A Message From AIISF’s Executive Director

Things are warming up this September, both in terms of temperature and in regards to different things to see and do related to Angel Island.

With the start of the school year, we want to remind everyone about our Field Trip Scholarship Fund to support teachers in covering the costs of class visits to Angel Island. This year, thanks to those who contributed to our Eats Meets Wine fund-a-need and the generous support of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and the Panda Community Fund, we will be able to provide over $50,000 in field trip scholarships!

At UC Berkeley, the “Year on Angel Island” project, co-led by the Future Histories Lab and the Arts and Design Initiative, has officially launched. Last week, I had the chance to attend the presentation by Greg Sarris, Tribal Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria. I learned so much about the Coast Miwok, the Indigenous tribe who originally stewarded Angel Island.

I’m also thrilled about our September 29 launch of the Animated API Histories Project. For the past three years, I have had the honor of being a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Leader. As part of this experience, I had the opportunity to create and incubate a small project that I hope will provide new resources for youth and adults to learn about and connect with Angel Island’s history, as well as with other moments in Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander American history. Tune in to watch the first three videos in the series and have the opportunity to engage in virtual small group discussions. (See below for more information and to register).

And to celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month, take a few moments to peruse these stories in our Immigrant Voices Project of immigrants of Hispanic and Latino/a/x heritage. Our archives include stories of immigrants from Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and more.

Finally, all of us at AIISF also want to wish a very happy 35th anniversary to our friends at the Chinese Historical & Cultural Project. And thank you for honoring our board president Buck Gee with an Inspiring Change Award.

Stay safe, cool, and healthy!

Edward Tepporn

AIISF Executive Director

The Angel Island Immigration Museum, Winner of a 2022 Preservation Design Award for Rehabilitation!

Thank you to the California Preservation Foundation for recognizing Angel Island Immigration Museum as one of this year's winners of the 2022 Preservation Design Award for Rehabilitation. The effort to rehabilitate the site's former hospital building and install contemporary-themed exhibits was a collaboration between many past and present AIISF board, staff, and stakeholders; staff at Angel Island State Parks; Garavaglia Architecture, Inc.; Second Story; and several others.

AIISF at the Camron-Stanford House History Fair!

Join AIISF as we explore, play, and learn with the Bay Area's best history museums, organizations, and doers at the Camron-Stanford History Fair on Saturday, September 10! Along with 20 local history museums, we will have a booth where you can learn more about how we can help you better connect to the past!

Learn more about the fair by visiting the Camron-Stanford History Fair Event Page!

Preventing Erasure: How the Angel Island Immigration Station Was Saved; A Talk with AIISF Executive Director, Ed Tepporn

AIISF Executive Director, Ed Tepporn, will discuss how activists saved this site, current-day efforts, and its meaning for the future.

The talk on September 16 at the Osher Theater in Berkeley is part of a year-long program of performances, exhibitions, and talks that use Angel Island as an observatory from which to view landscapes of migration, incarceration, and resistance.

A Year on Angel Island is organized by Future Histories Lab and Berkeley Arts and Design.

Click here to register!

We're Throwing a Watch Party for Our New Animated API Histories Videos

Join us on Thursday, September 29 from 5- 6:30 pm PST for a virtual watch party of three animated shorts. The videos will highlight some of the experiences of immigrants detained at Angel Island. We will be hosting facilitated, small-group discussions after watching the videos.

Animated Histories of Angel Island is funded in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Asian Pacific Fund, and the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program of the National Parks Service.

SPACE IS LIMITED. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Nichi Bei Foundation's Nikkei Pilgrimage

AIISF is proud to partner again with the Nichi Bei Foundation on the fifth Nikkei Angel Island Pilgrimage on Saturday, October 1, from 11 am to 3:30 pm.

This year, attendees can depart from either Tiburon or San Francisco. There will also be buses from Sacramento and San Jose’s Japantown.

Space is limited to 250 participants. Reservation deadline is September 20.

Click here for more information and to register.

Enemy Alien Files, a New Exhibit Opening in AIIM

Opening this October and running through November, AIIM will host a new exhibit from the National Japanese American Historical Society called Enemy Alien Files: Hidden Stories of World War II.

The exhibit will offer a comparative and multicultural presentation of the little-known stories of over 31,000 German, Italian, and Japanese immigrants who were discriminatingly deemed "enemy aliens" during WWII.

Admission to the Angel Island Immigration Museum is FREE.

Updated Ferry Schedules to Angel Island!

As we near the end of the summer season, the Angel Island Tiburon Ferry and Golden Gate Ferry have updated their ferry schedules.

The Angel Island Tiburon Ferry has updated its schedule for September and October. Click here to be redirected to their page.

The Golden Gate Ferry will maintain its current summer schedule until October 2. Click here to be redirected to their ferry schedule.

Other Community Events

Catch the World Premiere of 'In The Movement'

Presented by Asian Improv aRts, API Cultural Center, and the award-winning company Lenora Lee Dance, “In the Movement” is a heartfelt and explosive dance piece focusing on the separation of families and mass detention of immigrants as forms of incarceration. It serves as a meditation on reconciliation and restorative justice, speaking to the power of individuals and communities to transcend.

Now showing at the ODC Theater in San Francisco. Their last show is on Sepetember 11 so click here to purchase your tickets soon!