Rooted: Stories of Belonging Inspired by Asian Elders in the Bay Area

Conceived by Ferocious Lotus Theatre in collaboration with the Oakland Chinatown Oral History Project Self-Help for the Elderly API Equality - Northern California Tessaku Project

In support of

Family Bridges, Inc. Self-Help for the Elderly API Equality - Northern California

The runtime for the performance is about 60 minutes, with a community conversation to follow. A Note From Our Producer

ROOTED: Stories of Belonging was created in response to the uptick in Anti-Asian violence against elders in the Bay Area and beyond over this pandemic year. Watching these attacks in the media has been a deeply painful experience for our team, as well as for our loved ones. The ripple effects that our elders continue to feel now -- fear of walking in their own neighborhoods or leaving their homes alone, is very real. The need to help support our elders, and create a space for healing so that our elders can be seen and heard, has been visceral and immediate.

I want to thank Roy Chan from the Oakland Chinatown Oral History Project who was the frst to collaborate with me on collecting the oral histories which inspired the collection of stories in this performance. It became clear from reading the oral histories he collected that there were so many fascinating stories from our elders to uplift. Thanks to TESSAKU and APIENC we were able to round out a diverse set of oral histories to work from and our artists were then able to create a dynamic tapestry representing lived experiences from a variety of perspectives.

I am so incredibly proud of this show, and am grateful to every artist involved for helping to make a collective impact with their storytelling on our communities and in building empathy for our vulnerable elders. I hope you enjoy the show!

Sincerely,

Cindy Cesca Yoshiyama Managing Director, Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company Producer, ROOTED: Stories of Belonging The Stories

Vangie + Grandma // Vangie Buell Written and Directed by Rinabeth Apostol Featuring Michelle Talgarow* & Justine Banal

Evangeline “Vangie” Buell is a Bay-Area bred Civil Rights Activist, Historian and Musician. In an interview with Milton Lee in 2007, she shared many of her life accomplishments and stories of her life as a native Californian. Within the 30-page transcript, she vividly recounts memories of her Grandma, which became the catalyst for this piece - a glimpse of two generations with two very different perspectives on the place they call home.

Paper Son // David Der Written and performed by Greg Ayers Directed by Cindy Cesca Yoshiyama

David Der came to the US from China as a "paper son" in 1940. Growing up, he lived in San Francisco and Oakland's Chinatown. He served in the US Army for 3 years and was one of the frst Asian students to study medicine at Howard University. When he returned to the Bay Area, he started his own practice, Bay Valley Medical Group, in Hayward in the 1970s.

Tai Chi at Madison Square Park // Ed and Evelyn Loo Written by May Liang Directed by Annie Jin Wang Featuring Keiko Shimosato Carreiro* & Dennis Yen

In 2006, BART decided to demolish one of its administrative buildings located within the Lake Merritt BART Plaza, effectively closing down a space that was used by elders in the community as a vital meeting space for tai chi, qigong and group dancing. Ed and Evelyn Loo, who had been going to the plaza to meet and practice with friends, decided that this was unacceptable and started to help lead an effort to fnd them another space to gather. They collected signatures and helped raise thousands of dollars to restore the park which is still being used by the elders today.

Ed and Evelyn are not typically what you think of when you hear the word “activist” but that’s exactly what they became when their community was displaced. In a culture and generation where not making a fuss meant safety, they dared to speak out for what they wanted. They show us that it’s never too late to make a difference.

Le Hoa Pham Ly Written and Directed by Cindy Cesca Yoshiyama Featuring *

Le Hoa Pham Ly was born and raised in Vietnam. She is ethnically Chinese. Her right hand was disabled by a bomb when the US army invaded North Vietnam on December 20, 1972. During the war between China and Vietnam in 1979, the North Vietnamese government rejected those of Chinese descent and she, her husband, and four children fed in a sampan. They were rescued on the high seas and transferred to Hong Kong where they were assigned to a refugee camp in Tuen Mun. The oldest son was 12 years old and her 3 daughters were nine, seven and four years old.

Ms. Ly lived in a refugee camp for seven months, gave birth to her ffth daughter, and followed her husband’s wishes to move to the United States. She now lives in San Francisco and has seven children. She is active in her senior community at Self-Help for the Elderly. She loves to cook and teach other elders how to make Vietnamese dishes.

Art & Betty // Art and Betty Shibayama Written by Sango Tajima Directed by May Liang Featuring Rinabeth Apostol* & Alex Trono

Art Shibayama was a longtime activist and representative of the Japanese Peruvian incarceration story until his passing in 2018. Art’s parents were successful business owners in Peru before the outbreak of the war, but like the , the community was the target of a prejudiced and jealous population that viewed their success with disdain and bitterness. Pearl Harbor provided the ideal opening for Peru to involve the US in what would essentially be a government-sponsored kidnapping of Japanese Peruvian citizens who were detained in Crystal City, Texas. This fushing out of the ethnic Japanese community was advantageous to the Peruvian government who wanted them gone, and the US leaders who were anticipating a future POW exchange with Japan.

This piece is adapted from a Tessaku Project interview with 85-year-old Art Shibayama and his wife, Betty, in their home in San Jose. Betty’s own story about internment was also a fascinating piece that added to the mosaic of their relationship and marriage, where overlapping family experiences--tragedies and small joys--brought them into contact.

Steve Lew Written and Performed by Ogie Zulueta* Directed by Cindy Cesca Yoshiyama

Steve Lew is a LGBTQ activist and 5th generation Chinese American born in Watsonville, California. Steve co-founded the Gay Asian Pacifc Alliance (GAPA) community HIV project and became an HIV prevention worker. The organization grew into a national service organization, was renamed the Living Well project, and eventually merged with the Asian AIDS project to become the Asian and Pacifc Islander Wellness Center in 1997 (wiki). He brought his HIV activism to the national level when he served on the HIV council for President Clinton in the early 2000s. He has been living with HIV for over 25 years. Steve is currently Senior Project Director for CompassPoint Nonproft Services in Oakland, California (Wiki).

Li Keng Wong Written by Jeffrey Lo Directed by May Liang Featuring Emily Kuroda*

Li Keng Wong is the author of the memoir Good Fortune: My Journey to Gold Mountain which covered her experience as an early-twentieth century immigrant. In her interview, I was struck by the many differences in the America she was told she was immigrating to and the reality of the America she experienced. With this in mind, I pieced together a monologue from her wonderful and vibrant interview following the theme of America’s “false advertising.”

Dipti Ghosh Curated by May Liang Directed by Annie Jin Wang Featuring Sumi Narendran

Dipti Ghosh’s story was one of many that were collected by API Equality - Northern California (APIENC) for their Dragon Fruit Oral History Project to uplift the stories of QTAPI people. The project provides young APIENC members with new opportunities to connect with community “elders'' in building affrming cross-generational relationships. Likewise, many of the elders who shared their stories with APIENC enjoyed reliving their histories through storytelling and felt seen and appreciated for their work by the younger generations. The ethos of the project seemed perfect for ROOTED.

It was important to include Dipti’s story because she represents so many intersectionalities within our community. Her story of being an immigrant from India, coming out as a lesbian, and fnding her courage and freedom through her identity is a great encapsulation of how the API community is not monolithic.

William Gee Wong Written by Kriz Bell and Leon Goertzen, and performed by Leon Goertzen* Directed by Cindy Cesca Yoshiyama

William Gee Wong is an author and journalist born and raised in Oakland. His parents owned The Great China restaurant in Oakland, Chinatown from 1943 to 1961. William spent his early years working in his family’s restaurant before joining the Peace Corps and embarking on a career as a distinguished journalist and author. While a student at UC Berkeley, he was a writer and managing editor of the university’s newspaper, The Daily Californian. After college, William took a summer job as a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, where he became the frst Chinese American reporter in the San Francisco Bay Area. He continued his education at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and worked as a journalist for the Oakland Tribune, Asian Week, East Bay Express, and the San Francisco Examiner.

This piece was inspired by the Oakland Artists Project’s interview with William Gee Wong. The details that William included in this interview about working at The Great China restaurant in his early years was the inspiration for the writing of this piece.

Neighbors // Stories collected by Nona Mock Wyman Written by Annie Jin Wang Directed by May Liang Featuring Lily Tung Crystal* & Keiko Shimosato Carreiro*

The Ming Quong Home for Chinese Girls was an orphanage run by the Presbyterian Church that served hundreds of Chinese girls during the 19th and 20th centuries, many of whom were displaced from their homes and/or families due to poverty, sexual exploitation and indentured servitude, political turmoil in China, and discriminatory government policies in the US. The Home in Oakland closed and became a dormitory at Mills College in 1958; it is currently the Julia Morgan School for Girls. The Home in Los Gatos began enrolling boys in 1953 and is now Uplift Family Services, a behavioral health and social services organization serving people of all backgrounds. The stories of the women in Neighbors were collected over several decades by Nona Mock Wyman, herself a resident of the Home, and published in a 2012 collection of oral histories called Bamboo Women: Stories from Ming Quong, A Chinese Orphanage in California.

*Denotes member of Equity Association The Artists

Rinabeth Apostol* has appeared in Min Kahng’s The Four Immigrants at TheatreWorks (TBA Award nomination), Eugenie Chan’s Madame Ho, and Jiehae Park’s peerless at Marin Theatre Company. Other world premiere roles include: Tala in Monstress (American Conservatory Theatre), Gloria Windham (The Nymphomaniac) in the musical The Cable Car Nymphomaniac (FOGG Theater), Ana in Lauren Gunderson's Fire Work (TheatreFirst), FIRST (PlayGround/Aluminous Collective), The Kite Runner (Arizona Theatre Company & San Jose Rep) and Usaping Puki: The Vagina Monologues (Skirball Center for the Arts, New York). She has also appeared in: Aliens With Extraordinary Skills (B Street Theatre Company), Othello (Marin Theatre Company), Of Mice and Men (San Jose Rep On Tour), Avenue Q (San Jose Stage Company), RED (TheatreWorks) and Imelda: The Musical (, ). Rinabeth has worked with Magic Theatre, Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor, Playwrights Foundation, Crowded Fire, American Musical Theatre of San Jose and the Armory Center for the Arts, Los Angeles. Her TV/flm credits include appearances on Nickelodeon, Showtime, LOGO and several independent flms, including LIT, which received critical acclaim at Frameline, Outfest, and Palm Springs International Film Festivals last summer. Rinabeth is also an educator/activist. When she's not performing, you can fnd her choreographing for musicals or lecturing on gender and racial inequity in the performing arts. She is also a proud company member of PlayGround and SAG-AFTRA. www.rinabeth.com

Greg Ayers is honored and delighted to be a new Ferocious Lotus company member. Before becoming a member, he appeared in Crane, Two Mile Hollow (TBA winner for Outstanding Performance as a Featured ), and the staged reading of After the War. He has also worked at San Francisco Playhouse, SHN, Aurora Theatre, PCPA.

Justine Banal is excited to make her acting debut in Ferocious Lotus' "ROOTED". She has been a dancer and performer for 13 years and branched out into acting through Bindlestiff Studios' Stories High program. When she's not on stage or performing in drag as Sam Paguita @mxsampaguita, Justine co-hosts Fandom Femmes - a comedic podcast that brings queer POC perspectives about diversity in our favorite anime, video games, comic books and more. She is pursuing her M.A. in Student Affairs to help students from historically underrepresented communities succeed in higher education. She would like to thank her family and friends for supporting her creative pursuits! Keiko Shimosato Carreiro* is a Collective and Board Member with the Tony award-winning San Francisco Mime Troupe. Since 1987, she has been an Actor, Designer, Co-Writer and Director with the Company. Carreiro has performed at theaters throughout the Bay Area, including Berkeley Repertory Theatre, A.C.T., The Magic Theater, The Aurora Theater, Word for Word, and Center Rep. In early 2020, Keiko Co-Founded Kunoichi Productions (Female Ninja Productions), a company whose mission is to create bold, innovative multidisciplinary theater with Japanese aesthetics, blending the ancient and the modern, using comedy and philosophy, fusing Eastern and Western theatrical elements.

Cindy Cesca Yoshiyama is the Managing Director of Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company. She has worked in philanthropy (Zellerbach Family Foundation and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation) and nonproft development for more than a decade, supporting education and the arts/theatre in the Bay Area. Cindy spent several years as a theatre producer, writer, and journalist in Los Angeles and is passionate about creating pathways to equity, diversity, and inclusion in the performing arts.

Lily Tung Crystal* (she/her) is the co-founder of Ferocious Lotus and the artistic director of Theater Mu in Minneapolis-St. Paul. She is truly grateful and excited to be back with her FeroLo family and these wonderful artists working on Rooted. Lily has performed with theaters across the country, such as Ferocious Lotus, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, Cal Shakes, Crowded Fire, Magic Theatre, Mixed Blood, New World Stages, Playwrights’ Center, Portland Center Stage, SF Playhouse, and Syracuse Stage. Lily is a 3-time Theatre Bay Area Award fnalist for Outstanding Direction, including for Ferocious Lotus’ 2018 world premiere of Leah Nanako Winkler’s Two Mile Hollow. She is a 2016 YBCA 100 honoree, named as a “creative pioneer making the provocations that will shape the future of culture.” theatermu.org; lilytungcrystal.com

Leon Goertzen* is a co-founder of Ferocious Lotus and has worked as an actor at East West Players, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Will and Company, Magic Theatre, Asian American Theater Company, San Francisco Mime Troupe, Road Theatre Company, Cutting Ball Theater, PlayGround, Aurora Theater Company, Bay Area Playwright's Festival, Theatre Lunatico and New Conservatory Theater. Film credits include Quitters (with Kieran Culkin and Mira Sorvino) and Beauty and The Blade. Leon is a graduate of the School of Drama at UNC School of the Arts and is a member of Actors' Equity Association and . Leanna Keyes of Transcend Streaming is a multi-hyphenate theater professional. Her most well-known digital productions are Today Is My Birthday with Theater Mu in Minneapolis, Downtown Crossing with Company One in Boston, and the 2020 Bay Area Playwrights Festival with Playwrights Foundation in San Francisco. She specializes in shows that are fully live: the way we’re meant to be. As a playwright, you can fnd her play Doctor Voynich and Her Children in The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays. Leanna co-edited this frst-of-its-kind anthology of trans plays by trans playwrights about trans characters.

Emily Kuroda* worked at Theatreworks (Language Archives, Calligraphy), New York Theatre Workshop (Endlings), Pan Asian Rep (Brothers Paranormal), American Repertory Theater (Endlings), Page 73 (Today is My Birthday), Actors Theater of Louisville (we, the invisibles), Huntington Theater (Tiger Style, Woman Warrior), Artists at Play (Two Mile Hollow), South Coast Rep (Fast Company, Ballad of Yachiyo and Our Town), Alliance (Tiger Style), East West Players, Kirk Douglas, Mark Taper Forum, Public Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Seattle Rep, Singapore Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, The Doolittle, LATC, Zephyr, LA Women’s Shakespeare Company, and the Los Angeles Shakespeare Festival. Recent TV: All Rise. The Good Doctor, The Resident, , . Recent Films : Take the 10, Party Boat, Red and Sensei, and the upcoming Steven Soderbergh’s KIMI for HBO and Porcupine with Jena Malone. Awards: - Dramalogue Ikebana, The Maids, Minamata, The Golden Gate, and Visitors from Nagasaki - LA Commendation (About Love) - Garland Straight As a Line. Entertainment Today (Winter People).

May Liang (Artistic Director/Director) was named Artistic Director after serving as our Literary Manager from 2014 to 2019. She has worked with American Conservatory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theater’s Ground Floor Lab, California Shakespeare Theater, Crowded Fire Theater (Resident Artist), Cutting Ball Theatre, Bay Area Playwrights Foundation and Bindlestiff Studios. May was a member of the 2017 Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab in New York City, a member of the 2019 Directors Lab Chicago and was nominated for Outstanding Direction of a Play at the 2018 Theater Bay Area Awards for Inside Out and Back Again at Bay Area Children's Theatre.

Jeffrey Lo is a Filipino-American playwright and director based in the Bay Area. He is the recipient of the 2014 Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Award, the 2012 Emerging Artist Laureate by Arts Council Silicon Valley and Theatre Bay Area Director's TITAN Award. His plays have been produced and workshopped at The BindleStiff Studio, City Lights Theatre Company and Custom Made Theatre Company. His play Writing Fragments Home was a fnalist for the Bay Area Playwright's Conference and a semi-fnalist for the O'Neill Playwright's Conference. Recent directing credits include and Dead Man's Cell Phone at Los Altos Stage Company, Uncle Vanya at the Pear Theatre (BATCC nomination for Best Production), Eurydice at Palo Alto Players (TBA Awards nomination for Best Direction), Some Girl(s) at Dragon Productions and The Drunken City at Renegade Theatre Experiment. Jeffrey has also worked with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, San Jose Repertory and is a company member of Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company and SF Playground. He is the Casting Associate and Company Manager at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, a graduate of the Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute, and a proud alumnus of the UC Irvine Drama Department. http://www.JeffreyWritesAPlay.com

Sumi Narendran is a Singaporean-American actor who is thrilled to be part of this Asian collaboration. She has acted all over the Bay Area, including Macbeth at African American Shakespeare, Anthology of Ghost Stories at Theatre First, Goneril in King Lear, Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Jacques in As You Like It, and many more. She was also nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Comedy for her role as Cassandra in Vanya Masha Sonia and Spike, and also for her role as Ana in The Clean House. She would like to dedicate this performance to all her Singaporean friends who left home to live in foreign countries.

Sunshine Lampitoc Smith enjoys producing new plays and collaborating with and advocating for underrepresented theater artists and audiences. She was most recently the Institutional Giving Manager at Z Space in SF’s historic Mission District. Prior to that, she worked at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Signature Theatre Company (NYC). Sunshine has also worked and produced with Lodestone Theater Ensemble (Los Angeles), Ma-Yi Theater Company (NYC), Leviathan Lab (NYC), and the Summer Play Festival for Emerging Playwrights (NYC). She earned her MFA in Theatre Management & Producing at Columbia University School of the Arts.

Sango Tajima is a performer & theatre maker based in Oakland. She has worked at theaters including Cal Shakes, Berkeley Rep, Guthrie Theater, Shotgun Players, Campo Santo, SF Playhouse, Marin Theatre Company, Cutting Ball Theater, Magic Theatre, Bay Area Children’s Theatre, Playwright’s Foundation, and performed on stages in Japan, China, Korea, and Israel. As a playwright her work has been produced with Ragged Wing Ensemble, and she devised several plays & actions with the political theatre collective The Bonfre Makers. She is a new company member of Ferocious Lotus. B.F.A. in Acting from the University of Michigan. www.sangotajima.com

Michelle Talgarow* is a Kalmyk/Filipina theatre maker in the Bay Area for over 25 years. She's grateful to be part of Ferocious Lotus and this community of fellow AAPI artists. She is a proud member of the artistic company of Shotgun Players (Berkeley) where she will be directing her frst mainstage show, Man of God. She’s a company member of Mugwumpin (SF), recently collaborating with Cutting Ball Theater and Bay Area Theatre Cypher on Phantasmagoria. Michelle has directed the winter play at San Francisco University High for the past 4 years and mentored students through a design project with Industrial Design Outreach. Some of her performance credits include Utopia (Cutting Ball Theater/ Virtual performance), Dance Nation (SF Playhouse), Vietgone (Capital Stage, Sacramento). With Ferocious Lotus: Mutt and Two Mile Hollow (TBA Award Nominee).

Alex Trono is a Bay Area actor and teaching artist, born and raised in San Francisco. He is a company member of Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company and Red Ladder Theater Company, and the Assistant Artistic Director of Gritty City Repertory Youth Theatre. He has also worked with the New Conservatory Theater Company as a teaching artist. Alex believes in using theater and the art of storytelling to foster connections and transcend the barriers that divide us.

Annie Jin Wang is a bi-coastal dramaturg, playwright, and visual artist whose body of work primarily investigates constructs of race, gender, and citizenship through a compassionate and critical lens. She has been a company member of Ferocious Lotus since 2016, most recently serving as the production dramaturg on Two Mile Hollow. Other recent credits include Today Is My Birthday and peerless (Theater Mu), Flower Drum Song (Palo Alto Players), Carmen (Croatian National Theatre), and Medea and Richard III (Columbia University). She is the Communications & Marketing Manager at PlayCo; as a playwright, her work has been developed with Fresh Ground Pepper. Annie holds an MFA from Columbia University and BAs from Wellesley College. Wang-annie.com

Dennis Yen is excited to join Ferocious Lotus for the frst time in their production of Rooted: Stories of Belonging. A veteran of Bay Area theater, he’s performed with a wide variety of production companies including Word for Word, Impact Theatre, Community Asian Theatre of the Sierra, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and San Francisco Playhouse. Ogie Zulueta* SF/Bay Area theatres: A.C.T. - Monstress (The Strand Theatre), After The War (understudy), The New Americans (First Look Workshop Series); Crowded Fire Theater – 100 Flowers Project, The Late Wedding; Magic Theatre - Dogeaters; Ferocious Lotus – Lu Shen, the Mad; Center REP - Sisters Matsumoto; Ubuntu Theatre - Rashomon, Streetcar Named Desire (upcoming); Playwrights Foundation – Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Other Regional Theatre: La Jolla Playhouse – Bay and the Spectacles of Doom; South Coast Rep. – Caucasian Chalk Circle, Dogeaters (Pacifc Playwrights Festival); Mark Taper Forum – Architecture of Loss, L.A. Stories - 900 miles from Iraq; Antaeus Theatre Company/Boston Court – Pera Palas; Singapore Rep. – Hamlet; East West Players – The Tempest; Cornerstone Theatre Company/East West Players - As Vishnu Dreams; Playwrights’ Arena – Sleepwalk, Gumsimao; Nevada Shakespeare in The Park – Othello; Deaf West – Romeo and Juliet; East L.A. Classic Theatre - A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Sledgehammer Theatre – Three Sisters; Theatre Nada – The Battles of Coxinga, SoHo Rep. – Malibu. Film & T.V.: Day Without A Mexican, Pink as the Day She was Born, How to Make your First Billion & Save the World, My Bad Dad, One West Waikiki, First Years, 2 Guys and a Girl, L.A. Heat, Models Inc. https://sites.google.com/site/ogiezulueta/hom About the Panelists

Raised in Oakland, Roy Chan is Senior Program Manager at National Coalition for Asian Pacifc American Community Development. Previously, he was Community Planner at Chinatown Community Development Center in San Francisco and served as Co-Executive Director at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center. Roy holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in architecture from U.C. Berkeley and a Master of Arts degree in urban planning from UCLA. Currently, he serves on the Cultural Affairs Commission for the City of Oakland and directs the Oakland Chinatown Oral History Project.

Diana Emiko Tsuchida is a Los Angeles-based independent historian and the creator of Tessaku; an oral history project, journal series and podcast dedicated to preserving stories about the Japanese American incarceration and the WWII Nikkei experience. Her work has been featured on NPR's Code Switch, NBC's Asian Pacifc America, Smithsonian Magazine, and a TEDxPeacePlaza talk. Her father and grandparents were incarcerated in Santa Anita, Topaz, and Tule Lake while her Kibei-Nisei grandfather was separately detained in the Citizen Isolation Center in Leupp, Arizona and Department of Justice camp in Crystal City, Texas. You can read the oral histories she's collected at tessaku.com and on Instagram at @tessakuproject.

Winnie Yu has 15 years of experience in nonproft program and administrative operations: leading and managing federally funded projects that impact the local community; private and public grant writing; compliance and monitoring; as well as project implementation and management within and across teams. Winnie has a degree in Political Economy of Industrial Societies from the University of California, Berkeley, and is bilingual in English and three dialects of Chinese: Cantonese, Mandarin, and Taishanese. About the Organizations

Oakland Chinatown Oral History Project is a growing collection of stories and personal memories of Oakland Chinatown as an immigrant gateway for numerous Asian and Pacifc Islander immigrant groups over the neighborhood’s 150 year history. Rooted from the Oakland Asian Cultural Center, the project includes a 3D memory map that invites community members to share a memory of a particular place and pin it to a location. Since 2008, the map has accumulated several hundred memories each placed on a building that you can pop up and put your memory inside or within the online map. Stories include personal refections of the Madison Park community, Asian Branch Library, Lincoln School, and the unique historic mix of restaurants in the neighborhood. The project supports the idea that places hold deep meaning for people, especially in a cultural ethnic neighborhood like Chinatown where generations of immigrants plant their roots.

API Equality - Northern California builds LGBTQ API power by amplifying the voices and increasing the visibility of its communities. They inspire and train leaders, establish intergenerational connections, and document and disseminate their histories. The stories inspired by Dipti Ghosh and Steve Lew came from APIENC’s Dragonfruit Oral History Project.

Family Bridges, Inc., located in Oakland’s Chinatown, empowers low-income, limited-English profcient immigrant families to lead self-suffcient, independent lives. They offer social services, home health care, and therapeutic services for the elderly and adults with disabilities so that they may regain their ability to live independently. They also have a Friendly Visitors program that provides companionship to homebound, socially-isolated Cantonese or Mandarin speaking seniors in North Alameda County and two drop-in senior centers.

Self-Help for the Elderly promotes independence, well-being, and dignity for older adults through culturally aligned services and programs in the San Francisco Bay Area. It serves over 40,000 elders each year in San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Alameda counties. They are dedicated to improving the quality of life for older adults by empowering seniors to help themselves and by providing a comprehensive range of multicultural and multilingual services. They are frmly committed to the seniors’ security, freedom and peace of mind and promoting their independence, dignity and self-worth. Through the organization’s attentive care, seniors gain access to programs and services which will empower them to make lifestyle choices, to enhance their standard of living, and to achieve the best possible health.

Tessaku Project is a collection of oral histories, memories, and testimonies from Japanese Americans who lived through World War II. The word itself means iron fence, roughly translated to barbed wire: Tetsu 鉄 is iron, and saku 柵 is fence. It was the title for a short-lived magazine published in Tule Lake. The story inspired by Art and Betty Shibayama came from Tessaku. OUR MISSION Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company creates opportunities for Asian and Asian American theatre artists in the San Francisco Bay Area. We challenge ourselves to examine our diverse stories and social issues, moving beyond representation. We strive to create an artistic home where our company can connect our communities, our cultures, and our identities.

OUR VISION To illuminate the Asian American experience as part of the human experience through art and advocacy. As a collective of artists, we are committed to advancing social responsibility and creating work intrinsic to the cultural fabric in America.

Learn more about our work at our website, and follow us on , , and Instagram!

THE COMPANY Rinabeth Apostol Greg Ayers Cindy Cesca Yoshiyama Leon Goertzen May Liang Jeffrey Lo Karen Offereins Sango Tajima Michelle Talgarow Sunshine Lampitoc Smith Alex Trono Annie Jin Wang Ogie Zulueta SPECIAL THANKS TO Amara Bhatia Kriz Bell Roy Chan Hadley Eure Jasmin Hoo David Lei Jennifer Low Victor Wai Ho Lim The Ferocious Lotus Advisory Board

PHOTO CREDITS Betty, Brian, and Becky Shibayama William Gee Wong Collection Amara Bhatia (artwork for “William Gee Wong”)