Beyond Orientalism: The Boston Forum

WHERE
Bright Family Screening Room, Paramount Center | Directions

Free; Registration Required

Presented by Boston Asian American Film Festival and New England Foundation for the Arts
Co-presented by Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, Company One Theater, Lyric Stage, SpeakEasy, and VietAid.

Breakfast available at 10:00 am.

Beyond Orientalism: The Forum is a national initiative designed to explore the topics of misrepresentation onstage and in the media, diversity and inclusivity in the performing arts as it relates specifically to API (Asian Pacific Islander) issues, and practical action steps to advance racial equity. This event will be a launch for the first network of API artists and arts organizations in the Greater Boston area and will feature a performance by Lowell-based company, Flying Orb Productions, and a panel discussion by guest speakers about how to establish and support a network of API artists and arts organizations. Join the free and public forum on October 21st to celebrate the launch!

PANEL DISCUSSION

Moderator
GILES LI is Executive Director of the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC), a family-centered social service agency located in Boston and Quincy. He won the statewide 2017 Excellence in Leadership award from the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network, and also recently named a recipient of the prestigious Barr Fellowship, celebrating exceptional nonprofit leaders.

Panelists
MICHAEL HISAMOTO is a Boston-based theatre artist and educator. Recent acting credits include: Stage Kiss, Fast Company (Lyric Stage), Charlotte’s Web (Wheelock Family Theatre), Yellow Face (The Office of War Information). Upcoming productions include: Hold These Truths, Virginia Woolf’s Orlando (Lyric Stage) and Allegiance (SpeakEasy Stage). Michael was a Playwriting Resident at the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival.

QUITA SULLIVAN (MONTAUKETT/SHINNECOCK) is the Program Director for Theater at New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) where she manages the National Theater Project. She worked as a Stage Manager at ETA in Chicago and she practiced Environmental Justice law for 10 years in Detroit and Boston. She is a Senior Fellow of the Environmental Leadership Program. She is also a former Associated Grant Makers Diversity Fellow.

NGOC-TRAN VU is a 1.5-generation Vietnamese American multimedia and transnational artist whose work draws from her experience as a community organizer and healer. She was born in Saigon, Vietnam and raised in Dorchester and South Boston. Tran received her MA in Arts and Politics at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and her BA in Ethnic Studies and Visual Arts at Brown University.

The event will be livestreamed on the HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv.

Read more on NEFA's blog by Meena Malik.