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here to visit our blog.Dear Friends,
We happy once again to bring to you a Fall Season of performances of exciting new work inspired by Asian American experiences and values. This Fall three of the featured performances explore the Angel Island immigration experience as we commemorate the founding of the Angel Island Immigration Station 100 years ago. The Station was in service between 1910 - 1940 where immigrants were processed before entering the US. As such it was a shared experience for many nationalities. A specific part of this experience, however, was the harsh treatment that Chinese immigrants faced because of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and later immigration laws, including the 1924 Immigration Act, which excluded East Asians and Asian Indians. Lenora Lee’s Passages September 24-26; Jon Jang’s Angel Voices on October 24, 2010 with the San Francisco Jazz Festival and Melody Takata’s Rabbit in the Moon are new commissioned works which address the human side of this experience with the intention of honoring the struggles of all immigrants to achieve a better life for their families. We humbly invite you to join us for these performances.
On a personal note, for the fourth part of our series, I have been commissioned by Cultual Equity Grants Individual Artist Commissions to write a work for the traditional Chinese instrument ensemble Melody of China and special guests Wayne Wallace, Deszon Claiborne and Tatsu Aoki. The title of the work is “Shanghai Stories” and is inspired by my father’s memoirs about living from birth to age 13 in Shanghai in the 1920’s and 30’s. In addition to this piece Melody of China will perform works from their impressive repertoire.
We hope to see you at one of the shows and look forward to sharing these wonderful stories
Francis Wong
Creative Director
The California Arts Council has done a tremendous job providing opportunities for artists and arts organizations to continue servicing the community even in rough economic times. Please help all Californian's by supporting the arts by puchasing an California Arts License plate! Proceeds from the sales go the California Arts Council which support individual artists and organizations up and down this wonderful state! Click on the logo below for more information:
Friday & Saturday, September 24-25, 8pm
Sunday, September 26, 2:30pm
in collaboration with the Chinese Historical Society of America Museum and the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation.
“Passages” is an interdisciplinary work by choreographer/dancer
Lenora Lee in collaboration with media designer Olivia Ting, composer/sound
designer Francis Wong, lighting designer Patty-Ann Farrell, and dancers
Marina Fukushima and Kevin Ho.
Genny Lim is a celebrated poet, playwright, and performer.
In commemoration of the Centennial of the Angel Island Immigration Station
Admission: $14 in advance, $20 at the door
Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/119451
or call (800) 838-3006
Dance Mission Theater
3316 – 24th St (at Mission St), SF
Click
here to view the behind the scenes video of Lenora Lee's Passages With the amazing support of the California Arts Council: Artists in Schools Program, Asian Improv aRts is proud to continue our arts education programming in San Francisco. We are currently supporting after school art enrichment at the Chinatown Beacon Center through an NEA Learning for Children in the Arts grant. We are also partnering with Genryu Arts for a residency by Melody Takata at Clarendon Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program as well as providing technical assistance for Genryu Arts afterschool residency program at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California. Additionally, we are proud to provide technical assistance to Jon Jang's afterschool residency at Alice Fong Yu School.