Author: Ali Smith

January 1, 2022

Friends:

As the old year closes and a new year begins, I want to thank you for supporting our programs big and small throughout this last year and throughout our over ten years of activities as the 1882 Foundation.
Our first Talk Story event was held at the Chinatown Community Cultural Center in 2011. That year, Stan and I established the principle that we would hold an event once a month in DC Chinatown on a Chinese American subject. The principle would become fundamental. It has guided us even when we attracted only a dozen attendees (half of whom were the speaker’s family and always my loving wife Mohkeed). We have since organized national conferences and regional workshops. We have led in the recognition and registration of national historic places and promoted innovations and partnerships in how Chinese American history and heritage are taught. (more…)

The Year 2021 saw stubborn covid-induced restrictions affect our programs and goals. However, we also became comfortable with digital processes and innovations. Our professional networks strengthened. We built new collaborations and adapted public programing and research methods. It is now hard to imagine going forward without considering zoom, live-streaming, or digital displays and teleconferencing. That said, the restrictions on public presentations, the limitations on personal interviews, and closures of story sites and archives for research and networking markedly dampened program effectiveness in 2021 such that the prospects of restoring pre-covid operations while continuing the successful digital work-around’s promise a productive and creative 2022. (more…)