A Vision of Justice: Tyrus Wong & The Cultural Continuum of New Chinatown
Wednesday, May, 5, 2021
7:00 PM PST (FREE EVENT)
The Chinese Historical Society of Southern California invites you to join us for a conversation with the curator of A Vision of Justice: Tyrus Wong & The Cultural Continuum of New Chinatown, Sonia Mak, as we learn about her discoveries in researching the relationship between Tyrus Wong and the painting’s patron, immigration lawyer Y.C. Hong. Special guests, performance artist Kristina Wong and attorney George Yin, will join the curator in considering the legacy of these pioneers against the ongoing struggle for equality.
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Speakers:
Sonia Mak, curator of A Vision of Justice, is a curator, writer, and arts administrator. Ms. Mak was one of two founding curators at the Chinese American Museum and an NEH Summer Institute Fellow to advance Asian American Art History. She is co-founder and co-curator of Art Salon Chinatown, a showcase for contemporary Asian diasporic artists. She holds a BA in Art History from San Francisco State University and a MA from University of California, Riverside. Ms. Mak curated ’Round the Clock: Chinese American Artists Working in Los Angeles, as part of the Getty Foundation’s initiative, Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA, 1945-1980. She has worked at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Department of Arts & Culture, Morono Kiang Gallery, Craft Contemporary, and Vincent Price Art Museum and currently serves as Advancement Officer at the Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles.
Kristina Wong is a performance artist, comedian, writer, and elected representative of Koreatown Los Angeles whose work has been recognized through many grants, including Creative Capital, COLA Master Artist Fellowship from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and eight Los Angeles Artist-in-Residence awards. Her long-running show, Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, looked at the high rates of depression and suicide among Asian American women and is now a concert film. Her recent piece, Kristina Wong for Public Office, is a simultaneous real-life stint as the elected representative in Koreatown Los Angeles and campaign rally show. During the pandemic, she founded the Auntie Sewing Squad, a collective of volunteers sewing facemasks for vulnerable communities.
George Yin is an attorney, arts advocate, and Board Member of the Vincent Price Art Museum Foundation. As an attorney with Kaufman Legal Group, he advises candidates, elected officials, political committees, ballot measure committees, non-profit organizations, and public agencies on local, state, and federal laws. He has over a decade of experience representing public agencies in public, municipal, education, water, and administrative law. He has served on the boards of the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, the Organization of Chinese Americans (Greater LA Chapter), the Asian Professional Exchange (APEX), and the Pacific Asia Museum Chinese Arts Council. He holds a J.D. from UCLA Law School, an M.A. in Urban Planning from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, an M.Sc. in Public Administration/Public Policy from the London School of Economics, and a B.A. in Government from Cornell University