Lead artist Leland Wong collaborated with Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach’s Youth Council to create a series of screen prints that explore the impact of violence on the Asian American community. The finished work, was presented at Manilatown Heritage Foundation in November 2014.
A life-long San Franciscan, Leland Wong’s work, examining Asian American culture and politics, has been exhibited nationally and is held in numerous museum collections. His iconic posters have contributed to the Asian American movement since the 1970s. Screen printing, was first developed in China between 200 and 1000 AD. It produces strong colors and is a relatively flexible and low-cost medium. For these reasons, it was embraced by the Civil Rights movement and used for many posters.
For this campaign, Wong and the Youth Council shared their opinions and insights about violence in Asian American community, deciding together on images to be used. Through two cycles of workshops, the artist and youth will produce prints to be exhibited.
The collaborating organization, Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach, founded in 1975 as Nihonmaci Legal Outreach, provides culturally and linguistically appropriate legal representation and advice; legal training and technical support; and community education and outreach in such areas as immigration, human trafficking, domestic violence/family law, and elder abuse.