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
Arts AdvocacyJuly 1, 2010
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