Political Inheritance Portrait Series

Ethnic Identity/Identities: Chinese
Artifact: Jade Necklace

How does this artifact speak to your relationship with political action?

This jade necklace was gifted to me by my grandmother. It's a reminder of where I came from and why I do the work that I do.

Experience more of Eli’s work here.

Racial Identity: Asian-American
Ethnic Identities: 1/4 Japanese, 1/4 Scotts-Irish, 1/4 German 1/4 English
Artifact: Family Crest

How does this artifact speak to your relationship with political action?
A lot of memorabilia and stories are gone. It's hard to go find the stories on my own with all the possible relatives having passed on. There are a few artifacts spread across my family still alive today; a family sword, some ikebana vases, and some other things I can't recall off the top of my head. To me, this crest is one of the few things I, and my family have left, and see it as a guide to how to hold onto my culture in my future.

Experience more of Kai’s work here

Racial Identity/Identities: Arab, levantine, east Mediterranean
Ethnic Identity/Identities: Arab
Artifact: Abaya

How does this artifact speak to your relationship with political action?
The abaya when I wear it over my clothes, reminds me of my power and to be proud of where i come from, and speak my truth loud. the shape and the fabric on their own make a statement of power.

Racial Identity/Identities: Asian-American
Ethnic Identity/Identities: Chinese Muslim, Irish Catholic
Artifact: Self Portrait in Progress

How does this artifact speak to your relationship with political action?
we are the descendants of survivors. the arts and revolution are intimately linked. our music, stories and imagery reveal our past, celebrate our present, and envision our future. we discover each other and ourselves through our creations and culture. viewing these photographs, you are experiencing that right now.

Experience more of Leslie’s work here.

Racial Identity/Identities: American Japanese
Ethnic Identity/Identities: Asian American
Artifact: Tsuru for Solidarity Shirt

Racial Identity/Identities: Asian, Latinx, Indigenous
Ethnic Identity/Identities: Filipino & Puerto Rican
Artifact: Photo

How does this artifact speak to your relationship with political action?
Uncovering and preserving the photos and stories of the strong matriarchs in my family has deepened my sense of cultural inheritance in my personal life.

Racial Identity/Identities: Mixed race
Ethnic Identity/Identities: Tongan, Hawaiian, Mexican

Racial Identity/Identities: Mixed race
Ethnic Identity/Identities: Tongan, Hawaiian,
Mexican

Racial Identity/Identities: Mixed race
Ethnic Identity/Identities: Tongan, Hawaiian,
Mexican

Racial Identity/Identities: Southeast Asian
Ethnic Identity/Identities: Thai
Artifact: Jacket Worn to Walk Against Rape in San Francisco

How does this artifact speak to your relationship with political action?
There have been moments when I questioned if I was just yelling my experience as a survivor into a void. Whether we our boastful about our resilience or screaming in anguish, one of the ways people try to silence the experiences of survivors of sexualized violence is by saying things like “she’s just looking for attention”. Instead of allowing that to keep me quiet, I adorned myself with these words to make it know that I am not asking for attention, I am in fact demanding it.

Racial Identity/Identities: Asian-American
Ethnic Identity/Identities: Chinese/Japanese/White
Artifact: Journal

How does this artifact speak to your relationship with political action?
I've been inspired by many politically motivated artists in my life, but for a long time I was hesitant to speak about politics in my work. My journal is where I learned how to speak about difficult things privately, before I could confront them in in front of an audience. Without the confidence that process gave me, I would never be able to write about my own heritage or the anti-Asian hate crimes happening in America.

Ethnic Identity/Identities: Chinese American
Artifact: Chrysanthemum Tea

Racial Identity/Identities: Hawaiian, Portuguese, Chinese
Ethnic Identity/Identities: Hawaiian
Artifact: Salt from Hawai’i

Racial Identity/Identities: Asian American, Filipino American
Racial Identity/Identities: Filipino American
Artifact: My family :) (South Asian and Indi-Pino baby) and a malong (textile) used in multiple ways, from carrying children, to a skirt, basket, etc.

How does this artifact speak to your relationship with political action?
The survival stories of my relatives and our collective ancestors are a precious inheritance. Becoming a new parent was a re-awakening to the power of lineage - a calling to weave together lessons of strength, hope, and radical care for the next generations to learn from.

Experience more of Aileen’s work through her website, and Sama Sama Cooperative, a collective of Pilipino and Pilipino-American parents, community organizers, artists, and educators living in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Racial Identity/Identities: South Asian
Ethnic Identity/Identities: Pakistani
Artifact: Passport

How does this artifact speak to your relationship with political action?
This passport is a representation of allowed relations and also represents the loss of a relationship with my homeland, a fear of returning to a home I do not know. When I was an undocumented person, this passport did not represent me but was expected to within US borders. As a US permanent resident, it still represents my home country, but is it home if you have never lived there? My passport is a display of feeling neither here nor there.

Racial Identity/Identities: South Asian
Ethnic Identity/Identities: Burmese, Indian
Artifact: Photo

How does this artifact speak to your relationship with political action?
The work we do is never in isolation, it is always in relationship to others. These three images represent three generations of my family, particularly the women. I'm able to advance equity and justice today, and do what I do, because of the women before me.

Experience more of Haleema’s work here.

Racial Identity/Identities: Japanese American transracial adoptee
Ethnic Identity/Identities: Japanese and Irish
Artifact: Photo of my mother playing koto

How does this artifact speak to your relationship with political action?
Everything I do that is of any value is in my mother's honor; just as I hold her image in my hands in this photograph, so I hold her in my heart as I work toward ending injustice in my community as a parent and as an educator.

Experience more of Emi’s work here

Racial Identity/Identities: Mixed race
Ethnic Identity/Identities: Persian + Mexican
Artifact: 11th Hour T-Shirt

How does this artifact speak to your relationship with political action?

I leaned into climate activism as a college student with few resources aside from energy and grit - from myself, from my network. The student activist movement has accomplished so much over the years, a powerful reminder to me today that age and money have nothing to do with organizing toward impact and meaningful change in this world.

Racial Identity/Identities:: Asian
Ethnic Identity/Identities:: Filipina
Artifact: Handmade tablecloth

How does this artifact speak to your relationship with political action? 
Celebrate the homegrown knowledge of the women among us, who came before us, and who have yet to enter this world. When I look at the tablecloth my Apu/Grandma had crocheted long ago, I'm reminded of how the skills, wisdom, experiences, knowledge, and labor of Black, Indigenous, and women of color have been devalued or exploited through patriarchy, racism, and capitalism; and the importance of why we must build theories, push back against systems of oppression, write our histories, and examine our lives as women who are shifting generational narratives.

Experience more of Leah’s work here.

Racial Identity/Identities: Technically white according to US Census demographic determinations
Racial Identity/Identities: iranian american
Artifact: Faravahar pendant necklace

How does this artifact speak to your relationship with political action?
The Faravahar is one of the symbols of Zoroastrianism and is closely associated in my memory with my family's lineage. I wear it to remind myself of all the ancestors who came before me, the ones whose names I don't know whose histories are lost and buried to time. I know there must have been other queer ancestors in my lineage because we're never just one but multiple strands braided to form an unknown legacy.

Experience more of Dena’s work here.

Racial Identity/Identities: Japanese/Scots Irish
Ethnic Identity/Identities: Japanese American
Artifact: Photo of my aunts, uncles, and grandfather and grandmother, Seijiro and Kameno Sugioka on their farm in Hollister, CA.

How does this artifact speak to your relationship with political action?
Their strength and grit in farming, losing their land and home, and then surviving with grace and grit, has inspired me to: give voice to the voiceless in my poems, strive for a more just and equitable educational system, and to reckon with the intergenerational trauma that has shaped my life, and the lives of people who have suffered/are suffering from the racism and oppression inherent in this country's socio-political system.

Racial Identity/Identities: Mixed race Asian American
Racial Identity/Identities: Japanese American & White
Artifact: We Are Uprisers Shirt

How does this artifact speak to your relationship with political action?
I am honoring the legacies of Asian American feminists who have paved the way for the opportunities I see in front of me today. Thank you for reminding me to break community and familial silences. Thank you to Miya Sommers for your constant energies to disrupt normative spaces (and for this shirt).

Racial Identity/Identities: Mixed race
Ethnic Identity/Identities: Filipino & European
Artifact: Journal

Racial Identity/Identities: Filipino/asian
Ethnic Identity/Identities: Filipino/american/asian
Artifact: Photo of my mother, me as a baby, and my older brother as a child

How does this artifact speak to your relationship with political action? 
The photo relates to my political action because it was taken the year my family & I migrated to the United States, and serves as a reminder of the hard work and sacrifice that my mother put into being a first generation immigrant.