Office of Institutional Safety & Equity (OISE)
May 2021
IN THIS ISSUE
Message from Dr. Biagas
Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Honoring Jeanie Jew

Disaggregating Asian American & Pacific Islander Identities

Supporting Our Neighbors in Chinatown

PAFA's Exhibition History: Asian American Artists
Jewish American Heritage Month
Mark Your Calendars
From Our Collection
In the United States, the month of May is an annual recognition and celebration of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) and Jewish Americans.
 
We take this opportunity to condemn the escalating violence and ongoing harassment directed at AAPI and the Jewish community, and we stand in solidarity with community leaders, students, educators, and audiences who are actively engaged in anti-racist action. This newsletter pays tribute to the achievements and contributions of the AAPI and Jewish community to American history, art, and culture.
 
In 2006, George W. Bush proclaimed May as Jewish American Heritage Month. The announcement served as the crowning achievement in a concerted effort by American Jewish leaders to introduce resolutions in both the United States Senate and the House urging the President to proclaim a month specifically recognizing the more than 360-year
history of Jews in America and their contributions to the United States.

As we do every month, we invite y0u to use the Diversity Awareness Calendar to celebrate, raise awareness, and learn more about our shared histories.

– Dr. Lisa Biagas
Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Celebrating such a rich tapestry of cultures, traditions, and histories requires more than just one newsletter. Throughout the month of May, we will continue sharing information about AAPI communities through our Monday AAPI Briefs. These micro-newsletters will allow us to share information about AAPI communities, locate resources to support and learn more about anti-Asian violence, promote local businesses impacted by the pandemic and xenophobia, highlight the AAPI artists in our collection, and explore PAFA's history.
Jeanie Jew
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage month. Asian American and Pacific Islander are broad terms that we use to capture people with connections to over 70 countries. AAPI Heritage month originated in a congressional bill led by Capitol Hill staffer and Board Member of the OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, Jeanie Jew. Introduced separately by both the Senate and House of Representatives in 1977, AAPI Heritage Month started out as a week-long celebration and became a month-long celebration twelve years later when President George H.W. Bush officially signed it into law. May commemorates the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and marks the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority of the workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants.
Disaggregating "Asian" Identity

When we think of Asian Americans we typically have in mind of East Asians (people of Chinese, Japanese, or Korean descent). We have culturally inherited "Asian American" as a category from social institutions like the U.S. Census Bureau and the Pan-Asian student movements in the late 1960s. But not all Asian Americans identify as East Asian. Asian American is a rather broad term to describe a vast and diverse community.
 
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent; home to over 4.3 billion people in over 45 countries, speaking nearly 2,300 languages. It covers 9% of the Earth's total surface area and has the world's longest coastlines.
 
As of 2018, there are over 24 million AAPI people residing in America. In the Philadelphia metropolitan region alone, there are over 6 million people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent.
Amplifying Pacific Islander Identities

As an identity category, Pacific Islander is equally vast and multi-varied. In the context of AAPI, Pacific Islander refers to those who can trace their heritage back to the original peoples of Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia.

Polynesia includes:
Hawaii, Samoa, American Samoa, Tokelau, Tahiti, & Tonga

Micronesia includes:
Guam, Mariana Islands, Saipan, Palau, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, Kosrae, Marshall Islands, & Kiribati

Melanesia includes:
Fiji, Papau New Guinea, Solomon Islands, & Vanuatu
Dear Asian Americans: Stop Erasing Pacific Islanders

By Guest Contributor: Conrad Lihlihi (@clihilihi)

Read more
reappropriate.co
Supporting Our Neighbors in Chinatown
Philadelphia’s Chinatown neighborhood is located only a few blocks away from PAFA. Over the past few decades, Chinatown has slowly diversified and other Asian cultures are now represented, including Vietnamese, Japanese, Cambodian, Malaysian, Korean, Thai, Burmese, and more recently Egyptians. The neighborhood was one of the most affected areas of the city even before the city shutdown in March 2020. Reduced business and foot traffic occurred earlier due to the stigma of the origins of the coronavirus.
 
Many faculty, staff, and students frequent Chinatown to experience a diverse array of Asian-owned businesses. In this section, we want to promote local businesses and highlight some of our staffs favorite picks! 
Chinatown Arch Philadelphia Photograph
by Bill Cannon
Did you know Philadelphia has a Koreatown?

The first Koreatown began in the 1980s and is located in the Olney section of Philadelphia, a densely populated Korean community. It is a lesser known Asian American enclave compared to Chinatown. Similar to Chinatown, Koreatown will have businesses offering traditional products, services, and food. Over the years, Philadelphia's Koreatown slowly expanded north towards the Cheltenham suburbs of the city.

In the past two decades, other Korean enclaves have emerged such as the ones found in Upper Darby Township and Cherry Hill, NJ. A prominent feature for these Korean American communities is the addition of the popular Korean grocery chain, H-Mart, which offers exotic produce, imported groceries, and household items. Many H-Marts feature food halls that bring popular Korean dishes.

Cafes & Bakeries
Chinatown has countless bakeries offering a variety of sweet and savory baked or steamed bread buns, with a variety of fillings and toppings that are not commonly found in a Western bakeries. Hoang Tran and Abby King agree that a pork bun and coffee is the best $3 meal in the city! Hoang prefers the roast pork buns (and the taro buns) from The Mayflower Bakery & Café while Abby is a fan of Bread Top House.
For Instagram-able desserts that look like works of art, Vy Dang and Dr. Ronke Oke suggest heading to A La Mousse.
For the more adventurous types, check out the authentic Taiwanese snack spot Heung Fa Chun Sweet House. They are known for their sweet tofu dessert and fresh soy milk, but Vicky Rivers is a fan of the red bean sesame balls.

Other bakeries to explore:
If you're in Chinatown, you'll immediately notice many people walking around sipping on drinks with black balls at the bottom of their cups. Depending on the region you are from, the tapioca balls are known as boba, bubble, or pearl. Adding the chewy little balls to your tea drinks originated in Taiwan and is now part of Asian-American popular culture.

For an afternoon pick me up, Kristina Murray and Danielle McAdams head to Mr. Wish for their bubble tea. For the traditionalists, head over to St. Honore Pastries for their Hong-Kong style milk tea (iced).

For the coffee aficionados, head over to Ray's Cafe and Tea House where they specialize in siphon coffee as well as specialty coffee!
Other tea shops to explore:

*Note: While most bakeries offer bubble tea, the menu will be limited in comparison to tea shops.


Next week, we’ll highlight some Noodles dishes. 
PAFA's Exhibition History: Asian American Artists
While PAFA is traditionally known as a museum that exhibits American Art, there were exhibitions that featured Asian art and artists starting in the late 19th century. By the 20th century, PAFA exhibited Asian American Artists.

  • 1890 - The Japanese Collection of Dr. Edward H. Williams
  • 1894 - Japanese Art
  • 1901 - Teijiro Hasekana: Watercolors
  • 1923 - John F. Lewis Collection of Paintings and Drawings of Persia and India
  • 1923 - Exhibition of Paintings by Modern Japanese Artists from the Collection of Yonezo Okamoto
  • 1929 - John F. Lewis Collection of Persian and Indo-Persian Miniatures
  • 1947 - Contemporary Chinese Paintings
  • 1956 - Yoshimatsu Onaga: Memorial Exhibition
  • 1962 - Contemporary Artists of the Turkish Academy of the Fine Arts
  • 1965 - Prints of Old Japan
  • 1970 - Fumio Yoshimura: Aerial Fantasies
  • 1979 - Hitoshi Nakazato: Recent Paintings 
  • 1992 - Toshiko Takaezu: Recent Work 
  • 1995 - Electronic Superhighway: Nam June Paik in the '90s
  • 2005 - Do-Ho Suh: Paratrooper II
  • 2006 - Nadia Hironaka: The Late Show
  • 2011 - Hiro Sakaguchi: No Particular Place To Go
  • 2012 - Of, To, and From Ray Yoshida
  • 2013 - Bodu Yang: The Museum Paintings
  • 2014 - Eiko: A Body in Places
  • 2017 - Zorawar Sidhu: Eakins in Perspective
  • 2017 - Paul Chan: Pillowsophia
  • 2018 - Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World
  • 2019 - Chitra Ganesh: Selected Works On Paper
Jewish American Heritage Month
Located only a 10 minute drive from from PAFA is the National Museum of American Jewish History (NMAJH). NMAJH has been an important resource for the collecting and archiving of Jewish American history. In honor of Jewish American Heritage Month they have a wonderful collection of videos cataloguing stories of famous Jewish Americans as part of their "Only in America" series. Click the image below to view their story collection.
Watch it Again!
PAFA's Public Education and Engagement team regularly hosts wonderful programming for artists and art lovers of all different age ranges, skill levels, and on a range of different topics and themes. Click the links below to watch their recent events amplifying the contributions of Jewish American artists to American history and PAFA's collection.
Jewish Dimensions in American Art

Dr. Katerina Romanenko highlighted works by some of the Jewish American artists in PAFA’s historic collection.
Audrey Flack’s Vanitas

Dr. Nancy Heller gave a deep dive into Jewish-American artist Audrey Flack’s photorealism in December 2020.
Faculty & Staff:
PAFA Welcomes Back Ahyana King!
Tuesday May 4th @ 4pm
You are invited to spend 30 minutes with Ahyana King, mental health practitioner at Grit + Grace this Tuesday, May 4th, 2021 at 4pm, for "Rhythm + Words." During this time you will have an opportunity to pause, to breathe, and engage in a reflective listening and writing activity, tuning into the rhythm of your body, giving language to what you hear, feel, and notice in its rhythm.  
From Our Collection
Wire Cyclist
by Yasuo Kuniyoshi


Yasuo Kuniyoshi's work combines influences of American folk art, Japanese design, and European Modernism. The Wire Cyclist is among many images of women entertainers Kuniyoshi made following his extended trips to Paris in the late 1920s.

Did you know that the first work of art by artists of Asian descent entered PAFA's collection in 1953?
We challenge you to check PAFA’s Diversity Awareness Calendar monthly and attend monthly OISE sponsored events. The purpose of this calendar is to celebrate and raise awareness of religious obligations, ethnic and cultural festivities, and significant events that may affect students, colleagues, and friends in the PAFA community. 

Being an ally for a S.A.F.E. Community at PAFA