Kearny Street Workshop

On February 3rd, join us for this virtual gathering as author, Alden M. Hayashi, reads from his debut novel and is joined in conversation by Miko Lee, lead producer of APEX Express on KPFA radio to discuss the novel’s themes of immigration, institutionalized racism, family, and coming out. Register at the link in our bio! This reading is co-presented by @njahs1980 and @tsuruforsolidarity.

Claire Burke is a photographer and visual artist who volunteered on this year's APAture festival planning committee, as well as featured her own art. Claire was also one of our official event photographers! Her art practice revolves around all things photography, curation, and creative direction. She is currently working on a year+ long daily archive of lumen paper negatives as a comment on the passage of time and a documentation of the way people hold space in the... spaces that hold them. "The most exciting and rewarding parts of working on KSW’s GPC were the friends and community I gained as well as the opportunities that have opened up for me since I got involved. KSW’s loving supporting APA community is one that I’ve been looking for for a long time. Signing up for GPC was one of the best personal and career decisions I’ve ever made. I timidly signed up after I graduated from college and wasn’t sure what path to take. KSW provided me with direction, opportunity, and valuable experience. If you’re interested in participating I’d absolutely urge you to sign up and give it a shot. You won’t regret it." Thank you so much, Claire! @claireburkee @burkesclaire See more

Shoutout to Sean Bautista for supporting us with curating and organizing our APAture Music and Performing Arts showcases this year! Sean is a musician, producer, beatmaker, and drum programmer. He's been working within the genres of ambient, boom-bap, hip hop, math rock, and prog rock. He is a frequent collaborator to San Jose's music scene, often taking on bass guitar. He will be releasing an EP with the record label MushMan based in Fremont soon, and is... also working on tracking bass and drums with the math rock project. Sean shares: "The most exciting thing for me was seeing how vast and diverse the creative community is in The Bay and being involved with an organization such as Kearny Street. Getting to connect with creatives outside of San Jose and outside of music was such an eye-opening experience. The fact that I was able to help curate and work with KSW for the music showcase was especially rewarding when there was a great turnout at Kapwa Gardens along with amazing vendors and great music." Thank you for all of your work, Sean, and congratulations on your upcoming release and projects! @somn.ok See more

Dozens of you in our extended and growing community have joined us in envisioning and activating KSW’s work for the next 50 generations, helping us raise an amazing $10,000 out of our ambitious $50,000 goal in our 50th year! We are so thrilled to have an opportunity to thank you, although a shoutout is only a small token of our gratitude. Our loving thanks goes to the donors here, including many who give year over year, campaign after campaign! Happy Holidays to our KSW friends and family! To learn more about #KSW50, check out our linktree in bio. To become a monthly donor, sign up at our paypal in our linktree in bio!

To Truong with Love is live now! https://youtu.be/2CcDIOxpwZw

HAPPENING SOON! You can still register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/to-truong-with-love-a-reading- This book is also about living. Writing as a way of writing myself back into existence. Truong Tran KSW, @kundimanforever, and @kayapress present this online reading and celebration of Truong Tran's Book of the Other, this Thursday 12/9 7pm PST.

Dawn Angelicca Barcelona is a poet, dancer, and mixed media collagist. Currently, she's working on a chapbook focusing on her experiences living and working in South Korea on a Fulbright grant. "Since moving to San Francisco 5 years ago, I’ve frequented many literary festivals, concerts, performancing, and art galleries, but had no idea what kind of logistics go into planning and coordinating an event. Working on the GPC gave me insight into the jurying process and... curating a show under a theme. As a Filipina-American, I have been looking for more community spaces that reflect my identity, and it was a joy to celebrate artists through APAture and meet folks working in all different genres of art." Dawn is excited to continue to keep in touch with everyone she's met through APAture and Kearny Street Workshop, and is hoping to collaborate in the future with visual artists. She's currently involved in a project called Talking to Strangers through Write Now! SF with Shizue Siegel. They will be distributing mini publications of writing and artwork by BIPOC folks around the city. Please enjoy these beautiful collages by Dawn, as well as her poem "Upon Arrival" published by the Fulbright Korea Alumni Infusion Magazine. See more

In Spring of 2021, a group of KSW volunteers, all emerging artists and cultural workers themselves, began to convene over Zoom to discuss the return of our APAture festival. After more than two years of navigating a global pandemic, fear, and isolation, they felt especially called to create a space that can hold Asian Pacific American artists during this time... (to read our APAture 2021 recap visit the linktree in our bio) #festivallife #artfestival #festivalvibes #festivallovers #asianartist #asianart #APAartists #APA #asianpacificamerican #APAart #APAcommunity #digitalart #artistsoninstagram #instaart #bayareaart #bayareaartist #California art #sanfranciscoart #fineart #sfartist #artoftheday #artgallery #instaartist #sanfrancisco #artstagram #californialove #mysanfrancisco #sfbayarea

Dear community Happy New Year. As we move into 2021 after such a difficult year, we want to share this dance ritual and prayer by artist Johnny Huy Nguyen for cleansing, grounding, and healing. We hope that this new year is better for all of us. This performance was first created for our We Got Us. event in December. Thank you Johnny for creating and offering such a gift to our community. Johnny Huy Nguyen is a multidisciplinary artist based in unceded Ramaytush - Ohlone te...rritory aka San Francisco and is a second generation Vietnamese American. His practice is centered on the body, recognizing its power as a place of knowing, site of resistance, gateway to healing, and crucible of imagination. Drawing from a fluency in multiple movement modalities including myriad street dance styles, contemporary, modern, he weaves together dance, text, ritual, performance art, and other mediums to navigate the intersections between the personal, the political, and the universal. In doing so, his aim is to cultivate spaces from which we may gain greater understanding of our world, expand as conduits for radical empathy, and collectively imagine futures yet to be realized. #WeGotUs #WeGotKSW #healing #artishealing #APAarts #AsianAmericanArtists #SanFranciscoArtists #BayAreaArtists #APAture

Happy new year! A big wish for 2021 is to see our amazing community in person.

"As an artist, I've met collaborators, friends, and new fans through Kearny Street Workshop. I was just starting out when I applied for the APAture festivalI got the chance to play for the largest and most supportive audiences of my life at that point. I'm so grateful for KSW's ability to connect artists and community members who vibe with and uplift each other. These relationships inspire me, support my livelihood, and encourage me to keep going. Thank you, KSW!" You can help us support APA artists like Nikki by donating or sharing about our #WeGotUs year end campaign at kearnystreet.org/we-got-us or through the link in our IG bio. Photo Credit: Kofi Q

"Being a part of the KSW family helped me to situate myself more clearly in the multidisciplinarity that the API arts community thrives upon. Growing up Pinay in Carson, CA but not having had a sociopolitical grounding to root from made growing into my artistry in San Francisco vital. In 2015, I performed my first ever multimedia dance theatre solo performance at APAture Performing Arts showcase. In 2016, I was invited to perform as the Featured Artist. When I began to explor...e my voice through songwriting, KSW celebrated this by giving me the honor of closing out the 2018 APAture Music showcase! I would not be where I am today without the love, support, and true faith KSW has shown me throughout the years. KSW is such a necessary space in the greater Bay Area arts ecosystemheld by giants whose shoulders we stand and dance and sing upon!" We absolutely love connecting with and working with powerful artists like Sammay over the years. And we're determined to continue building and providing necessary programs that support the growth of APA artists. We're are extremely close to reaching our $20,000 year end goal (less than $200 to go, counting our pledges) ! Please consider donating or sharing about our campaign at kearnystreet.org/we-got-us or through the link in our IG bio. #WeGotUs #WeGotKSW #APAarts #artists4eva #Asianarts #BayAreaartists #ArtisResistance See more

As this incredibly difficult year comes to a close, we hope everyone is taking good care of themselves. We'd like to share these words from writer and KSW Board Member Cristiana Baik: "When I moved to the Bay Area seven years ago, Truong Tran, a wonderful poet and visual artist based in San Francisco (and someone who has been involved with KSW for many years), encouraged me to go to a reading Kearny Street Workshop was hosting. I remember going and feeling ...so lucky that as an AA/PI writer, an organization like KSW even existed; it felt comforting to be immersed in a physical space packed with other AA/PI artists and writers. I had moved to Oakland from the Twin Cities, where there was such a dearth of resources and community spaces that supported AA/PI writers and artists. A couple of years later, when I was the director of development of a local API-based mental health and wellness agency, I partnered up with KSW on an event that showcased AA/PI poets, academics and artists who had collectively worked together to create a unique tarot card project called, 'Asian American Tarot: A Mental Health Project.' I knew KSW was the right partner, and of course, it turned out to be a really fun, meaningful evening that also really lifted up the mental health issues that are often too taboo to discuss within our different AA/PI communities. During this giving season, KSW deserves our support, and I hope that KSW continues to thrive and expand for another 50 years." Let's continue to create spaces where our artistic communities can uplift one another and thrive. We need your support as we approach the new year and re/imagine our programs and events. Donate or share our campaign at kearnystreet.org/we-got-us or through the link in our IG bio. See more

"My experience with KSW was one of a kindMichelle and Kazumi curated a beautiful reading for the beautiful Monica Sok and I. They put us in conversation about kinship, refuge, solidarity with BLM, and community-building at a time when I needed it the most. KSW offered a sacred alcove within the literary community where I felt safe, respected, and held. As a newcomer to the Bay Area and an international poet myself, I felt so welcomed by the group, and I remember it as my fav...orite reading of the year. The work KSW does is rigorous, politically radical, and most of all, much needed: there are very few creative organizations focused on Asian American literature, especially on the West Coast, where the population of artists and writers is hungry for representation and a creative outlet. Donations to KSW are vital in order to keep this blessed space running." EXCITING UPDATE: With pledges, we're just $186 away from our $20,000 year end goal. We're in awe of your love and generosity. Thank you to everyone who has donated or shared about our #WeGotUs campaign. Your support directly helps us continue to build spaces where transformative art and conversation can take place, such as the event with Aria and Monica earlier this year. Can you help us reach our goal? Can you help us surpass it? Send us a donation or spread the word as this year comes to a close! #WeGotUs #WeGotKSW #APAarts #artists4eva #Asianarts #BayAreaartists #ArtisResistance See more

From SF Public Defender and comedian Vilaska Nguyen: "I had the honor of performing stand up comedy at the 2018 APAture festival. It was so invigorating sharing my visions of justice through humor. I am a Public Defender by day, and Kearny Street Workshop provided me a platform to really share my experiences and stories. Now more than ever, we need to make sure that KSW continues to advocate for Asian American voices. I think this is a trying time for all of us, but our stori...es really need to be shared. So do what you can. Donate. Every single penny is going to go a very long way. Because at the end of the day, we got us, and that's a lot." Join Vilaska in declaring We Got Us! Support KSW by sharing about our campaign at kearnystreet.org/we-got-us or through the link in our IG bio. With our pledges, we're just a mere $200 away from reaching our $20,000 goal. We're blown away by all of your love and support. Thank you! #WeGotUs #WeGotKSW #APAarts #artists4eva #Asianarts #BayAreaartists #ArtisResistance See more

Friends! We're back with another KSW Presents celebrating the release of Arhm Choi Wild's Cut to Bloom (Write Bloody Publishing 2020). They will be joined by Hieu Minh Nguyen and Isa Borgeson. One night, three amazing poets. Don't miss out. Only $5 to register, a limited number of sponsored tickets are available for anyone in need OR you can sponsor someone's entry!

KSW will be part of #UndiscoveredX this Saturday from 2:10-2:50 for a reading and conversation with @bjanepr and @jasonbayani to celebrate Barbara’s newest, Letters to a Young Brown Girl! #fahm2020 use this code for free or $5 off tickets: BALAYKREATIVEXKOLLECTIVEHUSTLE2020 https://www.undiscoveredsf.com/undscvrd-x

Join us for the IWL 2020 Final Student Reading this Saturday (9/12 1-3pm). We here at KSW and the Asian Art Museum carry so much gratitude to this year's cohort and hope you can join us in celebrating our 2020 fellows: Rattana Yeang, Ecaterina Burton, Alexandra Hsu, Sarah D. Park, antmen pimentel mendoza, Jenny Qi, Iris Jong, Manami Diaz Tsuzuki, Sagaree Jain, Preeti Vangani, Lucie Pereira, Grace H. Zhou, Amy Huang, Grace Z. Li, and Jewel Buchanan-Boone! RSVP for Saturday's event at this link: https://buy.acmeticketing.com//de/5f3195c2011f971663bf86f9

Exciting announcement! On July 24, Malaya Movement San Francisco will be hosting a virtual art show featuring Bay Area artists. The Anti Terror Law Virtual Art Show examines the violent, anti-democratic political reality that is occurring in the Philippines under the Rodrigo Duerte regime. These artists have developed pieces that expose and highlight oppression but also the peoples' tenacious fight for justice. Filipinx artists in the US/Bay Area are speaking out to bring li...ght to the issue. Please join us July 24 6-8pst! This event is free to the public; spread the word! This is also a build-up event for the People's State of the Nation (SONA) rally July 27th. Featuring work by Robin David/Robin Birdd, Sami, Malaya Tuyaya, Glenn "Boogie G. Mugs," Benjamin Yu, Kyla Williams, and Lawrence Festin

The Anti-Terror Law takes effect today: a day of mourning for our people, our freedom of speech, our dissent. But this is a day of continued resistance. Listen ...to Filipinx poets around the world respond to the Anti-Terror Law. Share to elevate our fight. #JunkTerrorLaw #ActivismIsNotTerrorism See more

Our artistic director, Jason Bayani, talks about KSW, the history of Manilatown, the intersection of arts and activism, and more with Alexandria Love and Awesome Theatre for a new episode of Drunkaturgy.

For You, I Make This Offering is live! https://youtu.be/SxeNu7eZN_E

Lot of local history in this one. Check out one of our KSW OG's, Jerry Jew, making a guest appearance to talk about the fabled Bruce Lee vs. Wong Jack Man fight. Awesome Theatre https://youtu.be/vqlJRp-LkmE

On July 16, we invite you to join us for For You, I Make This Offering: Jennifer S. Cheng, Monica Sok, and Muriel Leung in Conversation. These talented artists will discuss making art, politics, and Asian-American friendship. This event is made possible through a grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission.

KSW Presents Aria Aber and Monica Sok is happening in just a few hours and we're kicking off the reading with a special musical performance by APAture 2017 featured artist, Kohinoorgasm! Tickets will be available up to the start of the event. kswpresents17.eventbrite.com #usaaf2020 Sponsored tickets are also available, email [email protected] to claim one. Kohinoorgasm is the lo-fi experimental pop music project of queer, mixed, desi artist Josephine Shetty. Shetty uses minimal dance beats and susurrate vocals to create hypnotic environments in which she hopes listeners can reflect and replenish. Between one album, two EPs, and a recent single, her released songs address topics ranging from war crimes and abuses of governmental power to emotional exhaustion and body autonomy. kohinoorgasm.bandcamp.com/

Her voice is clear and determined; though she looks for agency, she never overestimates our capacity to change everything. Rhino On Saturday (6/13) we're commemorating the release of "A Nail the Evening Hangs On" at KSW Presents Aria Aber and Monica Sok (with musical guest, Kohinoorgasm). Link in bio.

Hard Damage questions and mourns the idea of citizenship. This collection focuses on stories of displacement, which Aber accomplishes by breaking boundaries, breaking forms, and even breaking language. -- Chicago Review of Books Join us this Saturday (6/13) at 3pm for KSW Presents Aria Aber and Monica Sok (with musical guest, Kohinoorgasm). Link in bio.

This Saturday at 3pm our programming resumes with KSW Presents Monica Sok and Aria Aber (part of @apicc_sf's United States of Asian America Festival). We continue to protest police brutality and systemic racism against Black people, and we do not wish to take away from this important historical moment. However, if you have the capacity to join us and would like share in this space with us, we welcome you. For more info, including our full curatorial statement, follow the link in bio. #usaaf2020 #findingkinship

Our joint statement with API Cultural Center- San Francisco, Asian American Women Artists Association, and Asian Improv Arts