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Calendar
KSW programs and events.
March 2007
Friday, March 2, 2007
Present Tense Opening Reception
On Friday, March 2nd, the Chinese Culture Center, in partnership with Kearny Street Workshop, presents the opening reception for Present Tense, a new visual exhibition showcasing the talents of young, emerging Chinese American artists. Featuring work by Susanna Kwan, Lauren M. Wong, Niana Liu, Max Chen, Amy Ho, Lucy Kalyani Lin, Marcus Lo, Sylvia La, Erin Ng, Jocelyn Shu, Sharon E.O. Hing, Stephanie Lie, and Amy Lam, this group exhibition offers a vibrant, lush, and expansive view into the intriguing work of new voices from the San Francisco Bay Area.
From Amy Lam’s Anita Mui Yim-Fong-inspired video altar installation, Madonna of Asia, to the grafitti-influenced Bay Area visual serenades of Marcus Lo, to Lauren M. Wong’s ink-and-colored-paper commentary on The Matriarch, to Sylvia La’s quietly powerful paintings on the Asian American experience, to the uncomfortably intimate sound installation of Lucy Kalyani Lin, this show promises to intrigue and challenge its viewers, presenting a diverse portrait of young Chinese America.
On display from March 2 to May 19th, Present Tense opens alongside In Search of Roots, a presentation of the Chinese Culture Center in partnership with the Chinese Historical Society of America.
Event: Opening Reception for Present Tense and In Search of Roots
Date/Time:
Opening reception: Friday, March 2nd , 2007; 6 -9pm
Exhibition runs 3/2 – 5/19; gallery hours are Tues – Saturday, 10am – 4pm
Location: Chinese Culture Center gallery, 750 Kearny Street, 3rd floor of Hilton San Francisco Financial District Hotel, San Francisco.
Cost: free
Info: CCC: 415.986.1822 or info@c-c-c-.org; KSW: 415.503.0520 or info@kearnystreet.org
About the artists
Max Chen was born and raised in the Bay Area. Needing a change of weather, he went to college in upstate New York and came back with a degree in mechanical engineering. Since then it has been a mix of industrial/product design and metalworking. The only constant is comics and bicycles.
Sharon Elaine Ong Hing is a fifth generation Chinese American who was born and grew up in San Francisco, California. After graduating from University High School in 2001, she attended UCLA where she earned three degrees (Fine Arts B.A., International Development Studies B.A., and History B.A). In 2006, Ms. Hing moved to Hong Kong to study Cantonese at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. While in Hong Kong she also worked at the legal aid organization, Helpers for Domestic Helpers, volunteered at the Asian Human Rights Commission, and taught English at Po Leung Kuk Orphanage. She currently works at Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy as a Membership and Program Assistant and volunteers at several Bay Area community organizations as an art teacher and set designer.
Amy Ho works mainly in the mediums of video and performance. She is particularly interested in using art to investigate individual experience and relations between action, space and time. Amy Ho graduated with a Practice of Art degree at the University of California Berkeley.
Susanna Kwan uses ink, water, and words to tell stories. Her work stems from observations of the tension and grace that can be found in any relationship. She is a native of San Francisco.
Sylvia La explores human stories through the visual narrative tools of figure, gesture, and cultural and personal symbols. She is a mixed media artist and works with oils, watercolor, ink, papers, resistance, accidents, and other material the world offers. Sylvia was born into a Chinese family in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam during a time of tumultuous political upheaval and change. She fled Vietnam with her parents before she was two. She remembers meeting America at the age of six. She recalls a whirlwind of impressions in those few months -- the millions of lights in New York City, arcades in blonde, dusty Kansas, long distances by car across unfamiliar terrain, and the watery San Francisco bay area, where she has been living since.
A native of Dublin, CA, Amy Lam is a graphic designer currently employed in Berkeley. Amy can be found lurking in the background of Kearny Street Workshop and Locus events posing as an artist/writer type. Visit her online at www.mobilerepublic.net.
Stephanie Lie was born in San Diego, California in 1977 and now lives in San Francisco. She received two Bachelors degrees in Art and Computer Science at UC Berkeley. Lie worked with sculptor Jane Rosen as a studio assistant for five years, where she assisted in the fabrication of works at the Pilchuck School of Glass in Seattle and at Public Glass in San Francisco. Lie was an artist in residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, where she worked with installation artist Judy Pfaff.. While working with Rosen, she was a teaching assistant of drawing classes at UC Berkeley. She developed drawing workshops with Rosen based on these classes, which are now in their third year. She is designing a book based on this teaching with Rosen and Pulitzer Prize winning author Richard Rhodes. Lie has collaborated with performing artists as a musician and as a developer of multimedia tools for live performance.
After graduating from a Swiss Hotel School, Niana Liu started to teach herself painting and photography. Discovering the passion of her life, she devoted herself to art making ever since. Mixing her Eastern roots with Western influence, she often focuses on the interplay between cultures in her artwork. In July 2006, she was invited to demonstrate painting at the San Francisco Asian Art Musuem, in conjunction with their special exhibition: A Curious Affair. In her artworks, she demonstrated the tug of war between globalization and cultural identity. For more information, please visit www.nianaliu.com.
Lucy Kalyani Lin is a digital video installation artist currently living in Oakland, CA. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Fine Arts in 2005. As another transplant from southern California, she has no plans of returning. Lucy has recently become a vegetarian after watching a video clip on foie gras.
Born and raised in the bay area. Marcus Lo loves working in a variety of mediums including pencil & ink, watercolor, charcoal, paint, pastel, mosaic, collages, oils, acrylic, and many more. Some of his influences include comic books, graffiti, hip hop art, fine art, Chinese brush painting, and photography. He also volunteers teaching art weekly at Manzanita Elementary in Oakland for SPORTS 4 KIDS. You may be able to find him at Frank Ogawa Plaza or Jack London Square on certain weekends selling and doing art. If you need any custom artwork done, feel free to contact him. He also has a lot of prints of his past works for sale. For more information, please visit www.myspace.com/sosar1
Jocelyn Shu currently lives in the Bay Area from which she is a native of. She received a B.F.A. degree in Painting/Drawing in 2005 through a joint-degree program with the University of San Francisco and the California College of the Arts. She spent a year studying at Studio Art Centers International in Florence, Italy. Her work is highly influenced from her experiences living abroad and her travels have included extensive portions of Europe and Taiwan.
Lauren M. Wong works primarily in drawing and digital media. She received a bachelor’s degree in Studio Art, with a concentration in Digital Media, at Scripps College- a part of the Claremont Consortium of Colleges- in Claremont, California. In the past she has worked under the direction of artists Sol LeWitt, Seyed Alavi, and Rigo and her debut exhibition/installation was at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Garage. Post-college, she continues to seek new meaning in the process of art making through collaborative projects, including the co-creation a weekly web-comic involving ponies eating cakes, and actively showing her work in San Francisco and outside the Bay Area. To see more of her work visit: www.laurenmarikowong.com.
About the Chinese Culture Center
 The mission of the Chinese Culture Center is to foster preserve promote and influence the understanding and appreciation of Chinese and Chinese American arts and culturein the United States. This exhibition gives Chinese American artists the opportunity to network with other artists and to gain confidence in promoting their work in public. For more information please visit http://www.c-c-c.org
The Art of Finding & Telling Stories
an 8-week fiction writing workshop with Neelanjana Banerjee
RESCHEDULED FOR JUNE 18 - AUGUST 2007
Mondays, 7 - 9.45PM
Public reading & chapbook release of students' work
180 Capp Street (@17th street ), San Francisco
Class size: minimum of 6, maximum of 14.
Cost: $215 regular, $195 for KSW members.
Register by check or credit card, contact artistic director Samantha Chanse at 415.503.0520 or sam@kearnystreet.org for more information. Registration info below.
Class Description:
Our worlds are thick with layers and layers of untold stories. Perhaps you remember a story your grandmother used to tell you, or overhear two little girls fighting on the bus, or even witness a particularly violent rainstorm – each of these moments could be the seed for a story. The art of fiction comes from both learning how to access these stories and figuring out the best way to tell them.
In this class we are going to be scavenging the world around us, and within us, for material. We will be observing, eavesdropping, researching and much more in order to take advantage of the abundance of details in our lives. Along with this directed exploring, the class will also focus on investigating the ways in which we can manipulate narrative and transform subjects through language and form.
We will study the craft of storytelling and fiction writing by interacting with a broad range of texts that will include short stories, non-fiction, poetry and multimedia examples. We will get our hands dirty with both in-class and take-home writing exercises, practicing various ways to tell our stories. We will share our work often and discuss each other’s stories in a workshop. By the end of the class, students will have a rough draft of a short story and lots of great ideas for other ones. Note: This class is intended for all levels.
About the Instructor:
 Neelanjana Banerjee has worked as a journalist for the last seven years. The former editor-in-chief of AsianWeek newspaper, she currently works as the managing editor of YO! Youth Outlook Multimedia, where she helps young people produce their own media. A regular contributor to Audrey Magazine, she is also contributing editor for Hyphen magazine. Currently in her final year of the MFA program in fiction at San Francisco State University, her writing has appeared in the Asian Pacific American Journal, A Room of One’s Own, Suspect Thoughts and the anthology Desilicious (Arsenal Press).
Registration info below.
Registration information:
Register by paying full amount in advance (by check or credit card), or contact program director Samantha Chanse at 415.503.0520 or email at sam@kearnystreet.org for more information about payment plans and partial scholarships (limited availability).
To register by credit card:
KSW members click below:
non-members click below:
To register by check:
Please send a check for the full amount to
Kearny Street Workshop
Attention: Fiction workshop
180 capp street, Box #5
San Francisco, CA 94110
March 16 and 21
Mighty Warriors of Comedy Screening & DVD Release
Copresented with the Center for Asian American Media
Join Kearny Street Workshop and the Center for Asian American Media for a screening and release event for Sung H. Kim and Kibi Anderson's Mighty Warriors of Comedy, a new documentary about SF Bay Area & LA-based sketch comedy group the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors. The release event features musical performances from Largesse and Lijie (Friday 3/16) and Charlie Chin (3/21), and performances from members of The 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors.
What: Mighty Warriors of Comedy Screening and DVD Release
Featuring musical performances from Lijie and Largesse (Friday 3/16) and Charlie Chin (3/21), performances by members of The 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors, a screening of Mighty Warriors of Comedy documentary, and Q&A.
Date & Time: Friday, March 16th, 7pm & 9pm (two separate screenings: pick one, or go to both!) and Wednesday, March 21st, 7pm.
Location: KSW's space180, 180 capp street, @ 17th street, san francisco
Cost: $10 regular, $8 for card-carrying KSW or CAAM members. RESERVATIONS RECOMMENDED! Please call KSW (415.503.0520) to make reservations or for more information.
About Sung H. Kim and Kibi Anderson's documentary Mighty Warriors of Comedy
Female Circumcision. Dancing Testicles. Chinese Geishas. These subjects are the basis for an average day of side-splitting sketch comedy from the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors, an audacious pan-Asian sketch comedy troupe from California. Hailed as one of the most devastatingly funny acts of the past decade, most of America has never heard of them. "Mighty Warriors of Comedy" provides a rousing introduction to the members and is a thoughtful exploration of whether or not after twelve years of performing, the group will break out. The film traces the struggle that fringe artists face, and how that battle is complicated further by cultural identification. For more information visit www.mightywarriorsofcomedy.com.
About CAAM
The Center for Asian American Media is a non-profit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. We do this by funding, producing, distributing and exhibiting works in film, television and digital media. For more information, visitwww.asianamericanmedia.org
About the 18MMW
Quite possibly the world's most psychotic Asian American Theatrical Comedy group, the Warriors have been together since 1994 and in that time have created 12 all-new material feature shows, 3 original collaborations with Culture Clash, Campo Santo and Latina Theatre Lab, and performed in New York City, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Chicago, Houston, and Phoenix, among other cities. Inspired by groups such as Monty Python's Flying Circus, Culture Clash, SNL, and Kids in the Hall, their irreverent style of skit comedy ranges from slapstick to political and takes no prisoners. Visit www.18mmw.com for more info
Friday, March 16 & Saturday, March 17, 2007
American Zombie
copresented with the Center for Asian American Media's 25th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival
Screening Times: FRI 03.16 | 9:00PM Pacific Film Archive (Berkeley)*
Location: SAT 03.17 | 7:00PM AMC 1000 Van Ness (SF)
Description:
AMERICAN ZOMBIE
USA/South Korea 2007 | 91mins | Video Color
Director: Grace Lee | Exec. Producers: Hoon-Tack Jung | Producer: In-ah Lee | Writers: Rebecca Sonnenshine, Grace Lee | Cinematographer: Matthias Grunsky | Editor: Tamara Maloney | Music: Woody Pak | Cast: Suzy Nakamura, Austin Basis, Al Vicente, Jane Edith Wilson
Grace Lee, in the words of her partner John “a totally legitimate documentary filmmaker” (THE GRACE LEE PROJECT, SFIAAFF ‘05), sinks her teeth into a secretive subculture in Los Angeles that goes by several names, according to the experts: decedents, the nonliving community, revenants, the living dead; in other words, zombies. Disapproving of John’s blunt questioning about their subjects’ rumored diet of human flesh and his confrontational filmmaking methods, Lee probes deeper into their lives and turns up some disquieting clues. Her subjects are, on the surface, ordinary people: Ivan is a slacker who works the night shift at a convenience store and produces a zine. (His roommate, a less functional zombie, is openly hostile and scribbles voids.) Judy does customer service at an organic foods company and scrapbooks hopefully about Mr. Right. Joel runs the Zombie Advocacy Group (ZAG) to organize for their civil rights. Lisa is a New Age type who creates “representational” string sculptures and undergoes ancient healing techniques not only to get in touch with herself, but to remove the pesky worms in her open wound. The big coup of the film is gaining access to shoot at “Live Dead,” a supersecret three-day gathering of the undead community in the hinterlands, which throws the whole production into harrowing tragedy. Lee’s frank and unflinching treatment of her subjects explores a hidden, marginalized community that cries out for compassion and understanding. The ultimate message is that, there but for the Grace, we could all become one of them.
—Frako Loden
More information at http://www.asianamericanfilmfestival.org/2007/
Friday, March 20, 2007
Music Video Asia
copresented with the Center for Asian American Media's 25th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival
Screening Times/Location: TUE 03.20 | 9:30PM AMC 1000 Van Ness (SF)
Description:
MUSIC VIDEO ASIA 2007
It is no understatement that Myspace, iTunes and YouTube have completely changed the way we interact with music. Suddenly the world is completely open to your fingertips; you can sample anything you want, see anything you want, anytime. It’s kind of liberating, but totally confusing too. What happened to the good old days when things were simpler; maybe you read some reviews, got a new mix from a friend and decided to take a risk at Amoeba Records? In this enormously large and crazily creative world, music videos are increasingly the language of communication, short snippets of beats, verses, blips and other enthralling sounds set to visuals so imaginative that we can only scratch our heads.
So here is Music Video Asia 2007, the choicest cuts from the past year, a crazy, fun, outlandish mélange of the best music videos out there from your friendly neighborhood Asian and Asian American bands. Hip hop is at the forefront as it always is, with big beats from the likes of ESTAIRY, BLACK EYED PEAS and NATIVE GUNS. Indie rock couldn’t be stronger with the fuzzed-out shoegazing of ASOBI SEKSU (also on the soundtrack to this year’s IN BETWEEN DAYS), the electromadness of China’s NEW PANTS, and the latest visual feast from pop geniuses +/-. UK’s MC RIZ breaks down the world order with his incisive “Post 9/11 Blues” and Cambodianpop superstars DENGUE FEVER belt it out, Khmer-style. In between are a dozen more gems, sure to inspire that new mix or myspace visit. PS: A few exciting videos which can’t be named right now will be added to the program. Here’s a hint: sinisterly cute bears with ski masks.
More information at http://www.asianamericanfilmfestival.org/2007/
Saturday, March 17th, 2007
APAture 2007 General Planning Committee Meeting
Interested in helping to plan KSW's 9th annual APAture, our multidisciplinary festival showcasing the work of over 100 local, emerging APA artists? Attend the next meeting of the APAture general planning committee and learn more about the festival and how you can be involved. KSW is looking for volunteer members of the planning committee and a part-time festival coordinator (job description below).
Date/Time: Saturday, March 17th, 2007; 10.30am - 12.30pm. Please RSVP to sam@kearnystreet.org.
Location: KSW's space180, 180 capp street, @ 17th street, San Francisco
Info: sam@kearnystreet.org; 415.503.0520; www.kearnystreet.org
For more information on KSW's APAture festival, please visit www.apature.org.
Thursday, March 22nd, 2007
KSW-Next Meeting
Interested in sharing your art with others, putting on events, or curating shows with KSW? KSW-Next is the emerging artist and arts organizer arm of KSW, and is composed of volunteer artists and arts organizers who are interested in sharing their work with others and curating events. KSW-Next holds monthly meetings to organize events for the season. Meetings are open to all interested.
Date/Time: Thursday, March 22, 2007; 6pm. Please RSVP to info@kearnystreet.org.
Location: KSW's space180, 180 capp street, @ 17th street, San Francisco
Info: sam@kearnystreet.org; 415.503.0520; www.kearnystreet.org
For more information on KSW-Next, please click here.
March 28
IWL Opening Night
A collaboration of Kearny Street Workshop, Intersection for the Arts, and Galería de la Raza
IWL 2007 graphic design by industrialforest.com.
Join Kearny Street Workshop, Galería de la Raza, and Intersection for the Arts for the opening night of the 4th annual 2007 Intergenerational Writers Lab, a literary program to explore multiple forms of creative expression and generate new work. The program features three months of workshops led by seven lead artists, and four public readings and performances.
The first public IWL 2007 event is on Wednesday, March 28th, 2007, at Kearny Street Workshop, and features readings and performances from travel writer and essayist Linda Watanabe McFerrin, poet Mahru Elahi, and IWL 2007 participants Nicole Bohn, Rebecca Jane Foust, Nirmala Nataraj, and Carlo Sciammas.
Date: Wednesday, March 28th
Time: 7pm
Location: KSW's space180, 180 capp street, @ 17th street, san francisco
Cost: $7 - 15 sliding scale.
The 2007 Intergenerational Writers Lab is supported by a grant from the Irvine Foundation.
About the artists
 Mahru Elahi returned to California in 2003, after years of teaching in New York City public schools. She currently works as an artist-in-residence for WritersCorps, a project of the San Francisco Arts Commission. Since relocating to the Bay Area, she has performed at Intersection for the Arts, La Pena Cultural Center, California College of the Arts, University of San Francisco, and Jon Sims
Center for the Arts. Mahru was awarded a 2006 residency from the Hedgebrook Writers-In-Residence Program and participated in the Voices of Our Nations Writing Workshop, where she studied poetry with Ruth Forman. Her writing has appeared in many publications, and she is author of a graphic novel, The Thorn Garden. Mahru’s poetry is featured in the 2006 anthology, Let Me Tell You Where I’ve Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora. She is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz, and earnersity in Ned her Masters of Science in Teaching from New School Univew York City.
 Poet, travel writer, novelist and workshop leader Linda Watanabe McFerrin is a contributor to numerous journals, newspapers, magazines, anthologies and online publications including the Washington Post, the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Modern Bride, Travelers' Tales, and Salon.com. She is the author of two poetry collections and the editor of the 4th edition of Best Places Northern California. A winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction, her work has also appeared in Wild Places and American Fiction. Her novel, Namako: Sea Cucumber was published by Coffee House Press and named a Best Book for the Teen-Age by the New York Public Library. Her collection of award-winning short stories, The Hand of Buddha, was published in 2000. She is also a contributor and publishing partner in Wild Writing Women: Stories of World Travel and editor, with Laurie McAndish King, of Hot Flashes: sexy little stories and poems. Linda has served as a judge for the San Francisco Literary Awards, the Kiriyama Prize the Josphine Miles Awards for Literary Excellence and as a Loft Mentor. She is currently at work on novel set all over the globe. For additional information, go to: www.lwmcferrin.com
About the Intergenerational Writers Lab
The 4th Intergenerational Writers Lab (IWL) 2007 is a unique program with three of SF’s oldest arts organizations that challenges writers to thoroughly explore and develop writing. The IWL 2007 program takes place March 10 – July 11, 2007, and features workshops, public readings, and a chapbook publication. IWL workshops are led by playwrights Octavio Solis and Prince Gomolvilas, essayist and critic Thy Tran, poets Genny Lim and Mahru Elahi, novelist and travel writer Linda Watanabe McFerrin, and poet & performer Uchechi Kalu.
The goals of the IWL program include the following:
1) to provide twelve local emerging writers with the opportunity to challenge, develop, and expand their writing by working with emerging and established writers in a variety of genres;
2) to contribute to the development of new literary forms and language that incorporate multiple forms of creative expression;
3) to provide emerging writers with the opportunity to connect and work with each other and with established writers in the literary world;
4) to provide the community with an opportunity to engage with new work and new explorations of form and language;
5) to contribute to the wealth of independent literary publications by publishing a new chapbook from KSW Press, Galería de la Raza, & Intersection for the Arts that highlights work by exciting new writers committed to exploring new forms and voices..
About the Collaborating Organizations
Kearny Street Workshop is a multidisciplinary arts organization based in San Francisco's Mission District at KSW's exhibition and arts events space, space180. The mission of Kearny Street Workshop is to produce and present art that enriches and empowers Asian Pacific American communities. Our vision is to achieve a more just society by connecting Asian Pacific American(APA) artists with community members to give voice to our cultural, historical, and contemporary issues. For more information please visit www.kearnystreet.org.
Galería De La Raza is an interdisciplinary space for art, thought and activism – Galería organizes cutting-edge art exhibitions, as well as multimedia presentations, performances and spoken-word events, screenings, computer-generated murals and educational activities. The Mission of the Galeria de la Raza is to foster public awareness and appreciation of Chicano/Latino art and culture. For more information please visit www.galeriadelaraza.org
Intersection for the Arts is San Francisco's oldest alternative art space (est. 1965) and has a long history of presenting new and experimental work in the fields of literature, theater, music, dance and the visual arts, and also in nurturing and supporting the Bay Area's cultural community through service, technical support, and mentorship programs. Intersection provides a place where provocative ideas, diverse art forms, artists, and audiences can intersect one another. For more information please visit www.theintersection.org
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