Mothers in the Arts

On the eve of Mother’s Day, A4 brings together artists of the Asian diaspora to share candidly about how motherhood has shaped their practices (and vice versa), the realities of balancing the two identities, and resources they have found or created to navigate and be joyful during the many stages of raising children.

Panelists include Hala Alyan, poet and author of the forthcoming memoir I’ll Tell You When I’m Home; Maia Ruth Lee, visual artist and board member of Artists + Mothers; Natalia Nakazawa, visual artist, educator, and the creator of the Arts Parents group; and Shawna X, visual artist whose work focuses on the relationship between mothers’ bodies and the landscape of the universe. The discussion will be moderated by Justine Lee, programs director at A4, and mother to Olive. There will be time for Q&A.

Following the panel, we invite attendees to mingle and enjoy light refreshments. Each attendee will leave with a printed resource list, which will also be available on A4’s website.

The event will be hosted by STORM, an independent bookstore in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Though this event is open to all, we are prioritizing artists who are parents and are looking to celebrate Mother’s Day in community with others. While the event is geared towards parents, children are welcome!

This event requires RSVP with a suggested donation of $10. Due to limited space, please let us know if you are unable to attend so that we can offer the spot to someone on the waitlist.

Agenda:
2:00-3:00 pm (1 hr) – Panel discussion
3:00-3:15 pm (15 min) – Q&A
3:15-4:00 pm (45 min) – Mingling and refreshments

Recording: The panel discussion will be recorded and published on A4’s YouTube channel after the event.

Accessibility: There is a portable ramp that can be activated at the entrance for anyone who needs it. There is a non-gendered restroom. Strollers may be folded up and stored inside the building; staff members will be available to assist you.

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.

To keep everyone safe and healthy, if you are not feeling well, please stay at home. We will provide masks and hand sanitizer.

Bios

About Hala Alyan

Hala Alyan is the author of the novels Salt Houses—winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Arab American Book Award, and a finalist for the Chautauqua Prize—and The Arsonists’ City, a finalist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize. She is also the author of five highly acclaimed collections of poetry, including The Twenty-Ninth Year and The Moon That Turns You Back. Her work has been published by The New Yorker, The Academy of American Poets, The New York Times, The Guardian, and Guernica. She lives in Brooklyn with her family, where she works as a clinical psychologist and professor at New York University.

About Maia Ruth Lee

Working across painting, sculpture, photography, and film, Maia has crafted a visual lexicon that takes on the complexities of the self in times of dissonance and globalization. Recent solo exhibitions have taken place at Primary, Nottingham, UK; François Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles; Institute of Fine Arts, NYU; Tina Kim Gallery, New York; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver. Maia participated in numerous group exhibitions including Prospect.6 Triennial in New Orleans; Aspen Art Museum; and the 2019 Whitney Biennial. Maia was born in Busan, South Korea, grew up in Kathmandu and Seoul, moved to New York City in 2011, and has lived in recent years in Salida, Colorado. Lee has a 7-year-old son Nima.

About Natalia Nakazawa

Natalia Nakazawa is a Queens-based interdisciplinary artist and educator working in painting, textiles, and social practice. A child of Latin American (Uruguayan) and Asian (Japanese American, yonsei, 4th generation) diasporas, her work is deeply in touch with multi-generational cultural legacies. Natalia’s community-driven projects explore ideas of transnationality, cultural identities, storytelling, archives, and patterns of migration. Blurring the boundaries between education, activism, and art making, each of her projects is based in collaborative processes, inviting participation and collective imagining. In her jacquard textiles series, the artist pulls images from the online open access collections with a focus on objects that embody historical moments of cultural exchange. Nakazawa’s work encourages critical engagement with personal histories, utilizing the familiar, warm format of the tapestry as a means of creating objects that can be simultaneously comforting and disruptive.

About Shawna X

Shawna X is a visual artist who draws from personal self-discovery experiences in birthing and transformation. She finds transitional markers in her body, such as pain, and visualize the feeling as illustrative, motion, and audio symbols and glyphs. For the past 6 years, her practice has been informed by her two childbirths, specifically the contractions itself as a blossoming motif, found in her daily drawings.

Her work reflects the theme of self discovery and spans different mediums, whether it be glass, metal, painting, or textile; notable works include ‘F⁕ck Your Manners,’ a sculptural installation presented at A/D/O design space, exploring her own internal racial biases, to the permanent installation at the Elmont train station for the MTA that captures the cyclical and expansive quality of living. She has been invited to speak about these themes at events such as Adobe Max, Us by Night, and AIGA, and has collaborated with a wide range of clients in the fields of music, fashion, and technology, including New Yorker, MINI, Academy Awards and Nike.

About STORM bookstore

STORM is a specialized independent bookstore, carrying art and design books, poetry and children books and hosting a carefully curated program of events and a selection of candies to honor the past life of the space.

STORM BOOKS focuses on SWANA (South West Asia North Africa) culture as well as themes of ecologies and politics, through art and design, kid’s books, and poetry.

STORM PROGRAMS are multifaceted and central to the bookstore and committed to co-laborations and co-nnections. Our events unfold in seasons, taking root in the land and growing into wider and wilder themes, always exploring solidarity, interconnectivity and radical imagination.