San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
An arts homage to Asian Americans fighting climate change.
Pam Tau Lee was 21 years old when she began her activism career in San Francisco, later becoming the cofounder of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network and the Chinese Progressive Association. Now Lee has started painting to continue her activism.
“I can’t be out on the front lines anymore at 73 years old,” Lee, of San Francisco, told The Chronicle in a phone interview. “I express my views now mainly through my painting.”
Several of Lee’s works are on view at SOMArts Cultural Center and online, along with nearly two dozen other artists’ work, in the exhibition “Sowing Agency: Seeding the Future for Environmental Justice,” the opening event for the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center’s 24th annual United States of Asian America Festival in San Francisco. Using art, the festival will center its programs on hope amid the coronavirus pandemic and a surge in antiAsian violence.
“It’s really looking at, ‘How do we come together and regenerate and also move with resilience beyond this pandemic?’ ” said Diana Li, APICC program coordinator and managing director of the Asian American Women Artists Association. “With the surge in antiAsian violence, (the festival) became more relevant.”
“Sowing Agency,” on display through May 23, focuses on how members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community in the Bay Area have been involved in the fight against climate change, said Lisa Pradhan, the exhibit’s curator. “Because so often these stories are undertold, you might not necessarily know what’s happening in your own backyard,” said Pradhan, who is also a communications leadership team manager at Earthjustice. One of Lee’s paintings, “Protect the Sacred — Matriate the Land,” was inspired by a recent Chronicle story about how the Bay Area’s commercial salmon season, which starts Saturday, May 1, is expected to be much shorter than last year’s. The limited season highlights the population decline of the California coastal king salmon, which is considered a threatened species, according to the March story.
The painting depicts a large salmon that appears to be leaping over a waterfall, while two individuals are standing nearby, praying for protection of the fish. Those two individuals are Corrina Gould, an Ohlone tribal spokesperson and chair for the Confederated Villages of Lisjan, and Chief Caleen Sisk of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe.
Gould and Sisk host Run2Salmon, an annual ceremonial event in which attendees run from the Winnemem Waywacket (also known as the McCould River near Redding) to Sogorea Te (Glen Cove in Vallejo). The event is meant to raise awareness about how the lack of salmon affects Indigenous populations and to pray for their return.
“My painting pays homage to the protectors of the salmon and the salmon themselves,” said Lee, who attended one of the runs in 2019.
Oakland artist Priya Kaur Handa has two paintings in the show, placed side by side against a large mural of a red heart, to pay tribute to the Indian farmers who have been protesting the country’s new agricultural laws since November.
One painting titled “Our Grandmother’s Revolution” shows three generations of women who appear to be har
vesting land. They are connected by a phulkari, an embroidered floral scarf popular in the Indian state of Punjab.
“I grew up with a lot of strong women who never hesitated to do this kind of manual work,” she said, noting that she wanted her piece to display women doing handwork and taking ownership of their land.
Handa also wanted to pay homage to the women in India who “are actually in the front lines of this protest right now.”
“I think a lot of people have always dismissed women in history,” she said.
Handa’s second painting, “The Nihang’s Side,” shows a man, wearing a blue turban and garment, standing in front of a harvest of sunflowers. The man represents Nihangs from Punjab, Sikh warriors who are known for fiercely defending their land, she explained.
But while her paintings pay tribute to Indian farmers, Handa said she hopes viewers become inspired to take action against environmental injustice in their own communities.
“There’s a lot of injustice going on here,” Handa said, specifically referring to California. “I hope that the next step is showing up locally because I think that’s the biggest way we can make an impact right now.”
The arrival of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month feels like an opportunity. As the Bay Area grapples with a rise in violent attacks against members of the Asian American community, dedicating a month to celebrating their culture and history feels like a way toward building a path forward.
The celebration, aimed at amplifying and saluting Asian and Pacific Islander representation in art and broadcast media, is observed in May. With the Bay Area cautiously returning to public gatherings, the city plans to honor its Asian communities with a variety of virtual and inperson offerings.
What is APA Heritage Month?
In 1977, Jeanie Jew was concerned about the lack of acknowledgment for the contributions of Asian Americans to the country during the previous year’s nationwide bicentennial celebrations. As the president of the Organization of Chinese American Women, Jew partnered with Ruby Moy, New York U.S. Rep. Frank Horton’s chief of staff, to advocate for the inclusion of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans.
Their efforts led Horton and Rep. Norman Mineta of San Jose to jointly introduce a resolution for an Asian Pacific American Heritage Week. President Jimmy Carter signed the Joint Resolution of Congress into law on Oct. 5, 1978.
In 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed a bill that established May as the commemorative month for APA heritage. Two years later, Horton cosponsored legislation officially designating it as APA Heritage Month so that the previous proclamation wouldn’t have to be reauthorized annually.
Why is it in May?
APA Heritage Week began on May 4 and marked two historic occasions: the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants to the mainland United States on May 7, 1843, and the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad on May 10, 1869, thanks in large part to the work of as many as 20,000 Chinese immigrant laborers.
APA Heritage Month and S.F.
In 2005, then San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom established an APA Heritage Celebration Committee at the suggestion of Claudine Cheng, former national president of the Organization of Chinese Americans, a Washington, D.C., Asian Pacific American civil rights advocacy nonprofit. Five years later, the Asian Pacific American Heritage Foundation was established to coordinate and raise funds for the city’s activities.
Cheng, who is the committee coordinator for the 2021 APA Heritage Month Celebration Committee of the APA
Heritage Foundation, notes that the organization’s theme this year is to celebrate resilience and uplift voices. “There will be so many programs for every generation and every interest,” she told The Chronicle in a recent phone interview.
“And what was learned from the past is that there are so many silver linings even in the worst of times,” she added. “We have continued to see organizations working closer together and support each other.”
How to celebrate
San Francisco Public Library: The San Francisco Public Library continues its virtual offerings with more than a month’s worth of activities, aimed at participants of all ages, featuring Asian American authors and local luminaries. Here are some highlights:
Participants of all ages are invited to the “Minecraft Chinatown Alleyway Tour,” set for 1 p.m. Sunday, May 9, in which San Francisco’s famed neighborhood is recreated in the popular video game platform. This event is part of the library’s Tech Week, which runs from Sunday to Saturday, May 915. Children’s book author Kristen Mai Giang is also set to host an interactive reading from her debut picture book, “Ginger and Chrysanthenum,” for families starting at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, May 12.
“Facing Mecca, Reflections of Islam” will be presented at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 12, in partnership with the Asian Art Museum. The presentation explores the museum’s Islamic art collection, including sacred pieces and calligraphy. Asian American National Park Service rangers are also scheduled to discuss their experiences on the job for the “‘Where are you really from?’ Park rangers converse on the power of place” presentation set for 3 p.m. May 19. The festivities close out with a Kpop dance class for preteens and teenagers starting at 1 p.m. on May 29. These events are all free with registration. Find more events and registration information at www. sfpl.org.
Asian Art Museum: In addition to its typical Takeout Tuesdays virtual conversations, Art Escapes tours and partnered events such as a San Francisco Zen Center meditation session, the Asian Art Museum unveiled new events to honor APA Heritage Month.
Artist and healing practitioner Angela Basbas Angel, muralist and tattoo artist Priya Handa, painter and activist Pam Tau Lee, Asian Pacific Environmental Network organizer CheukNing Li, and multimedia artist and organizer Lisa Pradhan will explore how their work can contribute to environmental justice in the climate crisis era. The exchange of ideas and experiences is being held in conjunction with SOMArts Cultural Center’s “Sowing Agency: Seeding the Future for Environmental Justice” exhibition, which features works by Asian American artists like Cindy Shih. The artist panel is set to be hosted virtually at 4 p.m. Saturday, May 15. “Sowing Agency” is on display through May 23.
A Fremont resident who plays the dàn tranh (zither), VânÁnh Võ is also set to perform with taiko drummer and frequent collaborator Jimi Nakagawa, as part of a “musical conversation” online
event set for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 27. Cambodian vocalist and master dancer Charya Burt will also join the festivities.
Both events are free for members and $5 for the general public. For more information and registration go to www.asian art.org
Chinese Historical Society of America: Events in the society’s lineup include an online talk with Frank H. Hu, author and president of Queens College, City University of New York, about the findings of his book “Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White.” The conversation starts 1 p.m. May 22. For more information and registration, go to www.chsa. org/events.
San Jose Museum of Art: In a free membersonly event set for noon Friday, May 14, SJMA senior curator Lauren Schell Dickens plans to discuss her work exploring contemporary art in the Philippines — a project enabled by a curatorial research grant she received in 2019 from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. As described in the program, she’ll discuss “some of her earlystage research, artists who are shaping her thinking and the pitfalls of speaking about contemporary Filipinx art from her own perspective as a Filipina American.” For more information and registration, go to www.sjmus art.org.
Yoshi Kato is a freelance writer.