National Angel Island Day with The Last Hoisan Poets was observed on Saturday, January 21, 2023 in the Koret Auditorium at the de Young Museum, in partnership with the de Young Museum, Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, UC Berkeley’s Future Histories Lab, A Year on Angel Island.
Echoes from Angel Island featured musical performances by the Del Sol Quartet and readings by The Last Hoisan Poets – Genny Lim, Flo Oy Wong & Nellie Wong – commemorating the 113th anniversary of the Angel Island Immigration Station’s opening with a special poetry program, which opened with a short film selection, which included AIISF’s A Journey Through Angel Island, an animated video, directed by Felicia Lowe.
The program, included Cantonese readings of the Angel Island poems by poet Victor Yan, in addition to The Last Hoisan Poets readings of their own works which incorporate Hoisan-wa, the predominant dialect spoken by the first wave of immigrants who traveled to America from China in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
FREE Saturdays at the de Young included a special pop up exhibition created by ArtsEd4All in Wilsey Court, art-making activities inspired by Angel Island’s historic immigration station, engagement activities by the student of UCB Future Histories Lab, and a book table with East Wind Books of Berkeley.
A family art activity was created by teaching artist Hitoshi Shigeta with The Last Hoisan Poets for National Angel Island Day (1/21/2023) at the de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
View & download the
“Angel Island Scroll”
art activity via the
Internet Archive.
A special commemorative zine by artist/educator Katie Quan, (she/her) a third generation Chinese American, was created as a gift for the attendees. Katie is the founder of REALSOUL, a curriculum based organization that focuses on making Asian American stories intersectional, interdisciplinary, and accessible to learners of all ages.
