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Rooted: Stories of Belonging Inspired by Asian Elders in the Bay Area Conceived by Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company 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 first 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 first 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 find 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 Emily Kuroda* 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 fled 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 fifth 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 Japanese Americans, 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 flushing 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 Pacific 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 Pacific 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 Nonprofit 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 affirming 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 finding 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 first 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.

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