Learning and Unlearning Our Histories: Creative Exploration of Community Through the Ethnic Studies Curriculum

‍We invite middle and high school teachers to join us for this three-day summer institute on art and place-making as tools for learning and unlearning history, to decenter the mainstream narrative. We'll share resources, activities, and ideas that you can use to encourage students to explore their identities and find solidarity within their communities. Learn how culturally-specific museums like the Asian Art Museum and the Museum of the African Diaspora can support teachers in implementing California's recently approved Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum.  

‍This is a three-session event; registration is good for all three dates. Registered participants are welcome to attend as many of the sessions as they wish.

SCHEDULE

Day 1, Tuesday, June 15: 9:30 – 12 PM  

Imposed Identity in the Built Environment, presented by the Asian Art Museum

• How does a sense of place shape a person’s identity? Using San Francisco Chinatown’s Portsmouth Square and Hunter’s Point as case studies, we will explore how students might “map” their neighborhoods to understand themselves and their communities.

Guest Speaker: Divya Jain

‍Divya Jain is a recent graduate of UC Berkeley, where she studied architecture and city planning. She first became interested in exploring the relationship between culture, identity, and place-making while working on her thesis on Portsmouth Square. Jain continues to engage in research on the connection between Asian American history and public space in San Francisco.

‍Day 2, Tuesday June 22: 9:30 – 12 PM  

Presented by the Museum of the African Diaspora

• Using publicly available online archives focusing on San Francisco’s neighborhoods, we will explore the intersections of the African American and Asian American communities to construct a more complete understanding of history and identity.  

Day 3, Tuesday June 29: 9:30 – 12 PM  

Poetry Workshop: Mapping Cultural Identities, presented by Michael Warr and Chun Yu from Two Languages/One Community

• In their Two Languages/One Community project, poets Michael Warr and Chun Yu explore the mapping of cultural identities and find commonality as individuals and with their communities through poetry and translation. They will share how they weave family, culture, history, and nature into poetry and storytelling. Workshop participants will be asked to trace their own identities and to consider what shapes, obstructs, and liberates their sense of identity. The poets will each illustrate their methodologies by mapping their personal journeys through poetry. Co-hosted by the Asian Art Museum, the Museum of the African Diaspora, and Two Languages/One Community.