Event Details
As Ocean People: Symposium, Screenings, and Performance brings together artists and scholars of various diasporic Asian Pacific Islander identities whose work and scholarship examine the legacies of U.S. militarization and war, forms of Indigenous resistance, and environmentalism in and around the Pacific. Featuring panel discussions, screenings, soundscapes and performances, this gathering will provide a generative and discursive space for the sharing of ideas, research methodologies, theoretical frameworks, cultural worldviews, practices, and histories. Participants include Crystal Z Campbell, Tony Cho, Sean Connelly, Mariquita “Micki” Davis, Alfred Peredo Flores, Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi, Madeleine Han, Sohl Lee, Jane Kin Kaisen, Leora Kava, Sung Hwan Kim, jas lin and hearthealer, Maria Maea, Tuan Andrew Nguyen and others.
The symposium is organized by GYOPO and is thematically tied to Flesh Witness, on view in the REDCAT gallery from September 12-December 13, 2026.
The title of the symposium, As Ocean People comes from a text written by Paul Tavo, which is referenced in the Anaïs Maurer’s The Ocean on Fire: Pacific Stories from Nuclear Survivors and Climate Activists, 2024. Photo: Courtesy of Sean Connelly. Still from Pohakuloa, karaoke video (2024).
ASL Interpretation will be provided upon request. Please contact REDCAT’s Front of House Manager at hmredcat@calarts.edu.
SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24
1:00 PM
Welcome remarks by GYOPO
1:15 PM
Guided somatic activity with jas lin
1:30 PM - 2:45 PM
Mapping Militarism and Ways of Knowing: A Conversation with Sean Connelly and Mariquita “Micki” Davis moderated by Leora Kava
2:45 PM - 3:00 PM
Intermission (soundscape by hearthealer)
3:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Screenings: Crystal Z Campbell, Makahiya, 2024 (10:49); Sean Connelly, Pohakuloa, karaoke video, 2024 (02:56); Tuan Andrew Nguyen, The Sounds of Cannons Familiar Like Sad Refrains, 2021 (09:42)
3:30 PM - 4:45 PM
Public Secrets: Testimony, Refuge and Resettlement: A Conversation with Crystal Z Campbell, Evyn Le Espiritu Gandhi, and sárah sao mai habib, moderated by Alfred P. Flores
4:45 PM - 6:00 PM
Reception