AIISF Newsletter / July 2022
Thank you to those of you who joined us for Eats Meets Wine, our virtual fundraiser on June 30. We raised over $110,000 to support AIISF’s efforts throughout the year, including $6,500 for our field trip scholarship fund. If you didn’t have a chance to join, you can watch the recording here, and it’s not too late to make a donation to support us.
In June, we were happy to welcome several groups out to Angel Island, including the Korean Community Center of the East Bay, Doors Open, Cupertino Historical Society and leaders from the city of Cupertino, as well as representatives from Kadist Art Foundation and the Migration Museum (a fellow member of the International Sites of Conscience and the Migration Museums Network) based in Australia.
We also recently hosted Pilar and Emmy-award-winning videographer Eduardo from Telemundo. Their news story in Spanish on Angel Island just aired last week. I’ve had the opportunity to chat with several visitors to Angel Island this past month who identify as Latino/Latina/Latinx. Their comments and the emotions that I saw in their eyes were a stark reminder. For many of us in the Asian and Pacific Islander communities, Angel Island’s buildings symbolize past detention that our ancestors endured. Yet, for other visitors, the site is a poignant reminder of how this history of exclusion and detention continues today along our nation’s southern border.
All of us at AIISF continue to strive to ensure that more and more people understand and empathize with Angel Island’s history and its relevance to today. I’m excited to share a few announcements for the months ahead:
The Angel Island Immigration Museum is expanding its opening times for the rest of the summer and will now be open on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 11 am to 3:30 pm. The Detention Barracks Museum and the rest of the site will maintain the same opening times of Wednesday through Sunday from 11 am to 3:30 pm.
We’re excited to host author Julie Leung for a virtual read-aloud on Sunday, August 14 of her book Paper Son: The Inspiring Story of Tyrus Wong, Immigrant, and Artist. Over the coming year, we hope to continue to expand our programs and exhibits for youth and families.
Save the Date for September 26 for the debut of Animated API Histories. We will launch a set of animated shorts about Angel Island and other moments in Asian American and Pacific Islander history. We hope that you might consider tuning in and/or coordinating an in-person or virtual watch party. Our goal is to have over 100 watch parties hosted around the nation.
As always, thank you for your continued engagement and support.
Edward Tepporn
AIISF Executive Director
Eats Meets Wine is now available on our YouTube channel!
Our 'Eats Meets Wine' fundraising event is available to view on our YouTube channel! Learn about AIISF over the past year and some new programs planned for the coming months. Get to know more about our event partners, Ivonne Zhu, founder of Appellations Cellar; Anu Sharma, featured 'shef' with Shef.com; - and Alvin Salehi, co-founder of Shef.com.
Thank you to those who tuned in live to help preserve this national historic landmark and to support our educational programs. If you would like to donate to the Foundation's field trip scholarship fund, please visit www.aiisf.org/donate and type "Field Trip Scholarship Fund" as the special purpose for your donation.
All that we do is made possible by your steadfast support.
SAVE THE DATE! Free, virtual reading of Paper Son: The Inspiring Story of Tyrus Wong, Immigrant and Artist with author Julie Leung!
On Sunday, August 14 at 10 am PT (1 pm ET), author Julie Leung will be doing a read aloud of her book- Paper Son: The Inspiring Story of Tyrus Wong, Immigrant, and Artist, which was awarded the Asian/Pacific American Award for Best Picture Book by the American Library Association. This is a family event open to all members of your family to listen, participate, and learn together. While the event will benefit learners of all ages, it is most well suited to those between the ages of 7 and11 years old. Find out more about Paper Son below!
Registration link coming soon!
"Before he became an artist named Tyrus Wong, he was a boy named Wong Geng Yeo. He traveled across a vast ocean from China to America with only a suitcase and a few papers. Not papers for drawing–which he loved to do–but immigration papers to start a new life. Once in America, Tyrus seized every opportunity to make art, eventually enrolling at an art institute in Los Angeles. Working as a janitor at night, his mop twirled like a paintbrush in his hands. Eventually, he was given the opportunity of a lifetime–and using sparse brushstrokes and soft watercolors, Tyrus created the iconic backgrounds of Bambi."
Community Partner Highlights
Now open! The Judy Yung Papers at Stanford Libraries
An archive of papers by the late historian Judy Yung is now open for research at the Stanford University Library.
Learn more about Judy's work, her legacy in Asian American studies, and how processing archivist Emma Frothingham organized years worth of Judy Yung's documents and files in this interview taken from the Stanford University Libraries newsletter here!
