Media Contact: Micki Leventhal, 312-344-7383 mleventhal@colum.edu
Chicago, May 2003 -- The Center for Asian Arts and Media at Columbia College Chicago will welcome summer with their second bi-annual Women Warrior Festival, June 20 through the 27. This year the theme will be Asian Women in America: Creating Our Own Identities. The event will celebrate the lives of Asian and Asian American women with music and dance performances, lectures, discussions, workshops and films. A festival pass is available for $35 and covers all festival programs as well as breakfast, lunch and refreshments during the June 20 conference. Individual conference sessions are priced at $5 each. For further information call 312-344-7870.
The Woman Warrior Festival begins on June 20, with an all-day conference at Columbia's 1104 S. Wabash building. Beginning at 8:30 a.m., visual and performing artists, activists and media professionals will gather to share aspects of the many Asian and Asian American cultures and to discuss issues important to Asian and Asian American Women. Some of the highlights include: a discussion of trafficking and child prostitution in Asia by Chivy Sok of the Center for Human Rights at the University of Iowa; a film screening and panel discussion by filmmakers and activists on Hollywood Harems and the Media Representation of Women in the Middle East; a look at Girl Power and the Image of Asian Women in Pop Culture that includes a performance and discussion; a forum on interracial relationships; dance performances and discussions with Taiwanese dancer/choreographer Mei-Kuang Chen, and Indian dancer/choreographer Krithika Rajagopalan.
Outstanding women leaders from the Asian American community will be honored. Helen Lee, President of the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce will receive the Business Leadership Woman Warrior Award. Pat Matsumoto of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs will be cited for her contributions in the area of community service. Singer/songwriter Anna Fermin will receive the award for her achievements in creative arts. A keynote address by this year's Woman Warrior Honoree Baayork Lee, Broadway producer, director and choreographer, will address the topic of Asian Women in Theater and Entertainment.
A comedy performance and workshop by Indian-American Lesbian performer Sapna Kumar and an evening screening of videos will round out the day's events.
On June 20, The Woman Warrior Festival will also participate in the Miles of Music festival presented by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs by sponsoring North Michigan Avenue street performances by Anna Fermin's Trigger Gospe, Tzu-Shan Lin and Ann Okagarto of the Chinese Fine Art Society and JulieV and the HerStory Jazztet. All Miles of Music events are free and open to the public. For information call 312-744-6630.
On June 24, Women Warriors: Words and Rhythm, an evening of performance poetry will be presented in Preston Bradley Hall, 78 E. Washington as part of the MVP: Multicultural Voices and Perspectives Series. This program, co-presented by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, the American Indian Center, the Arab American Action Network and the Woman Warrior Festival of the Columbia College Chicago Center for Asian Arts and Media, is free and open to the public. Call 312-744-6630 for information.
Asian Women Who Rock in Chicago will be presented on June 26, 8:00 p.m. at the Heartland Cafe, 7000 N. Glenwood. Mia Park will emcee the evening of music by Yoko Noge, Michelle Cross and Jenny Choi and The Third Shift. The concert is included in the $35 festival pass, or is $5 at the door. For further information call Heartland at 773-465-8005.
The Woman Warrior Festival will culminate with a group art exhibition by Shirin Neshat (Iran), Shahzia Sikander (Pakistan), and Chiho Aoshima (Japan) at Columbia's Glass Curtain Gallery, 1104 S. Wabash. The Mythical Being of Desire explores the cultural and sexual conflict, resistance, misrepresentation and exploitation that result from the distance between genders that creates separation among human beings. The Mythical Being of Desire opens June 27 with an artists' reception from 6- 8 p.m. The exhibit runs through July 26. The reception and exhibition are free and open to the public. Call 312-344-6650 for more information.
Our first Woman Warrior Festival was presented in 2001 and was an overwhelming success, says festival director Nancy Tom, founder of the Center for Asian Arts and Media. The orientation of the festival is definitely activist and unquestionably woman-centered. We want to encourage women and girls of Asian descent, and of all cultures, to think critically about the issues they face, creatively express their heritage and identity and discover alternative resolutions to conflicts through programs that explore race, gender, class, sexuality, family structure and human rights.
The Woman Warrior Festival is named for the best selling book by award winning Chinese American author Maxine Hong Kingston. Now considered a classic of feminist literature, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts explores the tensions of growing up in conflicting cultures.
Asian Women in America: Creating Our Own Identities is made possible, in part, by support from Anheuser-Busch Companies, Harris Trust and Savings Bank, The Illinois Arts Council, the NIB Foundation, the Mayer and Morris Kaplan Family Foundation, American Airlines and a grant from the Illinois Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Illinois General Assembly.