June - Mid July Recap

HELLO! It's officially MID JULY, which means that you only have half the summer left to enjoy free rooftop film screenings and sitting out in the sun while getting buzzed off bottomless mimosas at 11AM (or 3PM because let's get real, brunch has become an afternoon endeavor). Fortunately, this summer has seen a lot of top notch creative outpourings from members of the AAPI community. Here are our top picks for summer '17 so far:

Film/Animation

"Tough" by Jennifer Zhang is a beautifully animated, BAFTA-nominated short film about the complexities of "identity, diaspora, culture, and race." From her website: "New light is shed on childhood cultural misunderstandings when a Chinese mother and her British born daughter speak as adults for the first time." 

Malaysia-based Yan Dang Wong and Annalotta Pauly animated and directed the music video for Semblance by Vulfgang Rainstorme. From Wong's website: "I love using animation as a medium to explore issues that are often neglected.

Color Corrected (BUFU)

On July 10th, we had the privilege of attending Color Corrected, a film screening celebrating Queer independent Black and Asian filmmakers hosted by BUFU (By Us For Us), an art/activist collective. Some highlights:

The Turmeric Project - Urvashi Pathania

The Turmeric Project is an ongoing documentary series by filmmaker Urvashi Pathania, who seeks to highlight queer South Asian artists. The artist spotlight above delves into Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's project MUSSALMAAN MUSCLEMEN, an exploration of Muslim identity and masculinity.

Change - Lily Jue Sheng

Brooklyn-based Lily Jue Sheng manipulates and distorts Chinese word forms in 'Change,' a 16mm text animation: "The allegorical usage of radicals and colors convey a universal interconnectivity, articulating meanings outside the confines of literacy, acting instead as a cryptogram, machine/mind symbiosis, series of rituals, and play of metronomic afterimages

Literature

Jenny Zhang is a Brooklyn-based writer and poet, who was nominated for a National Magazine Award for “How It Feels.” Her new book, Sour Heart, which will be available August 1, is a collection of seven stories about a community of immigrants from China and Taiwan living in New York City. Also check out her NYT article on Mitski and growing up as an Asian-American girl.

Memes!!!

Go follow @thefleshlightchronicles on Instagram for quality meme content by Lillian, who makes "intersectional feminist memes for heterosexual meninist regimes." She delivers critical theory with humour by pasting the revolting things men say to her on Tinder over photos of herself in amazing outfits and badass poses. 

Illustration

Sha'an d'Anthes (Furry Little Peach) is an illustrator and visual artist based in Sydney, Australia. Her creations have a whimsical, childlike innocence to them and she has worked with Netflix, Stussy, Wacom, and more. Last September she also created two artworks per day for a week, inspired by children affected by violence in Syria, and donated 100% of the proceeds to feeding and housing families in Syria. 

Community Organizing

South Asian Diaspora Artists Collective (SADAC) is an NYC-based collaboration between artists of South Asian descent to build lasting relationships within communities of color, foster the use of art as a tool for activism, and encourage dialogue surrounding pressing issues. On Thursday, July 20th, SADAC will participate in a panel discussion at US: A Convening on Collective Action, an event at the Brooklyn Museum, in conjunction with BUFU and other community organizations. There will also be DJs, a cash bar, and skill shares on art-making and community building. 

Basement Bhangra is a progressive, inclusive 20-year old dance party that takes place on the first Thursday of each month at SOB's. "Launched by DJ Rekha in 1997, the party mixes South Asian bhangra music with hip-hop, dancehall and electronic sounds to create an unforgettable New York City dance experience." (Basement Bhangra website.) We attended Basement Bhangra Unplugged, a talk and panel hosted by the A/P/A Institute at NYU and co-sponsored by the South Asian American Digital Archive and the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective, and got the chance to hear DJ Rheka and a few Basement Bhangra veterans speak about the party's importance to South Asian diaspora and cultural production. 

Check Basement Bhangra's website for more info on its last party ever - coming up this August!

By Elaine Lo and Amy Ni.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Email us at asianartscollective@gmail.com.