Asian American / Asian Research Institute
The City University of New York
This presentation examines survey results from three screenings of The Cost of Living (2023, Sixty First Productions), a documentary highlighting the financial struggles of three families in Flushing.
For this symposium, AAARI has invited students, scholars, community organizers, and/or practitioners to share their innovative research and creative works, pedagogical projects, programmatic efforts, and other activities that address the broad scope of “AAPI Identities.”
Discussion on the work of the Armenian-American Action Network, an U.S. advocacy and research organization fighting anti-Armenian racism in the United States and forwarding Armenian and all communities’ civil rights, immigrant rights and refugee rights.
Co-editor Rose Kim will discuss the origins of the book and read from her chapter, “Twenty Years at CUNY: A Political Coming-of-Age.” Prof. Kim will be joined by contributor Linda Luu who will read from their chapter, “Resistance Everywhere We Went: The Fight for Asian American Studies at CUNY.”
Bringing together grassroots organizers and scholar-activists, Contemporary Asian American Activism presents lived experiences of the fight for transformative justice and offers lessons to ensure the longevity and sustainability of organizing. In the face of imperialism, white supremacy, racial capitalism, heteropatriarchy, ableism, and more, the contributors celebrate victories and assess failures, reflect on the trials of activist life, critically examine long-term movement building, and inspire continued mobilization for coming generations.
While these education organizing groups had similar goals and worked in the same political context, they frequently employed divergent political strategies in their campaigns. My talk will draw upon 18 months of ethnographic research I conducted with four education organizing groups in the South Bronx. It will focus on the ways in which the groups’ organizational toolkits made a difference, and how grassroots organizations can work more effectively towards substantive social change.