Wed. 12/2, 11:30am PT (2:30pm ET)
FREE + OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
This fall, students in my Literatures of Asian America (ENG 129-02) class have learned about the work of the Auntie Sewing Squad, a mutual aid organization founded by performance artist Kristina Wong. The Squad has sewn 250,000 face masks for vulnerable communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our culminating event is a live performance, "Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord," written and performed by Wong, live from her home in Koreatown, Los Angeles.
Thanks to generous sponsorship by UC Merced Arts and UC Merced English, this is a free Zoom show open to the public. Register here to receive the link.
Show Description:
"Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord" Written and Performed by Kristina Wong Performed live from her home in Koreatown Los Angeles
Global crises require innovation. In her new show, born from the COVID-19 pandemic, Kristina Wong details how she went from out-of-work performance artist to overlord of a homemade face mask empire in just ten days!
With her trademark wit, she explores how she was able to build the Auntie Sewing Squad, a sweatshop of hundreds of volunteer "Aunties" (which includes the labor of children and her own mother!) to fix the Public Health care system while in quarantine.
It's like the story of the American Dream, except it's really a scathing critique of how America's pursuit of global empire has left us scrambling to provide basic PPE to essential workers and ill prepared to keep citizens healthy. It also looks at the significance of Asian American women and Women of Color performing this historically gendered and racialized invisible labor. The monologue unfolds during a time when backlash against Asian Americans is at an all time high.