Executive Director's Corner
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May has been a busy month! It’s Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, so, in addition to our own programming, I’ve been attending a lot of events all over town celebrating our heritage! It’s always exciting to meet up with old friends and make new acquaintances. Check out the rest of the newsletter for highlights!
The month started out with the AAPI Heritage Month Kickoff, which our President Soo Lon Moy attended on behalf of the Museum. I was featured on NBC5 in anticipation of “Moving Dialogs: Culture in Motion,” a collaboration with Chicago Cultural Alliance, See Chicago Dance, and Valerie Alpert Dance Company. That was so much fun!
The crowning jewel was our 17
th
Benefit Dinner on May 19, which was very well-attended and raised more money than our initial goal, which means more quality programming for the future, so stayed tuned. By the way, if you are not on our mailing list, you should be. Go to our website and sign up so you don’t miss out!
While I start breathing again, I am already lining up future exhibitions and events. Even Memorial Day was not a day of rest, as it kicked off a week-long art exhibition by the Coalition for A Better Chinese American Community (CBCAC) ORIGIN Youth program titled “Crossing the River.” By the way, it ends Saturday, June 2, so come check it out before it’s over.
Sleep is so over-rated.
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Monthly Spotlight
Each month we feature a board member, staff member, or volunteer in our Monthly Spotlight segment. This month, we present staff member Clarissa Qu.
Clarissa Qu serves as the museum's receptionist. She also helps with Museum event marketing, including flyer design and newsletter. She earned her Master's degree in Marketing Analysis
from DePaul University in Chicago. She is originally from Beijing and has been living in Chicago for almost 3 years. She has learned a lot about non-profit marketing and has a brand new understanding of Chinese American history at the Museum, and she wants to help the Museum attract more people to know our stories.
We asked her about her favorite event at the Museum:
"We have lots of fun events. For now i would say the most recently event called "Moving Dialogs." I think the dancing was amazing and powerful, but at the same time I was able to learn and shar some valuable insights with other people.
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Preserving History, Empowering the Next Generation
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On May 5th, United Chinese Americans (UCA) held a "Preserving History, Empowering the Next Generation" session at the Museum to introduce the audience to an interactive Chinese American heritage map project from Xiaoyan Zhang, PhD. Guest speaker Patti Waldmeir also discussed her experience as a White mother of two adopted Chinese daughters.
Click
here
for more pictures.
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Moving Dialogs: Culture in Motion
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In anticipation of the event, NBC5 Chicago
visited the Museum to interview Executive Director
Mabel Menard
about the second installation in the “Moving Dialogs: Culture in Motion” series on May 9.
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Thank you to Chicago Cultural Alliance, See Chicago Dance, and Valerie Alpert Dance Company for a wonderful evening of dance, which was inspired from the immigration stories of paper sons and conversation highlighting our heritage!
Click
here
for more pictures and watch the event
here
.
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Screening of "Finding Samuel Lowe: From Harlem to China"
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Thank you Paula Williams Madison for sharing the great story with us of three successful black siblings from Harlem discovering their heritage by searching for clues about their long-lost Chinese grandfather, Samuel Lowe.
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2018 17th CAMOC Fundraising Dinner: "Showcasing Chinese Heritage"
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Thank you all for coming to our 2018 Fundraising Dinner, and a huge thank you to donors, sponsors, performers, broad of directors, our best friends, volunteers, and staff who worked so hard to make it happen!
We would like to thank the following for sponsoring the dinner or donating items for our raffle drawing!
SILVER SPONSORS
Chinatown Parking Corporation
Golden Country Oriental Food, LLC
BRONZE SPONSOR
Nicor Gas
RAFFLE PRIZE SPONSORS
Swee Cheng
Grace Chun
Edward Jung
David K. Lee
Mabel Menard
Soo Lon Moy
Susan Ng
Mark Yee
Karen Zou
Chengdu Impression
Chicago Bears
Chicago Cubs
Chicago History Museum
Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Chicago White Sox
China Eastern Airlines
Chinatown Parking Corporation
Chinese American Museum of Chicago
Dao Sushi
Dinner Detective
Field Museum
Godfrey Hotel
Goodman Theater
Ken Kee Restaurant
Lagunitas Brewing Co.
Lao Sze Chuan
Maylan Skincare
Rodan+Fields
Serai Malaysian Restaurant
Tai Ho Yee Food Co.
The Spice House
Clic
k
here
for more pictures from the dinner!
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Screening of "Journey of a Paper Son"
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We had a wonderful discussion after the screening, and we even had a real Paper Son in the audience! W
e hope this is just the beginning of more films that tell our forgotten stories
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Crossing the River: Youth Art Showcase
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Memorial Day was the opening Day of “Crossing the River,” a Coalition for A Better Chinese American Community (CBCAC) ORIGIN Youth Group art exhibition and community building platform.Through the art and interactive programming, this exhibition explores immigration, family, and cultural heritage in attempts to build inter-generational community
.
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What does it mean to be Chinese in America?
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What does it mean to be Chinese in America? This question could be asked of any immigrant community. "Who are we" resonates across cultures and nations. The Chinese American Museum of Chicago would like to discuss these generational layers through the lens of several people from vastly different backgrounds.
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"What does it mean to be Chinese in America" is co-sponsored by the Global Asian Studies program at the University of Illinois at Chicago and co-hosted by Coalition for A Better Chinese American Community ORIGIN Youth Group.
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Discover the surprising history of some of Chinatown's most iconic buildings with a talk and tour co-presented by the Chinese-American Museum of Chicago and the Swedish American Museum on June 30, from 2pm to 4pm.
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On May 11, 2018, we said goodbye to Andrew Dickson, who did a great job in receptionist and translation. He has been studying Chinese for over 10 years and is deeply interested in Chinese culture. He has experience living in China both in Beijing and Kunming in Yunnan Province. In High School he participated in a year-long study abroad program in Beijing and returned to China during college with the Middlebury Kunming program. He first came to the museum to continue practicing his Chinese and learn more about the diverse history of Chinese immigration into Chicago's Chinatown.
We wish him all the best in his career and hope he will come back to visit us in the future!
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Other AAPI Events Around Town
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Mayor Rahm Emanuel 2018 AAPI Heritage Month Reception
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It’s Asian American & Pacific Islander Month, so President
Soo Lon Moy
and Executive Director
Mabel Menard
have been trying to attend as many events celebrating AAPI Heritage Month as possible! This is from the
Chicago Mayor's Office
Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Reception at
The Boarding House
.
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Hong Kong Club 2018 Annual Gala
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The Hong Kong Club of Chicago held its 2018 Annual Gala at Drury Lane. Of course we were there to help celebrate!
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Chinese American Service League 40th Anniversary Gala
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The Chinese American Service League is celebrating its 40th Anniversary, which kicked off with its gala at Morgan Manufacturing. It was very well-attended at a lovely venue.
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AAPI Heritage Month Community Leadership Awards
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We were invited to the AAPI Heritage Month Community Leadership Awards hosted by Cook County State's Attorney Kimberly M. Foxx. It's always fun to meet up with old friends.
Click
here for more photos.
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Our Mission
The mission of the Chinese American Museum of Chicago - Raymond B. & Jean T. Lee Center (CAMOC) is to promote the culture and history--through exhibitions, education, and research--of Chinese-Americans in the Midwest.
The museum building, formerly the Quong Yick Co., is located in Chicago's Chinatown, at 238 West 23rd Street in Chicago. The Museum opened to the public on May 21, 2005. After a devastating fire in September of 2008, the Museum was closed for renovation and reopened in 2010.
CAMOC is governed by the Board of Directors of the Chinatown Museum Foundation (CMF), a 501(C)(3) non-profit corporation located in Chicago, Illinois.
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