from Asian American Community Organizing
2021-04-24 13:00 - 14:30 | CA
View the event livestream here.
From the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to present-day Public Charge, the U.S. has a history of enacting government-sanctioned efforts denying rights and justice to immigrants and refugees, particularly those from communities of color. In response, Asian Pacific American communities have repeatedly risen and organized against such exclusionary legislation and continue to rally for APIA and other communities’ most vulnerable populations to this day. Learn from the experiences and perspectives of intergenerational and cross-cultural community organizing, and how you can become an active agent of change for migrant justice. A panel of community experts will engage in conversation with Harvey Dong, UC Berkeley professor of Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies. Panelists include Amy Y. Lin (community member at ASPIRE), Loan Thi Dao (author of Generation Rising), Nathaniel Tan (Co-Director of Asian Prisoner Support Committee), and Sunita Sohrabji (staff reporter at India-West). More info about our speakers are available below.
This event is part of the “Community Voices to Empower Change” series in partnership with Eastwind Books of Berkeley. It will be broadcast on Zoom and YouTube Live. Donations are appreciated and no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit calhum.org.

PANELISTS

Amy Lin is a member of ASPIRE. ASPIRE is the first organizing collective led by undocumented API migrants and a program of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus. ASPIRE’s mission is to empower undocumented API young people to educate, advocate, organize, and mobilize for the rights of immigrant families. As a member, Amy has worked to broaden healthcare access for all undocumented migrants via #Health4All local and state advocacy, develop and deliver accessible Know Your Rights and youth political education materials, and on other issues for cross-racial solidarity and migrant justice.

Loan Thi Dao (she/her/hers) is an Associate Professor and Director of Ethnic Studies at St. Mary’s College of California. She specializes in Southeast Asian refugee migration and community development, immigrant and refugee youth, social movements, and Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR). Dao has published on topics related to memory and war in cultural productions, Vietnamese American female leadership, undocumented AAPI activists, transnational activism, and Southeast Asian American deportation. She teaches interdisciplinary ethnic studies courses, and her service has included leadership positions in student groups, cultural productions, diversity and inclusion initiatives and training, immigrant rights and policy advocacy, and on boards of Southeast Asian American community organizations. She previously served on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Asian American Commission and as a Governor-appointed advisor to the Massachusetts Office of Refugees and Immigrants.
Purchase your copy of Generation Rising from Eastwind Books!

Nathaniel Tan is a Co-Director for the Asian Prisoner Support Committee. He has facilitated Ethnic Studies/Asian American studies inside San Quentin State Prison for over five years through APSC’s ROOTS (Restoring Our Original True Selves). From the relationships he built inside, he began organizing freedom campaigns to release people transferred to ICE from state prisons. Some campaigns that he has participated in include: #KeepPJHome, #FreeNy, #PardonRefugees, and currently #StopICEtransfers. He writes about movement work in his free time. He commits to this work in order to see more loved ones reunited with their families who have been separated by prisons, ICE and deportation.

Sunita Sohrabji is a staff reporter at India-West, a national weekly U.S. newspaper. She covers immigration – with a focus on business immigration – crime, local and national politics, community issues and events. Sohrabji is also a contributing editor at Ethnic Media Services. Since late March, 2020, Sohrabji has organized and moderated a series of weekly Friday briefings for ethnic media reporters, on the COVID-19 pandemic and its disproportionate impact on communities of color. The series has also focused on issues related to the pandemic, such as housing and food insecurity, the increased labor burden for women, the rise of domestic violence and hate crimes against the Asian American community, the inequities of vaccine distribution, and much more. Sohrabji has received 10 local and national awards for excellence in journalism.

MODERATOR

Harvey Dong is interested in research and writing about the evolution of Asian American and Third World social movement activism on campus and in the communities. He was also involved in the I-Hotel History Committee to write a timeline history of struggle. He teaches Asian American Studies at UC Berkeley and was awarded the 2016 American Cultures Ronald Takaki Teaching Award. He uses his community work experience to bring life to his Asian American history, Chinese American history and Contemporary Issues course. Many of his students have gone on to work in social justice causes.

46 Years After the End of the Vietnam War: A Conversation About Empathy & Healing
2021-05-01 17:30 - 18:45 | Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 9th St. #290, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
View the Recording.
In commemoration of the 46th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, Quế Mai, author of The Mountains Sing, and Thi Bui, 2018 Caldecott Honor winner and Eisner Award finalist for her illustrated memoir, The Best We Could Do, will join in a special conversation with Philip Nguyen, President of the Union of North American Vietnamese Student Associations (UNAVSA).
This event will also include a short presentation and wellness exercise by Asian Health Services’ Specialty Mental Health Division staff.

Support your local/regional bookseller!

Brookline Booksmith (East Coast): The Mountains Sing (author signed bookplate included!) and The Best We Could Do
Eastwind Books of Berkeley (West Coast): The Mountains Sing (author signed bookplate included!) and The Best We Could Do

Our Partners
This event is presented in partnership by the Oakland Asian Cultural Center, Algonquin Books, the Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith (Twitter: @TLSBooksmith, IG: @transnational.booksmith), Asian Health Services Specialty Mental Health Division, the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN), the Union of North American Vietnamese Student Associations (UNAVSA), PIVOT – The Progressive Vietnamese American Organization and Eastwind Books of Berkeley.
This event is FREE and donations are greatly appreciated. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Our Speakers
Dr. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is an award-winning writer in both Vietnamese and English. Her eight books of poetry, short fiction and non-fiction in Vietnamese have received the Poetry of the Year 2010 Award from the Hanoi Writers Association, the Capital’s Literature & Arts Award, and First Prize in the Poetry Competition celebrating 1,000 Years of Hanoi. Her debut novel and first book in English, THE MOUNTAINS SING, is an International Bestseller, a New York Times Editors’ Choice Selection, Winner of the 2020 BookBrowse Best Debut Award, Winner of the Blogger’s Book Prize 2021, and Winner of the 2020 Lannan Literary Award Fellowship for “a work of exceptional quality” and for “contribution to peace and reconciliation”. Quế Mai is an editor of DVAN’s publishing series with Kaya Press and Texas Tech University Press. She has a PhD in Creative Writing with Lancaster University. Her writing has been translated and published in more than fifteen countries. She has just been named by Forbes Vietnam as one of 20 inspiring Vietnamese women of 2021. For more information, visit www.nguyenphanquemai.com.
Thi Bui was born in Vietnam and came to the United States in 1978 as part of the “boat people” wave of refugees fleeing Southeast Asia at the end of the Vietnam War. Her debut graphic memoir, The Best We Could Do (Abrams ComicArts, 2017) won an American Book Award and been selected as an NEA Big Reads book, a Common Book for UCLA and other colleges and universities, an all-city read by Seattle and San Francisco public libraries, a National Book Critics Circle finalist in autobiography, and an Eisner Award finalist in reality-based comics. It made over thirty best of 2017 book lists, including Bill Gates’ top five picks. She illustrated the picture book, A Different Pond, written by the poet Bao Phi (Capstone, 2017), for which she won a Caldecott Honor. With her son, Hien, she co-illustrated the children’s book, Chicken of the Sea (McSweeney’s, 2019), written by Pulitzer winner Viet Thanh Nguyen and his son, Ellison. Her short comics can be found online at Reveal, The Nib, PEN America, and BOOM California. She is currently researching and drawing a work of graphic nonfiction about immigrant detention and deportation, to be published by One World, Random House. For more information, visit https://www.thibui.com/

Panel Discussion: The AAPI Experience — Listen, Learn, Act!
2021-05-04 12:00 - 13:00 | CA
Together with Dr. Russell Jeung (co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and Ethnic Studies Chair at SFSU) and Saly Lee (Executive Director of OACC), Jordyn Lee (Amyris) will shed light on the AAPI experience, discuss the nuances of the current racial justice movement we’re experiencing, and offer ways to get involved locally and nationally. Join us to listen, learn, act!

About the Speakers & Moderator
Dr. Russell Jeung obtained his PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2000. In 2020, Dr. Jeung launched Stop AAPI Hate, a project of Chinese for Affirmative Action, the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, and SF State Asian American Studies. It tracks Covid-19 related discrimination in order to develop community resources and policy interventions to fight racism. Saly is a first-generation Korean immigrant. Before coming to OACC, Saly was the Operations Manager for the Korean American Community Foundation in San Francisco, where she learned about non-profit management, grantmaking, and fundraising. Prior to that, she has developed and overseen culturally based arts programs for leading art institutions such as the Seattle Art Museum and Asian Art Museum. Jordyn Lee is a science communicator passionate about the vast potential of synthetic biology. She believes that with the right words, no topic is “too technical” and is driven by the challenge of making complex science understandable – and better yet, exciting. Jordyn is currently the senior manager of corporate communications at Amyris.

140 LBS + OVER 140 LBS: A Virtual Double-Feature
2021-05-07 18:00 - 2021-05-09 19:30 | CA
Showtimes & Details
All virtual screenings will be accompanied with an opportunity for reflection and Q&A with playwright and actor Susan Lieu. Each Q&A session after the screening will have a curated focus addressing a particular theme from the productions. Click on the links below to buy tickets, and view more details.

Date
Time (PDT)
Production – Topic & Guests

Friday, May 7th
5:30-7:30 PM

140 LBS – “The Feminine Mystique: Navigating Body Images in Motherhood” with Sarah LaFleur, Founder & CEO of M.M.LaFleur

Saturday, May 8th
4:00-6:00 PM
140 LBS – “Honor Her: Holding Remembrance and Grief with our own Mental Health” with Alica Forneret, creator of The Mourning Herald and Holly Chan & Elizabeth Wong, co-creators of Death Over Dim Sum

Saturday, May 8th
7:00-9:30 PM
OVER 140 LBS – “Reclaiming Our Bodies: Deconstructing & Disowning Female Beauty Standards” with Sophia Sun and Da Eun Kim, co-hosts of bamboo & glass & Elizabeth Scott, Co-Founder & Director of Training for The Body Positive

Sunday, May 9th
2:00-4:00 PM
140 LBS – “Parent-Child Relationships: Processing Trauma & Healing through Artistic Expression” with Melanie Elvena, Programs Manager of Asian American Women Artists Association

Sunday, May 9th
5:00-7:30 PM
OVER 140 LBS – “Preserving the Matriarchy: Bridging Intergenerational and Cross-Cultural Tension” with Philip Nguyen, President of the Union of North American Vietnamese Student Associations & Christine Tran, Managing Director for the Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association

Family is complicated. Whether your mother is alive or gone, close or distant, join us Mother’s Day weekend for Susan’s comedy-dramas about grief, family dynamics, spirituality, beauty, and Vietnamese culture. Following a successful virtual program last November, OACC is excited to once again present 140 LBS: How Beauty Killed My Mother along with its sequel, OVER 140 LBS, for a special Mother’s Day double-feature presentation! These solo theater works were written and performed by Susan Lieu, a first-generation American born to Vietnamese refugees. Susan’s performances weaves together several through-lines: inter-generational trauma; parent-child relationships; body insecurity and shame; repression and healing from personal loss; lack of accountability in the medical system; Vietnamese folkloric practice of spirit channeling. These plays speak to a wide variety of communities as it lies at the intersection of different identities and lived experiences. Her work has been featured in the L.A. Times, NPR, The Washington Post (The Lily), NBC News, American Theatre, The San Francisco Chronicle and The Seattle Times.

About 140 LBS
Production length: 65 min | Total event length: 2 hours
Two hours into surgery, Susan’s mother loses oxygen to her brain and the plastic surgeon deliberately does not call 9-1-1 for fourteen minutes. Five days later, while in a coma, she flatlines. The surgeon is charged with medical negligence and her family falls apart; no one talks about what happened. Nineteen years later on her wedding day, Susan’s mother’s seat sits empty and Susan realizes she can no longer ignore what she’s always wanted: to know who her mother was. Sifting through thousands of deposition pages and reaching out to the killer’s family, Susan uncovers the painful truth of her mother, herself, and the impossible ideal of Vietnamese feminine beauty.
Watch the 140 LBS Trailer: https://youtu.be/JlW3EIxVJSc

About OVER 140 LBS
Production length: 84 min | Total event length: 2.5 hours
Almost 9 months pregnant, Susan is terrified of becoming a mother when she didn’t know her own. Stifled by the shame and silence of her mother’s early death, Susan needs to figure out how to deal with the intergenerational trauma she’s inherited before the baby is born.
The sequel to 140 LBS with some overlapping content.

Eat & Watch Together

Food is one of our love languages. Give the gift of chocolates and a show to honor or remember your favorite nurturer out there. Susan Lieu is also the co-founder of Socola Chocolatier, an artisanal chocolate company in San Francisco. She’s teaming up with her co-founder sister Wendy to offer Mother Day Edition: The Little Saigon Box which will feature a “Má Nhớ Con” chocolate which means “mother remembers and misses you, child” in Vietnamese. This line is significant in the 140 LBS show and we hope you find out why.
The Little Saigon Box features nine of Socola’s most iconic Vietnamese flavors presented as a four-course meal including Vietnamese Coffee, Phở, Sriracha, Durian, Passion Fruit, Lychee, and more. Order by 4/30 for guaranteed Mother’s Day delivery. All orders will ship out the week of May 3rd so they can be enjoyed with the show! Order HERE

Thank you to our Key Sponsors!

Naja Pham Lockwood, Founder and CEO of RYSE Media which is dedicated to funding and producing independent storytelling that is engaging with social impact. And of late, supporting stories that conveys the richness and diverse stories of Asian Americans as a deep part of the American fabric.

M.M.LaFleur is the premiere women’s clothing brand for modern working women, founded in 2013 by Sarah LaFleur, a former management consultant, and Miyako Nakamura, the former head designer of Zac Posen. M.M.’s goal is to take the work out of getting dressed by offering versatile, easy to care for luxury-quality pieces. Built on the core belief that when women succeed, the world becomes a better place, the company is committed to using its products and platform to partner on empowerment-based initiatives with organizations including Bottomless Closet, She Should Run, The Girl Scouts, and IRC. The brand’s award-winning digital magazine, The M Dash, offers readers wardrobe advice and career tips, as well as features interviews with inspirational women.

Marketing Sponsors

Alica Forneret
Asian American Women Artists Association (AAWAA)
bamboo & glass
Death Over Dim Sum
The Body Positive
Union of North American Vietnamese Student Associations (UNAVSA)
Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA)

Celebrating Our HeART-filled Heritage: Leela Dance Collective
2021-05-15 16:00 - 17:30 | CA
After a year of zoom calls, virtual rehearsals, and a lot of alone time, it feels as if we are constantly connected, yet still isolated. This livestream performance represents the many ways in which we have been navigating this unprecedented time, working to channel our art in order to connect when it is more important than ever before.

Tune in at 4pm PT and watch as Leela Dance Collective ensemble members take kathak to the streets, performing against the backdrop of our unusually quiet cityscapes. Featuring excerpts from California Gharana, this innovative repertoire represents the work of legendary kathak artist Pandit Chitresh Das. After the performance, participate in an introductory kathak workshop and experience the way that kathak dance can ground the body, focus the mind, and uplift the spirit. Find a hard floor or surface to dance on and get ready to sweat!

Finally, don’t miss the live Q&A session with Leela Dance Collective ensemble dancers! Hear about how they have been surviving and thriving as a collective during the pandemic, and what it is like for this next generation of dancers to be carrying the tradition forward.

About Leela Dance Collective: https://leela.dance/collective/
Event Access: This event was livestreamed on Leela Dance Collective’s YouTube channel and OACC’s Facebook Event Page.

About the Series
“Celebrating Our HeART-filled Heritage” champions local Asian and Asian Pacific Islander performing artists, with the goal of providing a platform for accomplished local performing artists and exposing our diverse community in the East Bay to compelling, culturally relevant artists and performances that inspire intergenerational and cross-cultural exchange. The performing arts series is supported in part by the Walter and Elise Haas Fund.
Donations are appreciated and no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

"Instant Pot Asian Pressure Cooker Meals" Book Talk & Cooking Demo
2021-05-22 15:00 - 16:00 | Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 9th St. #290, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
Pat Tanumihardja joins us for a conversation about her cookbook, ingredients, recipe conversion to instant pot techniques, and how she came to write cookbooks. She’ll also give a quick demo of a recipe!
Click here to purchase Instant Pot Asian Pressure Cooker Meals.

This event is presented in partnership by the Oakland Asian Cultural Center and Eastwind Books of Berkeley. It is FREE and donations are greatly appreciated. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Kids Storytime: "Wishes" by Mượn Thị Văn & "When Lola Visits" by Michelle Sterling
2021-06-06 13:00 - 14:00 | Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 9th St. #290, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
Enjoy two read-a-loud new children’s picture books; Wishes by Mượn Thị Văn, and When Lola Visits by Michelle Sterling.
Join us in our kids drawing activity and bring a drawing of your grandparent to share!

Featured Books (click on the hyperlinked titles to purchase your copy!)

Wishes is a new children’s book by New York Times bestselling author Mượn Thị Văn , illustrated by Victo Ngai, published by Scholastic Books May 2021. This is an arresting, poetic journey about one Vietnamese family’s search for a new home on the other side of the world, and the long-lasting and powerful impact that it makes on the littlest member of the family. Inspired by actual events in the author’s life, this is a moving reflection on immigration, family, and home. A beautifully illustrated poem becomes a harrowing refugee flight from home into dangerous ocean waters and an unknown destiny.

WHEN LOLA VISITS is written by Michelle Sterling, illustrated by Aaron Asis and published by HarperCollins May 2021. For one young girl, summer is the season of no school, of days spent at the pool, of picking golden limes off the trees. But summer doesn’t start until her lola—her grandmother from the Philippines—comes for her annual visit. Summer is special. For her lola fills the house with the aroma of mango jam, funny stories of baking mishaps, and her quiet sweet singing in Tagalog. And in turn, her granddaughter brings Lola to the beach, to view fireworks at the park, and to catch fish at their lake. When Lola comes, the whole family gathers to cook and eat and share in their happiness of another season spent together. Yet as summer transitions to fall, her lola must return home—but not without a surprise for her granddaughter to preserve their special summer a bit longer.

This event is presented in partnership by the Oakland Asian Cultural Center and Eastwind Books of Berkeley. It is FREE and donations are greatly appreciated. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
