Artists for Liberation
6:30 – 8:30PM
Join Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) and a panel of multi-disciplinary Asian American writers and artists for a vital discussion about organizing towards our collective liberation through the arts.
For generations, Asian American organizers have harnessed the arts to spur change. Joining this tradition, community arts organizations and teaching artists curate events for learning and to challenge the status quo. Panelists will discuss the lineage of the arts – including literature, dance, music, and performance – as part of Asian American action; how teaching artists use workshops to organize; and how such spaces provide frameworks for action and respite from the mainstream arts establishment.
Panelists include Jerome Viloria, musician, dancer, and acting director of Kinding Sindaw; Dena Igusti, an Indonesian Muslim playwright and poet; and Rachel Chang, a musician, songleader, and educator.
The discussion will be moderated by Roohi Choudhry, writer, organizer, and educator, who organized a similar panel as part of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) Conference in March 2025.
The panel discussion will culminate with a brief performance and call-and-response song by Rachel Chang. There will be time for Q&A and a reception following the panel.
The event is hosted by Accent Sisters, an artist-run bookstore and gallery for diasporic creatives, located in Union Square. This event is open to all, particularly artists, organizers, and cultural workers.
This event requires RSVP with a suggested donation of $5.
Agenda:
6:40-7:20 pm (40 min) – Panel
7:20-7:30 pm (10 min) – Performance
7:30–8:00 pm (30 min) – Q&A
8:00–8:30 pm (30 min) – Reception
Recording: The panel discussion will be recorded and published on A4’s YouTube channel after the event.
Accessibility: Accent Sisters is ADA compliant and features wheelchair accessible, gender neutral restrooms.
If you need CART Transcription, ASL interpretation, large print, or any other accommodations for this event, please email programs@aaartsalliance.org at least one week before this event.
About Rachel Chang
Rachel Chang is a queer, mixed-race, Chinese American Jew, as well as a musician, songleader, and educator currently living in Philadelphia, PA. She is the director of A Queer Nigun Project, which uses nigunim (spiritual wordless melody) as a collective healing practice for LGBTQIA+ people, for Jews of Color, and for incarcerated people in Jewish community, and she is the ritual director at LUNAR: The Asian Jewish Collective. Drawing from the many communities and lineages that have shaped her, Rachel has been pulled toward music for as long as she can remember, finding voice in it, finding power in it, learning to channel it to move energy and shape moments.
About Roohi Choudhry
Roohi Choudhry is a writer, teaching artist, and researcher. Born in Pakistan and raised in southern Africa, she now calls Kensington in Brooklyn, NY, home. Her debut novel, Outside Women (University Press of Kentucky, 2025), was described as “riveting… an incisive story of how change happens” by Publishers’ Weekly. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan, was awarded a NYFA fellowship and facilitates writing workshops for community organizations. Her stories and essays have appeared in Ploughshares, Callaloo, Longreads, Poets & Writers and the Kenyon Review. www.roohichoudhry.com
About Dena Igusti
Dena Igusti is an Indonesian Muslim writer born and raised in Queens, NY. They are the author of CUT WOMAN (Game Over Books, 2020), which washas been listed as a 2022 Perennial Award Winner, 2020 Harvard Bookstore Staff Pick, and Entropy Mag’s Best of 2020-2021, as well as I NEED THIS TO NOT SWALLOW ME ALIVE (Gingerbug Press, 2021). They are the co-playwright of the wish: a manual for a last-ditch effort to save abortion in the united states through theater. They are the inaugural 2023 NYFA Ryan Hudak Playwright Award Winner and founder of Dearest Mearest, a multimedia platform for arts and arts accessibility. www.denaigusti.com
About Jerome Viloria
Jerome is a queer, non-binary public health professional based in Astoria, NY, by way of the Hudson Valley. He first joined Kinding Sindaw in 2018 through their Cultural Arts Education Workshops, and made his debut in Queensboro Dance Festival 2019. Since then, he has become a dance captain and kulintang musician-–in-–training, while also working behind the scenes in leadership and administration. They are a firm believer in mobilizing the people through creative means. Jerome is currently pursuing their Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) at NYU, with a focus in nonprofit leadership, workforce development, and education. He seeks to understand sources of health information, how they formulate our beliefs, and how community engagement can inspire positive health behavior change. They’re excited to take the next step in cultivating themselves as a nonprofit leader at Apicha CHC. Outside his professional realm, Jerome is an active musician, dancer, and gamer.