Asian American / Asian Research Institute

Min Kwon: America/Beautiful 250
2026-06-18 - 2026-06-20 | The Green-Wood Cemetery Catacombs, 500 25th St, Brooklyn, NY, 11232
For her project America/Beautiful, Korean-American pianist Min Kwon commissioned almost eighty leading composers across the United States to each write a variation on America the Beautiful, producing a vast mosaic of voices, aesthetics, identities, and histories. No two variations are alike. Some are tender and lyrical, others bracing and dissonant; some meditate, others protest. Together they form a living portrait of a country in conversation with itself. Now, as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, Kwon returns to the Catacombs with music from this monumental project – timed to the release of her complete recording of all 76 variations. What began as a question has become a document of its time: a sonic archive of how America’s leading creative voices, in all their diversity, heard this moment in history.

Lupus and Pregnancy: An Interdisciplinary Approach
2026-06-17 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | NY
Presented by Jill P. Buyon, MD, Sir Deryck and Lady Va Maughan Professor of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine; Director, Division of Rheumatology; Co-Director, Colton Center for Autoimmunity; Director, Lupus Center. Join us for an insightful discussion on lupus, pregnancy, and interdisciplinary care.

Critical Comparison: Sanctions on North Korea vs. Iran
2026-06-17 17:00 - 18:00 | The Korea Society, 350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor, NY, 10017, United States
Join us for a conversation with Dr. Jonathan Brewer, Visiting Professor at King’s College, London, on the differences, similarities, and trajectories of international sanctions on North Korea and Iran. In conversation with policy director Jonathan Corrado, Dr. Brewer discusses evolving UN Security Council sanctions, their utility within larger diplomatic frameworks, their implementation and circumvention, and North Korea and Iran’s proliferation and financing strategies for their sanctioned programs. Dr. Brewer was Acting Coordinator of the UN Panel of Experts on North Korea and financial expert of the UN Panel on Iran. This program is made possible by the generous support of the Korea Foundation and our individual and corporate members.

Immigration to the City of Dreams: An Author Talk with Tyler Anbinder
2026-06-16 18:30 - 20:00 | Bronx Library Center, 310 East Kingsbridge Road, Bronx, NY, 10458
Join us at Bronx Library Center for a conversation with historian and author Tyler Anbinder, in conversation with curator Monxo López, as he shares both the oft-told and hidden histories of immigration in New York City, along with his experience writing City of Dreams: The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York. From immigrants who made a big splash like iconoclast anarchist Emma Goldman or legendary fashion designer Oscar de La Renta, to the underrecognized and often underpaid but vital work of thousands and thousands immigrants today, Anbinder covers 400 years of immigration history in the Big Apple.

Japan, Beyond the Genkan - A Conversation with Joshua W. Walker on Japan’s Global Role
2026-06-16 18:00 - 20:00 | Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, New York, NY, 10017, United States
Japan Society presents a conversation with Dr. Joshua W. Walker, President and CEO, on the themes explored in his recent bookJapan, Beyond the Genkan. At a time of heightened global interest in Japan and shifting dynamics in U.S. alliances, Japan, Beyond the Genkan blends cultural perspectives with broader diplomatic and political insights, while simultaneously examining how Japan’s values, social dynamics, and global role shape its engagement with the world today.

Art Analysis Writing Workshop
2026-06-15 19:30 - 21:00 | Yu and Me Books, 44 Mulberry St, New York, 10013, United States
Join us for an Art Analysis Writing Workshop where we’ll be analyzing short stories, poetry, and visual art. In this encouraging space, we are cultivating an inviting environment for you to hone in on your own unique voice.

AANHPI Civic Engagement: Voting Rights Post-Callais Decision
2026-06-15 13:00 - 14:00 | NY
AAPIP is convening a funder briefing to address what the Callais decision means, what organizations need, and where philanthropy can act before 2026 election maps are finalized.

Mourning the Ming or Mourning the Self? Writing Dream of the Red Chamber and Reading It Across Time
2026-06-13 20:00 - 21:30 | NY
Since its emergence in the eighteenth century, Dream of the Red Chamber has been widely regarded as the greatest novel in the Chinese literary tradition. Written over more than a decade by Cao Xueqin under conditions of poverty and without patronage, the novel was left unfinished at the author’s death. Yet despite censorship, repeated bans, and its early circulation only in manuscript form, it achieved extraordinary vitality among readers and went on to inspire countless adaptations in drama, film, and television.
This lecture explores how Dream of the Red Chamber has been written, read, and reinterpreted across different historical moments. From its early reception as a work of emotional and artistic brilliance, through the late Qing and Republican debates between allegorical “hidden meaning” interpretations and modern textual scholarship, to its Marxist readings in the socialist era, the novel has continually been reshaped by changing intellectual and political climates.
By tracing the novel’s transmission history and major interpretive frameworks, this lecture asks a broader question: how can an unfinished work remain endlessly generative, inviting each generation to read its own concerns into its pages? In doing so, Dream of the Red Chamber emerges not only as a literary masterpiece, but as a mirror reflecting the evolving cultural psyche of China itself.

Play - Until the First Snow (Show 1)
2026-06-13 19:00 - 21:00 | Theatre Row Theatres, 410 West 42nd Street, New York, NY, 10036
Pan Asian Rep culminates its 49th Milestone Season with the annual NuWorks Festival, an experimental series of self-created work from innovative artists exploring an eclectic range of genres and techniques using poetry, text, dance and music.
Synopsis
Amid the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, Kelly travels to her grandmother’s home on the outskirts of Seoul, where past and present blur and fractured memories uncover a buried family history that reshapes her sense of identity and inner strength.

Dragon Boat Family Festival
2026-06-13 14:00 - 17:00 | Museum of Chinese in America, 215 Centre Street, New York, NY, 10013
Family Festivals are bustling events with lots of sights, sounds, and aromas. There is limited stroller parking available, with a staff-operated lift used to reach the restrooms and lower level spaces. We recommend families with sensory concerns join our MOCACREATE events to celebrate the holiday.

High Line Plinth: Lectures & Meditations – Healing Through Ritual
2026-06-13 14:00 - 15:00 | High Line Spur at 30th St, 10th Av, 30th Street & 10th Avenue, New York, NY, 10001, United States
Featuring a lecture by Lama Justin von Bujdoss, this session explores the role of ritual practice and meditation in transforming grief, loss, and violence into resilience and collective care. Drawing connections between Buddhist traditions and contemporary social justice work, the session considers how ceremony, blessing, meditation, and performed rituals can support processes of healing.
The lecture will be followed by a guided meditation by Jungwon Kim, a Zen practitioner of the Plum Village Tradition and the facilitator for Love Circle, a Brooklyn-based BIPOC sangha.
Rain date: June 14, 2 – 3pm

AI Summit: Shaping the Future Together
2026-06-13 10:00 - 16:30 | China Institute of America, 40 Rector Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY
Part of China Institute’s Centennial Celebration Series

As China Institute celebrates its 100th anniversary, join us for a landmark AI Summit bringing together leading voices from technology, finance, education, culture, and entrepreneurship to explore how artificial intelligence is transforming our world.
Featuring thought-provoking panels, networking opportunities, and student AI research showcases, the summit offers a unique opportunity to learn from industry leaders, connect with fellow innovators, and engage with the next generation of AI talent. The event will also launch the AI New Generation Initiative, supporting AI education, innovation, and leadership within the community. Student AI research posters will be displayed at the event.

Theater: Pan Asian Rep’s NuWorks 2026
2026-06-13 - 2026-06-21 | Theater Row, 410 West 42nd Street, New York, NY, 10036, United States
Pan Asian Rep culminates its 49th Milestone Season with the annual NuWorks Festival, an experimental series of self-created work from innovative artists exploring an eclectic range of genres and techniques using poetry, text, dance and music.

A+ Asian Comedy. Asian Stand Up Comedy
2026-06-12 20:00 - 21:30 | Broadway Comedy Club, 318 West 53rd Street, New York, NY, 10019, United States
A+ Asian Comedy is the ultimate Asian stand up comedy show, filled with the funniest Asian comedians New York City has to offer. Our comics can be seen on Netflix, HBO, and Comedy Central, but nothing compares to seeing them perform live at the world famous Broadway Comedy Club. Tickets are limited, so purchase yours now and enjoy the show!

Queens World Film Festival and FTH Present Prideful Poetry
2026-06-12 18:30 - 21:00 | Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd, Flushing, NY, 11354, United States
Queens World Film Festival and FTH proudly present Prideful Poetry, an intimate, high-energy evening centering LGBTQ+ voices through the power of poetry and spoken word. This curated event invites poets and community members to gather, connect, and share their work with an enthusiastic audience in the FTH gallery. Hosted by Avant Garbage, Prideful Poetry will feature Pelayo AF, Cerulean Chen Long, KayTheePoet (Kayla Dudley), Hoshiko Hsu, Stevie Latham, Joseph O. Legaspi, David Nazario, and Kir O’Hanlon. The lineup is curated by Queens World Film Festival Founding Executive Director Katha Cato who, alongside FTH, welcomes audiences to a special experience where every poem is an offering and every listener is part of the exchange.

Screening - THE GAS STATION ATTENDANT
2026-06-12 - 2026-06-18 | DCTV, 87 Lafayette St, New York, NY, 10013
As a young boy, H. N. Shantha Murthy ran away from home to escape the extreme poverty of his Indian village. He traveled the country in search of work, dreaming that one day his life would change. It did, following a serendipitous encounter with a couple visiting India from Houston, Texas. But life in the States was not exactly the “American Dream” come true. Karla Murthy’s film weaves together home videos and phone conversations recorded while her father worked as a gas station attendant in Texas. Alongside his story, she reflects on her own experiences as the daughter of immigrants (her mother is from the Philippines), trying to make a life of her own in New York City, and now as a mother of two boys. What emerges is an intimate love letter – a meditation on a complicated father-daughter relationship and a poignant tribute to the immigrant working class.
Special Engagements:

Fri Jun 12, 7pm: Post-Screening Q&A with director Karla Murthy and writer Mira Jacob
Sat Jun 13, 6pm: Post-Screening Q&A with director Karla Murthy and composer and podcaster Jad Abumrad
Sun Jun 14, 5pm: Post-Screening Q&A with director Karla Murthy and executive producer and founder of Basement Bhangra DJ Rekha
Thu Jun 18, 6:30pm: Post-Screening Q&A with director Karla Murthy and Economic Hardship Reporting Project’s Alissa Quart

MOCA x NYAFF Film Club: Pushing Hands
2026-06-11 18:30 - 21:00 | 215 Centre St, New York, NY 10013, USA, 215 Centre St, New York, NY, 10013
MOCA x NYAFF Film Club is a quarterly program celebrating the brilliance and boldness of Asian and Asian American cinema. This series highlights films of historic and cultural significance under the theme Margin, spotlighting daring films that challenge the norm, rewrite narratives, and push boundaries.
Each session is more than just a movie night—it’s an opportunity to connect, discover, and engage. This year’s screenings are scheduled for May 7, June 11, September 24, and December 10. Following the screening, join us for a moderated conversation to explore the film’s themes, creative impact, and cultural context. Attendees are encouraged to share their thoughts and continue the dialogue during a casual networking reception afterward.
Don’t miss this chance to immerse yourself in the world of bold cinema and meaningful connections. Let’s watch, chat, and celebrate together!

Labor, Cultural Work, and More Ways to Organize the City
2026-06-11 18:00 - 20:00 | Wing On Wo & Co, 26 Mott Street, New York, NY, 10013, United States
This conversation draws crucial connections between cultural work and labor organizing in working-class communities across New York City. Bringing together organizers, artists, and community members, the event traces how struggles over labor and land are deeply intertwined—from tenants organizing against evictions in Chinatown to campaigns resisting casino development in Flushing, and movements to decriminalize sex work—we ask: are there other ways to organize the city? What forms of solidarity are necessary to build communities rooted in care? By placing past and present organizing in dialogue, this program invites us to consider what forms of organizing are needed in this moment, and how we build toward more sustainable futures for Chinatown residents and all working-class communities.
Whether you’ve been part of W.O.W. since the beginning or are just getting to know the work, we welcome you to join us for an evening of reflection, celebration, and community.

Power Building for Racial Equity
2026-06-11 11:00 - 17:30 | NY
This workshop focuses on the role of power when addressing systemic racism and advancing racial justice. Systemic racism is a system of power–hierarchical, coercive, and oppressive power–based on race. Racial justice, to be achieved and sustained, also requires power–inclusive, collective, and liberatory power. As we do the work of racial justice, power plays a critical role and needs to be explicitly examined and deliberately transformed. When power is ignored, unjust patterns of power can be unintentionally replicated. This workshop provides an opportunity for reflection, sharing tips and tools, and exploring ways to transform power in your racial justice work, whether internal-facing (within your organization) and/or external-facing (with your community or the broader society).
Racial and social justice activists, organizers, and educators are seeking more frameworks and tools for deepening their work.

Vulnerable Populations of Asian Women at Risk for HIV: Updates and Ongoing Research
2026-06-10 19:00 - 20:00 | NY
Presented by Sahnah Lim, PhD, MPH, MIA, Associate Professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Join us for a meaningful conversation exploring public health, stigma reduction, and community-centered care.

New Thinking on Korea's Aging, Shrinking Society with Professor Youngtae Cho
2026-06-10 19:00 - 20:00 | NY
Join us for a virtual program exploring new thinking on Korea’s aging, shrinking society with Dr. Youngtae Cho, Director of the Population Policy Research Center and professor of demography at the School of Public Health at Seoul National University (SNU).

Unlearning Patterns & Reclaiming Choice Self Awareness Workshop
2026-06-10 18:30 - 21:00 | The Chai Spot, 156 Mott Street, New York, NY, 10013, United States
Many of us grew up learning to be everything for everyone — the good daughter, the high achiever, the one who never complained. We absorbed patterns, beliefs, and expectations that were never ours to begin with. And somewhere along the way, we lost the thread back to ourselves.

Aisha Fukushima's Mostly Water - Reading & Reception
2026-06-10 18:00 - 20:00 | Butler Library, 535 West 114th St, New York, NY, 10027
Join us for a reading and reception to celebrate Aisha Fukushima’s new book, Mostly Water. Presented by the Yuri Kochiyama Solidarity Project, in collaboration with the Rare Book & Manuscript Library (RBML) at Columbia University.
Mostly Water is a poetry collection born from years of navigating social norms that fail to capture what it means to be mixed. Drawing on her lived experiences as a Black and Japanese person growing up between the U.S. and Japan, Aisha Fukushima explores what it means to live from mixed roots. Moving through her grandmother’s kitchen, hair salons, and post-WWII Afro-Japanese histories, Fukushima challenges narrow frameworks around racial belonging. Here, abundance replace the racialized math of halves and quarters. From micro-aggressions to quiet prayers, each stanza is a lyric within a larger freedom song.
These poems are an opening — an offering for anyone who has ever searched for language spacious enough to hold who they truly are. We are, after all, mostly water — fluid, uncontainable, beyond measure

Committee of 100 Conversations – Calvin Tsao
2026-06-10 18:00 - 19:00 | NY
We are pleased to invite you to attend our 14th Committee of 100 Conversations – “Recollections, Pioneers and Heroes” event on June 10, 2026 that will feature Calvin Tsao, a leading architect, philanthropist, and educator.
Calvin Tsao, FAIA is a leading voice in contemporary architecture, whose work draws from a deep engagement with a variety of art forms and from an interdisciplinary approach encompassing urban planning, architecture, interior design, and product design. He has also been a major contributor to the arts, architecture and scholarship through his family foundation and his personal activities.
Chinese Americans have contributed greatly to advance the success of this country in many walks of life – science, the arts, agriculture, philanthropy, political leadership, architecture, business, and more.
The Committee of 100 Conversations Initiative features interviews of Chinese Americans who have contributed to the success of America through their pioneering efforts, heroic achievements, or recollections of important events. Each interview will start with a live broadcast, followed by video and podcast recordings that will be available as part of a library of the interviews.
Committee of 100’s purpose is to provide leadership and act as a constructive force in promoting the full participation of all Chinese Americans in American society and acting as a public policy resource for the Chinese-American community; and advancing constructive dialogue and relationships between the peoples and leaders of the United States and Greater China.

Defend & Empower: Birthright Citizenship
2026-06-10 15:00 - 16:00 | NY
Join Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC for our Defend & Empower: Birthright Citizenship on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 at 3pm ET (12 PT).

The Complex: An Evening with Karan Mahajan
2026-06-09 18:30 - 20:00 | Library for Arts & Culture, 10 Lafayette Ave, Second Floor, Brooklyn, NY, 11217
In celebration of Karan Mahajan’s third novel, The Complex, Yaddo is delighted to partner with the Brooklyn Public Library to bring you an evening with the brilliant author whose “magisterial” fiction explores ambition, family, love, and political power in Modi’s India.

The Brown Girl Reset: Redefining Wellness, Healing, and Self Care for the Modern South Asian Woman
2026-06-09 18:30 - 20:00 | CUNY Graduate Center (Martin Segal Theatre), 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10016
Join the American Malayali Heritage Foundation for a vital panel discussion challenging cultural norms and prioritizing women’s holistic well-being.

Asian American Career Ceilings “An Advice and Networking Event (Legal)”
2026-06-09 18:00 - 19:00 | NY
We are pleased to invite you to the 58th event organized by the Committee of 100 Asian American Career Ceilings Initiative. This virtual event will enable Asian Americans who are in the early to mid-stages of their careers to get valuable advice from experienced and successful Asian Americans in the legal industry. We have been holding this event for different professions in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

We will start with welcoming comments and introduction to the advisors, followed by virtual breakout rooms where the experienced Asian American advisors will host individual breakout rooms that attendees can join. The attendees will have a list of the experienced advisors in advance and will be able to choose which breakout rooms they want to visit to get career advice and to ask questions. The attendees will be able to move from room to room as they wish.

This will be a unique opportunity to explore career paths in the legal profession with experienced practitioners, at law firms or in-house, and make personal connections. Discussions will be frank and informative as each breakout room host will answer your questions and share personal insights and their stories of succeeding in the legal career.

We hope this event will help those of you who are getting ready to start your summer associate program, about to join law firms in the fall, or are junior or mid-level practitioners to enhance your career planning. We hope that this event will help you overcome obstacles and accelerate your careers.

Screening - Making Waves: The Rise of Asian America
2026-06-09 17:30 - 19:30 | NY
We cordially invite you to a screening and discussion of ‘Making Waves: The Rise of Asian America’ co-directed by Jon Osaki and Josh Chuck. The film explores the vital role of Ethnic Studies in redefining the narrative and promoting service to Asian American communities across the country. From the birth of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley and San Francisco State to present-day movements, Making Waves documents the stories of Asian American activism and efforts to lift up Ethnic Studies as a strategy to address present and future waves of anti-Asian hate.

Building Racial Equity: Foundations – Virtual
2026-06-09 11:00 - 17:30 | NY
In a moment unlike any we have faced as a global community, Race Forward believes that Racial Justice is more important than ever. In order to embed Racial Equity into all of our day to day operations as well as our responses in this moment we must continue to hold fast to a commitment that enables us to learn, grow and practice racial equity work together.
