Angel Island: Performances

In the Movement

Asian Improv aRts, API Cultural Center and Lenora Lee Dance presents The World Premiere of In the Movement by the award-winning company, Leonora Lee Dance.B.Way Theater
September 1, 2022 – September 11, 2022

In the Movement is a heartfelt and explosive dance piece focusing on the separation of families and mass detention of immigrants as forms of incarceration. It serves as a meditation on reconciliation and restorative justice, speaking to the power of individuals and communities to transcend. Buy tickets here.

Lenora Lee will be speaking about this work in our speaker series at BAMPFA on September 9.

Affiliated course: Hum 20 Landscapes of Migration, Incarceration and Resistance.

Apparatus of Repair

Presented by Flyaway Productions
UC Hastings College of the Law
September 15, 2022 – September 25, 2022

The culmination of the Decarceration Trilogy, an ambitious series of site-specific aerial dance and public art events addressing the devastating effects of mass incarceration in the United States.

More Info:
www.meganlowedances.com/upcoming-performances
https://FlyawayProductions.com/Upcoming-Events/

Illegal: A New Musical

Selections from Illegal, a new musical from Skyler Chin and Sita Sunil
Angel Island Immigration Station Detention Barracks Museum
October 22, 2022
More info

Join us for a concert presentation of ILLEGAL, a new musical created and performed by Skyler Chin, co-composed by Sita Sunil, and featuring Catherine Gloria. The show is inspired by family secrets and poetry etched into the walls of Angel Island during Chinese Exclusion. With a professional AAPI cast, colorful characters, rap, song, comedy, and drama, ILLEGAL entertains as it shines a light on a dark chapter in history and on the fighting spirit of those who dared to become American.

Community Hub: Enduring Vitality
Presented by Megan Lowe Dances as part of Epiphany Dance Theater’s 19th annual San Fransisco Trolley Dances.
Willie “Woo Woo” Wong Playground, San Francisco Chinatown
October 22-23, 2022

A site-specific dance piece created for a beloved community center that has served SF Chinatown for nearly a hundred years.

More Info:
www.meganlowedances.com/upcoming-performances
www.EpiphanyDance.org/San-Francisco-Trolley-Dances

Colonialism is Terrible But Pho is Delicious

Colonialism is Terrible, but Pho is Delicious 
by Dustin Chinn
Directed by Oanh Nguyen
Aurora Theatre
2081 Addison Street, Berkeley
Tickets for UC Berkeley students, faculty, staff, and the A Year on Angel Island community: $15 with code FHL15
Buy Tickets
Runs through Dec 4.

Event co-sponsored by Future Histories Lab, Berkeley Arts + Design, Berkeley Food Institute, the UC Berkeley Asian American Research Center and Aurora Theatre

Taking its inspiration from two viral incidents around cultural appropriation and food (Chef Tyler Akin’s how-to video for Bon Appetit, “PSA: This is How You Should Be Eating Pho,” and Dan Pashman of The Sporkful’s suggestion that you could improve bibimbap using a bundt pan), Dustin Chinn says he “followed the rabbit hole” and wrote “a triptych about the ownership and authorship of food following the journey of Vietnamese noodle soup.”

This biting comedy spans centuries, continents, and cultures in its three-part vignette structure. Beginning in 1880s Hanoi, the capital city of French Indochina, where a Vietnamese cook finds herself in the kitchen of aristocratic French settlers. Then in 1999, a century later, in Vietnam, where American diners get their first taste of the local cuisine. Then finally, in present-day, gentrifying Brooklyn, where the simmering argument around culture, ownership, and authenticity comes to a roaring boil.

Angel Island Oratorio

Angel Island-Oratorio for Voices and Strings, composed by Huang Ruo
Performed by the Berkeley Chamber Chorus conducted by Wei Cheng and the Del Sol Quartet
Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley
December 3, 2022
Pre-performance talk: 7:15-7:45PM
Performance: 8PM-9:30PM
More info

Angel Island – Oratorio for Voices and Strings explores the history of Angel Island through poems by people incarcerated at the Immigration Island Station. Detainees carved their poems into the walls of their barracks, which were rediscovered and transcribed years later. The 60-minute oratorio for string quartet and chamber choir weaves a story of immigration, discrimination, and confinement – bringing history into the reality of our current lives. Learn more about the development of this oratorio at the website of the Del Sol Quartet, which commissioned the piece.

Pre-performance talk at 7:15 will include:
Huang Ruo, composer
Wei Cheng, music director
Olivia Ting, visual designer
Ky Frances, choreographer
Mia Chong, choreographer

Within These Walls

Within These Walls, choreographed by Lenora Lee Dance
Performed by the Berkeley Dance Project, directed by SanSan Kwan
Zellerbach Playhouse
February 23-26, 2023
Post-Show Discussion: Artistic Director Lenora Lee will share insights into the creative process — Friday, Feb. 24 immediately following the performance.
Pre-Show Talks: Dramaturg Crystal Song will discuss the context and themes of Within These Walls — 7:15pm on Saturday, Feb. 25 and 1:15pm on Sunday, Feb. 26 in the Zellerbach Playhouse lobby.

Within These Walls is an integrated, multi-media contemporary dance project featuring UC Berkeley student performers and original recorded music, poetry, and video projection. The performance serves as a meditation on healing, resilience, and compassion, inspired by experiences of those detained and processed at the Angel Island Immigration Station. It premiered in 2017 as a site-specific dance at the Immigration Station as part of a community-wide commemoration of the 135th Anniversary of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.

Affiliated course: Theater 180 Berkeley Dance Project: Within These Walls SanSan Kwan, Fall 2022

Find the teaser here and photos of past performances here.