The month-long celebration of identity awareness began this past Friday with the April Convocation 2005, in honor of Asian, Asian American, Pacific-Islander, and queer members of the Wesleyan community.
The forum, which was held at Malcolm X house, was a time of artistic and political reflection on cultural and sexual identities.
According to Justin Francis ’06, it is important that the campus recognize Asian and queer identities as equally as they recognize other identities, remarking that there are still groups in America that do not have a month to honor their identities but are equally deserving of one.
“There’s an opening ceremony for each [cultural or identity] month, like Black History month and Latino Awareness Month, for instance,” Francis said. “This [convocation] kickoff is for our month.”
There was a series of presentations made by students, some of which encouraged audience participation. In one activity, the attendees created an identity web out of cards inscribed with unique characteristics of the people of the room, which visually and artistically suggested the unities and complexities of each participant’s personal identity.
There were also many performances by students. Isa Nakazawa ’08, Lisa Cunningham ’08, Suzanne Tran’08, and Andy Chaiang ’06 gave a preview of a piece they will in the Asian American Cultural Show.
Chaiang delivered a monologue that renounced stereotypical representations of Asian masculinity. Chaiang’s performance also touched upon issues challenging individuals who are part of several cultures, or as he puts it, are from “two flags.” Nakazawa delivered a spoken word piece that discussed colonialism and the way in which its legacy has been appropriated by Western culture.
Tran, who identifies as Vietnamese and Chinese, sang a song about political and social injustice in Vietnam, ending solemnly with the line, “For every baby [Americans in Vietnam have] saved, you [have] killed many more.”
Chelsea Landon ’05 performed a poem celebrating the joys of lesbian sex. In her highly articulate and stylized manner, she explained the intricacies of female-female sexual relations and how two women could unite perfectly together.
B Lake ’06 and Zach Strassburger ’06 voiced cheers supporting queer activism.
The performance segment of the event came to an end with Cunningham and Nakazawa. Cunningham performed a spoken word piece about the importance of understanding privilege and how it affects political organizing. Natawaka’s finale was a spoken word piece that highlighted some of the complexities and political implications of interracial dating.
“I was trying to make people think more critically about the politics of dating,” Nakazawa said. “I was looking at how our conceptualization of interracial dating is indicative of greater systems at work, and how they are telling of other narratives of history that are often neglected.”
Other events scheduled this month are a screening and discussion of racial stereotypes in the film “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” on April 5, the annual Asian American cultural show Mabuhay on April 15, a discussion about how sexuality factors into the job search with the CRC on April 17 and a performance by New York spoken word artist Stacyann Chin on April 23.
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