Writer David Mura will conduct a conversation on the arts and race with three nationally prominent Asian American artists—poet and spoken word artist Bao Phi, community organizer Linda Her, and dancer/choreographer Ananya Chaterjea, founder of the Ananya Dance Theatre. Among our topics: the position of Asian Americans in American society, culture and history; the intersections between Asian Americans and other communities of color; and the complex issues facing Asian American artists. A key su...
Writer David Mura will conduct a conversation on the arts and race with three nationally prominent Asian American artists—poet and spoken word artist Bao Phi, community organizer Linda Her, and dancer/choreographer Ananya Chaterjea, founder of the Ananya Dance Theatre. Among our topics: the position of Asian Americans in American society, culture and history; the intersections between Asian Americans and other communities of color; and the complex issues facing Asian American artists. A key subject will be Asian American arts activism, including ADT’s mission of social justice as well as the protests over the Ordway’s production of Miss Saigon and the shooting of Fong Lee by a Minneapolis policeman.
Among Asian Americans, the Twin Cities have come to be regarded as a key center for Asian American arts and activism. Locally, though, Asian Americans are still not integral to most people’s picture of Minnesota. Similarly, in so many conversations about race, Asian Americans are either not included or are relegated to an “add on” to other people of color. Our panel will address these silences, occlusions and omissions, and provide a more nuanced and complex view of Asian Americans and Asian American artists.
This conversation is part of a series of four conversations on the arts and race at the Loft as part of David Mura’s Arts Initiative Grant. David Mura is a fiscal year 2015 recipient of an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Ananya Chatterjea, dancer, choreographer, dance scholar, and dance educator, envisions her work in the field of dance as a “call to action“ with a particular focus on women artists of color. She the Artistic Director of Ananya Dance Theatre, a dance company of women artists of color who believe in the powerful intersection of artistic excellence and social justice (www.ananyadancetheatre.org). ADT premieres one or more new works annually in the Twin Cities, commissions new music for each new work, and offers touring performances, workshops, and dialogues throughout the year. Ananya is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theater Arts and Dance, and Director of Dance at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Her book, Butting out! Reading cultural politics in the work of Chandralekha and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, was published by Wesleyan University Press in 2004. Ananya has received grants from prestigious organizations such as the Asian Arts Initiative, McKnight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation.
Bao Phi is the author of the poetry collection Song I Sing (Coffee House Press). Phi has been a two time Minnesota Grand Slam champion and a National Poetry Slam finalist, and appeared on the HBO series Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry. His work has been featured in the Best American Poetry, Screaming Monkeys, and Spoken Word Revolution Redux. His poetry on CD includes Refugeography and The Nguyens EP. He performs across the country, acts as an Asian American Community member, is a member of the Don’t Buy Miss Saigon Coalition, and was a member of the Justice for Fong Lee Committee. He is the Program Director of the Loft Literary Center. He is a fiscal year 2015 recipient of an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Phi lives in Minneapolis with his daughter.
Linda Her is Associate Director of Asian American Organizing Project and also a Hmong American, queer-feminist writer/poet. Linda has extensive experiences on community organizing on LGBTQ and racial justice, and worked in different ranges of social justice issues, civic engagements, political campaigns, committees, and nonprofit organizations. In 2012, she was the St. Paul Field Organizer for President Obama’s grassroots re-election campaign and co-organized the Asian American's for Obama program that incorporated efforts to defeat the Marriage Amendment and Voter ID.
Linda is a dedicated community organizer with Trust Project Mn (fb.com/TrustProjectMN) – empowering women of color to trust their voices through reproductive justice framework utilizing storytelling, and Midwest Solidarity Movement (fb.com/MidWestSMovement) – currently a collective of LGBTQ Southeast Asian/Asian American organizers building for AAPI and Communities of Color solidarity in the Midwest; using activism, arts, and narratives to organize at the intersections for social justice.
David Mura is a poet, creative nonfiction writer, fiction writer, critic, playwright, and performance artist. Mura has written two memoirs: Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei, which won a 1991 Josephine Miles Book Award from the Oakland PEN and was listed in the New York Times Notable Books of Year, and Where the Body Meets Memory: An Odyssey of Race, Sexuality and Identity (1996). His novel Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire (2008), was a finalist for the John Gardner Fiction Prize and Virginia Commonwealth University Cabell First Novelist Award. Mura’s newest poetry collection is The Last Incantations. His second, The Colors of Desire (1995), won the Carl Sandburg Literary Award. His first, After We Lost Our Way won the 1989 National Poetry Series Contest. His book of literary criticism is Song for Uncle Tom, Tonto & Mr. Moto: Poetry & Identity in the University of Michigan’s Poets on Poetry series. In 1993, Mura and African American writer Alexs Pate created a multi-media performance piece, Secret Colors, about their lives as men of color and Asian American-African American relations. A film adaptation of this piece, Slowly This, was broadcast in the PBS series ALIVE TV in July/August 1995.