Adventure Time with KC

Things are coming along for the Asian Youth in Action art exhibit. It takes a long time to get everyone to give their opinions and decide on programming, scheduling, and all these logistics, but I think it's awesome that the youth get to decide what they wanna do. I wish I had a chance to do stuff like this when I was in high school. One of the groups has also been working on a paper mache caterpillar for one of their activities for the art exhibit. I was really glad to see some other youth from other groups stay after to help them out and make the caterpillar. It's not done yet but it really is beautiful to be able to chill and get your hands dirty together with some friends and get to know people. I'm really excited to see how the art exhibit turns out. One of the other youth submitted her art piece through me and I put it in a tote bag for now, and it's so cool! Depending on if you're standing to the left or right of the piece you see a different image. How f...

I was just playing around on my computer when I was hit by an idea. A week or two ago, I read an article about a Minnesota woman who video recorded her street harassers and made business cards to hand out to these harassers to explain why street harassment is not okay. Her project can be found on CardsAgainstHarassment.com . I had been thinking about what I would want to submit to the art exhibit that AYA is hosting on August 24th. The art exhibit is focused on police violence, violence against women, violence against LGBTQ communities, and the intersections of those issues. I don't feel inspired to draw/paint/write a poem, and one idea I had was to perform spoken word. But I would probably just re-perform something someone else wrote. And how long would it take for me to memorize a whole performance and perfect it? I have been reflecting on my experiences being harassed in public, and I've been meaning to think about what is something I can do about it. So I decided to ma...

As part of the art exhibit that the youth in AYA are doing this summer, we went out to the community today to ask people in New York what they thought of police violence, violence against women, and/or violence against LGBTQ members. Some of the youth spent a lot of time planning the script and the action details. We finally got our groups together and went out today to talk to people. My group went to Union Square. It was a nice sunny day after the rain in the morning. There weren't a lot of youth and youth of color during that time of the day.  We spotted a couple of people wearing a pink vest that seems to be from some sort of NGO working on girl's rights, and we thought, hey, they must have something to say about gender-based violence, right? Let's ask one of them. We approached one of the young men and it was a truly uncomfortable experience that we should've walked away from, no, I should've led them to walk away from, as soon as we realized how uncomfo...

I was supposed to go work in the office for my internship on Sunday and Monday to make up for the days I missed last week on vacation, but I was lazy and went in for part of Monday instead. I did some errands in the meanwhile so it's good to get some stuff done. On Tuesday, we had some unexpected last minute emergencies come up and had to deal with it with the rest of the office. I didn't do a lot but everyone did such a great job supporting each other and troubleshooting. Ruben could not come to the office on Tuesday, so Vivian helped me take care of AYA's session on Tuesday. Thankfully, RAISE (Revolutionizing Asian American Immigrant Stories on the East Coast) came in and did a workshop, which was awesome, and that took up a good chunk of time. RAISE works with undocumented youth to create safe spaces, share the experiences of undocumented Asian immigrants, and organize the youth to advocate for humane immigration policies. They do courageous and important work and it...

I was away from my internship for a few days to visit my godfamily in Virginia Beach. I call them my godfamily because that is one conventional way to explain our relationships. I actually know them through the Fresh Air Fund, which I wrote about in my college essay. Anyway, one of my "god"sisters and her family live in Virginia Beach. I took a few days to hang out with them and my godmom. The two young boys are fun to hang out with, they have such interesting personalities, and they loved the beach! They showed me all their favorite shows and favorite restaurants and hung out with me in the water! I learned a lot and processed a lot of things I've been thinking about the past few weeks and months. It was a great few days to recharge and spend time with loved ones. After a long and uncomfortable bus ride back to NYC, I went back to work the next day. Someone from the Red Umbrella Project came in and talked about the U.S.'s history of oppressing Asians and Asian...

Due to some scheduling changes, the AYA session tomorrow needs a workshop, so I'm working on the previously postponed Patriarchy workshop. Except this time we are focusing in on street harassment as a way to talk about patriarchy, homophobia, and transphobia. So I'm looking up videos made by women that talk about street harassment, and a lot of videos have been made on this issue by white women. Which is awesome, but since we are trying to fight for racial social economic and gender justice, and the youth relate better to their own identities, I decided to look for Asian women speaking out against street harassment. During the retreat, we did an activity called Life Maps, where we have to illustrate our life journey and pin point moments that inspired us to fight for justice and join CAAAV or AYA. I focused in on my experiences with street harassment growing up, and how sometimes the harassment would be mixed in with other elements of oppressing, including my race and ethni...

Today's my first day back at the internship since our retreat this past weekend. Yesterday kind of flew by, since I just napped all day and watched cartoons and helped my mom make lunch for me to bring to the office for the week. I almost forgot until this morning that the youth are coming in today, because our regular summer programming starts! So we meet with them every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The retreat was long and tiring but really great. We were slightly delayed on Friday because the van reservations were messed up. But we moved along anyway and got things started. Everyone was a little tired but in good spirits. We got started on checking in, agendas, and logistics. Then we started on workshops on systems of oppression and white supremacy, which is pretty heavy stuff. Over the course of the weekend, we learned a lot about the history of CAAAV, the history of Asian Americans in the U.S., how and why youth should organize, and the gender and sexuality workshop I ...