ZAPI Artists 2020 Year in Review
from the ZAPI Team, introduction by Heesun Hwang
Last June, ZAPI Artists was created by my colleagues (and close friends) Cindy Tsai, Sofia Khwaja and I. As young, Generation Z Asian-Americans, we were horrified by the deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbury, and the overall continuing loss of Black lives in our country. Like many others, we felt an absolute responsibility to encourage dialogue and create change within ourselves and, specifically, the Asian/Pacific Islander communities we were a part of. We believed that there was a newer sense of urgency to check our blindspots as non-Black POC, and wanted to help others like us realize the areas in their lives where they could work on in order to better fight against racial injustice and white supremacy.
So, we made ZAPI Artists.
After many, many phone calls, Cindy, Sofia and I thought up a name, wrote a mission, collected some credible resources and introduced our organization to the world the best way we could, through Instagram.
Our working mission is to lift Asian/Pacific Islander voices, take accountability for our blind spots, and create safe spaces for Asian/Pacific Islander Artists to function, without limitations. Please know that this mission is fluid and changes as our world calls for a balance between empowerment and accountability.
With everything set in motion, on June 29th we released our first educational post on “whataboutism” & anti-Blackness in the Asian community. Since then, we have garnered over 3.8k followers, with posts reaching 13.7k people across and beyond our American borders. We’ve interviewed Broadway artists, up and coming rappers, created original series on topics like API Allyship & Colorism and have shared pieces of writing we’ve found pretty rad.
We also had our first (of soon to be many!) live event. THIS IS THE HOUR: Under Our Own Pen took place in December and was produced by our co-founder and EIC, Cindy Tsai. Featuring the creations and talent of over forty Asian/Pacific Islander artists, we were able to not only celebrate Asian/Pacific Islander musical theatre, but also donate the $2,204 we received to all those who collaborated in making the production happen as well as in supporting the Asian American Advocacy Fund and the Black Trans Travel Fund. (Missed the cabaret? You can relive all of the incredible performances on our IGTV and Youtube.)
As we’ve witnessed in 2020, social media has become a prominent social justice platform to share resources, knowledge, and hold space in with people almost everywhere. We began our organization with three members, and over the course of last year, we’ve been able to add another three to our team. Jay, Lianah, and Sam have been wonderfully warm and hardworking members that we are so grateful to add to the ZAPI family. We are excited to see what they continue to contribute to our organization and community.
And we want to extend a huge thank you to all of those who have continued supporting us, through all our shortcomings and shining moments. We’re not perfect, we have made mistakes and will continue to do so. However, it is our intention that our team grows more equipped as we head into the new year, and that we continue creating work that encourages important dialogue and the act of learning, un-learning, and re-learning. We hope that you’re there alongside us as we dive further into this journey that we’ve been on for the past seven months.
Thank you again, and happy new year!
Christine Heesun Hwang
“My desire to join ZAPI grew from the desire to make “the productive” less challenging.”
LIANAH
Looking back and trying to piece together the irregularities of this past year has been quite the surreal experience. Nothing seems real, and often it feels as though we’ve entered some alternate timeline where the nonsensical is norm. Yet at the same time, the initially inconceivable day-to-day now feels routine; “the grind” has somehow shifted to include the “new normal”..
..the past couple of months have been transformative — both personally, and at a larger scale, societally. My desire to join ZAPI grew from the desire to make “the productive” less challenging (and, being a fan of the account already, I could tell they were trying to do just that). I had always admired ZAPI Artists from afar, and I was so excited to learn they were looking to expand their team. I am very grateful to now be able to say this is a team I get to be part of. I am so proud of the work that has been done prior to and since joining, and I am thrilled I get to contribute to the work we’ve yet to do.
As a team from primarily theatrical backgrounds, we’ve certainly made our presence known in the theater industry. Moving forward, I would love to continue expanding to uplift API artists in other creative fields. I believe we should continue to continue to engage with our audience and compel our community to think critically about the political nature of art. ZAPI Artists as an organization is, of course, an institutional body (a term which certainly gives rise to a fair amount of hesitation and comes with certain power dynamics that I’d like to work against replicating); however, as a team, we’re really just a couple Gen Zers who are as much a bunch of learners as our audience is. We don’t stray from this fact. Remaining transparent about this is crucial to continue working towards curating as productive a platform as possible, where it feels safe to learn from ourselves and each other, where our ZAPI Artists community is as inclusive as it sets out to be.
“The key to solidarity is actively putting into practice that there is space for everyone.”
CINDY
As Asian/Pacific Islander humans, we are constantly faced with the active balancing of allyship and empowerment. Our upbringings and cultures uphold many oppressive structures, and as Generation Z, we have the privilege of combating these issues head-on and challenging the systems we function in. The creation of ZAPI Artists is to cultivate a space for our API community to exist in our artistry without limitations while also clocking and taking accountability for our blindspots. We aim to continue holding space for other marginalized groups and practicing allyship for our fellow BIPOC communities, as we are constantly reminded that no one is free until everyone is free.
I have learned a great deal working with ZAPI as a co-founder and editor in chief. Because hours of researching and writing go into each post, curating content for ZAPI Artists is deeply rewarding. I continue to learn about different topics everyday, as well debunking what I thought I knew about certain topics. The constant questioning of normalized systems and openness to decolonization and abolition gives me hope that the Gen Z Asian/Pacific Islander community has the capability to change the game in every artistic industry.
My biggest takeaway from 2020 is to debunk scarcity and uplift abundance. The key to solidarity is actively putting into practice that there is space for everyone. White supremacy upholds scarcity and tokenism. Starting off 2021, I encourage our ZAPI Artists community to live in abundance.
“I spent a lot of this year learning what true silence is and understanding how to quiet my heart and voice with purpose.”
SOFIA
When the world stopped in 2020, I desperately wanted to be productive. I wanted to come out of quarantine having written or done something of great artistic importance and merit but the reality is that I couldn’t. So I didn’t. I just sat and listened and watched and did nothing — for the first time as a young artist since moving to New York City. I spent a lot of this year learning what true silence is and understanding how to quiet my heart and voice with purpose. Yet, it was in fact this nothingness that allowed me the space to refuel and recenter myself as a human and artist. Had I not done this, I’m not sure I would’ve been able to help create what ZAPI Artists is today.
As a co-founder of ZAPI Artists it has been incredibly rewarding to watch ZAPI grow throughout 2020. I am grateful to have helped to cultivate a space where I can hold myself accountable for my allyship to other BIPOC comunities while also finding healing and strength through speaking on the marginalization and oppression faced by my own communtiy. This has proved to me that abundance is possible — we can be listening and learning while also speaking out.
Thinking over all of the posts from 2020, I’d have to say that my favorite would be “Brown Asian’s Exist” and “Crazy Poor Asians”. The issues discussed in both of these posts involve topics which are heavily ignored or left out of conversations for the API community. Particularly for myself as a Brown Asian who grew up very low income, being able to give light to these topics was cathartic to say the least.
Looking forward into 2021, I am excited to see ZAPI continue to expand. My wish for this year is that our team continues to grow and that we keep pushing the limit to what the game can look like for the API community and other BIPOC in creative industries. This year is the time to reject fear — of speaking up, taking and using space, and telling the stories that are true to us.
“..every day that passes without purposeful advancement towards racial equality is damaging to the movement and individuals involved.”
SAM
With no shortage of alone time, this year brought us all time for difficult reflection, personal development, and reevaluation. The murder of George Floyd and amplification of Black Lives Matter in June turned the entire world towards a truth that those disenfranchised by society already knew to be true: every day that passes without purposeful advancement towards racial equality is damaging to the movement and individuals involved.
Social media terrifies me, as it does many. It was only this summer, after the function of Instagram changed for most Gen Zers, that I began to see how my personal work as an activist could function on an online platform.
Working with these artists has reintroduced me to the importance of pushing critical questions to their limit when researching examining power systems. Being in constant communication with each other in order to do this work means I’m always reminded both of the how inspiring it is that fellow young artists are persistent in creating during this pandemic, and how it is natural, appropriate, and essential that we all continue to listen to our individual needs as we stay persistent with our work.
Moving into the new year, I hope we can become more intentional about reaching an artistic audience beyond the theatre community, and continue to take advantage of our social distanced situation to create a collaborative API network, as was done with This is the Hour, ZAPI’s first production. I was incredibly inspired by watching how passionately Cindy was working to produce ZAPI’s the event, and hope that in the coming year we can continue to search for innovative ways to showcase API creatives and their work. I also look forward to further examining my privilege as a biracial Chinese American alongside the API community, particularly as a theatre maker attending university.
Once we’re back in those “precedented times” I’ve nearly forgotten about, I hope that ZAPI Artists grows into its potential for an in-person collective as our six existing members begin to make (even bigger) strides in their respective industries.
