USAAF 2020 Recap

Video recap by ARC & TYPE Design. Music: "People" by Boondock Squad.

USAAF 2020: FINDING KINSHIP

FESTIVAL RECAP

Dear Community,

I just wanted to take some time to reflect on what’s happened in the past 5 months. And so much has happened! First off, I wanted to thank our artists who participated in this year’s United States of Asian America Festival: Finding Kinship. Thank you for your resilience and your willingness to pivot your programs to our first ever virtual festival in such a short amount of time.

In 23 years of our festival’s history, we have never experienced such a disruption. For those of you unaware, just before COVID-19 hit the Bay Area and shelter-in-place orders were enacted, all of our artists and programs had just confirmed dates, venues, and event info and we were about to launch our official festival schedule. Like for so many of you, the pandemic really threw us for a loop. Among fears of the virus, many of us were also suffering from the effects of racism as violence and xenophobic rhetoric grew targeting Asians and Asian Americans across the nation. So many of our artists and community members spoke out against this. Being able to have a festival in celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month became even more significant, as our visibility meant showing our strength and survival. Some of our artists also switched up their programming to address the Black Lives Matter protests and civil unrest erupting throughout the country by including Black voices, artists, and themes into their events and addressing anti-Black racism in our API communities.

In turn, APICC tried to offer as much information, resources, and support to all of you, and we hope to continue doing so and being of service to you in this time of need. I’m really proud of our API artists and communities for how we’ve come together to care for one another one crisis after another. I’m also proud of my APICC staff for hunkering down and doing their best to be there for each other and our artists. I am in such awe of our collective power. We will get through this. Wishing all of you and your loved ones safety, peace, and health until we can be together again.

Sincerely,

Melanie Elvena
Artistic Director

USAAF 2020 PLAYLISTS

USAAF 2020 Events

Legacy & Lineage Series

Listen to the FINDING KINSHIP Spotify Playlist, including songs, poetry and music recommended by USAAF 2020 artists. Featuring songs by Jon Jang, Francis Wong, Genny Lim, Boondock Squad, Sammay Dizon, Ruby Ibarra and more.

THANK YOU

JURORS

Eddie Wong
Tatiana Chaterji
Sami Schilf

ARTISTS

Sami See
Jon Jang
Ramon Abad & the Bindlestiff Studio Puppet Crew
Ranko Ogura Dance
Kearny Street Workshop
jxtheo
Rea Lynn de Guzman
Parivar Bay Area
A Hxstory of Renting
dNaga
Urban x Indigenous
Political Inheritance (presented by AAWAA)
Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project