50 volunteers + 900 participants + 3 days = lots of fun!
ECAASU stands for East Coast Asian-American Students Union, a conference that was founded at Yale in 1977 to encourage activism and promote dialogue between all participants, not just Asian-Ameicans students. ECAASU returned to Yale for the 30th anniversary, so it was a great chance to get involved in this bit of history. Being a volunteer (and still going to class Thursday/Friday =P), I didn't get to participate in everything, but here's a sampling...
Friday night: LiNK Dance-off & Divided We Fall screening
First major event was the dance-off with teams from Rutgers, Columbia, Northeastern, and Mt. Holyoke as well as Yale's Rhythmic Blue and Jashan bhangra team. Check out Jashan's winning entry!
Valarie Kuar began Divided We Fall as a Harvard student, documenting the wave of violence against Sikhs after 9/11 because they fit the projected image of terrorists: dark skin, beards, and turbans. I especially remember about a month after 9/11, a Sikh man published a letter in the local newspaper explaining how he wore a turban for religious reasons but that it was a completely difference religion from Islam. At that point I didn't know any Sikhs in person (my Indian friends were all Hindu) but it was still really disturbing that people had found completely innocent scapegoats to blame and punish.
Divided We Fall screening in SSS 114Saturday morning/afternoon: Breakfast & Workshops
Saturday morning we provided a continental breakfast for the delegates...the juices were half-frozen, we ran out of cream cheese and bananas, but overall we (thankfully) had enough food =P At one point the line stretched all the way around Dwight Hall, which had us worried but it turned out ok. Saturday afternoon we had a bunch of workshops with topics ranging from the fashion industry and filmmaking to LGBT issues and Asian-interest Greek Life.
The breakfast crew =P
Psychology professor Marvin Chun speaking about stereotypes
Saturday night: APA Rhythms concert & Afterparty at Alchemy!
We had a huge concert in Woolsey Hall featuring spoken word performer Giles Li, Filipino dance group Kinding Sindaw, R&B singer Vudoo Soul, and rapper Jin. For me, it was especially interesting to see how Filipino dance was so similar yet so distinct from Chinese dance, using similar props but with very different movements.
Giles Li
Kinding Sindaw
After the concert was an afterparty at Alchemy - no photos because I didn't want to risk my camera in the craziness, but it was a lot of fun =D
Sunday was pretty quiet by comparison, but I still got to see Master K and the Silliwops at the Valentine's Day musical brunch!
Time to go study for my upcoming physics exam *sigh*
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