introduced by Christine Y. Kim and moderated by Kibum Kim

Co-presented with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Stop DiscriminAsian

At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, GYOPO partnered with Los Angeles County Museum of Art and StopDicsriminAsian to launch “Racism is a Public Health Issue,” a series of panel discussions with esteemed academics, artists, writers, and cultural workers about ongoing racial disparities in health outcomes. The first of the three-part series launched in May 2020 and addressed the racialization of COVID-19 and the history of racism and stereotype-driven myths that have silenced and cleaved Asian American communities. GYOPO used the second installment to discuss the media’s representation of Black deaths, inviting questions on how art can be used to address the harms of racism. The third and final conversation of the series focused on how essential workers confront inadequate safety measures without fair wages and other basic protections, bringing to focus the racial underpinnings of COVID-19’s impact on communities of color and critical ways to generate awareness and change.

Panelists included: Vice President for Narrative, Arts, and Culture at Race Forward Jeff Chang; writer Cathy Park Hong; San Francisco State Chair of Asian American Studies Russell Jeung; actor-comedian Bowen Yang; artist Anicka Yi; Eraka P. Bath, MD, Associate Professor and Vice Chair for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion for the Department of Psychiatry at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, UCLA; Ava DuVernay, Filmmaker and Founder, ARRAY; Darnell Hunt, Professor and Dean of Social Sciences, UCLA; artist Rashid Johnson; President and Founder, Dolores Huerta Foundation Dolores Huerta; artist Narsiso Martinez; Civic Engagement Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and Executive Director of Care in Action Jess Morales Rocketto; and Political Director for 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East Gabby Seay.

Programs were introduced by LACMA Curator of Contemporary Art and GYOPO co-founder Christine Y. Kim and moderated by Commonwealth & Council Partner Kibum Kim; LACMA Vice President of Education and Public Programs Naima J. Keith; and Director and Professor, UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Chon Noriega.