Oakland Asian Cultural Center

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 (America/Los_Angeles) | 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.

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

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

Lincoln School 2021 Lunar New Year Art Contest
2021-02-09 - 2021-02-28 | CA
Historically hosted by Wa Sung Service Club, Lincoln School’s annual Lunar New Year student art contest will be virtually presented in partnership with OACC for 2021 in light of the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Winners will be announced by Oakland Asian Cultural Center (OACC) at Lincoln Elementary School’s Virtual Lunar New Year Celebration on Tuesday, February 9th starting at 7pm. Winners will have their art displayed in OACC’s front windows and all entries will be published online.
Learn more about Lincoln Elementary School.
View all entries here!

"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.

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.

Closed for Holidays
2020-12-24 - 2021-01-01 | CA

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.

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

Closed for Thanksgiving
2020-11-26 - 2020-11-29 | CA

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!

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/

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/

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.

Closed for Veterans Day
2020-11-11 | CA

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

"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.

Virtual Chuseok Festival Youth Art Contest
2020-09-30 - 2020-12-31 | CA
Congratulations to our contest winners!
Artwork Returns: If you submitted a physical artwork, you can schedule to retrieve your artwork from either OACC (388 Ninth St., Ste 290 Oakland 94607) or KCI (1362 Post St, San Francisco 94109) facilities. Pickups must be requested at least one week in advance and confirmed by an OACC or KCI staff member. Please email programs@oacc.cc or chuseok@koreancentersf.org depending on which location you would like to pick up the artwork. We are unable to mail back artworks.

Quarantini Mixer: Spritz, Mix, & Drink From Home with Viridian and OACC
2020-09-25 17:00 - 19:00 | 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

Closed for Labor Day
2020-09-07 | CA

Love Me As I Am: How to Have an Inter-generational Conversation on Beauty Standards and Self-Worth
2020-08-29 14:00 - 15:00 | CA
Tickets are free to $5 – Please register here:
https://oacc.liveimpact.org/li/8737/sevent/evt/home/140115/69
Love Me As I Am: How to Have an Intergenerational Conversation on Beauty Standards and Self-Worth
You look fatter than last time — have you eaten yet? Criticism and ironic love all in one sentence — or is it? Join Susan Lieu, Cindy Nguyen, and Nelly Nguyen as they break down real Asian American family conversations, their meanings across generations, and practical tools to navigate sad awkward conversations with a hope of emotional connection.
On Saturday, August 29th, OACC will host a preview of the 140 LBS with a virtual panel discussion on beauty standards, self-worth, and how to come out of a conversation feeling more closer. Inspired by the themes conveyed in 140 LBS, the panel will examine the tension in parent-child communication and share tools to improve relationships while maintaining healthy boundaries.
Speakers:
Cindy Nguyen, a postdoctoral fellow teaching Southeast Asian history at Brown University and creator of Family Notes, a conversation toolkit to help facilitate intergenerational, multilingual conversations between loved ones
Nelly Nguyen, a retired CM analyst, Vietnam War refugee, and mother of Thi Bui, author of The Best We Could Do
Susan Lieu, playwright and performer of solo theatrical show 140 LBS: How Beauty Killed My Mother
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.
This program is supported by a grant from the Alameda County Arts Commission

Read more about the speakers:

Susan Lieu is a Vietnamese-American activist, playwright, and performer who tells stories that refuse to be forgotten. With a vision for individual and community healing—made possible through the interplay of comedy and drama—her work delves deeply into the lived realities of body insecurity, grieving, and trauma. Her first theatrical solo show, “140 LBS: HOW BEAUTY KILLED MY MOTHER” is the true story of how her mother died from plastic surgery malpractice when Lieu was 11 years old and her search to find her mother’s killer. Susan self-produced a nearly sold-out 10-city National Tour with press from L.A. Times, NPR, The Washington Post (The Lily), NBC News, American Theatre, and The Seattle Times. Lieu has performed her show and its sequel 51 times to 6000 people in the past year. Her work has been showcased with The Wing Luke Museum, The Moth at Benaroya Hall, On The Boards, and Bumbershoot. Susan has a BA from Harvard, an MBA from Yale, and is the co-founder of Socola Chocolatier, an artisanal chocolate company in San Francisco.

Cindy Nguyen is an artist-historian who works between film, poetry, and visual narrative. Her scholarship and art defies dominant narrative and meditates on the subtle textures of translation and memory. Her current multimedia project, “Mẹ [Mom], Translated” explores intergenerational language and love. Nguyen’s other major project includes MISS/MIS, a feminist exploration of all things deemed ‘mis-’ –wrong, dirty, or defiant. Her art experiments on translation, categorical impulses, and misreading emerged from her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley on Vietnamese libraries and print culture. Her essays, poetry, and film have been published in PANK Magazine, Diacritics, Ajar Press, and the Viet Film Festival. Nguyen’s scholarly research has been funded by Fulbright, Social Science Research Council, and the National Academy of Education/Spencer. With funding from the Brown Arts Initiative, Nguyen is currently producing a poetic documentary film on the language of Vietnamese refugee remembrance and history. As a postdoctoral fellow, she currently teaches Southeast Asian history at Brown University.

Nelly Nguyet M. Nguyen came to the U.S. over 42 years ago as a refugee and successfully rebuilt her life through a number of career transitions while raising her family of four children as well as caring for her husband. Now a retired CM analyst, Nelly lives in California’s Bay Area and enjoys her golden years as a mother and grandmother. Born in Cambodia to Vietnamese parents, Nelly was raised in pre-Communist Vietnam and attended French private schools throughout her childhood. After graduating from the renowned French prep school Lycee Yersin de Dalat, she went on to the University of Pedagogy of Saigon and received her Bachelor degree in 1965, specializing in French literature. She taught French at high schools all over South Vietnam until the country fell to Communist rule in 1975. An idealist who believed in the idea of a de-colonized Vietnam, Nelly remained in the country and continued to teach through the regime change. Three years later, having experienced the economic and social decline of the country and seeing no future for her children, she sought the chance for freedom and escaped Communist Vietnam by boat, bringing her entire family with her. (The family’s refugee & immigrant story is depicted in the graphic novel The Best We Could Do, by Thi Bui, Nelly’s youngest daughter.) Adapting to life in America was not without struggles and challenges, but Nelly was resolute in her aim to provide her children with a life of opportunities. As is the case with many other immigrants, she managed to overcome the numerous difficulties with hard work and dedication, eventually learning to thrive in a rising career. When she looks back on her life now, Nelly sees her ultimate achievement in her children. To have raised good human beings who are compassionate, intelligent, active in their lives and their communities – this is her definition of success and a dream realized.

Moderated by:

Terri Le has been OACC’s Development Manager since September 2019. As a first-generation Vietnamese American, Terri has a demonstrated history of working in the museum and nonprofit field in the San Francisco Bay and Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. For over ten years, Terri has worked at notable institutions including the U.S. National Archives, The Phillips Collection, Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture, VisArts at Rockville, CalShakes, Charles M. Schulz Museum, San Francisco Heritage, the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN), and the Asian Pacific-Islander Americans in Historic Preservation. Passionate about civic service in the arts, culture, and humanities field, she has an M.A. in Museum Studies and M.B.A. focused on Nonprofit Organizational Leadership from John F. Kennedy University.

San Francisco Beginnings of Korean Immigration (1902-1920)
2020-08-08 - 2020-10-04 | Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 9th Street, Suite 290, Oakland, CA 94607, Oakland, CA, 94607
Click on the banner above to access the virtual exhibit.
Watch the exhibition overview featuring curator Rosemarie Nahm and special guest Gail Whang:

This exhibit examines the lesser-known history of the early Korean immigrant community that began right here in the Bay Area. As Japan rose to power in Korea in the early 1900s, Koreans from diverse backgrounds fled their country and landed in San Francisco. San Francisco Beginnings is a rare glimpse into the lives of these early immigrants, their community and their legacies.
Curated by Rosemarie Nahm, a first generation Korean American who has been researching Korean immigration history since 2015. She is a board member of the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation.
Questions about the exhibit? Email Rosemarie at rynahm@gmail.com with the subject line “OACC Exhibit.”
Exhibition sponsored in part by the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in San Francisco and Korean American Community Foundation of San Francisco.

Healing Around Race: Creative Writing Workshop #2
2020-07-25 13:00 - 15:00 | CA
Struggling to process and confront anti-Black and anti-Asian racism within your social networks? Explore the healing power of creative writing!

The July 25th workshop focuses on “Stand Together – Creativity and Social Justice”

Eth-Noh-Tec storytellers Robert Kikuchi Yngojo and Nancy Wang, poet Jennifer Hasegawa, poet/KFPFA journalist Dennis J Bernstein, poet/musician/KPFA & POO DJ Avotcja discuss how social justice informs their art.
Participants will be invited to engage in creative writing exercises around questions like: What arts do you resonate with and why? What are your creative outlets? If I could, this is the story I’d tell.
NOTE: The workshop will be hosted on Zoom and YouTube Live with a sliding scale fee of $5~$15 to help support our presenters, organizers, tech and labor costs. If you are interested in participating but are unable to afford the ticketing tier, please email programs@oacc.cc and we would be happy to work with you on making this event accessible.
This workshop is presented in partnership with Write Now! SF Bay, UC Berkeley Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies, and Eastwind Books of Berkeley.
Recommended Readings from Eastwind Books of Berkeley.
THE ARTISTS

Photos from left to right: Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo and Nancy Wang (Eth-Noh-Tec), Jennifer Hasegawa, Dennis Bernstein, Avotcja.

Nancy Wang and Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo are Eth-Noh-Tec‘s founding artistic directors. Since 1981, Nancy’s dance, choreography and theater experience synthesizes with Robert’s musical talents, composing and theater experience, exploding their duality into a unique and choreographed expression unlike any other. Combining stylized gesture and movements with their mutual vision of the interplay between the arts and humanities, the spoken word, and music, Nancy and Robert quickly became a dynamic creative partnership, recounting age-old Asian folktales and contemporary Asian American stories. Together their performance style is a multiple of dualities: the Spiritual and the Human, the Eastern and Western, the Social and the Personal, the Traditional and the Experimental.
Together they perform around the world with several programs and workshops. They have received various awards including ‘Artist of the Year’ by National Young Audiences, and NSN’s ‘Circle of Excellence’ and ‘International StoryBridge’ awards. They are also the recipients of numerous grants.
Recent Works:
Nancy Wang, A New Pair of Wings, Parkhurst Borthers Publishers, 2016
Visit their online store for DVDs, CDs and more.
Jennifer Hasegawa is a poet and photographer. She’s sold funeral insurance door-to-door and had her suitcase stolen from a plastic surgery clinic in Paraguay. The manuscript for her first collection of poetry, La Chica’s Field Guide to Banzai Living, received the Joseph Henry Jackson Literary Award. Hasegawa’s work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, has appeared in The Adroit Journal, Bamboo Ridge, and Tule Review; and is forthcoming in Bennington Review and Vallum. She was born and raised in Hilo, Hawai‘i and lives in San Francisco.
Recent Works: La Chica’s Field Guide to Banzai Living, Omnidawn Publishing 2020
Dennis J Bernstein lives in San Francisco. is an award-winning poet and investigative reporter. He is the host and executive producer of Flashpoints on Pacifica Radio. He is the award-winning host/producer of Flashpoints, syndicated on public and community radio stations across the United States. Bernstein is the recipient of many awards including the 2015 Pillar Award in Broadcast Journalism. His essays have appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, Denver Post, Philadelphia Enquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, the Boston Globe, Der Spiegel, and many more. He is the author of Special Ed: Voices from a Hidden Classroom and Five Oceans in a Teaspoon.
Recent Works: Five Oceans in a Teaspoon, Paper Crown Press 2019
Radio: Flashpoints, Mondays-Fridays, 5-6 pm
Avotcja (pronounced Avacha) has been published in English & Spanish in the USA, Mexico & Europe. She’s an award winning Poet & multi-instrumentalist. She’s a popular Bay Area DJ & Radio Personality & leader of the group “Avotcja & Modúpue.” She is featured on the CD Matter Is by the Electric Squeezebox Orchestra + voices.
Spoken word with Electric Squeezebox Orchestra:
“Matter Is” and “Soundly Metaphysical,” Matter Is, Electric Squeezebox Orchestra + Voices
Poetry online (see poem below):
http://www.avotcja.org/oaktown-blue.html
http://www.avotcja.org/poetic-offerings.html
Radio:
Bebop, Cubop and the Musical Truth, Tuesdays 8-10pm in KPFA.org or KPFA-FM 94.1
La Verdad Musical (the Musical Truth), Fridays njoon-3pm on www.KOO.org or 89.5 FM
Monthly Open Mic:
Every 4th Saturday 3-5pm. The Music of the Word (La Palabra Musical)
YouTube performance Avotcja and Modupue – Concert at Bird & Beckett Books, Jan 5, 2020, featuring Avotcja Jiltonilro, Sandi Poindexter (violin), Francis Wong (sax & flute) Jon Jang (piano), Sascha Jacobsen (bass), Raul Ramirez (Afro-Peruvian multi-percussion). Video by Lenore Chinn.
I Know We Can!!!
We have been here before
We’ve sang in the face of the Klan
And danced with feet all bloody
On the decks of Slave Ships
On the “Longest Walk”
On Freedom Marches, in Jail cells
And Concentration Camps
Oooops Ghettos
That we we’re supposed to call our home
We know this place
The Concrete Jungles, the Reservations
A curse of & by the uncivilized
Who have forgotten
The healing beauty of Grass & Trees
And the gift of clean Water to drink
And have lost their ability to love
We are familiar with
The senseless mayhem of perpetual War
The addictive lust for power
The intoxication of blood lust
And those who prefer
The inhumane sacrifice of their Souls
As they try to steal ours
Yes
We have been here before
We know the Hanging Tree, the rope
The rape of our bodies, our Cultures
The theft of our Songs & our Children
We have swam through the slime of misogyny
We’ve been here… we know
Racism, greed & stupidity have no conscious
And it is only a matter of time
Before the insatiable self-destruct
Before they devour each other
We’ve been through it all before
And we can get through it all again
We just have to be careful
Very careful…
The madness of this Narcotic is contagious
We must not get drunk on the stench of this poison
We have too much work to do
We must turn this suicidal Drug
Into fertilizer & let our tears
Fall down on deserts, glaciers & jungles
And run down the faces of
Good hearted people everywhere
I cry & I cry & I cry &
My tears come down like a Waterfall
An unending Waterfall for all the victims of
“Civilization”
We have been here before & together we can heal!
I know we can!!!

CREATIVE WRITING FACILITATOR

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

Foundational Cooking Class Series: Session 4
2020-07-14 11:00 - 12:00 | CA
Learn foundational cooking skills this summer!
Join the Cooking Project for a 4 week class series, meeting online Tuesdays starting on June 23rd.
7/14 Theme: “Food Trends, Cookies & Ice Cream”
INGREDIENTS (Cookies)

4 1/2 oz. Butter, unsalted
6 oz. Sugar, granulated
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
7 oz. Bread flour
1/8 oz. Salt
1/8 oz. Baking soda

INGREDIENTS (Ice cream)

1 cup Heavy cream
2 tsp. Vanilla
1 tsp. Salt
2 cups Powdered sugar

TOOLS/EQUIPMENT

Whisk
Large bowl
Sheet pan
Measuring cups & spoons
Spatula

Award-winning Chef Sicily Johnson guides cooking through themes like Food + Community; Shopping and Budgeting; Sustainability, Versatility and Leftovers; and Food Trends. Students will have the opportunity to make recipe requests for the final class.
To sign up and receive additional details, simply RSVP. Classes are free, donations appreciated.
Visit thecookingproject.org to learn more about the organization.

Healing Around Race: Creative Writing Workshop #1
2020-07-11 13:00 - 15:00 | CA
Missed the workshop? View the recording here.
Information shared during the workshop:

Presenter books and links:

– Shizue Seigel
Websites: https://www.shizueseigel.com/ https://www.writenowsf.com/
Shizue Seigel, ed. Standing Strong! Fillmore & Japantown (Pease Press 2016)
Shizue Seigel, ed. Endangered species, Enduring Values (Pease Press 2018)
Shizue Seigel, ed. Endangered species, Enduring Values (Pease Press 2019)

– Tureeda Mikell. https://www.treeoflifefound.com/.
Poetry: Synchronicity: The Oracle of Sun Medicine

– Ravi Chandra, MD
Websites: https://ravichandramd.com/ https://www.sflovedojo.org/
The Pacific Heart blog
Psychology Today: The Assault on the American Mind
https://ravichandramd.com/press-and-other-writing/
– Kelechi Ubozoh https://kelechiubozoh.com/
Anthology: 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

Other Resources

Recommended Readings from Eastwind Books: https://www.asiabookcenter.com/apps/search?q=black+lives+matter&filter=product
James Baldwin Go Tell It On The Mountain
3. The People’s Free Medical Clinics

Brene Brown Values exercise (PDF): Dr. Chandra spoke about love as his central value. There are other values. Pick a value from the list on this PDF, and write a paragraph about why it is important to you, and how it has and has not been fully present in your life.
It’s About Time Black Panther Party Legacy and Alumni photo gallery

Upcoming Related Events
– 7/19 “Panel: LET HER TELL IT! Black Women Healing Through Writing” featuring Kelechi Ubozoh
– 7/25 “Healing from Racism # 2: Creativity and Social Justice” Creative Writing Workshop by OACC, Write Now! SF Bay, UC Berkeley Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies, UC Berkeley Public Service Center, and Eastwind Books of Berkeley.

Call to Action: contact Congress about the ICE ban on International Students!
Templates & instructions available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1traDiLhSKTC2PHTsLgiXtWwXyMn1V3sPvqCbi_YRTeI/edit

Struggling to process and confront anti-Black and anti-Asian racism within your social networks? Explore the healing power of creative writing!

The July 11th creative writing workshop focuses on “Mental Health and Multiracial Solidarity.”

Mental health advocates Kelechi Ubozoh and Shizue Seigel, psychiatrist Ravi Chandra, and storyteller/medicine woman Tureeda Mikell discuss anti-Black/anti-Asian racism with tools for self-care, and creative writing for healing.
Participants will be invited to engage in creative writing exercises around questions like: What are you thinking and feeling right now? How were you personally impacted by George Floyd’s murder and subsequent events. Have you personally experienced or witnessed anti-black or anti-Asian racism? What was your response? How would you respond differently today? How do you respond to stress? What are you doing for self-care? How to deal with parents and peer pressure?
NOTE: The workshop will be hosted on Zoom and YouTube Live with a sliding scale fee of $5~$15 to help support our presenters, organizers, tech and labor costs. If you are interested in participating but are unable to afford the ticketing tier, please email programs@oacc.cc and we would be happy to work with you on making this event accessible.
This workshop is presented in partnership with Write Now! SF Bay, UC Berkeley Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies, and Eastwind Books of Berkeley.
Recommended Readings from Eastwind Books of Berkeley.

THE ARTISTS

Photos from left to right: Kelechi Ubozoh, Shizue Seigel, Ravi Chandra, Tureed Mikell.

Kelechi Ubozoh is a Nigerian-American writer, mental health advocate, and public speaker. For nearly a decade, Kelechi has worked in the California mental health system in the areas of research and advocacy, community engagement, stigma reduction, and peer support. She began her career as an investigative reporter in New York City, and was the first student-reporter ever published in The New York Times. Learn more about Kelechi at KelechiUbozoh.com. Photo Credit by: Adrianne Mathiowetz.

Recent Works: 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
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
Ravi Chandra, M.D. is a psychiatrist and writer in San Francisco, and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Facebuddha: Transcendence in the Age of Social Networks is his full-length nonfiction debut, and is the winner of the 2017 Nautilus Silver Book Award for Religion/Spirituality of Eastern Thought. He is also the founder of SF Love Dojo, an organization teaching compassion and self-compassion.
Recent Works:

A Dream Deferred: Langston Hughes, Then and Now | Psychology Today

After Charlottesville: Is Racism a Mental Illness? | Psychology Today

Fighting Racism Against Asian Americans During COVID-19 | Psychology Today

Calling COVID-19 a “Chinese Virus” or “Kung Flu” Is Racist | Psychology Today

Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings and Asian American Erasure | Psychology Today

Tureeda Mikell, Poet, Story Medicine Woman, named, D’jeli Musa, Woman of Truths, called an activist for holism, is a Chi Gong Energy Therapist, lyricist, executive director of, Tree of Life Foundation Literacy Health Project, has published over seventy student anthologies of poetry for as risk youth via CA Poets in the Schools, throughout San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa and Jefferson Unified School Districts since 1989.
Recent Works: Synchronicity: The Oracle of Sun Medicine, Nomadic Press
