Individual Asian American Performances
Even when not part of an organization or student group, Asian American students have found ways to perform their experiences individually. We highlight some performance art forms here such as spoken word, theatre, and filmmaking, but there is no doubt that there are several other performing mediums that Asian American students have used to be their voices.
Content Statement: The following content presented in this exhibit contains topics of sexual assault, generational trauma, and harmful statements toward both women and Asians/Asian American. Take care before browsing.
Spoken Word
The Asian American spoken word scene has been noted by Dartmouth Asian American students since 2001 when the emerging scene was documented in Main Street by Joyce Lee '01. That article interviewed Filipino spoken word duo Kontrast (made up of Chaz McHale and Alex Reyes) who illuminated that this rise in spoken word performances as platforms for Asian American artists are because of the medium's "Agency and Cultural Legacy". This national rise of artistic expression subsequently made its way onto Dartmouth campus and many individuals would put on spoken word performances in Asian affinity group programs such as Culture Nights and various festivals—a form of expression still used today.
The Dartmouth Soul Scribes were a group of largely BIPOC students in Fall 2005 that began to use spoken word poetry as their voice. This group performed in One Wheelock, Greek Houses, and even took their talents to intercollegiate spoken word competitions and performances. Members of Soul Scribes discussed issues of race, identity, and sexual assault, in a style akin to ‘slam poetry.’
Soul Scribes member Shivani Bhatia ‘13 gave spoken word performances specifically on feminism and sexual assault issues. Within Soul Scribes, Bhatia found a space to engage with her experience as a Brown/Desi/POC woman despite the lack of specific language to communicate it (in the contemporary sense). Bhatia would later perform her spoken word pieces for other events such as the Pan Asian Council dinners.
Student-Written Plays
Since the days of Far Off Broadway, Asian American students legacy in theatre have not waned. Although Far Off Broadway disbanded around 2005, many individual Asian American students have used resources in the theatre department or in other communities to continue writing and producing plays. These plays were their creative outlet to showcase the pride and struggle associated with their being Asian American. The continuing use of theatre for Asian American students at Dartmouth, despite internal struggles within the theatrical sphere shows their resilience and driving desire to keep telling their stories that are worth spotlighting.
Naomi Lam '21 is one of the many Asian American students who produced works surrounding her identity. Her first work All the Racists I Loved Before center the many racial incidents she witnessed and faced while growing up - and uncovering how she repressed these incidents over the years because of her upbringing. She then wrote her second play Spaceship '99 won Frost/Dodd Student Play Competetion. She deliberately included a character by name Dr. Lu - and when casting for the production, had to fight for an Asian American women to play the character.
Lam's senior thesis was the play Family Style, a play about the intergenerational tensions surrounding relationship to whiteness and biraciality. Very loosely based on her own family's story, it was difficult for her to maintain the fictionality while also preserving its authenticity in the writing process. It grappled with themes such as the pervasive white gaze and racial repression, themes that made Lam worry if her audience would understand - but finally concluding that their understanding did not matter in evaluating the play's integrity. The production was directed by former Dartmouth student Sagan Chen '14, another Asian American theatre artist and film maker. Chen has their own line of work that features Asian American topics, such as the Sideways Smile web series.
We highlight Naomi Lam's and Sagan Chen's work here, but as said before, there have been tons of Asian American students who produced similar work whether in a student group such as Far Off Broadway or individually like Lam did through the Dartmouth Theatre Department.