ASA invites art figureheads to speak at conference

Marcella Veneziale Contributing Editor

In support of this year’s Asian Students’ Alliance (ASA) Conference, “Art and Activism,” five artists who work in a variety of media will perform and talk with students. The theme of the conference changes annually, as ASA addresses timely issues affecting Asians and Asian Americans on campus and beyond the gates. ASA President Wayne Coito ’07 said, “[The conference covers] people from different artistic genres: poetry, comedy, film, and fashion. [We wanted to show] how a message can be sent through different media.”

Coito worked with the ASA Executive Board to decide which artists they would bring to campus. Several invitations were the result of happy coincidences: Music manager Sophia Chang is the sister of Professor of English Heesok Chang, Coito’s sister is a friend of slam poet Beau Sia, and several ASA members saw designer Mary Ping and filmmaker Eric Byler at the East Coast Asian American Student Union conference at Yale University this past February. All are notable figures in their fields.

Tina Kim began her stand-up career as a television news reporter and anchor. Female comedians were few, and Asian American comics were even fewer. Kim writes on her Web site, “I wanted to be on TV, and the only Asian woman I saw on TV was Connie Chung.” Kim changed this demographic, as has Sophia Chang, who has managed some of music’s biggest acts. After working for major labels, she now deals closely with artists. Chang will discuss being an Asian American woman in the masculine field of hip-hop in a roundtable setting.

Vassar alum Mary Ping ’00 studied art and created costumes for friends’ theater productions on campus. After interning with London-based couturier Robert Cary-Williams and Anna Sui, she began her own line, Mary Ping, in 2001. A second line, Slow and Steady Wins the Race, questions the social implcations of clothing and fashion. Every piece in the line costs $100.

Eric Byler also questions politics, but through filmmaking and activism. The Wesleyan grad’s thesis, the 1994 film Kenji’s Faith, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and garnered six other awards. Byler is also politically active. After former Virginia Senator George Allen used a derogatory term to describe a South Asian student at the University of Virginia, Byler and other Asian Americans organized the group Real Virginians for Webb, which campaigned for Allen’s opponent, Jim Webb. Webb’s win can be attributed partly to their efforts.

Beau Sia found cathartic release in his art. He spent his childhood in Oklahoma City, denying the fact of his cultural identity. He performed at Oklahoma City’s only open mic, and decided to move to New York to hone his craft at New York University’s Tisch School Dramatic Writing Program. After performing and winning countless poetry slams at the legendary Nuyorican Poet’s Café, a National Poetry Slam team recruited him.

Coito noted that this year’s conference has been condensed into two days. He said that it will be “more compact and better quality.” ASA hopes to attract non-members, and has used Facebook to spread the word. Coito says, “Facebook has been a huge tool. It is quicker than traditional methods [of publicity].”

The conference is ASA’s final campus-wide event of the year. Coito says that it sets ASA apart from other African American, Latino/Latina, Asian American, Native American (ALANA) Center groups. He hopes that it “shows a different side of the organization” and addresses “the political, social, and community [aspects] of the ASA mission statement. The arts incorporate all of them.”

The ASA “Arts and Activism” Conference will run from April 12-13.