June 7th, 2007

Water Babies: Coming to Terms with Abortion

Date: Thursday, June 7, 2007

Time: 7 - 9:00 pm

Location: KSW's space180,180 Capp Street, @ 17th Street, 3rd Floor, SF

Cost: Free

Screening of film trailer "Water Babies: Coming to Terms with Abortion" by Lina Hoshino
followed by Panel Discussion facilitated by Rev. Deborah Lee featuring

Lina Hoshino, filmmaker of "Water Babies: Coming to Terms with Abortion"
Maria Nakae, Alliance Building Coordinator, Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice
Talia Walsmith, Exhale

Abortion is a critical issue for API women. Thirty-five percent of pregnancies end in abortion for API women, compared to 18% for white women, representing the second highest percentage for all racial and ethnic groups. In addition, from 1994 to 2000, abortion rates fell for all groups except API women. Yet Asian perspectives - and the cultural stigma and issues particular to API communities - are rarely heard in the heated public debate on reproductive rights.

Abortion itself is both intensely personal and intensively politicized. It brings political and moral judgment to bear on painfully intimate personal choices -- judgment that can prevent women from making the best decisions for themselves and from coping with their experiences in healthy ways.

Come join us at KSW and learn about the Japanese ritual of addressing the experience of abortion, the API reproductive justice movement today, and Exhale, a Bay Area hotline and counseling service for women who have abortions.

Lina will talk about her new documentary about the Japanese "water baby" ritual of consecrating the spirit of the unformed child to the protection of a Jizo bodhisattva.

Mariawill give a brief overview of today's reproductive justice movement, which places the reproductive health and rights of women and girls within a social justice framework. She will discuss how the politicization and stigma around abortion silences the voices of women who are most impacted, and how the reproductive justice movement works to address the real needs of women and support their well-being by allowing for the complexities of people's beliefs and lived experiences around issues of abortion. Finally, she will share ACRJ's experience of working with young Asian women to explore their own values and opinions around abortion, and their efforts to fight for the self-determination of young women in their communities.

Talia will talk about Exhale, an organization whose mission is to create a social climate where each person's unique experience with abortion is supported, respected and free from stigma. Exhale operates the nation's first free, nonjudgmental after-abortion talkline which provides emotional support, resources and information to women and girls who have had abortions and to their partners, friends, allies and family members. The talkline is available in six languages, seven day a week. Talia will discuss Exhale's services and the various healing rituals and self-care options their talkline callers have found useful for post-abortion emotional health and well-being.

For bios and more information please click here

Thursday, June 14th, 2007

Curating Music Events
a workshop with Kimberly Chun

Kearny Street Workshop (KSW) is offering a two-hour workshop and dicussion with San Francisco Bay Guardian senior arts & entertainment editor of the Kimberly Chun. The workshop will focus on how reviewers and critics listen to music and what they're listening for, and how to put together a strong music program. Other mysteries of music reviewing and programming may also be unveiled. This workshop is great for anyone interested in putting together music events or anyone who plays music themselves.

The workshop is free for members of KSW's APAture 2007 General Planning Committee.

Date: Thursday, June 14th, 2007

Time: 7 - 9pm

Location: KSW's space180, 180 Capp Street, @ 17th street, San Francisco, CA

Cost: $10 - 20 sliding scale, regular / $5 KSW members. FREE for members of KSW's 2007 GPC.

Please RSVP at info@kearnystreet.org or 415.503.0520. Questions? Same email and phone number.

About Kimberly Chun

Kimberly Chun is the music editor, now sorta officially the senior arts and entertainment editor, and a music columnist at the San Francisco Bay Guardian. She has also written for the San Francisco Chronicle, East Bay Express, AsianWeek, Bitch, Magnet, the Oakland Tribune/ANG Newspapers, Devil in the Woods, Mix, Acoustic Guitar, and just about any zine that would have her (as well as a few of her own making). An impulsive yet shy and retiring rabble- rouser, Chun has played badly in Hawaii’s first all-female punk band, fantasizes about someday being able to pass as a drummer, bakes a mean apple pie, keeps a chaotic desk, hates “Lost in Translation,” loves herding cats (which explains the music editor title), and recently go- go-danced in a chubby panda costume onstage at the Fillmore alongside XBXRX as they opened for Sonic Youth and Wolf Eyes.

The Art of Finding & Telling Stories
an 8-week fiction writing workshop with Neelanjana Banerjee

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:

Kearny Street Workshop
Attention: Fiction workshop
180 capp street, Box #5
San Francisco, CA 94110

Tuesday, June 26th, 2007

Dirty Work: artists eye domestic labor

a new visual exhibition featuring work by Sharon Elaine Ong Hing, Nancy Hom, Mail Order Brides/M.O.B., Choppy Oshiro, Rick Rocamora, and Favianna Rodriguez

opening reception

Join KSW for the opening reception of Dirty Work, a new exhibition opening at KSW's space180. Featuring work by artists Nancy Hom, Sharon Hing, Mail Order Brides/M.O.B., Choppy Oshiro, Rick Rocamora, and Favianna Rodriguez, this exhibit invites us to consider the impact of the domestic worker industry on communities and the larger economy, and to consider the experience of doing "dirty work."

Date/Time:  
Opening Reception: Tuesday, June 26th, 2007; 6.30 -9.30pm
Exhibition runs June 26 - August 31, 2007; Gallery hours: Tues & Th, 2 - 6pm, Sat 12 - 4pm, and by appointment.

Location: KSW's space180, 180 capp street, @ 17th street, San Francisco

Cost: Free; $5 suggested donation.

Info:   sam@kearnystreet.org; 415.503.0520; www.kearnystreet.org

Above: from Sharon Hing's "and my worth was explicitly numbered,"guache on paper, 2006.

about the artists

Sharon Hing has shown her work in the Bay Area for the past 10 years and has organized and spearheaded multiple art benefits for non-profits in the United States and Hong Kong. While studying at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2006, she volunteered with the Hong Kong legal aid organization Helpers for Domestic Helpers (HDH). Learning about the widespread exploitation and severe abuse of foreign domestic helpers by employment agencies, employers, and government officials prompted her to create work to be sold for the benefit of HDH. (These cards are available at the Kearny Street Workshop online store.) She graduated from UCLA in 2005 and currently is a board member of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum and volunteers at local community organizations as an art teacher and set designer. She is the Membership and Program Associate at Asian American/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy.
As part of the "dirty work" exhibition, Sharon Hing has produced greeting cards created from her work in the show, to be sold for the benefit of Helpers for Domestic Helpers, a Hong Kong based nonprofit organization dedicated to providing the city's 220,000 domestic helpers with legal assistance and counseling. Click here for more information.

Nancy Hom is an artist, writer, organizer, and arts administrator with over 30 years of experience in the non-profit arts field. She was born in Toisan, China in 1949. She moved to the United States at age five. She grew up in New York City and graduated from Pratt Institute.In San Francisco Nancy has played a key role in the development of neighborhood arts organizations since 1974. She has created artwork for numerous political, social, and community events. As an artist, curator, and organizer, she has worked in many communities in San Francisco, including the South of Market, Manilatown, Chinatown, Japantown, Western Addition, and the Mission. She is also a writer, graphic designer and children's book illustrator. Her award-winning book, Nine-in-One Grr! Grr!, is one of five books published by Children's Book Press that contain her illustrations.

For over a decade, Eliza "Neneng" Barrios, Reanne "Immaculata" Estrada and Jenifer "Baby" Wofford have worked collaboratively as Mail Order Brides/M.O.B., a group of Filipina American artists engaged in an ongoing collaborative investigation of culture, race and gender. While traditionally, "real" mail order brides are thought of as ideal obedient domestics, it has not escaped this trio’s attention that, acronymically speaking, "Mail Order Brides" abbreviates down to a more sinister series of initials that inform the darker subtext of their connivings and conspirings. They have taken matters into their own (well-manicured) hands, using their innate graciousness, good fashion sense, and interior decorating/inner decorum skills to gently pry open the eyes of the closed minded. They have pursued this vision through over a decade of creative endeavors such as photographic psychodramas, parade performances, public service posters, and panel discussions, plus karaoke music videos, museum makeovers, and educational workshops. Their latest successful business venture, Always A Bridesmaid Never A Bride(TM), has provided the world with long-needed services of three Professional Bridesmaids for weddings, commitment ceremonies and immigration- inspired marital arrangements. M.O.B. "hits" have included public art projects for the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Market Street Art in Transit posters and the McColl Center Mobile Art Project, as well as performance works for Oakland’s Lunar New Year Parade and "Museum Pieces" at SF’s DeYoung Museum. M.O.B. has shown at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Triton Museum of Art, Lizabeth Oliveria Gallery and The Luggage Store. Their film/video works have screened at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, the International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, the Mix Festival and the International Film Festival in Detroit. They are committed to making the world a more delicious and harmonious place. For more information please visit http://wofflehouse.com/mob.html

Choppy Oshiro is a graphic designer and illustrator based in San Francisco. She utilizes her experience in art direction and production management to specialize in arts and community-based projects, advertising and publishing. Her client/project list includes the Legion of Honor, de Young Museum, American Liver Foundation, Hispanic Community Foundation, Foster Care San Francisco, Levi-Strauss, Beach Blanket Babylon, Teleguia, Music for Little People, Survival Series Publishing Company, and Kearny Street Workshop. Although about to end her service as a KSW board member, she intends to stay plugged into the organization. Choppy's nickname comes from a character in 1960's animé shown in Hawaii, where she grew up. The cartoon was called "Princess Knight" and the plot involved a princess forced to live in drag since, legally, one had to be male to inherit the throne. Of course, there was the evil baron and his sidekick trying to unmask Princess Knight and take over the kingdom. Choppy was an angel sent to help Princess Knight thwart the evil baron and thus redeem himself since he kept screwing up in heaven. Political saga mixed with gender issues told from a Japanese viewpoint watched by American schoolchildren in the 70s! Yeah!

Rick Rocamora is an award winning social documentary photographer based in Oakland, California. His work has been exhibited in solo and group shows in the U.S. and other international venues. His work is part of  “Points of Entry-A Nation of Strangers,” a photography exhibition about the history of immigration in the U.S.  He was a featured artist in the “Art in Residence” of the U.S. Ambassador to the Court of Saint James in London from 1997-2001. Currently, his work is exhibited as part of a collection of American Art at the US Embassy in Tokyo, Japan. In 1999, Rocamora is one of the 25 visual artist honored by the California Arts Council with a Visual Artist fellowship. He has received grants from California Arts Council, San Francisco Foundation, Zellerbach Family fund, and California Council for the Humanities. He received commissions to produce exhibitions and book projects for ACLU, Writer’s Corps, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, New California Media and Community Health Center Network.He has received awards from the Asian American Journalist Association, Bay Area Press Photographers Association and Photographer of the Year awards from Media Alliance and the New California Media. In 1999, KQED, a Bay Area PBS TV station and Union Bank of California honored Rocamora with a “Local Bay Area Hero of the Year Award” for his work about the Filipino WW II veterans. Rocamora was commissioned by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism on the book project “Pork and other Perks – Corruption and Governance in the Philippines” which won a National Book Award for Journalism in the Philippines.Second Class Veteran, a documentary film about Rocamora and his tireless effort to document and reveal the little known story about Filipino WW II veterans who live in the United States, by award winning documentary filmmaker Don Young was broadcast by PBS stations in 2003 and 2004.Rocamora is currently working on a long-term project “Freedom and Fear Muslims in America after 9/11” a photo documentary about the day to day lives of Muslim Americans as they confront prejudice and profiling after 9/11 and “Tracked in America” an online documentary using non linear, visual and aural storytelling that connects past instances of surveillance with post 9/11 events sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Favianna Rodriguez is an Oakland-based printmaker and institution builder, Her dynamic political prints and posters tell a history of social justice, capturing the daily sentiments of a people in daily struggle, to document their efforts and celebrate their victories. Favianna’s work attempts to reclaim public space, community centers, streets, billboards,and to redefine that space through art, through youth workshops, and through the establishment of collective cultural spaces. Favianna is co-Founder of the EastSide Arts Alliance (ESAA), a third world collective of artists and activists working to empower the Oakland community through art and culture. She is also the founder of Visual Element, a program that trains young artists in the traditions of muralism for social change. In 2003, Favianna co-founded the Taller Tupac Amaru, with the mission of producing and distributing screenprinted political poster. Favianna is currently co- editing a book project entitled Reproduce and Revolt!, a graphic toolbox of over 600 high-quality black & white illustrations and graphics about political activism. With her signature energy and zeal,Favianna travels to share her inspirational work with others abroad. She has lectured numerously in Tokyo and Mexico City about the role of art and culture in community building.

Sharon Hing

"dirty work" greeting cards

As part of the "Dirty Work" show, Sharon Hing has produced greeting cards created from her work in the show to be sold for the benefit of Helpers for Domestic Helpers, a Hong Kong based non-profit organization dedicated to providing the city's 220,000 domestic helpers with legal assistance and counseling. ( www.stjohnscathedral.org.hk/domestic.html). The cards provide a bit of information about the lives of domestic helpers in Hong Kong as well as the work of HDH. The four designs are non-holiday specific, have blank interiors, and are appropriate for any type of correspondence. Because of full sponsorship of the production of the cards, every cent of every sale will go to continuing the important work of HDH.

Each set contains two cards of each design.

Please note: For your convenience, all sales will be handled through a personal PayPal account. The artist will then calculate/handle the currency exchange for the donation to Helpers for Domestic Helpers in Hong Kong dollars. For a confirmation of your donation to Helpers for Domestic Helpers, please contact hdh@stjohnscathedral.org.hk

Item: "Domestic Helper cards" 1 set (8 cards - 2 of each design)

Cost: $10.95, plus shipping & handling

All sales of these greeting cards, produced by Sharon Hing, are handled by Sharon Hing. Kearny Street Workshop is not the seller for these transactions.

To purchase, please click below:

The designs

Design #1: I Learned to Speak Up
Gouache on paper. Swept Aside series. 2006. Sharon E. O. Hing
On the back:
"Many domestic helpers endure difficult working conditions in order to provide for their own families. One worker who was denied food by her employer says of her ordeal, "It's so hard for me because I have a family and three children at home whom I support by working in Hong Kong." These women, who are often victims of exploitation by employers and employment agencies, remain resilient in the face of such adversities."

Design #2: And My Worth Was Explicitly Numbered

Gouache on paper. Swept Aside series. 2006. Sharon E. O. Hing
On the back:
Domestic workers are often subjected to unreasonable demands in attempts by some employers to monitor every aspect of their lives. The absurdity of the demands and the lengths to which some employers go to repress their helpers reflects a lack of respect for these workers. The irony is these workers often play an important role in the care and upbringing of their employers' children.

Design #3: Tagged
Gouache on paper. Swept Aside series. 2006. Sharon E. O. Hing
On the back:
There are currently 220,000 domestic helpers living in Hong Kong. As a group their presence is undeniable, but they are rarely acknowledged as a crucial element of Hong Kong's economic and cultural success. Their contributions have allowed the city to prosper, yet they are rarely respected and properly acknowledged for their immense contributions to the lives of all Hong Kong residents.

Design #4: Forced Bet
Gouache on paper. Swept Aside series. 2006. Sharon E. O. Hing
On the back:
With their packed lunches in plastic bags and often a deck of cards in hand, domestic helpers line the streets of Hong Kong for a day of relaxation on Sundays, transforming any shaded area into multi-purpose meeting points. Despite their dmanding jobs, many find time to do volunteer work while others find solace in community and religious groups. As workers and community members, their presence enriches the culture and social fabric of the city.