Music from Poetry / Chen Yi

Chen Yi is a Chinese American composer whose work, Angel Island Passages, received its world premiere as part of the San Francisco Girls Chorus' twentieth anniversary season in 1998. Dr. Chen was born in Guangzhou, China and in 1986 was the first woman in her country to receive a master's degree in composition.

"The creative idea for this work was initiated by Dr. McMane, who invited me to write the music, and sent me the book Island, by Him Mark Lai, Genny Lim, and Judy Yung for reference in 2009. I was inspired by the Angel Island stories, and by Felicia Lowe, who shared with me her film Carved in Silence and video productions Chinatown and Road to Restoration.

The collective poems carved on the wooden walls expressed deep emotion in sorrow and anxiety. The third movement (of Angel Island Passages) is called We Are America, which is ever-moving, energetic and optimistic. The text sung in the beginning in Chinese means ‘I am an American.’ As the music develops, from monophonic to polyphonic with increasing layers, the climax is reached when the text is turned to English. We are America, symbolizes the flourishing society with the great contribution from thousands of immigrants during the years."

Carved in Silence / Felicia Lowe

Felicia Lowe’s Carved in Silence premiered in 1988 and continues to be an effective teaching tool to this day. The Angel Island Immigration Station comes to life with dramatic re-creations, interviews with former detainees, and recitations of poetry carved on the walls to reveal the human cost of the Chinese Exclusion Act and the complexity of America’s immigration policies.  Footage from Carved in Silence has been re-purposed in multiple ways from the three-screen projection accompanying Chen Yi's Angel Island Passages; Pacific Gateway, a 360°, virtual reality piece; and most recently, Gold Mountain: Chinese Californian Stories, an exhibit at the California Museum in Sacramento.

As a filmmaker, Felicia is motivated by her family’s connection to Angel Island. Both her father and grandfather were detained at AIIS. Her father, like most, never talked about his experiences. It is in their honor, and all those who endured, that she is committed to shining a light on the government’s history of exclusion and the Immigration Station’s part in enforcing the policy.