Manifest Differently Concludes & Strangers for Ancestors Returns
L -> R standing: Dr. Alan S. Christy (Department of History, UC Santa Cruz), Dr. Dena Montague (Earth Systems Program, Stanford University), Dr. Anita Chang (Department of Communication, California State University East Bay), Dr. Kyoko Sato (Director, Program in Science, Technology, and Society, Stanford University), photographer Tosh Tanaka, students of Dr. Chang (apologies, I can’t remember their names), L-> R sitting: Megan Wilson (me), Dr. Wesley Ueunten, (Department of Asian American Studies, San Francisco State University), students of Dr. Chang (apologies, I can’t remember their names).
Photo Credit: Tosh Tanaka
CAMP presented our final public humanities program for Manifest Differently - Archipelagic Arts In Times of U.S. Militarism at Stanford University on Thursday, April 18, 2024 and it was so bittersweet. Manifest Differently humanities advisors Dr. Kyoko Sato and Dr. Anita Chang put together a powerful program that interwove two solid academic presentations on U.S. militarism by Dr. Sato and Dr. Dena Montague with film, poetry, and music by Dr. Chang whose family is from Taiwan, Dr. Craig Santos Perez who is from the Chamorro people and born in Mongmong-Toto-Maite, Guam Island, and Dr. Wesley Ueunten who was born and raised in Hawai’i and whose family is from Okinawa.
The presentation drove home the power of learning about the impacts of war and militarism on the communities in Pasifika that the United States has invaded and stolen land from their peoples to use for U.S. military bases while watching Dr. Chang’s film that muses on why the United States is so committed to war and violence, yet not peace, and while listening to the poetry of Dr. Santos Perez, and the music of Dr. Ueunten.
I’m grateful for the entire Manifest Differently team - the core curators/producers, the artists, the poets, the humanities advisors, sites, vendors, community, family, friends, and supporters for their contributions towards the deep work that allowed us to envision and produce all the incredible presentations and exhibitions over the past nine months.
There’s a lot more to reflect on; however, for now I’m just grateful and hopeful.
And now that I have some space to focus, I will finally finish the mural that I began last August in collaboration with poet Kim Shuck and Strangers for Ancestors will return.
Peace.
Three images of various stages of my and Kim Shuck’s mural in-progress - 1) initial concept drawing by me with poem by Kim; 2) image of the actual mural in progress in mid-September, 2023; and 3) image of the mural in February, 2024. Kim and I centered the imagery of indigenous California plants and the Condor rising, the rattlesnake in the sky, the frogs (painted by Kim), the lizard (painted by Kim), and the snake in the foreground (painted by Kim) all also indigenous to California. I designed the mural and painted everything except the critters Kim painted.