Kearny Street Workshop & San Francisco Public Library – “A Dreaming People” Intergenerational Panels & Performances
Saturday, July 15th, 2023 12:00 – 3:00 PM
San Francisco Public Library (Koret Auditorium)
Free
A Dreaming People featured a panel discussion and an afternoon of performances in the Koret Auditorium on the Lower Level of the Main Library as part of the exhibit, Dreaming People’s History: The Asian American Radical Imagination, on view April 29–August 6, 2023. This event is free and open to the public.
The afternoon’s program opened in the Jewett Gallery with a performance by Kim Requesto dancing Binasuan, a Filipino folk dance which originated in Bayambang, Pangasinan involving graceful movement and a carefully balanced glass of water. Photo by Mara Grimes.
Colin Choy Kimzey, the exhibit curator of Dreaming People’s History: The Asian American Radical Imagination with Nellie, Flo & Genny in the Koret Auditorium.
Megan Anderson of the San Francisco Public Library introduced the panel discussion moderated by Colin Kimzey with Weston Teruya, Vida Kuang, and Leland Wong.
The Last Hoisan Poets performance of “Sei Kui: Community is in the Heart,” included readings of the following poems: “Myths” and “Yuri’s Dream” by Genny Lim; “I Lean on a Song. I Follow the Story.” and “From That Moment On” by Flo Oy Wong; and “Chinatown sizzles” by Nellie Wong.
The program concluded with a set by Son of Paper that included his songs, “From a Rooftop in Chinatown,” and “Mr. Chinatown.”
Sei Kui: The Last Hoisan Poets & Son of Paper
For this performance, Flo, Nellie & Genny are wearing t-shirts in support of Asians Are Strong, a volunteer-based non-profit empowering and protecting the Asian and Pacific Islander community. Read the story of Asians Are Strong on their website.
About the exhibit:
Kearny Street Workshop presents Dreaming People’s History, an exhibition of past and present Asian American arts and activism. Through oral histories, posters, murals, literature, research projects and contemporary art, the exhibition uplifts Asian American history as the creative product of artists, writers and organizers reclaiming the struggles of preceding generations. Their work testifies that the promise of the Asian American Movement is more than a cultural identity. To dream people’s history is to challenge the American Dream with the truth of the past, the creative agency of the present and the radical possibility of the future.