Skip Navigation

Opening Reception

Thursday, May 1, 5 - 8:30 pm

Please join the artists, cast and crew of the United States of Asian America Festival 2008 for the 11th Annual Gala Opening event. Partake in local food and drinks while sampling some of the festival art and performances offered by Bay Area Asian Pacific Islander artists and organizations.
Line-Up TBD
VENUE: SomArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street | San Francisco
ADMISSION: FREE
For info: (415) 864-4126 or info@apiculturalcenter.org
www.somarts.org

Upcoming Festival Shows:

Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center's 11th Annual United States of Asian America Festival 2008 Presents

Flo Oy Wong

70/30: Seventy Years of Living, Thirty Years of Art, Curated by Nancy Hom

Flo Oy Wong is a Bay Area artist well known for her ground-breaking explorations of community issues through art. To honor the 70th birthday of this important artist, APICC is presenting a retrospective exhibition of selected works from her 30 years of art-making. In addition, she will create a new art installation about her developmentally disabled sister, Li Hong Gee Lew. A full-color catalog chronicling her art and process accompanies the exhibition.

Exhibit: May 1-25, 2008 (All events are free)
Opening Reception: Thurs, May 1, 5 - 8:30 pm
Gallery Hours: Tue-Fri 2:00-7:00 pm; Sat. 1:00-5:00 pm
Panel Discussion: Sat, May 17th 4-6pm
Book Launch and Reception: Thurs, May 22nd 6 – 8 pm
SomArts Main Gallery
934 Brannan St. San Francisco

For info: (415) 864-4126 or info@apiculturalcenter.org
www.flo-oy-wongartist.com

Commissioned by APICC and made possible with the support of the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC), San Francisco Grants for the Arts (SFGTA), Community School of Music and Arts/Finn Center (CSMA), National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), San Francisco Grants for the Arts (SFGTA), Lawrence Choy Memorial Fund and SomArts Cultural Center.

Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center's 11th Annual United States of Asian America Festival 2008 Presents

East of the West, Co-Curated by Taraneh Hemami and Anuradha Vikram

How can we understand a region as diverse and far-ranging as the Middle East? Curators Taraneh Hemami and Anuradha Vikram pose this question to a selection of artists with roots in the region and beyond, working in all visual arts media. Topics of particular concern include how to represent religious, ethnic and cultural diversity within an area of the world too often homogenized in discussions of current events; the roles and status of women and queer or transgendered persons within traditional cultures; and the changes to self-identification that immigration engenders.

Exhibit: May 1-24, 2008 (All events are free)
Opening Reception: Thurs, May 1, 5 - 8:30 pm
Gallery Hours: Tue-Fri 2:00-7:00 pm; Sat. 1:00-5:00 pm
SomArts Bay Gallery
Panel Discussion: Wed, May 14, 7:00-9:00 pm (SomArts Theater)

For info: (415) 864-4126 or info@apiculturalcenter.org

Supervisor Mirkarimi's Third Friday Art Reception Presents

Extension of East of the West

Opening Reception: Fri, May 16, 5:00-8:00 pm
Exhibition: May 16-June 17
VENUE: City Hall
Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi’s Office
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 244
San Francisco, Ca 94102-4689
ADMISSION: Free

For info: (415) 864-4126 or info@apiculturalcenter.org

San Francisco Arts Commission Community Arts and Education Program presents

Neighborhood Arts Festival: Celebrating 40 Years of Neighborhood Arts

"Nurturing arts for and by the people where they live and work."

Guess who's 40 now? Celebrate four decades of the Neighborhood Arts Program this spring. Join us for two weeks of events that spotlight community arts in San Francisco's neighborhoods. Expect musical performances; a reading with San Francisco literati, including poet laureates past and present; lively panel discussions; and even a speed dating session matching up artists with community organizations. The celebration will culminate in the 40th Anniversary Bash, a half-day celebration at SomArts Cultural featuring the 40th anniversary reunion with founding members of the program.

April 21 - May 3, 2008
Saturday, May 3, 1-6 pm
VENUE: SomArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan Street. San Francisco and other San Francisco venues
ADMISSION: All Neighborhood Arts Festival events are FREE and open to the public.

For more info about the other events throughout the city, contact Robynn Takayama (415) 252-2598 or visit sfartscommission.org for a full listing of festival events.

QWOCMAP Presents

"Bonds That Heal: Queer API Women's Films"

Curated by Madeleine Lim

From the spiritual call of a Filipino ancestor to Chinese stories of memory and migration to traditional Thai culture honored and carried forward, these evocative films will weave bonds of hope and transformation. All works created through Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP).

Boon Khun (Virada Chatikul)
Local Grown Corn (Mel Chen)
Pray Ting Ai Fly (Vanessa Huang)
To Transgress: A Meditation (Maya Santos)
Reflections (Dominique De Guzman)
Pasalig/Faith (Maiana Minahal)
It Takes a Village (Kiki Zerrudo)
That's Why I Hate Females (Vassilisa Johri)
Duration: 80 mins

Saturday, May 3, 7 pm
VENUE: SomArts Theatre
ADMISSION: $10.00 door; $8.00 advance

For info: (415) 864-4126 or info@apiculturalcenter.org
www.qwocmap.org

APICC in association with kaotic good productions present

The Cooking Show Con Karimi y Castro: a live cooking performance for your heart, mind, stomach & funny bone

Savor a tasty theatrical experience with revolutionary chefs Mero Cocinero Karimi and Comrade Cocinero Castro as they dish up Iranian-Guatemalan-Filipino food, cultural consciousness and humor.

Fresh from stops in Anchorage, Minneapolis, Houston, Sheboygan and Off-Broadway, come see a live cooking performance for your mind, heart, stomach & funny bone that the Associated Press called "a globally flavored recipe that packs some punch lines."" The two chefs create revolutionary recipes LIVE onstage, serving up stories, healthy political discussion combined with delicious culinary samples, guaranteeing every audience member their own satisfying taste.

The Cooking Show Con Karimi y Castro is a National Performance Network Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by Pangea World Theater in partnership with Asian Arts Initiative, the National Performance Network, NPN and Produced by the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center in community Partner ship with Asian American Theater Company.

performed by Mero Cocinero Karimi and Comrade Cocinero Castro
directorial support by Ellen Sebastian Chang
dramaturged by Meena Natarajan
written by Robert Farid Karimi and John Manal Castro
costume design by Erin Lavelle Lundeen

Preview Performance, Thursday, May 8
Performances: Saturday-Sunday, May 10-1 1, and Thursday-Sunday, May 15-18, 2008
Thursday, Friday and Saturday Performances at 8:00 pm
Sunday Performances at 7:00 pm
VENUE: SomArts Cultural Center
ADMISSION: $20.00
Students/Seniors and Advance: $18.00

For info: (415) 864-4126 or info@apiculturalcenter.org

danceNAGANUMA Presents

Noodle Women

Choreography by Claudine Naganuma

Inspired by Flo Oy Wong's 30-year retrospective of visual art, Noodle Women offers a rich landscape of thoughts and feelings within a balance of formality and levity. The dance is an exploration of eating long life noodles and will take place within Wong's gallery exhibit and on stage.

The strong yet elegant dancers include Lihong Chan, Amanda Crawford, Claudine Naganuma, Catalina Jackson Urueña, Sierra Joe Lash, Julia Milani, Kristan Suko, and Julia Yoshino. Delightful and poignant, the dance is sure to make you leave hungry!

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, May 22, 23, 24 at 8pm
Sunday, May 25 at 2pm and 7pm
VENUE: SomArts Cultural Center
ADMISSION: $20.00
Students/Seniors and Advance: $18.00
For info: (415) 864-4126 or info@apiculturalcenter.org

Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco & S.F. International Arts Festival Present in association with APICC

"Lure" by artist Beili Liu

Beili Liu transforms simple, everyday materials in curious ways that are evocative of both her Chinese heritage and her experience in the United States. Her elegant installations and sculptural work look at transience, fragility and time lapse. Exhibition "Lure" is inspired by the mystical Chinese tale of the "Red Thread", which tells that lovers are connected by an invisible red thread since they were born. As time passes they come closer and eventually find each other, regardless of the distance between them, or their social and cultural divides. Installation "Lure #1" consists of hundreds of disks made from tightly spiraled red thread. Each disk is connected to another, as a "couple", and each pair is made from one thread. Subtle air current encourages the suspended disks to sway and turn gently like lily pads on water, while the red lines on the ground cross and tangle. With a little effort, one can discover the "connected couples", though the swaying disks have their own "moves" and "affairs" regardless of the lines and connections beneath.

Opening Friday, May 9-July 12
VENUE: Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco
750 Kearny Street, Third Floor
San Francisco, CA 94108-1809
Phone: 415.986.1822
ADMISSION: FREE
c-c-c.org

After the Revolution: Contemporary Iranian Photography from California and Tehran

Curated by Meg Shiffler, SFAC Gallery Director and Ghazaleh Hedayat, Tehran-based Artist/Curator

The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery and PhotoAlliance are pleased to present, After the Revolution, a groundbreaking group exhibition of contemporary photography by Iranian artists from Tehran and California as part of our ongoing Art at City Hall program. After the Revolution is the first substantial exhibition mounted in the US featuring photography by young emerging artists from Tehran. In addition, the work from Tehran will be exhibited alongside photographs by emerging artists of Iranian decent living in California, thus creating a rich dialogue around the hopes and concerns of Iranians and the Iranian Diaspora. After the Revolution will feature approximately 100 photographs by the participating artists. The artists, all under the age of 40, were born around or after the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

April 11 - June 28, 2008
VENUE: Art at City Hall, Ground Floor
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, SF, CA 94102
Hours: Monday - Friday, 8am - 8pm
ADMISSION: FREE to the public
www.sfartscommission.org

Never Been to Tehran, organized by artist Jon Rubin and curator Andrea Grover

The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery is pleased to present Never Been to Tehran, organized by artist Jon Rubin and curator Andrea Grover. The exhibition is a worldwide effort with 29 international artists who will be contributing photographs of what they imagine the city of Tehran to look like. Hundreds of photographs will be exhibited daily on monitors in each of the venues four large windows. The participants will use a variety of research methods to imagine the culture, landscape, and people of the Tehran, using only their primary city of residence as the location of their photographs.

Other exhibition venues for the project include: Parkingallery, Tehran, Iran; Caravansarai, Istanbul, Turkey; Media and Interdisciplinary Arts Center, Toi Rerehiko Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand; Koh-I-Noor, Copenhagen, Denmark; Mess Hall, Chicago, USA; Pittsburgh Cultural Trust (Downtown Electronic Jumbotron), Pittsburgh, USA; Embryosalon, Berlin, Germany; and live on the web at www.NeverBeenToTehran.com.

Wednesday, May 23 - August 23, 2008
VENUE: The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery
155 Grove Street, window installation
The installation is viewable 24/7
ADMISSION: FREE
www.sfartscommission.org

Produced in association with APICC & QCC

American Idyll (The GAPA Show 2008)

A queer API arts showcase that explores what it means to be gay and American when one is of Asian & Pacific Islander (API) heritage. Featuring visual arts, written word and performance, American Idyll is a collaborative, community-based project intended to highlight the diverse range of queer API perspectives. Since its founding in 1988, GAPA has been dedicated to furthering the interests of gay & bisexual APIs in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Through its efforts, GAPA hopes to promote cultural diversity within both the larger Asian Pacific American population and the mainstream LGBT community, while also allowing gay APIs to take control over how our images and our identity are presented.

Sunday, June 1, Reception and Program: 6pm
VENUE: SomArts Theatre
ADMISSION: FREE
For info: (415) 864-4126 or info@apiculturalcenter.org
www.queerculturalcenter.org
www.gapa.org

SAFEhouse in association with APICC and QCC Present

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha's Grown Woman Show

A fearless, sexy and powerful one-woman show about being a long-term incest survivor and a femme of color making love, family and heartbreak within queer and trans of color communities. Using storytelling, spoken word, ritual and movement, Leah traces one year in her life as she leaves her long-term white partner and returns to finding love and trouble in a series of new lovers of colour - while simultaneously attempting to reconnect with the family she hasn't talked to in a decade. In the tradition of Dorothy Allison's, Two or Three Things I Know For Sure and Anna Camilleri's, I Am A Red Dress. Grown Woman Show asks: What do we do with what we've survived once we're finally grown?

Thursday, and Friday, June 5-6, 2008
VENUE: The Garage, 975 Howard Street
ADMISSION: sliding scale $10-$20
For info: 415 885 4006 or www.975howard.com

QWOCMAP Presents in Community Partnership with APICC & QCC

4th annual Queer Women of Color Film Festival

The 4th annual Queer Women of Color Film Festival showcases the explosive stories of our community, from the quick turns of a dyke couple on a mission to conceive to the fierce shimmy of big bodacious babes to the dynamic strut of a queer secret agent, these fly films will let you get down, get funky and get loose!

QWOCMAP is thrilled to have APICC as a Community Partner for our Festival Focus on Queer API Women's Films. An official event of the National Queer Arts Festival.

DATES: June 13-15, 2008
VENUE: Brava Theatre, 2781 24th Street, SF
ADMISSION: FREE
SPECIAL EVENT: Pratibha Parmar Panel & Screening - $10 to $20
For Info & Tickets: (415) 752-0868 or festival@qwocmap.org
www.qwocmap.org