In Washington DC, Talk Story Events are monthly community gatherings usually held in DC Chinatown. Join our mail list at http://bit.ly/TalkStoryList.
On April 17th, 2023, we convened for a panel conversation to explore the impact of public policy on Chinatowns, drawing specifically on the Washington DC and Philadelphia Chinatowns. This conversation opportunely comes in the recent news of a plan to build a new sports arena in Philly's Chinatown, mirroring a similar decision made in the 1990s in DC that devastated the ethnic community that called it home. 1882 Foundation Executive Director Ted Gong and Jennifer Li of the Harrison Institute for Public Law gave a…
The Literature & Arts Corner Library is an online platform that was launched at last month’s Talk Story to highlight Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) media representation. The event featured developers Lauren Eng and Jasmine Soni, author Jenny Cho, and Literature & Arts Corner Director Stan Lou. Days before the launch, Everything Everywhere All at Once, a film depicting the multiverse adventure of a Chinese immigrant tasked with saving existence, won seven Oscars, including best picture. It is one of many works that the…
Having roots in the Civil Rights Era and the community activism movement, Asian American community leaders in Boston, Washington D.C., San Francisco and New York City addressed the legal needs of their local communities in the 1970s and 80s. In this panel, held as a part of the Association of Asian American Studies Conference 2023, four leaders both within and outside the legal profession reflected on the historic ties between the Asian American movement, Asian American studies, and community-led lawyering practices that laid the foundation…
On Sunday, March 26, the 1882 Foundation hosted a film screening of Bad Axe at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. Directed by David Siev, the film documents Siev’s family living in Bad Axe, Michigan during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the Cambodian-Mexican-American family’s fight to keep their local restaurant running and unite a divided community amid rising racial tensions, the film engages in topics of intergenerational trauma, community activism, and the concept of the American dream. Bad Axe received critical acclaim, winning the Critic’s…
On December 11th, the 1882 Foundation community gathered at the I Street Conference Center for our December Talk Story event, catchily titled ‘Motorcycles, Muscle Cars, and Tropical Fish’. Over Christmas cookies and holiday treats, the storytelling event saw Harry Chow, a former DC Chinatown resident and longtime contributor of stories, photographs, and archives, bringing together several generations of former DC Chinatown residents together to share stories of the youth culture of Chinatown from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Old friends shared stories of owning and…
“The Poppy War” is a heavy, dark, and unprecedented debut by R.F. Kuang. The first fantasy war novel out of a trilogy covers topics of classism, colonization, and genocide through the experiences of its young female protagonist who survives in a world familiar of Chinese history. Shamans clash with plot points drawn from events like the Opium War, second Sino-Japanese war and an atmosphere of the Song dynasty. The main character of the novel is Rin, a dark-skinned and poor war orphan. To avoid her…
