Nuances of Racial Bias in America: Making Art in Response to Anti-Asian Hate, Part Two

Please join Academic Director Beth Fisher-Yoshida, Ph.D., and Columbia's M.S. in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution program for a webinar exploring current issues and how tactics such as conflict analyses, restorative justice, and role-playing simulations can help to resolve them.

Please join us for part two of our webinar discussion on the role of art in starting conversations on racial bias in America. In the first webinar, we heard personal accounts from four Asian-American artists reflecting their experience of making work in a racially fraught time. Art-making and storytelling are vital to the visibility of marginalized communities, as a way to counteract erasure, dehumanization, and to have more nuanced conversations about race. We have invited the panel of speakers back for a second round of discussion and extended Q&A. You can view a recording of the first event here.

Cindy Trinh is a photographer, visual journalist, organizer and activist who is passionate about social justice and human rights. Her work focuses on identity, culture, racial justice, immigration, activism and social justice. Cindy is the creator of Activist NYC, a documentary photo project about activism and social justice movements in New York City. Cindy also organizes a performance art event series titled "Be the Cure" showcasing various artists, singers, musicians, comedians, poets, dancers and storytellers to fundraise for different social justice causes. (cindytrinh.com)

Yao Xiao is a cartoonist and illustrator living in New York. After graduation with a degree in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts, Yao documented her experiences as a queer immigrant in and developed a series of comics incorporating illustration and writing. As an illustrator, her work has been featured in TIME Magazine, Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly, National Geographic, and the Wall Street Journal among others. Her debut graphic novel, Everything Is Beautiful, And I’m Not Afraid was published by Andrews McMeel in 2020. (yao.nyc)

John Lee is an artist, illustrator, and educator from Memphis, TN living and working in New York City. He received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute, MFA from SVA’s Illustration as Visual Essay program, and currently teaches design and illustration at Queens College in Queens, NY. His work blends reportage location drawing with family histories and mythologies. (johnleedraws.com)

Connie Sun (aka cartoonconnie) is a NYC-based cartoonist and writer. She has been creating slice-of-life webcomics for a decade, exploring inner life, emotions, and mental health wellness through her art. Her cartoons have been featured in The New Yorker's Daily Shouts, GoComics, McSweeney's, NPR, Buzzfeed, and Upworthy. In her previous career, she worked in higher education program management for NECR, through which she came to know wonderful people and make lifelong friends. (cartoonconnie.com)