Tickets are now on sale for Promument, Monument Lab’s Annual Fundraising Event, Awards Ceremony, and Party. Join us for an evening of music, art, food, and celebration on May 23, 2024 at the Independence Visitor Center.
An A/P/A Voices: Public Memory Project Event
Presented by the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU.
Co-sponsored by the NYU Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive, New York Center for Global Asia, NYU Center for the Study of Gender & Sexuality, and Monument Lab.
In Spring 2020, the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU developed A/P/A Voices: A COVID-19 Public Memory Project in collaboration with scholars, artists, and organizers Tomie Arai, Lena Sze, Vivian Truong, and Diane Wong and the NYU Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive. This university-community partnership aims to document the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Asian/Pacific/Americans, and the organizing, mutual aid, and other forms of community care efforts that emerged at the intersection of the resulting public health and economic crises, and a national racial reckoning and movement for Black lives. Thus far, over thirty virtual interviews have been conducted with A/P/A essential workers, students, artists, and community organizers, and dozens of digital artifacts (e.g. flyers, zines, short films, photographs, and more) have been donated by individuals and organizations.
As a way to reflect on the project and the diverse forms of care that A/P/A communities have participated in and established during the pandemic, the A/P/A Institute at NYU presents On Community Care: Documenting A/P/A Voices During COVID-19.
The virtual program will feature remarks about oral history and archiving from Crystal Baik (University of California, Riverside) and Shannon O’Neill (NYU Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives); reflections from A/P/A Voices contributors Lisa Fu (California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative; narrator), Mike Keo (#IAmNotAVirus; artifact donor and narrator), and Loubna Qutami (University of California, Los Angeles; interviewer); screenings of the short films Back to Work by Alexander Catedral (filmmaker; artifact donor) and 100 Miles Apart by Garveaux Sibulboro (filmmaker; artifact donor) that capture the impact of COVID-19 on Filipinx healthcare workers and their families; a panel discussion on community care efforts from Queens to Madison to Seattle with Moumita Ahmed (Queens Mutual Aid Network; narrator), Monyee Chau (artist and activist; artifact donor and narrator), and Kabzuag Vaj (Freedom, Inc.; narrator). The program will end with a reading by Taiyo Na (writer and educator; artifact donor).