Our Statement of Solidarity with the AAPI Community
Since 2017, we have been working on a new musical, The Golden Spike, with Don Nguyen. It tells the story of a Chinese man working on the Transcontinental Railroad and his journey to reunite with his family. In our research for this piece, we have learned about all manner of brutalities perpetrated in this country against Asians and people of Asian descent. Whether or not racial aggression is a professed motive, history makes it impossible to see the murderous rampage in Atlanta as an isolated event. From lynchings to outright exclusion, people of Asian and Pacific descent have too often been the targets of this nation’s laws and hate. Politics fuel it. Fear fuels it. Ignorance fuels it. Nothing excuses it.
We look upon the actions in Atlanta in horror. And now, only days later, we are devastated by yet more gun violence in one of our core members’ hometowns of Boulder, CO. The past two weeks have hit very close to home.
The Lobbyists as a collective was originally formed by a group 2/3 of which are white men. We stand by our colleagues, friends, collaborators, artists, communities, and especially women of Asian and Pacific heritage and pledge to work to #stopasianhate and #stopasianviolence.
We recoil from the violence perpetrated against the vulnerable and marginalized. It sickens us. We recognize it as part of our responsibility as theater artists to not just repudiate these violent acts, but also to raise awareness and take action to create a better world where such acts are relegated to the past.
We recoil from the violence perpetrated against the vulnerable and marginalized. It sickens us. We recognize it as part of our responsibility as theater artists to not just repudiate these violent acts, but also to raise awareness and take action to create a better world where such acts are relegated to the past.
To our supporters, fans, and audiences with the means to do so, please consider donating to one of the following organizations:
AAPI Women Lead
Stop AAPI Hate
Museum of Chinese in America
Asian Americans Advancing Justice
The Colorado Healing Fund
Additionally, we would like to highlight some mental health services that are particularly focused towards the Asian American Pacific Islander community. If you or anyone you know is looking for mental health assistance, here are a few services that we recommend:
Asian American Psychological Association
National AAPI Mental Health Association
Asian Mental Health Collective
SAMHSA Hotline – 1-800-662-HELP (4357)
If you have time to learn more about the often untold history of violence and discrimination against Asian Americans in the United States, we recommend the following resources, which we came across in our research:
BOOKS:
Closing the Gate: Race, Politics, and the Chinese Exclusion Act
by Andrew Gyory
Ghosts of Gold Mountain
by Gordon H. Chang
(audiobook version narrated by our friend and colleague David Shih)
The Making of Asian America
by Erika Lee
ARTICLES AND FILMS:
Cover of Time Magazine this month
Birthright Citizenship: A History on the 14th Amendment
PBS Documentary about the History of Asian Americans in the United States
Watsonville, CA, 1930s Riots Against Filipino Farmers
The Japanese Internment Camps: February 19th, A Day of Remembrance
The Killing of Vincent Chin, June 19th, 1982
The LA Riots in Koreatown, 1992
The School-to-Prison-to-Deportation Pipeline in the Southeast Asian Refugee Community
In our first year of working on the piece, Tony brought this quote to our attention: “a great nation does not hide history.”
Read, learn, act, teach, join hands, love, stay strong.
