Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen a drastic increase in the number of recorded hate crimes directed towards those of Asian descent living in America. The latest wave of anti-Asian violence serves as a reminder to ourselves and to the silent majority: anti-Asian sentiment recurs in American history, and so easily does the silence of forbearance and resilience become something else:


“And so silence collects, becomes amplified, takes on a life outside our intentions, in that silence can get misread as indifference, or avoidance, or even shame, and eventually this silence passes over into forgetting.”

- Cathy Park Hong, Minor Feelings: An Asian-American Reckoning.

There is a presence and a weight to silence. And with a renewed desire to unpack and navigate the latent narratives within our collective memory as Asians and Asian Americans—Speaking into Being: Beyond Asian Silence intends to serve as a turning point and an archive of our current social context. It provides a space to reflect, a space to remember, and most importantly sets apart a space to share our stories with the hope of stimulating further discussion and engagement within the YSoA community and beyond.

Curation

Ariel Bintang
Ben Fann
Signe Ferguson
Chloe Hou
Gina Jiang
Faith Pang
Ethnie Xu

In Collaboration with

The Visibility Project Team
Sarah Kim
Iris You

Graphic Design

Betty Wang

Sponsors

Asian American Cultural Center
Council on SouthEast Asia Studies
Council on East Asia Studies
Yale School of Architecture