AIISF Newsletter / June 2023
A Message From AIISF’s Executive Director
June is Immigrant Heritage Month and Pride. During this month, we also recognize CA State Parks Week (June 14-18), Juneteenth (June 19), and World Refugee Day (June 20)!
We are excited to welcome the Asian American and Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy conference to Angel Island! We are also thrilled to bring back our annual Family Day after a 3-year hiatus due to COVID-19. Both events are at max capacity and completely sold out!
We have limited tickets available for our June 7 Author Spotlight event with Charles Kamasaki. Charles is a Senior Advisor at UnidosUS (formerly the National Council of La Raza) and wrote a book on his experiences on Capitol Hill working on the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. If you want to join us for this FREE in-person event, pre-registration (see below) is required by Tuesday, June 6 at 5 pm Pacific.
I’m also looking forward to our in-person program in Washington, DC on the evening of June 29. We’ll be in discussion with Stephen Lean from the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation to compare, contrast, and connect the histories and stories between Angel Island and Ellis Island. The event is co-hosted by the 1882 Foundation, the Chinese American Museum in DC, and several other organizations.
Finally, we want to congratulate two of AIISF’s board members. Nobuko Saito-Cleary was recently recognized with the Order of the Rising Sun Silver Rays Award from the Emperor of Japan. And Richard Lui released his latest documentary entitled Unconditional last month.
Enjoy the June sunshine!
Edward Tepporn
AIISF Executive Director
THIS WEEK!
In-Person Author Spotlight Discussion with Charles Kamasaki (FREE, Registration Required)
Wednesday, June 7, 2023
6 pm Pacific
Google Community Space
188 Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94105
Join us for a conversation with Charles Kamasaki, the author of Immigration Reform: The Corpse That Will Not Die.
The book is an insider’s history of how the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, and its follow-on Immigration Act of 1990, were shaped, debated, and ultimately passed. Hear more about his experiences in DC and as Senior Advisor at UnidosUS.
Family Day 2023 is SOLD OUT
Thank you for your enthusiastic interest in our Family Day event. We are completely sold out of tickets for this year's Family Day.
We want to thank our event sponsors Racyz Family Foundation, Panda CommUnity Fund, PG&E Corporation Foundation, and Walmart Foundation for their generous support that allowed us to offer significantly discounted tickets for this event.
For those who have purchased tickets, we will be emailing additional details soon. If you could not get tickets, there is a waiting list that we've started at www.aiisf.org/familyday.
Watch Our API Animated Histories on YouTube
Did you miss our API Animated Histories Watch Parties last month? You can still see them on our YouTube channel.
Our four latest videos highlight events and figures in Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander history. We hope they are helpful resources for teachers, students, and parents to inspire curiosity and learning.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation provided funding for these videos.
Watch all 7 of our videos at bit.ly/AANHPIanimatedhistories
THE VAULT: Exploring Your Family History
For Immigrant Heritage Month, we invite you to explore your family’s history and its possible connection to the Angel Island Immigration Station. THE VAULT’s page on Family Records gives you the tools and resources to find immigration files, interview transcripts, and other documents that capture the story of your ancestor’s journey to America.
Learn more about finding your family records here.
You can also discover other topics related to the Angel Island Island Immigration Station and its history on THE VAULT’s homepage.
Coming in July
Exhibit Opening Soon: Chinese Pioneers (at the Detention Barracks Museum)
We are pleased to present Chinese Pioneers: Power and Politics in Exclusion Era Photographs. This temporary exhibit explores the social, political, and judicial disenfranchisement of Chinese Californians and moments of Chinese agency and resilience in the decades before and after the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.
The exhibit examines how photography played an important role in Chinese people’s interactions with the dominant culture and the government’s fledgling registration, identification, and surveillance systems.
Stay tuned for updates!
About
Chinese Pioneers is an exhibit by the California Historical Society and touring through Exhibit Envoy. Institutional support is provided by San Francisco Grants for the Arts and Yerba Buena Community Benefit District. The Henry Mayo Newhall Foundation supported the first 6 bookings of this exhibition.