Just got word that Shattered (the second volume of the Secret Identities anthology series) is hitting the road. The creators have put together a mobile workshop in conjunction with the Marvels & Monsters exhibit on Asian Americans in comics that opened in the Museum of Chinese in American museum in NYC last month.
From the press release:
Now, the SI UNIVERSE team is preparing to go on the road with a unique interactive, multimedia program designed to bring the historical context and sociological consequences of these stereotypes to life — incorporating both the ideas and stories of SHATTERED and the rich artifacts of its thematic companion, the acclaimed museum exhibition “MARVELS & MONSTERS: Unmasking the Asian Image in U.S. Comics, 1942-1986,” curated by SHATTERED editor-in-chief Jeff Yang.
“SHATTERED and MARVELS & MONSTERS evolved side by side, and share a common structure —they both explore a set of pervasive archetypes that have shaped how America has seen Asians for the past 200 years,” says Yang. “MARVELS & MONSTERS shows how these images have been internalized in American popular culture — and SHATTERED brings together some of Asian America’s most talented and celebrated creators to reinvent and subvert those images. This tour is our way of bringing the two together, and getting them in front of as many people as possible.”
SHATTERED Tour programming includes one or more of the following:
- A live multimedia presentation by SI UNIVERSE’s creators, featuring images, video, and audio;
- An interactive “Build a Hero/Villain” workshop, in which SI UNIVERSE artists and editors work with the audience in real time to develop and draw an original superhero or arch-villain that reflects a complex, nuanced, and authentic cultural identity;
- Kiosk installations that showcase the history, cultural context, and comic book depiction of the five pop-culture archetypes addressed in SHATTERED: the stoic Brute (coolies, gangsters, henchmen, and martial artists); the cerebral Brain (mad scientists, ancient wise men, maladroit nerds, and overachieving whiz kids); the exotic Temptress (the sensual femme fatale of a thousand faces); the inscrutable Alien (the eternal foreigner, utterly incomprehensible, totally unassimilable); and the devious Manipulator (puppet master and conspirator who seeks to control and conquer from the shadows); and
- Guided breakout sessions that allow deeper sharing and discussion of the personal impact of stereotypes on participants’ real lives.
The SI UNIVERSE team is currently in discussions to bring the tour to schools and community groups in a series of major U.S. cities including, but not limited to Boston, Chicago, New York, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington D.C. If your school, museum or other institution is interested in hosting the tour, please visit the official website and fill out the form located at http://secretidentities.org/Site/The_Tour.html, or contact Keith Chow, SI Universe Outreach Director, at keith [@] secretidentities [dot] org.
Spread the word if you want in!
