8:00-10:00
NATWA Night Jen Shyu Performing for NATWA II
Born and raised in Peoria, Illinois, from immigrant parents of East Timor
and Taiwan, Jen Shyu is a musician, dancer, composer, and band leader living
in New York City. She also records and tours with saxophonist Steve Coleman
and Five Elements (www.m-base.com), since appearing on his latest albums
Lucidarium (Label Bleu 2005) and Weaving Symbolics (Label Bleu 2006). Having
studied dance from age 6, piano from age 7, and violin from age 8, she
performed as piano soloist at age 13 the Finale of Tchaikovskys Piano Concerto
No. 1 with the Peoria Symphony Orchestra and placed 6th at age 9 at the
Stravinsky International Piano Competition. Jen studied opera at Stanford
University (B.A. 2000), Oxford University in England, the Mozarteum in
Salzburg, Austria, and the Lake Placid Institute in New York. During her
three years living in the Bay Area, Jen worked extensively with Asian Improv
and Bay Area artists such as Francis Wong and Jon Jang. During this time,
she also produced her debut album For Now (4am Music-www.jenshyu.com) and
was also a 2002-2003 recipient of the California Arts Council Next Generation
grant. Since 2001, Jen has traveled twice to Taiwan to research Taiwanese
folk and aboriginal music, to Cuba both to study Afro-Cuban music and dance
and to investigate the history of the Chinese-Cubans, and to Brazil to
study dance with Rosangela Silvestre and Vera Passos. Having worked with
the late poet Sekou Sundiata on his "51st Dream State" which previewed at Aaron Davis Hall for APAP in January of 2006, Jen is currently fostering her projects "Origins" and "Jade Tongue" as well as composing for and performing with actress/performance artist Soomi Kim on her piece "Lee/gendary" inspired by Bruce Lee. She recently won a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council and received a Jerome Foundation “Roulette Emerging Artist Commission.”
(more: www.jenshyu.com, www.myspace.com/jenshyu)
10:00-
NATWA II Night Out
Saturday (April 19)
9:00-11:30
NATWA II field trip -
LA Downtown Cultural Walking Tour ($5 donation) to the LA Conservatory
12:00-1:30
With Freddy Lim, Singer and Founder of Chthonic Band (the Taiwanese
heavy metal band that performed at Ozzyfest in 2007)
2:00-4:30
NATWA II: Balancing Act: Women Juggling between work, family, life,
and Taiwanese community!
4:30-6:00
NATWA II: Film Screening by TA/C Women filmmakers
Stephanie Yang's "both/and" Stephanie Yang is a mixed-race, Taiwanese/European American queer
artist living in the Bay Area. She manipulates words, images and
stories to encourage dialogue about human rights and social justice
issues. Pulling from her experience of being bi-cultural, much of her
work focuses on the amorphous lines between race, identity and self in
personal and intimate settings. She is a writer, a collage artist, and
filmmaker.
Karen Lin's short video "Bystanding: The Beginning of an American
Life." Award winning director of the short film PERFECTION starring actress Ming-Na
(ER, Joy Luck Club), KAREN LIN has been working in Hollywood for over a decade.
After graduating with a Masters in Public Policy from UC Berkeley, she headed
straight to Hollywood to pursue her dreams of directing. She began her career
working as an assistant to such notables as actor Nicolas Cage (Face/Off, City
of Angels), and director Roger Donaldson (Thirteen Days). Five years ago she
made the leap into music videos and is currently a freelance music video producer
for companies like Black Dog Films/RSA Films and Alchemy Pictures. Her feature
film debut “Love Tour” is in development and slated to begin shooting
Spring 2009. Karen's personal goal is to bring more Asian American faces to the
silver screen.
6:00-7:30
Dinner
7:30-10:00
Award and recognition
Los Angeles Night
10:00-
NATWA II Night Out
Sunday (April 20)
7:00-8:30 Breakfast
9:00-11:30
NATWA II Presents: "Taiwanese American/Canadian Women: Our Voices for Human Rights" Moderator: Yvonne Hsu, Community Service Chair, Taiwanese American Professionals
Women: Chun-Yen Chen, Asian Pacific Women's Center
Chun-Yen
H. Chen is first generation of Taiwanese American immigrant and
she graduated with a Bachelor of Law degree with major in Political
Science from National Taiwan University. She received her Master's
of Public Administration degree and is a Doctoral Candidate in
Policy Analysis at the State University of New York at Albany,
The Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy.
She has been the Executive Director of the Asian Pacific Women's
Center (APWC) since 2001. APWC is a non-profit organization dedicated
to providing a safe haven and support services for women and children
who are survivors of domestic violence.
As a first generation of Taiwanese American immigrant herself, Chun-Yen knows
first-hand the many challenges of navigating a new system. As an
energetic, community-oriented individual, in furtherance of her
efforts to outreach to the community and to serve as a role model,
Chun-Yen is a frequent seminar speaker, workshop trainer, and radio
and television talk show guest on domestic violence and other various
women's issues in both English and Mandarin Chinese.
Immigration: Chia-Chia Wang, American Friends Service Committee
Chia-Chia Wang is the Civic Participation Coordinator for American Friends Service Committee Immigrant Rights Program. As the Civic Participation Coordinator, she helps to build capacity of grassroots groups and increase civic participation of immigrants through sharing policy information, promoting leadership development and increasing dialogues and collaborations among groups. Prior to coming to AFSC Immigrant Rights Program, Chia-Chia worked on health care access and public benefits for low-income children and families in New York for four years. She also worked and lived in San Francisco for a year after graduate school. She has M.A. degree in International Relations.
Chia-Chia was born and raised in Taiwan.
Workplace: Betty Hung, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
Betty Hung is a part-time fellow at the Inner City Law Center (ICLC), researching the linkages between urban poverty, public policy, and low-wage work among the 5,000 predominantly immigrant taxi workers in Los Angeles. She has a joint position at ICLC and the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) where she headed the Employment Law Unit for four years. Prior to joining LAFLA in 2004, Betty served as a staff attorney/echoing green fellow at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, where she was part of the legal team that litigated the El Monte Thai and Latino garment worker case. She also worked as a community organizer with Cambodian high school girls in Long Beach, CA and as a litigation associate at the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers LLP where she initiated several diversity efforts. Betty serves on the boards of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, Fund for a New Los Angeles of the Liberty Hill Foundation, and Worksafe, and is a former board chair of the Sexual Assault Crisis Agency. Betty is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School.
LGBT: TBD
Youth & Health: Jen Kuo, Orange County Asian Pacific Islander Community
Alliance
Jennifer
Kuo majored in Asian American Studies from UCLA. She is a Program
Coordinator at the Orange County Asian and Pacific
Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA). Currently, she works on
their youth and internship programs and in the past on their voting
rights project. Her past work also includes her being an intern
for Great Leap, a multicultural performing arts group through the
UCLA Asian Pacific American Leadership Development Program (APALDP),
as well as the A&E editor for UCLA’s API newsmagazine Pacific Ties
and served as an afterschool tutor for OC Department of Education’s
Alternative, Community, & Correctional Education Schools & Services
(ACCESS) program. She’s
also worked with Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc.
(LEAP) as one of the Building Community through Leadership (BCL)
coordinators. In addition she was the former member and president
of the APA media watchdog group Media Action Network for Asian
Americans (MANAA). She also served as the past West Coast program
director for the Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association
(ITASA). Currently, she is one of the national vice presidents
of Taiwanese American Citizens League (TACL) and a member of North
America Taiwanese Women's Association II (NATWAII). To contact
Jennifer, please email jkuo@ocapica.org.
11:30-11:50
Closing ceremony
Special thanks to Annie Chen, Jean Cheng, Yi-Miao Huang, Jen Kuo, Karen Lee, Nancy Lin and Alvina Ling for their input in designing this year's convention program.
Stephanie Yang is a mixed-race, Taiwanese/European American queer
artist living in the Bay Area. She manipulates words, images and
stories to encourage dialogue about human rights and social justice
issues. Pulling from her experience of being bi-cultural, much of her
work focuses on the amorphous lines between race, identity and self in
personal and intimate settings. She is a writer, a collage artist, and
filmmaker.
Award winning director of the short film PERFECTION starring actress Ming-Na
(ER, Joy Luck Club), KAREN LIN has been working in Hollywood for over a decade.
After graduating with a Masters in Public Policy from UC Berkeley, she headed
straight to Hollywood to pursue her dreams of directing. She began her career
working as an assistant to such notables as actor Nicolas Cage (Face/Off, City
of Angels), and director Roger Donaldson (Thirteen Days). Five years ago she
made the leap into music videos and is currently a freelance music video producer
for companies like Black Dog Films/RSA Films and Alchemy Pictures. Her feature
film debut “Love Tour” is in development and slated to begin shooting
Spring 2009. Karen's personal goal is to bring more Asian American faces to the
silver screen. 
Chun-Yen
H. Chen is first generation of Taiwanese American immigrant and
she graduated with a Bachelor of Law degree with major in Political
Science from National Taiwan University. She received her Master's
of Public Administration degree and is a Doctoral Candidate in
Policy Analysis at the State University of New York at Albany,
The Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy.
She has been the Executive Director of the Asian Pacific Women's
Center (APWC) since 2001. APWC is a non-profit organization dedicated
to providing a safe haven and support services for women and children
who are survivors of domestic violence.
As a first generation of Taiwanese American immigrant herself, Chun-Yen knows
first-hand the many challenges of navigating a new system. As an
energetic, community-oriented individual, in furtherance of her
efforts to outreach to the community and to serve as a role model,
Chun-Yen is a frequent seminar speaker, workshop trainer, and radio
and television talk show guest on domestic violence and other various
women's issues in both English and Mandarin Chinese.
Chia-Chia Wang is the Civic Participation Coordinator for American Friends Service Committee Immigrant Rights Program. As the Civic Participation Coordinator, she helps to build capacity of grassroots groups and increase civic participation of immigrants through sharing policy information, promoting leadership development and increasing dialogues and collaborations among groups. Prior to coming to AFSC Immigrant Rights Program, Chia-Chia worked on health care access and public benefits for low-income children and families in New York for four years. She also worked and lived in San Francisco for a year after graduate school. She has M.A. degree in International Relations.
Chia-Chia was born and raised in Taiwan.
Betty Hung is a part-time fellow at the Inner City Law Center (ICLC), researching the linkages between urban poverty, public policy, and low-wage work among the 5,000 predominantly immigrant taxi workers in Los Angeles. She has a joint position at ICLC and the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) where she headed the Employment Law Unit for four years. Prior to joining LAFLA in 2004, Betty served as a staff attorney/echoing green fellow at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, where she was part of the legal team that litigated the El Monte Thai and Latino garment worker case. She also worked as a community organizer with Cambodian high school girls in Long Beach, CA and as a litigation associate at the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers LLP where she initiated several diversity efforts. Betty serves on the boards of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, Fund for a New Los Angeles of the Liberty Hill Foundation, and Worksafe, and is a former board chair of the Sexual Assault Crisis Agency. Betty is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School.
Jennifer
Kuo majored in Asian American Studies from UCLA. She is a Program
Coordinator at the Orange County Asian and Pacific
Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA). Currently, she works on
their youth and internship programs and in the past on their voting
rights project. Her past work also includes her being an intern
for Great Leap, a multicultural performing arts group through the
UCLA Asian Pacific American Leadership Development Program (APALDP),
as well as the A&E editor for UCLA’s API newsmagazine Pacific Ties
and served as an afterschool tutor for OC Department of Education’s
Alternative, Community, & Correctional Education Schools & Services
(ACCESS) program. She’s
also worked with Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc.
(LEAP) as one of the Building Community through Leadership (BCL)
coordinators. In addition she was the former member and president
of the APA media watchdog group Media Action Network for Asian
Americans (MANAA). She also served as the past West Coast program
director for the Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association
(ITASA). Currently, she is one of the national vice presidents
of Taiwanese American Citizens League (TACL) and a member of North
America Taiwanese Women's Association II (NATWAII). To contact
Jennifer, please email