On Wednesday, August 29, at 6 p.m., the Exploratorium is hosting a conversation between visual artist Rene Yung and marine biologist Kathy Hieb on the presence, environmental significance, and history of shrimp and shrimping on the San Francisco Bay. The Event, “Heritage and Habitat,” will take place in the Exploratorium’s Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery.
In 2013, Rene Yung received a Creative Work Fund grant to collaborate with the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park on research and story collection about the Bay Area’s shrimp fishing history. Research methods including sailing the bay on the Grace Quan, a restored Chinese Junk, and docking at former shrimp camp sites. From this research, Yung created Written on Water, a transdisciplinary meditation on the intersecting displacements of people and habitat around the bay — the story of the erasure of historical Chinese immigrants’ shrimp fisheries and the loss of Bay edge-lands where shrimping took place. At the Exploratorium event, Yung will share findings from her research and recently created mixed-media books from the project. Storytellers James Der, Jack Soares, and Earlena Somera-Ramsey will recount shrimp fishing tales.
The evening’s other featured speaker, Kathy Hieb, is a marine biologist for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and an expert in marine invertebrates. She will present the biological story of the bay shrimp, discussing its distinctive lifecycle and distribution through the bay, and the environmental conditions that affect its abundance.
Admission to this conversation is free, but guests must inform the Exploratorium that they plan to attend by writing to: [email protected].