Asian American / Asian Research Institute
The City University of New York
Over the last 25 years hundreds of thousands of new immigrants have been arriving in New York City from rural areas near Fuzhou, southeast China. Fuzhounese immigrants, many undocumented, work primarily in restaurant, construction and garment industries. In the last few years, their children have begun to attend Baruch College—a senior college in the City University … Read more
Actor and playwright Jeanne Sakata will share her experiences in researching and writing her solo play HOLD THESE TRUTHS, inspired by the World War II experiences of Gordon Hirabayashi, a Japanese American college student who openly defied and legally challenged government orders to mass incarcerate all people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast.Jeanne will … Read more
Author Mingmei Yip will read from her new novel Skeleton Women, a Chinese phrase for femmes fatales. The novel tells the story is about three women — Camilla, a nightclub singer who has been forced to become a spy, Shadow a magician who jumps naked off a tall building, and a gender-ambiguous gossip columnist. All must … Read more
In his lecture, “The Peripheral Imagination: Writing the Invisible India”, Aruni Kashyap will talk about his journey as a writer from India’s northeast – a region that rarely finds representation in India’s literary, cultural and political discourse. He will also briefly discuss the Assamese separatist movement: the backdrop against which his forthcoming novel unfolds. The … Read more
Lupus, a chronic, autoimmune illness, occurs more frequently and with more severity in the Asian community than among whites. It can have a widespread effect on one’s body as it may affect different major organs, such as the kidneys, heart, skin, lungs, or central nervous system. A challenge in lupus assessment is that the illness … Read more
Poet/playwright Chungmi Kim will talk about her journey as a Korean American poet/playwright. She will read poems from her second book of poetry, Glacier Lily (Red Hen Press, 2004). Rooted in her bi-cultural experiences, her poems depict many aspects of her life in Korea and America with deep emotion and keen observation. Haunted between the … Read more