A Project on Shared Histories of Asians and Blacks in America

By: Kevin Simmonds

Instead of reporting the unintended death of Tian Sheng Yu by two young Black men in Oakland this April as an isolated crime, the media suggested it might have been part of trend of Black-on-Asian violence in and around the San Francisco Bay area.

Asian and African American community groups, as well as politicians and activists, began meeting to discuss the perceived and real tensions among these communities and ways to quell the violence. As a writer and artist, I responded by first writing a poem, which turned into a website and is now a theatrical work-in-progress. huggingasians.com, which has received hits from all over the world, features images of me, a Black man, hugging Asians in and around San Francisco, and includes several links about Asian-Black relations.

It also features excerpts from ORIENT, a multidisciplinary work-in-progress that will compile poetry, video interviews, music, dance and photography to reimagine and reinvigorate the long and complex history of Asians and Blacks in America. The work is rooted in community and has been selected by Kickstarter.com for financial support.

ORIENT will debut in various stages in 2011 and should be complete by 2012, the 20th anniversary of the LA Riots. For more information, please go to huggingasians.com and the Kickstarter site at http://kck.st/aaglSv.