About

The need for communities to secure resources through political mobilization is viscerally urgent. Data shows Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are the least likely of all demographic groups to discuss politics in the household and encompass the lowest political participation of any racial group.

Political Inheritance is a visual arts exhibition and literary performance featuring womxn-identifying artists of Asian and Pacific Islander diasporic experiences with the goal of provoking reflection, conversation, and bridging about the inherited experiences—passed down within cultures and families—that shape AAPI’s relationships to U.S. political systems and U.S. political action.

Political Inheritance unearths and contextualizes the breadth of tensions, assumptions, joys, and traumas inherited in AAPI U.S. political participation or lack thereof, while catalyzing a dialogue that questions the perception of political identities.

Window Exhibition July - August 2021 at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center

Virtual Gallery Exhibition July - December 2021.

Curator

Lauren Ito (she/her)

Lauren Ito is an American Gosei poet, community craftswoman, and organizer committed to advancing equity through art and design. Lauren’s work explores how lineages transform our relationships with liberatory, resilient, and responsible futures for generations to come.

As an artist and organizer, Lauren delves into the tensions inherited within diasporic experiences, including explorations of American concentration camps, political agency, and home. Lauren’s work has been featured by The Seattle Times, Japanese American National Museum, Nomadic Press, and various performance venues, such as the Mission Arts Performance Project, BEAT Museum, and Lit Crawl San Francisco.

She is currently looking for collaborators for her next project, which explores intergenerational healing through community art. Lauren lives in San Francisco and can almost always be found by the sea.