Events & Speaking Engagements

Black Henry: Charting New Ways Forward in Filipino History
2022.10.28, 5:30pm–7pm

In her CUNY FORUM essay, writer Vina Orden discusses quincentennial commemoration of the Magellan-Elcano circumnavigation across the Pacific to South America, through the Strait of Magellan, and across the Pacific to Guam and the Philippines. What exactly was being commemorated depended on who you asked. Here, Orden presents a critique of colonial Spanish and Filipino history, utilizing Filipino journalist, poet, and playwright Luis H. Francia’s play, “Black Henry,” as a radical work of imagination and jumping off point to deconstruct colonial history. (Lecturer)

Flip the Script
2022.10.27, 6:30pm

Celebrate critically acclaimed and badass Filipino American writers changing the narrative: Daphne Palasi Andreades, Victor Manibo, and Albert Samaha. A book reading benefit to secure farmers’ food for life. (Curator and co-host)

Celebrate Topaz Arts’ 22nd Year
2022.10.22, 3:00pm

Topaz Arts’ 22nd Year Celebration will feature artists in visual arts, dance and poetry. In the gallery, view the exhibition “Powers Revealed in Printmaking” by Tenjin Ikeda, and new large-scale paintings by Todd B. Richmond.

Performances will start at 4pm, featuring dance by artist-in-residence Huiwang Zhang. Molissa Fenley and Paz Tanjuaquio perform simultaneous solos – Molissa dances Lava Field as a solo and Paz dances her work Dead Stars Still Shine, to music by John Bischoff, Piano 7hz.

Our Annual Fall open house in October also honors Philippine American History Month by featuring Filipinx artists. This year, Luis H. Francia and Vina Orden explore the theme of resistance and resilience, reading poems by Carlos Bulosan, as well as contemporary works.

Martial Law @ 50: To Remember Is to Resist
2022.09.20, 7pm

On Tuesday, September 20, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop is proud to share a marathon reading curated by 2022 Open City Fellow Vina Orden in remembrance of a dark and deeply violent period in the history of the Philippines and in conjunction with the launch of the Martial Law @50 Notebook published by The Margins. (Curator and host)

A Conversation with the Creative Team of Atlantic Pacific Theatre’s “The Strange Case of Citizen de la Cruz”
2022.08.12

Kickstarter pledgers were treated to a conversation with members of the cast and creative team of Atlantic Pacific Theatre‘s “The Strange Case of Citizen de la Cruz,” a timely satire on nationalism, politics, and surveillance in the Philippines. The production was part of the Obie award-winning Ice Factory Festival 2022. (Facilitator)

AAWW at 30: The Village People
2022.04.30

A reading celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop with many of the writers who helped make the early days of the Workshop so special and continue to inspire us today. (Reader)

Blasian March Book Fair Panel
2022.04.23

A dialogue on writing, Black-Asian solidarity, and activism. (Moderator)

Mabuhay Guro
2022.04.21

Program in conjunction with the exhibition at the Newark Museum of Art, Carlos Villa: Worlds in Collision, featuring a performance of 5-minute stories from the Filipinx American community about the mentors that have changed our lives. (Performer)

UnHomeless NYC Exhibition
2022.03.07–04.14

The exhibition at Kingsborough Community College’s (KCC) Kingsborough Art Museum brings together 15 artists and artist groups to examine how the fundamental human right to housing has been eclipsed in this city since it first emerged in the late 1970s. Through artwork that highlights research, statistics, and activism, the exhibition offers a forum to better understand New York City’s housing crisis and think about our future as we emerge from the pandemic. (External communications and public relations consultant )

Quiet Before | Panel 4 | The Future
2021.05.20

Womankind, The 1882 Foundation, Eaton Workshop, Honolulu Theatre for Youth and Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center present Quiet Before: Unearthing Anti-Asian Violence, a six-part series dedicated to examining anti-Asian violence from its many complex perspectives.

This section is dedicated to the hopefulness of young leaders. How next generation activists think about intersectionality is nuanced and a progression from how elders worked in solidarity. How can we learn from the younger generation, who are in this moment working across race, gender, sexuality, and class? (Panelist)

Fil-Am Road: An Exhibition on Home & Nation at the Crossroads
2019.07.13–10.13

Karenderya, one of Esquire Magazine’s Top 20 new restaurants in America, will serve up food-for-thought with a new exhibition “Fil-Am Road,” featuring photography and paintings by Gloria and Vina Cacho Orden, and selected works from the collective, Baguio Group of Artists. It will be on view from July 13 to October 13, 2019. …

Cultural studies scholar and curator J. Faith Cacho Almiron explained, “The title draws upon a wordplay on the identification term ‘Filipino-American,’ as well as the movement between the Philippines and America. It also signifies an actual roadway in Baguio City, the Philippines where the Cacho ancestral home stands today. The artwork traverses across time and space from the 1970s to the contemporary moment, from the Philippines to New York, and beyond. Viewers will be privy to a conversation between two distinct yet linked generations–a mother and daughter dwelling at the intersection of art, politics and transformation.” (Read the rest of the feature in The FilAm.)

Raised Pinay 2019—The 3rd Generation
2019.06.28–06.29

Raised Pinay, 3rd Generation, is a collective of multi-generational, fiercely strong and vulnerable Pinays, sharing tough, touching, honest and empowering, self-written stories, of their experiences and experiences of their ancestors. Raised Pinay raised money for Roots of Health (Ugat Ng Kalusugan), the only non-profit fighting for reproductive justice in the Philippines through free clinical and health educational services. For more information visit raisedpinay.com and rootsofhealth.org. (Writer and performer)

We Make America Exhibition
2018.10.12–11.19

We Make America is a group of artists/designer/activists who meet to create signage and artifacts of protest and persuasion. We are over 5,000 members nationwide through Facebook. The group was formed in 2016 after the election of Donald J. Trump. We are centered in New York City and meet in various members’ studios for concentration on particular actions of protest and to fabricate and paint signage, buttons, pins, torches, giant “Pussy Gates” as for the Women’s march last spring. Due to the composition of artists and designers and creative makers in the group, the props and signs are spectacular and graphic and beautifully painted. “The Pussy Gates,” referring to Trump’s improprieties and the #MeToo era we are experiencing, were shown on nationwide NBC news after the march. The Pratt workshop and exhibition are designed to foster activism and to rally students to get out and vote. It is about conveying the message that everyone’s voice is important. (Artist)