CAATA and AAPI Actions to Combat Anti-AAPI Hate and Violence

The Second Statement | Friday, April 16, 2021

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Note: We are soliciting signatures only from self-identifying members of the AAPI community and from our BIPOC/global majority individual allies and organizations for this statement. Non-BIPOC/global majority allies will be asked to pledge to a statement we will be releasing in the coming weeks.

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National Asian/Pasifika/Native/Indigenous/MENA Theatre Leaders Condemn Anti-Asian Hate

Our leadership continues to condemn and grieve the violence which occurred in Mvskoke (Muskogee/Creek), colonially known as Atlanta, on March 16, 2021, when eight people were murdered, six of them Asian American women. We want to respectfully and accurately honor those murdered in the Atlanta shootings, their families and communities:

박순정 Soon Chung Park, 74
김현정 Hyun Jung Grant,51
유영애 Yong Ae Yue, 63
김선자 Sun Cha Kim, 69
谭小洁 Xiaojie Tan, 49
冯道友 Daoyou Feng, 44
Paul Andre Michels
Delana Ashley Yaun

We also grieve with the families of those recently dead or injured from violent assault including: Pak Ho, 75-year-old Asian man; Vicha Ratanapakdee, 84 year-old Asian man; a 61 year-old Asian Grandmother (chose not to be named); 83 year-old Grandmother, Nancy Toh; and Noel Quintana, a Pilipino man, who lives with severe facial scarring from a violent attack with a box cutter. Reported abuses have increased since the last 3,800 count, February 2021.

As theatre leaders, we are clear the murders were motivated by the Trump administration and their enablers to conflate Covid-19 with all Asians that are derived from racial tropes due to negative stereotypes of fetishization and exoticization reinforced historically through our caste system that would dehumanize Asian, Pasifika, Native/Indigenous, and Middle Eastern/North African (MENA) peoples and continue to “other”and hate them societally.

Preliminary findings from the Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC)’s upcoming Visibility Report found that in the 2018-19 New York season, Asian American and Pasifika actors were cast in just 6.3% of all available roles; Asian American and Pasifika playwrights, composers, librettists and lyricists made up just 4.9% of all writers; and Asian American and Pasifika directors helmed only 4.5% of all productions. While this is an examination of New York’s representation of Asian American and Pasifika theatre artists, this report reveals the lack of representation that reinforces the invisibility of US Asian/Pasifika peoples and fuels implicit bias that emboldens white supremacy culture and those who embody it to accost, abuse, and murder our peoples.

At the same time that we need more representation in the mainstream, it is necessary to highlight the importance of Asian American theatre companies that have consistently been nurturing Asian/Pasifika/Native/Indigenous/MENA artists, telling the stories that uplift and empower us and have been centers of healing and community. They are vastly underfunded in comparison to the larger, white-led theatre companies. AAPAC found that of all funding contributions tallied from the most recently available 990 IRS tax forms for the 18 major non-profit theatre companies and 28 Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) theatres included as part of New York City Council’s Coalition of Theatres of Color, only 7.8% was awarded to BIPOC theatres. The predominantly white institutions received nearly $150 million in funding while BIPOC theatres received roughly $12.5 million. When looking at government funding alone, the predominantly white institutions received over $16 million of government funding while BIPOC theatres received under $5 million. It is evident that being historically underfunded normalizes deprivation and rigidly employs structural social control; upholds systemic racism of white supremacy culture that harshly sensors by silencing; and invisible-izes us so as not to disrupt the violence of xenophobia.

We demand that greater national, state and city government and foundation support be re-allocated to BIPOC theatres and artists.

At historically white-run institutions, we demand board support and organizational cultural change to end anti-Asian/Pasifika/Native/Indigenous/MENA violence and anti-Blackness, and to actively become an anti-racist organization. We are working in concert with WeSeeYouWAT.

We demand the theatre industry include us in the racial conversation to make sure that Asian/Pasifika/Native/Indigenous/MENA peoples are part of the anti-racist strategies at their theatres.

We are working in coalition with BIPOC theatre workers and theatres to decolonize and disrupt the white/Black binary created by white supremacy and support Asian/Pasifika/MENA, Black, Latinx, Native/Indigenous, and Mixed Race/Mixed Identities to all be included in anti-racist strategies. We demand theatres actively hire more Asian/Pasifika/Native/Indigenous/MENA artists on their stages, backstage, and on their creative and administrative teams — support and empower them to do their work.

The horrifying assault in Atlanta is part of the long history of racial discrimination against Asian/Pasifika/Native/Indigenous/MENA peoples in the U.S., that comes during a rise in violence against our communities fueled by xenophobic political rhetoric about Covid-19, the pandemic and white supremacist policies and laws embedded in our US, state, and city governments.

We don’t forget. End deadly White Supremacy NOW!

Justice, Equity, Inclusion NOW for sustained support and resources for our Asian/Pasifika/Native/Indigenous/MENA Theatres and Artists.

Signatories current as of May 7, 2021, 1:00 am HST,  7:00 am EST
Unified In Just and Right Purpose,

CAATA Board of Directors
Andrea Assaf, Artistic Director, Art2action Inc. (Tampa, FL)
Tammy Haili‘ōpua Baker, Associate Professor, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (Honolulu, HI)
Leilani Chan, Artistic Director, Teada Productions (Los Angeles, CA)
Tisa Chang, Artistic Producing Director, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre (New York, NY)
Snehal Desai, Artistic Director, East West Players (Los Angeles, CA)
Moses Goods, Artistic Director, ʻInamona Theatre Company, (Honolulu, HI)
Leslie Ishii, National BITOC Coalition, AD, Perseverance Theatre (Tlingit Aani/Dena’ina, AK)
Jamil Khoury, Founding Artistic Director, Silk Road Rising (Chicago, IL)
Stefanie Lau, Producing Artistic Leader, Artists At Play (Los Angeles, CA)
Andi Meyer, Producing Artistic Director, Tradewind Arts (Kansas City, MO)
Meena Natarajan, Co-Artistic & Executive Director, Pangea World Theater (Minneapolis, MN)
Joan Osato, Producing Director, Youth Speaks, Inc. (San Francisco, CA)
kt shorb, Producing Artistic Director, Generic Ensemble Company (Austin, TX)
Roger W. Tang, Executive Director, Pork Filled Productions (Seattle, WA)
Chay Yew, Stage Director
Lily Tung Crystal, Artistic Director, Theater Mu (Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN)
Ralph B. Peña, Producing Artistic Director, Ma-Yi Theatre Company (New York, NY)

CAATA Staff
Ryan I. Kahaʻiʻōlelo Sueoka, ʻInamona Theatre Company (Kamōʻiliʻili, Waikīkī, Kona, Oʻahu, HI)
Kayla Kim Votapek, Anti-Racist Facilitator & Creative Producer (Jersey City, NJ)
Ariel Estrada, Producing Artistic Director, Leviathan Lab (New York, NY)
Kathryn Jan Estavillo, CAATA Marketing Associate (New York, NY)

CAATA Theatres & Artists and Allies

The Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC)
WeSeeYouWAT
Asian Arts Initiative
Asian American Arts Alliance
AGE: Advance Gender Equity in the Arts, Minita Gandhi
Telatulsa
Black Theatre Commons
Black Vitality Network
Ka Hālau Hana Keaka
Ty Defoe (Giizhig; Oneida/Ojibwe), Multi-disciplined-hyphenated Individual Artist; Co-Founder, Indigenous Direction
Sharon Day, (Ojibwe), Indigenous Peoples Task Force
New Native Theatre: Rhianna Yazzie, Artistic Director
Teatro Luna West: Alexandra Meda, Co-Artistic Director
Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC)
José Luis Valenzuela, Artistic Director, Latino Theater Company (LTC)
Armando Huipe: Producer, LTC
Olga Sanchez Saltveit, Assistant Prof., Middlebury College, LTC Steering Committee, Artistic Director Emerita, Milagro
Department of Theatre, Middlebury College (Vermont) (LTC)
Department of Theatre & Dance, Franklin & Marshall College (Lancaster, Pennsylvania)
José Gonzalez, Executive Director and co-Founder, Milagro
Middle Eastern North African Theatre Makers Alliance (MENATMA)
artEquity
Design Action
Telatulsa
National Asian Americans Advancing Justice: Confirmed
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum
National Japanese American Citizens League
Japanese American Citizens League: Alaska
Tsuru For Solidarity
The CRAFT Institute

A. Rey Pamatmat (Seattle, WA)
AC Petersen (Berkeley, CA)
Adrian Budhu, Theatre Communications Group (New York, NY)
Ako Dachs, Founding Artistic Director, Amaterasu Za (New York, NY)
Alex Chester, Hapa Mag, soon to be called Mixed Asian Media (New York, NY)
Alex Lin (New York, NY)
Alexander Tom, Associate Program Head, Pace University (New York, NY)
Alison Qu, CHUANG Stage, Company One Theatre (Boston, MA)
Amparo Garcia-Crow (Austin, TX)
Amy Hill (Honolulu, HI)
Amy Kim Waschke (Los Angeles, CA)
Andy Lowe, East West Players (Los Angeles, CA)
Angel Desai, AAPAC (New York, NY)
Anh-Thu Pham, Theater Mu (St. Paul, MN)
Anida Yoeu Ali, Studio Revolt (Tacoma, WA)
Ann Harada (New York, NY) (New York, NY)
Anna Yee (Chicago, IL)
Ariana Johnson, American Conservatory Theater (San Francisco, CA)
Ashley Chang, Playwrights Horizons
Ashley Song Mellinger, Desert Island Studios (Portland, OR)
Ashley Yung, Pao Arts Center (Boston, MA)
Aureen B Almario, Bindlestiff Studio (San Francisco, CA)
Aurin Squire (Brooklyn, NY)
Aya Ogawa, Theater-maker (Brooklyn, NY)
Ben Gonio, Educator, Performer, Narrativus.com (Lynnwood, WA)
Brian Lai (Derwood, MD)
Byron Au Yong (Seattle, WA)
Candice Lam (New York, NY)
Cara Hinh (Indianapolis, IN)
Carla Ching (Los Angeles, CA)
Carolyn M. Dunn, Playwright and Professor, Oklahoma Indigenous Theatre Company, Oklahoma City, Cal State Los Angeles Dept of Theatre & Dance
Chantal Rodriguez, Yale School of Drama (New Haven, CT)
Cherry Lou Sy (Brooklyn, NY)
Chil Kong, Adventure Theatre MTC (Glen Echo, MA)
Ching Valdes-Aran (New York, NY)
Christina R Chan, Asian American Playwright Collective (Boston, MA)
Christina Rios, LTC Advisory Committee (Long Beach, CA)
Christopher Chen
Cindy Cheung, AAPAC (Brooklyn, NY)
Claire Tran, Member of the Dramatist Guild (Brooklyn, NY)
Dale Minami, CAPA21, Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans (San Francisco, CA)
Daniel M. Mayeda, Board Member, East West Players (Los Angeles, CA)
Daria Miyeko Marinelli (Los Angeles, CA)
David S Leong, Critical Communications Group (Richmond, VA)
David Shih (New York, NY)
Dax Valdes, Hollaback! (New York, NY)
Deb Sivigny (Washington, DC)
Deeksha Gaur, Show-Score for TodayTix Group (New York, NY)
DeLanna Studi, Artistic Director, Native Voices (LA/ Cherokee Nation/ OK)
Desdemona Chiang, Director (Seattle, WA & Ashland, OR)
Desiree Mee-Jung (Los Angeles, CA)
Diane Paulus, American Repertory Theater (Cambridge, MA)
Diane Takei Gotanda, Gotanda Art Plant (Berkeley, CA)
Dipankar Mukherjee, Pangea World Theater (Minneapolis, MN)
Dmae Roberts, MediaRites (Portland , OR)
Don Castro
Edward Hong (Los Angeles, CA)
El Beh (San Francisco, CA)
Elaine Romero, LTC Steering Committee (Tucson, AZ)
Elizabeth (Lisa) Liang, Actor, Writer, Producer & Facilitator (Los Angeles, CA)
Elizabeth Wong, Playwright/Director (Los Angeles, CA)
Ely Sonny Orquiza, The Chikahan Company (San Francisco, CA)
Emily Kuroda, Timescape Arts (Los Angeles, CA)
Eric Ting, Artistic Director, California Shakespeare Theater (Orinda, CA)
Erica Lauren Ortiz (she/her), Theatre Communications Group (Wood Ridge, NJ)
Erin Quill, Fairy Princess Diaries (New York, NY)
Ethan Xiong, Green T Production (Shoreview, MN)
Eugenie Chan, Eugenie Chan Theater Projects (San Francisco, CA)
Eunice Bae (New York, NY)
Evelina Fernandez, Associate Artistic Director, Latino Theater Company/LATC (Los Angeles)
FAWZIA mirza (Los Angeles, CA)
Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company (San Francisco, CA)
Flordelino Lagundino, Theater Alaska (Juneau, AK)
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig
Francis Jue (New York, NY)
Fredo Aguilar, Stage Managers of Color-Chicago, Stage Managers Association, Chicago BIMPOC Theatre Practitioners List (Chicago, IL)
Gabriel Barrera, Visual Artist, ScenicG (Ashland, OR)
Gaven Trinidad, New York Theatre Workshop (New York, NY)
Gedde Watanabe (Pasadena, CA)
Georgina Escobar, LTC Advisory Committee (El Paso, TX)
Gina Pisasale, People’s Light (Malvern, PA)
Ginger Leopoldo, CIRCA Pintig (Chicago, IL)
Gregory Keng Strasser, 4615 Theatre (Washington, DC)
Hahnji Jang, USA 829 (New York, NY)
Haley Sakamoto (New York, NY)
Henry Chan, HCP (Palos Verdes Peninsula, CA)
James S. Moy, University of South Florida (Tampa, FL)
James Yaegashi (Brooklyn, NY)
Jamie Gahlon, HowlRound Theatre Commons (Boston, MA)
Jason Ma, Board of Directors, Writer & Actor, Prospect Theater Company
Jeanne Sakata (Los Angeles, CA)
Jeannie Barroga (San Francisco, CA)
Jeffrey Lo, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley (San Jose, CA)
Jennifer Shiotani (Reseda, CA)
Jenny Koons, Director and Organizer (Queens, NY)
Jeri-Ann Wong, (Los Angeles, CA)
Jessica Chen, J CHEN PROJECT (New York, NY)
Jimin Moon (Davis, CA)
jiyoun chang, Design Action (New Haven, CT)
Jon Lawrence Rivera, Playwrights’ Arena (Los Angeles, CA)
Jonathan McCrory, National Black Theatre, Inc. (New York, NY)
Jose Luis Valenzuela, The Latino Theater Company/LATC
jose carrasquillo (Seattle, WA)
Julie Kuwabara, Granny Cart Gangstas (San Francisco, CA)
Jully Lee, Cold Tofu Improv (Los Angeles, CA)
Karissa Murrell Myers, Bramble Theatre Co. (Chicago, IL)
Kate Moore Heaney, MENATMA, Noor Theatre (Hackensack, NJ)
Kathleen Turco-Lyon, The Actors Center (New York, NY)
Kathy Hsieh, SIS Productions (Seattle, WA)
Keiko Carreiro, Kunoichi Productions (San Francisco, CA)
Kendyl Ito (she/her), Theater Maker (Astoria, NY)
Kenny Endo, Taiko Center of the Pacific (Honolulu, HI)
Kiki Rivera, Pasifika Playwright, Independent Theatre Artist (Honolulu, HI & Los Angeles,CA)
Kristina Wong, Auntie Sewing Squad (Los Angeles, CA)
Krystle Piamonte, Actor, Founder & Co-Artistic Director, The Chikahan Company (San Francisco, CA)
Lauren Yee (New York, NY)
Lavina Jadhwani, Director, Adaptor & Activist (Chicago, IL)
Leonard Cruz, The Creative, Arts, and Resilience Project (San Antonio, TX)
Leta Tremblay (Elmhurst, NY)
Lia Chang, Backstage Pass with Lia Chang, Bev’s Girl Films (New York, NY)
Lina Patel (Claremont, CA)
Linda Cho (New York, NY)
Lipica Shah, AAPAC, 1497 (New York, NY)
Lisa Portes, LTC Advisory Committee, The Theatre School at DePaul University (Chicago, IL)
Lloyd Suh (South Orange, NJ)
Lonnie Alcaraz, Lighting Designer/Professor, Head of Lighting/Associate Head of Design, UCI (Los Angeles, CA)
Lois Shih (La Jolla, CA)
Louis Changchien (Los Angeles, CA)
Lydia Tanji (Berkeley, CA)
Makoto Hirano, Team Sunshine Performance (Philadelphia , PA)
Margaret Shigeko Starbuck, Boston Court Pasadena (Pasadena, CA)
Maria-Tania Bandes Becerra Weingarden (Seattle, OR)
Marie-Reine Velez, Artists at Play (Los Angeles, CA)
Marilyn Abad Cardinalli, STAR Arts Education (Gilroy, CA)
Marina Celander (Brooklyn, NY)
Marisa Tecson Johnston, Independent Shakespeare Co. (Los Angeles, CA)
Marissa L. Ampon, The Chikahan Company (San Francisco, CA)
Marissa Chibás, Director of Duende CalArts (Los Angeles, CA)
Mary Kathryn Nagle, Playwright
May Adrales, The Lark (New York, NY)
Meena Malik, NEFA/API Arts Network Consultant & Musician (Torrance, CA)
Mei Ann Teo, Artistic Director, Musical Theatre Factory (New York, NY)
Melisa Tien (New York, NY)
Mia Chung (Chevy Chase, MD)
mia park, Our Perspective: Asian American Plays (Chicago, IL)
Mica Cole, Activist, Artist, Producer
Micah Rosegrant, AATAB/API Arts Network, Arts Connect International (Shawmut, MA)
Michael Malek Najjar, University of Oregon (Eugene, OR)
Michelle M. Aguillon, Asian American Playwright Collective, StageSource, New Rep Theater Co. (Boston, MA)
Michelle Fujii, Unit Souzou (Portland, OR)
Mike Lew (Brooklyn, NY)
Min Kahng, TYA USA (Alameda, CA)
Mina Morita, Artistic Director, Crowded Fire Theater Company (San Francisco, CA)
MiRi Park, Assoc. Chor., RENT 20th Anniversary Tour, Lecturer, CSUCI (Thousand Oaks, CA)
Monika Ramnath (Los Angeles, CA)
Muriel Miguel, Artistic Director & co-founder, Spiderwoman Theatre (Brooklyn, NY)
Naho Shioya (Seattle, WA)
Nandita Shenoy, AAPAC (New York, NY)
Nelson Eusebio (New York, NY)
Norma Medina (Tucson, AZ)
Ova Saopeng, TeAda Productions (Los Angeles, CA)
Patty Cachapero, Playwright, Actor, Bindlestiff Studio (Los Angeles, CA)
Pearl Sun (New York, NY)
Philip Kan Gotanda, Gotanda Art Plant (Berkeley, CA)
Princess Daazhraii Johnson (Fairbanks, AK)
Raksak Kongseng, Thai Theatre Foundation, Theatre Communications Group (Little Ferry, NJ)
Randy Kaplan, GENseng, Asian American Performance Ensemble, State University of NY at Geneseo, Department of Theatre and Dance Geneseo, NY)
Randy Reinholz, Professor SDSU, President National Theatre Conference, Founding Artistic Director Native Voices
Rafael Alcaraz, Lighting Designer/Professor, Head of Lighting and Associate Head of Design for UC Irvine
Raquel Almazan, La lucha arts (New York, NY)
Rebecca Wear, Director & Educator (CA)
Richard Perez (Holland, MI)
Roberta Uno, ArtChangeUS (Amherst, MA)
Ruthie Ann Miles (New York, NY)
Ryan McPhee (New York, NY)
SAM Greene, Unity Unitarian (Saint Paul, MN)
Samson Syharath, Theatre Diaspora (Portland, OR)
Sara Carminati, National Performance Network (New Orleans, LA)
Sarah J Shin, Asian American Theatre Artists of Boston (Brooklyn, NY)
Seema Sueko, Director & Consultant (Arlington, VA)
Sehba Sarwar, Writer, Artist (Los Angeles, CA)
Shaminda Amarakoon, Yale School of Drama (New Haven, CT)
Shannon R. Davis, Director (San Francisco, CA)
Shanta Thake, The Public Theater (Brooklyn, NY)
Sharifa Johka, Founder, Black Realities (Los Angeles, CA)
Sharifa Yasmin, Director & Playwright (Charleston, SC)
Sixto A. Wagan, Center for Art & Social Engagement (Houston, TX)
Skyler Ray Benson Davis, Actor (AK)
Soomi Kim, Actor & Theatre Maker (New York, NY)
Sulu LeoNimm (Brooklyn, NY)
Sunny Hitt (Brooklyn, NY)
Susan Lieu, Author, Performer, Playwright & Producer (Seattle, WA)
Tetsuro Shigematsu (Vancouver, BC)
Thom Sesma (New York, NY)
Timothy Huang (New York, NY)
Thelma Virata de Castro (San Diego, CA)
Tlaloc Rivas (Pittsburgh, PA)
Tony Aidan Vo, The Lobbyists Theater Collective (Brooklyn, NY)
Torange Yeghiazarian, Founding Artistic Director, Golden Thread Productions
Trin V. Ho (Houston, TX)
Valérie Thérèse Bart, Costume Designer, Design Action, Wingspace Theatrical Design, NO MORE 10 out of 12s (New York, NY)
Velina Hasu Houston (Los Angeles, CA)
Victor Malana Maog (Berkeley, CA)
Wai Yim, Token Theatre (Chicago, IL)
Will Dao, Actor (San Francisco, CA)
Yee Eun Nam (Los Angeles, CA)
Yura Sapi (Viviana Vargas Salvatierra), Advancing Arts Forward (New York, NY)