Brenda Wong Aoki tells true stories of her family’s 123-year history in the nation’s first Chinatown and Japantown against the backdrop of current times, when these historic cultural districts are being dismantled, replaced by skyscrapers and tech companies, and decimated by the pandemic. This new work was commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts, California State Arts Council, San Francisco Arts Commission, The MAP Fund and the Hewlett 50. Audience members will have the opportunity to give feedback after the story ends.

Wong Aoki is a playwright, artistic director and Asian-Pacific storyteller. She creates works for theater, symphony, contemporary dance, world music taiko, jazz, and does live performance with film and museum installations. A descendant of Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, and Scottish ancestors, her work speaks to the essential hybridity of American culture.

A curriculum developer and educator, Wong Aoki is a founding faculty member of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University and has been an artist-in-residence at such institutions as the Smithsonian, Duke University, Kenyon College, Wesleyan, Oberlin College, International House, Tokyo, and Sapporo University. Read more of her accomplishments here.

Sponsored by Steve Hamilton and Keith Norwalk
Interpreted for the deaf and hard of hearing

Media Sponsorship: WFYI
Videographer Sponsorship: Chatham Tap
Interpreter Sponsorship: Jim Obermaier and Sally Perkins