Themes and Frameworks
Family History
Memory
- Public Memory and Our Passing World | Mellon FoundationWhat can robust and just public memory work do to empower us to preserve and remember what is being lost to a changing environment and to galvanize us to move forward with courage and a spirit of innovation for the world we are creating? Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander and artist and designer Maya Lin held a discussion that drew on the insights of American commemorative history and the Mellon Monuments Project, as they explored the power of the arts and public memory in a time of climate change.
- The Vietnam War: A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick (Films on Demand)The Vietnam War, an immersive ten-part, eighteen hour documentary film series directed by acclaimed filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, tells the epic story of one of the most divisive, consequential and misunderstood events in American history, as it has never before been told on film.
Vietnamese Diaspora
- Ocean Vuong 'Breaks Apart' The Immigrant Experience In His Debut Novel | HBO“On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,” by the award-winning Vietnamese-American poet and novelist Ocean Vuong, is already one of the best-reviewed novels of 2019. In this debut, a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama of sorts, Vuong beautifully tackles trauma, immigration, queerness and memory. He sits down with VICE to talk about the process of writing his first novel, the power of language, the social microcosm of the nail salon and why his mom won’t look at him when she goes to his readings.
- Asian Pacific American Coalition of CTAPAC is a non-profit organization founded in 2006 that provides services and education for and about the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in Connecticut. APAC is a non-partisan group of concerned citizens who are leaders in their respective Asian American and Pacific American communities volunteering their time and resources to work on behalf of Connecticut Asian Pacific Americans.
- The Progressive Vietnamese American OrganizationPIVOT's Mission is to engage and empower Vietnamese Americans for a just and diverse America.
Gender and Sexuality
- Queer and Trans Culture and History in ConnecticutConnecticut is known today as one of the most welcoming states for LGBT+ people, and has celebrated legal successes in response to decades of dedicated activism, which began focused political activism in the 1970’s.
Language and Storytelling
Voices from Far Away Lands: From Divergent to Convergent by Call Number: READ ONLINEPublication Date: 2019This collection of essays highlights the power of the story, especially as told by those living an international life. What compels them to share their experiences? What have they experienced? What have they learned? In this time of tensions across the globe, rapid technological change and extensive migration, there is compelling value in learning through storied experiences. This volume explores the concepts of identity, change, equality, ethics, citizenship, family, feminism, community, faiths and values, advocacy and charity, systems, and languages. These movements are contextualized through a storied approach, adopting social exchange theory, identity theory, and globalization and internationalization movements as frameworks.
Nail Salon Culture
The Managed Hand by Call Number: READ ONLINEPublication Date: 2010Two women, virtual strangers, sit hand-in-hand across a narrow table, both intent on the same thing-achieving the perfect manicure. Encounters like this occur thousands of times across the United States in nail salons increasingly owned and operated by Asian immigrants. This study looks closely for the first time at these intimate encounters, focusing on New York City, where such nail salons have become ubiquitous. Drawing from rich and compelling interviews, Miliann Kang takes us inside the nail industry, asking such questions as: Why have nail salons become so popular? Why do so many Asian women, and Korean women in particular, provide these services? Kang discovers multiple motivations for the manicure-from the pampering of white middle class women to the artistic self-expression of working class African American women to the mass consumption of body-related services. Contrary to notions of beauty service establishments as spaces for building community among women, The Managed Hand finds that while tentative and fragile solidarities can emerge across the manicure table, they generally give way to even more powerful divisions of race, class, and immigration.
