Past Events

Once known for its majestic snow-capped Himalayas, Kashmir now hosts a militarized hotbed of insurgency and conflict between India, Pakistan, and China. Join us for an inter-disciplinary dialogue between three guests whose work shed light on Kashmir’s complex identity. You’ll hear stories of pre-partition India, lyrical accounts of village life,...

Come join us for an Asian American all-star comedy festival! AAWW favorite Jen Kwok, the velvety voice that brought you Date an Asian and Ballad of the Tiger Mom, will bring her ukulele and extraordinary talent. Relish the sharp stylings of Sheng Wang, who won top honors at NBC Universal's...

A discussion with Robert Casper, Ken Chen, Mya Spalter, Patrick Ryan, and Sarah LaPolla. Robert Casper is the head of the Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress. He is also publisher of the literary magazine, jubilat, and co-founder of the jubilat/Jones Reading Series in Amherst, Massachusetts. Ken...

We know- we can't believe it's time for another one of our lavishly funny Open Mics! This month we are delighted to host talented singer/songwriter Chris Grace as well as sassy documentarian ManSee Kong. Chris's seductive vocals will knock you flat and ManSee Kong’s sharp chops will glue you to...

Krys Lee’s debut short story collection, Drifting House, explores the heartbreaking forgings of Korean identity in the wake of war and economic collapse. Haunted by their tragic past, Lee’s cast of characters include a spurned wife who seeks to rescue her kidnapped daughter in America and a tenant who believes...

Join us for our sixth annual collaboration between Asian American Writers' Workshop and Cave Canem featuring the dynamic talent from four all-star female poets! Winner of two American Book Awards, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge molds language with her keen sensibility for visual art. Characteristic of her style is a lush mix of...

Join us in celebration of Lysley Tenorio's Monstress, a dazzling debut short-story collection featuring lepers, healers, and celebrities going incognito. Monstress alternates between the Philippines and San Francisco, where we encounter a Filipino B-movie horror actress from the 1960s striving for chance at stardom, a transgender sibling’s revelation at his...

DJ hit replay! Or shall we manually rewind this nostalgic cassette tape with a discerning finger to your favorite awkward 1990s multiculti blunders? The '90s gave us “Sister Souljah moments,” the OJ Simpson hearings, the rise of xenophobic legislation (Prop 187 and 209), and homophobic punditry on national television (Jerry...

How can poets mobilize poetry as a change agent? These poets demonstrate the ways that the arts can contribute to the defense of the environment, workers, and oppose war. Philip Metres will discuss the ways in which projects such as Peace Show (Cleveland) and the “Stories of War and Peace...

We all think we know the answer to this question--Asians are not black, right? But in the nineteenth century, one California court actually determined that Chinese Americans were black--since they were not, after all, white. This panel--titled after Janine Young Kim’s seminal essay, itself a ‘90s product--discusses how Asians and...

Two decades ago, Rodney King famously asked, “Why can’t we all just get along?” The question might as well have served as the defining question of the multicultural moment, in which the US attempted to dream about what a pluralistic society would look like--from GOP Family Values to the black...

Torn between poetry and fiction? Wandering in a world of metaphors and similes? Aching to capture your family's stories, but just can't make it "write"? Join us and National Book Award winner Thanhha Lai, for an in depth look at prose poetry. Lai is the author of Inside Out and...

Titled after Don DeLillo’s White Noise, in which identity politics reaches its reductio ad absurdum in a Hitler Studies department, our second AFTER 1989 installment explores the curious phenomenon of white ethnic identity in the 1990s. Think back to a time when Bill Clinton was called the “first African American...

Last month, authors Hari Kunzru and Amitava Kumar caused an international controversy. They did so by reading aloud from Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. The book is banned in India for its controversial portrayal of Muslims, and Rushdie himself had called off a visit to the Jaipur Literary Festival in...

Much of ‘90s multiculturalism was less about race than inventing polite ways to talk about racial taboos. Terms like “diversity” and “political correctness” blunted the unsavory aspects of dealing with racism, even as the right struggled to make English the national language and tamp down transgressive art, multicultural threats to...

Marilyn Chin said: ‘Our poetry is not a static enterprise but a thriving, historical progression.’ As we look at Asian American poetry today, much as changed, yet much has stayed the same. This panel will feature a group of diverse literary critics, anthologists, and poets in a vibrant discussion to...

The next installment of our blindingly fun Mouth to Mouth Open Mic is here! Brave the mad March weather to hear Leah Winkler and Annie Choi at our monthly party. Leah, a current member of Youngblood Theater Company, is a talented playwright and director. The New York Times praised her...

Don Lee, Ken Chen, Prageeta Sharma, and Nami Mun read new work and the life behind their literature: private writing rituals; relationships with mentors and peers; favorite books, songs on iTunes repeat and performance-enhancing alcoholic drinks; social media and other procrastination devices. Ask nicely and they’ll talk about writing as...

Bringing together the best of two worlds -- poetry and noraebang --"Real Karaoke People" is a literary reading/karaoke event that will harmonize, shake, split, and excavate the deeper musical notes of diasporic narratives centered on community, family, the romantic, and immigration. Inspired by Ed Bok Lee’s Real Karaoke People, this...

Does your knowledge about the Ramayana come entirely from comics your mom bought you from Jackson Heights? Or are you a comic book fan interested in engaging with one of the bestselling comics in both Asia and the world? Party down with the Workshop’s tribute to Amar Chitra Katha, the...

Does Valentine’s Day have you all atwitter? Ease into your “mahal kita” with an afternoon of stellar performances from acclaimed Filipino poets and writers. The featured performances from Hossannah Asuncion, Joseph O. Legaspi, Nita Noveno, Bino Realuyo, Ricco Villanueva Siasoco, and Lara Stapleton, as well as performances from Filipino community...

Add power to your poetic punches and fleetness to your formal footwork. These classes will focus on adding techniques, tension, and twists to your expressive toolbox. Specific classes will focus on landing leaps, torquing turns, and the uses and abuses of certain voids. There will be a weekly writing assignment...

Not ready for the New Year festivities to end just yet? Celebrate the Lunar New Year with hosts Ed Lin and Jen Kwok at our first open mic of 2012, featuring the brilliantly funny sketch comedian Angel Yau, who has performed at the NYC Underground Comedy Festival and the Upright...

Are you a high school or college student who wants to be a writer? Or just someone who’s ever wanted to grab the mic? Come join two incredible artists as they show you the ropes of performance and spoken word poetry. YaliniDream artfully weaves her spoken word with music and...

Xu Xi has been called a "pioneer writer from Asia in English" by the New York Times, and a pioneer of a distinct kind of diasporic language. Shortlisted for the Man Asia award, her latest work, Habit of a Foreign Sky, moves between Hong Kong and New York, as the biracial female...

Our riotous Open Mic this week features Master (of comedy and karate) Lee and Sung (playwright genius) Rno. Open your mouth and say ahh—or say a poem! Or say a story! Or say a skat! Say anything! The sky (or at least the tin ceiling of Chelsea digs) is the...

Five Filipino New Yorkers, Hossannah Asuncion, Joseph O. Legaspi, Bino Realuyo, Lara Stapleton, and R.A. Villanueva, read poetry and prose. From the Philippines and across the United States, these award-winning poets and novelists share their work. Bino A. Realuyo is the author of The Umbrella Country, a novel, andThe Gods We Worship Live...

Join us for the CultureStrike festival: a series of free public arts workshops followed by a free outdoor festival featuring writers and artists from the CultureStrike delegation. CultureStrike Arts Workshops Free to the public! Wednesday, September 14, 4-6PM For the latest information, go to http://www.wordstrike.net/ Artists, Social Media, and Social Justice The...

When Outsourced premiered last fall filled with tired, overplayed jokes that relied on bad desi accents and references to sacred cows, it seemed that American popular cultural representations of India had officially shifted from the "land of the ashram" to "the land of the call center." Whether you laughed or cringed when...

Join comedian Jen Kwok and Ed Lin for our monthly open mic, Mouth to Mouth. This month, we feature two artists whose works straddle multiple genres and forms. Multidisciplinary artist Soomi Kim and singer-songer Jay Legaspi will dance, sing, perform, and recite. We hope you don't stay in your seats. Sign-up for a 5-minute slot before the night...