AIISF Newsletter / August 2021
Calvin Ong visits the former immigration hospital, where he was admitted as a patient in 1937.
A Message From AIISF’s Executive Director
In case you have not heard, I'm excited to share that the Detention Barracks Museum has re-opened for self-guided tours. On most weekends and some weekdays, there are dedicated volunteer docents (like Sam Louie and 2019 Spirit of Angel Island honorees Joe and Eliz Chan) roaming across the site to help educate visitors about the site’s history, heritage, and stories. We are hoping that we'll be able to open the Angel Island Immigration Museum to the general public in late Fall 2021.
As COVID restrictions lifted a few weeks ago, we have finally been able to start to coordinate preview tours of the Angel Island Immigration Museum for the donors and sponsors from the August 2020 virtual gala. With increasing new COVID-19 infections due to the Delta variant, we’ll need to abide by all local government guidelines. Earlier this week, Marin County issued a new requirement that everyone (vaccinated or unvaccinated) is required to wear a mask in indoor public spaces.
Last month, our Operations Manager Russell and I had the honor of accompanying Calvin Ong and his family on a return visit to Angel Island. As a young boy, Calvin spent 4 months in detention at Angel Island. On this visit, when Calvin paused for a picture with his 3 grandchildren on the external stairwell he used to sit at, all of us recognized the power and emotion of that special moment. Please contact us at info@aiisf.org if you would like assistance with coordinating a return visit to Angel Island for a former detainee.
Wishing everyone a safe, healthy, and relaxing August!
Edward Tepporn
AIISF Executive Director
July Recap – Museum Summit on Creative Aging
On July 29, the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) held their virtual Museum Summit on Creative Aging. Creative aging is an approach to programming that helps support reminiscence, creativity, health, and well-being among older adults.
The keynote for the summit was given by Daphne Kwok, former AIISF Executive Director and current Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at AARP. After the keynote, Daphne, AIISF’s Executive Director Edward Tepporn, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center’s Director Lisa Sasaki (who is currently on an interim assignment to over the Smithsonian’s new American Women’s History Museum), and AAM’s Senior Director of Equity and Culture Andrew Plumley, engaged in a robust panel discussion on creating belonging to combat Anti-Asian hate and to protect our elders.
The family of Wing Gee visits the new Angel Island Immigration Museum.
July Recap - Visits to Angel Island
Over the past several weeks, we have had a chance to bring a few groups out to Angel Island. Long-time donor and former AIISF board member Gerrye Wong and her husband Calvin commemorated their 65th Anniversary with an intergenerational family trip to Angel Island. AIISF co-founder and Immigrant Heritage Award honoree Felicia Lowe accompanied Ed Tepporn for a video shoot to promote the new museum. And several current board members had a chance to visit the Angel Island Immigration Museum for the first time.
The family of Gerrye and Calvin Wong visit the Immigrant Heritage Wall.
AIISF Board Member Nobuko Saito Cleary and her husband Dr. Gary Cleary.
Ed Tepporn with Felicia Lowe in the Opening Doors Exhibit at AIIM.
Upcoming Events
Author Spotlight with Samuel D. Porteous
August 25, 2021 / Online
Click here for tickets
The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation will be hosting an online event with artist and author Samuel D. Porteous to discuss his book Ching Ling Foo: America's First Chinese Superstar. Foo, his daughter, and his troop brief spent time in detention on Angel Island.
Samuel's book tells the incredible story of the Foo troupe's rollercoaster ride to unprecedented fame and luxury private railcar riding fortune. The excitement of the 1898 World's Fair, turn of the century Broadway, the Boxer Rebellion, the bizarreness of early 1900s vaudeville, the 1905 London World Championship of Chinese Magic, and an adorable bilingual toddler who transitions to teenage ragtime sensation. All this plus international intrigue, nativism, and industry-ending technological disruptions.
Zoom details will be provided after registering for the event.