2006 GRANT PROJECTS
• JOURNALISM MENTORSHIP
51%: A Female Journalists Initiative • $10,000
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
51%: A Female Journalists Initiative will work with 15 female student newspaper editors and reporters (grades 9-12) selected from schools through NYC, with a focus on under-represented females from South and Southeast Asia. The students will work with professional female journalist who will mentor them in media activism and practical skills (from oral history interviews to community news reporting). Participants will publishes pieces and join a new, cross-generational network of professional contacts.
• MULTIMEDIA
Our Stories: Chinatown Women’s Multi-Media Project • $10,000
Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association
Our Stories: Chinatown Women’s Multi-Media Project will develop an Immigrant Women’s Oral History Project, organize hundreds of women in a grassroots organizing campaign against sweatshops, and develop a community health outreach and education campaign. The project includes short documentaries that examine garment workers rights, health and immigration and host screenings and conversations.
• THEATER PLAYS
Seven 11 Series • $9,000
Desipina Productions, Inc.
Seven 11 Series weaves together 11-minute plays, all set in a convenience store, by seven writers. The production explores and counters the traditional 7-Eleven stereotype of the immigrant, often seen as the bumbling idiot, the thickly accented, unattractive male, or the angry, finger-wagging miserly vendor. Desipina Productions will also facilitate talk-backs after performances and advance its Emerging Artists Program.
• DOCUMENTARY FILM OUTREACH
The Silence Broken Foundation • $7,000
Dai Sil Kim Gibson
Filmmaker Dai Sil Kim Gibson’s films about gender equity and social justice include Silence Broken, about Korean girls and women forced into sexual servitude by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II, and Sa-O-Gu (“April 29”), a film about the 1992 Los Angeles crisis from the perspectives of the Korean women shopkeepers. The Silence Broken Foundation was founded to support public education regarding crimes and atrocities committed against women, using the films as centerpieces.
• THEATER PERFORMANCE
Americasiana • $9,500
Slanty Eyed Mama
Slanty Eyed Mama, the dynamic duo of lyricist and singer, Kate Rigg (Lady-K) and electric violinist Lyris Hung, creates hilarious, witty and sharp social commentary combining music, spoken word, story-telling and modern butoh dancing. This theatrical concert involves music, spoken word, characters and monologues based on oral history interviews with Asian Americans all over the country—conducted by Slanty Eyed Mama while on tour. The piece looks at the American Dream through the eyes of Asian America and includes outreach and workshops with teens.
• VIDEO SHORTS
Call for Change Series • $10,000
Third World Newsreel
Produced by Third World Newsreel working with approximately 10 different directors and community groups, Call for Change Series are short 5-10 minute videos that focus on communities of color and the social changes they are working towards. The grant will support two shorts: one that features young Asian women performers on the new anti-Asian racism on the airwaves, and another that follows an organizing effort led by women against Congressional anti-immigrant laws.