Asian American Portraits of Encounter Between Image & Word

Saturday, April 14, 2012
11:15 AM to 5:00 PM
Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Eight and F Streets, NW, Washington, DC

Asian American art and literature offer a collective portrait of Asian American identity and culture, one that reflects on lived experience and its various textures.  The Asian American Portraits of Encounter: Between Image & Word symposium brings these critical efforts to light by staging encounters and conversations between acclaimed Asian American writers and the National Portrait Gallery’s groundbreaking exhibition “Portraiture Now: Asian American Portraits of Encounter.”  The Image & Word will feature original work that explores the themes and feelings raised by the exhibition.  Come hear readings by writers David Henry Hwang, Garrett Hongo, Bao Phi, Marianne Villanueva, Marie Myung-Ok Lee, Kazim Ali, and Anna Kazumi Stahl.  Curators from the National Portrait Gallery will give a guided tour of an exhibition that includes the work of artists CYJO, Hye Yeon Nam, Shizu Saldamando, Roger Shimomura, Satomi Shirai, Tam Tran, and Hong Chun Zhang.  The symposium and tour are both free and open to the public.

Edgar P. Richardson Symposium: Asian American Portraits of Encounter Between Image & Word is a joint project between the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program, The Asian American Literary Review, and the National Portrait Gallery.  The Edgar P. Richardson Symposium was established at the National Portrait Gallery with the generous support of Mr. Richardson’s longtime friend and fellow former National Portrait Gallery commissioner, Mr. Robert L. McNeil Jr.  Named in honor of Edgar P. Richardson (1902 – 1985), this symposium pays tribute to Mr. Richardson’s significant contribution as a scholar and National Portrait Gallery commissioner.
Edgar P. Richardson Symposium:
Asian American Portraits of Encounter Between Image & Word