In a time of global pandemic and social distancing, Join The Immigrant Artist Biennial and EFA Project Space invite you to take part in a roundtable discussion on Wednesday, April 22nd  from 7-9 pm (EST) via Zoom. The format of the roundtable will include introductory remarks by participating artists in the Biennial sharing their experiences with anti-Asian racism, xenophobia, and immigrant-bashing, to be followed by an open format discussion in which all are invited to share their experiences, fears, and hopes. Breakout rooms will be enabled for more intimate conversations in small groups. The evening will be co-moderated by The Immigrant Artist Biennial Founding Director and Curator, Katya Grokhovsky and by artist and EFA Operations Coordinator HC Huynh.

In lieu of a physical presentation of The Immigrant Artist Biennial's central exhibition "Here, Together!" at EFA Project Space, we have invited the curator and participating artists to present a series of Zoom-based roundtable discussions with the public. In response to an extreme anti-immigrant sentiment, coupled with a global rhetoric of exclusion, discrimination, and the closing of borders, The Immigrant Artist Biennial calls for urgent unity, visibility, and criticality, by facilitating a platform for cultural exchange. At each roundtable event, participating artists will share thoughts and work which touch on issues of identity, the meaning of home and place, and the doubly precarious position of living as immigrant cultural workers within a pandemic that transcends borders.

Background

The global coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis on multiple fronts, challenging our public health and economic systems, while casting a spotlight on massive social inequalities which call into question the underlying principles of an open society. Notably, over the past few weeks, the increase of tragic and violent acts of anti-Asian and anti-immigrant racism carried out in near-empty streets and given voice in online spaces has shocked many. Set against the toxic backdrop of a recent and prolonged rise in anti-immigrant sentiment, and an undercurrent of anti-Asian racism that has always permeated American society, perhaps this development should not surprise us. Yet, given the scale of the current tragedy, and the failure of our government to take significant and important early action to prevent an outbreak here in the US (an outbreak which at the time of this writing has affected over 600,000 and killed over 25,000 – of which 10,000 are in New York) it is also all too obvious that xenophobia, anti-Asian racism, and immigrant-bashing are not merely background noise, but are part of a coordinated campaign to redirect blame and distract from criticism of those in power on their handling of the crisis, while creating divisions in an already aggrieved and reeling populace.

Press: Dessane Lopez Cassell previewed this event for Hyperallergic.

Suggested Reading/Viewing

Adrian De Leon, The long history of racism against Asian Americans in the U.S. (PBS)

Cathy Park Hong, The Slur I Never Expected to Hear in 2020 (NYT Magazine)

Emily Liu, Covid-19 has inflamed racism against Asian-Americans. Here's how to fight back (CNN)

We Are Not Covid (Spreadsheet)

[Global] List of incidents of xenophobia and racism related to the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic (Wikipedia)

Image:

Cole Lu, Thoroughbred (No Caster of Weather Foretold), Bronze, 2019.