It was so surreal to perform ILLEGAL last year in the very immigrant barracks where our show is set, where my grandparents were interrogated, and where detainees carved poetry into the walls that their descendants would write into song to honor their fighting spirit 100 years later. When I heard our voices echo through those wooden halls, I felt like those poets were singing back to us.
Sita
@sitacolor and I can’t thank AIISF
@aiisforg Danielle, Ed Tepporn, Angelo and more enough for having us and all you do to help everyone listen to the history and see themselves in it today, as well as Catherine Gloria for your incredible performance, UC Berkeley
@futurehistorieslab @ucberkeleyofficial for hosting us that weekend, and the park rangers
@angelislandstatepark for teaching us so much more about the island. We really loved talking to everybody who came out to see us and share their stories too!
When I was in middle school I first visited Angel Island with my family, where the museum guide had me and my dad enact one of the interrogations with details from our own lives for the other visitors to understand the system in place. We learned how unjust the anti immigrant laws were and how our imperfect knowledge of our own lives would probably get us separated and deported under Chinese Exclusion because we couldn’t answer questions like “how many windows does your house have?” and “who lives diagonally northeast from you?” I always wanted to help shine a light on this personal piece of American history that continues to impact us today and can’t believe we could perform detainees’ lyrics and interrogations in the very place where it all started.
As always, keep dreaming & telling your story, visit the link in bio to support our journey and stay tuned for more upcoming shows and developments!
#throwbackthursday #asianamericanhistory #immigration #musical #IllegalMusical #asian
#aapi #chineseexclusionact #poetry
