USAAF 2026 Festival: Common Ground

United States of Asian American Festival 2026: Common Ground

The 2026 USAAF Festival welcomes an exciting season of new work from artists across the Bay Area, inviting you to immerse in a rich tapestry of culture and perspective that ground us in a communal sense of belonging. This year’s theme, Common Ground, invites us to reflect on our relationships with each other and with the spaces we move through together as AAPIs in the diaspora by exploring what it means to take up space and practice placemaking for others. The festival will celebrate modes of thinking about solidarity through shared experiences and histories by underscoring how visibility in public spaces can cultivate belonging. 

• How do API communities continue to create spaces for gathering and community care through arts and culture? How do we use these spaces to act in solidarity with other BIPOC and/or LGBTQ+ communities and work towards collective liberation?

• What does it mean to create and hold space for healing, and how does API cultural expression inform the ways that we are able to expand reflective spaces within ourselves? 

• How do we continue to create spaces to amplify API narratives in the face of injustice and erasure in the United States? How can the arts help us imagine new ways to tell our stories and steward our histories for future generations? the Experience the diverse narratives and innovative perspectives that reflect the spirit of our community.

FEATURED EVENTS

Featured Artist: 

Maya Fuji

• Artist Talk with Maya Fuji, Shingo Yamazaki, Nibha Akireddy

• 5.20 @ 6pm

• Jonathan Carver Moore Gallery

Outdoor Showcase: 

6.12 @ 5-10pm • Sunset Night Market

• Alice Hur, For the Culture, Dance Performance

• Nu Tekno presents DJ Yuka Yu with Al Yu, DJ + Music Performance

Theater/Performance: 

Eddie Jen - Seeking a Penpal for the End of the World

• 5.2 @ 7:30pm • 5.9 @ 6pm

• Marsh Studio Theater

Thao P. Nguyen - White Power: A Comedy

• 5.29 @ 8pm • 5.30 @ 8pm

• Bindlestiff Studio

Megan Lowe Dances - Air Between Us

• 5.15 @ 7pm • 5.16 @ 2pm

• 5.16–7pm • 5.17 @ 2pm

• Yerba Buena Gardens

King LOTUS BOY, Piss E Sissy, and EUPHEMIA -

Rhythms of Resistance: Queer Dance Party Celeb. Black & API Solidarity 

• 6.6 @ 8pm

• SOMArts Cultural Ctr

Multimedia Events: 

Hamesha Proj. & Dilpreet Anand Brown Thumbs:

Punjabi x Mexican Land Solidarity

• 6.14 @ 5pm

• Dance Mission Theater

Sami See - Island Bound: Listening Party

• 6.13 @ 5:30pm

• 447 Minna

Visual Art Exhibits: 

Lineages of Organizing: Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center at 30

Produced by APICC and Curated by Colin Choy Kimzey

• Festival Kick-off & Opening*: Thu 4.23 @ 6pm

• Community Archiving Day: Sun 5.3 @ 1pm

• Closing: Sun 5.24 @ 1pm

• Gallery Open: Thu-Sun

• SOMArts Cultural Center

GLBTQ+ Asian Pacific Alliance (GAPA):

Holding (Queer) Space Opening Reception

• 5.29 @ 6PM

• Sentro Filipino

Film: 

Priyanka Suryaneni - SAFAR: Journey of Recollections

• 6.14 @ 3:30pm

• Creativity Theater

QWOCMAP - 2026 International Queer Women of Color Film Festival 

• 6.12-6.14

• Presidio Theatre

  
  

➢ GET TICKETS TO THE FESTIVAL