The Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF), the nation’s only pan-Asian children’s advocacy organization, aims to improve the health and well-being of Asian Pacific American children and families in New York City. The collection consists of publications, resource and research files, minutes, financial information, files on CACF programs and projects, publicity materials, photographs and administrative files.
The Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) is a non-profit arts service organization dedicated to strengthening Asian American artists and arts/cultural groups in New York City through funding, promotion and community building. The collection consists of fiscal and donor files, organizational and artist grant files, administrative files, photographs and other visual media documenting A4 events and artists, publicity materials, A4-generated publications, and a collection of A/PA books.
The Ma-Yi Theater Company is a non-profit professional organization that gives voice to Asian American experiences through the development of plays and performances that push Asian American aesthetics beyond stereotypical Orientalist markers. The collection comprises of financial files, production series files, press and marketing files, artist and designer files, computer files, props and artifacts, publications, and documentation of past events.
Founded by internationally-renowned theater director, choreographer, writer, and multi-disciplinary artist Ping Chong, Ping Chong & Company has created and performed innovative works of theater at numerous prestigious venues nationally and internationally. The collection contains production files, administrative files and development files.
Soh Daiko was founded in 1979 as the first taiko group on the East Coast by a diverse group of members of the New York Buddhist Church. The collection contains administrative records, grant applications, clippings, subject files, financial information, performance programs and flyers and cassette and video tapes which document Soh Daiko performances and rehearsals, as well as other Taiko groups and performers.
The Japanese American Association of New York, Inc (JAA) is a nonprofit organization serving the Japanese and Japanese American community through a variety of activities, including social services, education, scholarships and cultural events. The Japanese American Association’s collection is composed of a reference library, which contains historical materials documenting the history of JAA as well as the Japanese American community in New York City; and the records of the Japanese American Association, which include newsletters, administrative files and publicity materials.
National Asian American Theatre Company, Inc. (NAATCO) seeks to demonstrate the important contributions of Asian American theatre to American culture by presenting classic European and American plays performed by an all-Asian/Pacific American cast. The collection spans in date from 1989 to 2009 and includes subject files, stage manager books, files documenting the National Asian American Theatre Festival, and financial, development, and electronic files.
Founded in 1972 when women artists had few spaces to exhibit, A.I.R. (Artists in residence, Inc.) Gallery is the first artist-run nonprofit gallery for women artists in the United States. Within the A.I.R. collection are materials pertaining to its Asian and Asian American women artists.
The Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) is the labor union of professional theatrical performers and stage managers. The collection consists of all of the earliest records of the organization as well as general files, membership records, contract files, claims, and correspondence with other unions, guilds and federations.
Interdisciplinary artist Andrea Callard collaborated with Sam Sue on “The Tenement: Place for Survival, Object of Reform” in 1988, an installation that was part of a larger project artist Martha Rosler envisioned to engage artists, activists, and theorists in discussions about the then politically-charged issue of homelessness in New York City. The Andrea Callard Papers contain materials relating to Callard's career as an artist and art educator as well as her involvement in artist organizations.
Asian CineVision (ACV) is a non-profit media arts organization that develops, promotes and preserves films made by or about peoples of Asian descent. The collection contains correspondence, staff meeting notes, grant applications and a complete run of both Bridge and CineVue.
New York University undergraduate Bichiluyen Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant, conducted these interviews with New York City immigrant garment workers from Vietnam, China, the Philippines and California as part of an internship in the history department in 1989. The collection consists of four interviews.
Asian Women United (AWU) is a New York City-based collective of Asian American women activists and educators that organized in 1978 when the Asian Women's Caucus was split into two groups. The materials in this collection include: the Asian Women United newsletter (In Touch), flyers from events hosted by Asian Women United, flyers from events done in coalition with other groups, workshop notes, meeting notes, administrative files, correspondence, and newspaper articles.
The Chinese-American Labor and Immigration Collection was given to the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives in the late 1980s. The collection consists of subject files; which include clippings, printed material and correspondence; relating to immigration, labor, women's issues, Asian student organizations, and health services.
Creative Time is a nonprofit arts organization founded in 1973 to support the creation of innovative, site-specific works by professional artists for public presentation in vacant spaces of historical and architectural interest throughout New York City. The Creative Time Archive is an extremely diverse collection that comprehensively documents the on-going history of Creative Time.
David Fender was a member of the Socialist Workers party and a number of its political factions and offshoots. The collection contains extensive correspondence, manuscripts and articles, subject files and records of the Fourth International.
The Asian/Pacific/American (A/P/A) Institute was founded in 1996 in response to student interest combined with New York University’s commitment to global excellence. The records of the Asian/Pacific/American (A/P/A) Institute, dated 1994-2003, document the activities of the Institute from its founding in 1996 and reflect student events, faculty affairs and collaboration with the A/P/A studies program.
Founded in 1978 by Stefan Eins, Fashion Moda quickly became an important voice in the art world during the late 1970s to mid-1980s. The Fashion Moda Archive is part of the Downtown Collection at Fales Special Collections Library, New York University. In its entirety, it is comprised of business files, nearly 400 photographs of exhibitions and artists, approximately 3200 35 mm slides documenting exhibitions and other events, grant proposals, artist resumes, correspondence, video tapes of the cable TV series “Making Coincidences,” press releases, newspaper articles, reviews, and artworks kept by founder Stefan Eins and others at Fashion Moda.
Godzilla: Asian American Art Network is a New York-based art collective co-founded in 1990 by Ken Chu and Margo Machida that promotes networking and mutual support among Asian and Pacific Islander American artists and professionals. The collection consists of documents pertaining to the administrative and artistic aspects of Godzilla, and to a lesser extent, related arts organizations.
Harley Spiller (1960- ) moved to New York after college in 1981 to pursue a career in the museum field and began collecting Chinese menus on his nightly walks up and down the streets of the Upper West Side where he lived. The Harley Spiller Menu Collection consists of more than 10,000 items, with the bulk of menus spanning in date from 1981 to 2009 and about 1000 predating 1960.
The Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue (IACD) was founded in 1997 by actress, playwright, and Stanford and NYU professor Anna Deavere Smith. The IACD Archive contains administrative records focused primarily on the practical issues of organizing the summer sessions for the years 1998, 1999, and 2000.
Isaku Kida (1905-1996) immigrated to the United States from Japan in 1930 and Emi Kida (1908-2001) immigrated in 1958. The majority of the collection (approx. 4 boxes) consists of copies of The Hokubei Shimpo—New York Nichibei, the central English language newspaper of the Japanese American Left. Both managed The Hokubei Shimpo (renamed New York Nichibei in 1945), which ran from 1945 through 1993, the paper documented the life of New York’s postwar Japanese American community, serving not only as a place to obtain community news but also as an important outlet for Asian American writers.
The Japanese American Social Services, Inc. (JASSI) was formed in 1981 by Midori Shimanouchi Lederer to address the lack of social services for aging Japanese Americans with limited English language skills and little access to information about social service programs. The collection contains administrative materials, including minutes, correspondence, grant applications and employee files as well as financial information such as budgets, audits and payroll information.
The New York City Central Labor Council is an organization that furthers the rights of workers to organize in unions and bargain collectively; to advocate legislation which is beneficial to workers and oppose that which is not; and to correct abuses and to insure the workers their just rights. The collection contains reference material, reports, correspondence, flyers and copies of proposed legislation on a wide range of topics of concern to the labor movement: housing, health care, safety issues in the workplace, immigrant rights, political campaigns and matters relating to collective bargaining rights.
The Asian American Arts Centre (AAAC) is a New York City-based community arts organization dedicated to promoting the preservation and creative vitality of Asian American cultural growth through the arts and its historical and aesthetic linkage to other communities. Created in 2007, the AAAC Artist Archive preserves documentation from 150 selected artists who exemplified the major issues that compose the subject of Asian American art.
May Chen (1948- ) is a labor organizer who for more than twenty years has been actively engaged in outreach and advocacy for immigrant workers. Totaling 6.5 linear feet and spanning the dates 1989 to 2005, the collection documents Chen’s work as a labor organizer within the Chinese immigrant community.
Si-Lan Chen was a dancer, choreographer and actor who pioneered the use of Chinese dance elements in modern dance and films such as Anna and the King of Siam (1946) and The Keys to the Kingdom (1944). The collection contains the combined papers of Jay Leyda and Si-Lan Chen Leyda, including correspondence, clippings, scripts, research files and articles.
Karl Ichiro Akiya (1909 - 2001) was a labor and community activist. He moved to New York after his internment at Camp Topaz, Utah and worked for nearly thirty years at the Bank of Tokyo. The collection consists of subject files, writings, notebooks, artwork, photographs, and ephemera documenting Akiya's life and work in the United States and Japan.
The Leo Hershkowitz Collection was created by Leo Hershkowitz, a New York City historian, who collected the materials from various sources. The collection consists largely of primary documents from the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries relating to the social history of New York City.
Martin Wong (1946-1999) is an acclaimed Chinese American artist best known for his cityscapes of New York’s Chinatown and the Lower East Side, his championing of graffiti art as a legitimate art form in the 1980s and ‘90s, and his incorporation of homoerotic sensibilities into his paintings. His papers are comprised of over 100 sketches and drawings, more than 30 sketchbooks, correspondence, poetry and prose, biographical documents, source material, audio and videocassette recordings, photos, and graffiti tag-books, graffiti-related materials and parts of Wong's personal library.
The Mix Festival, originally known as the New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival, was created in 1987 to create an alternative to mainstream gay and lesbian film festivals and to highlight the important contributions that queer filmmakers have made to experimental and avant-garde film practices. The Mix Collection contains paper files and media related to the Mix Festival, a small portion of which pertains to work produced by A/PA filmmakers.
Niel Sih was a Chinese Communist who became active in the Trotskyist Left Opposition in China. The collection contains an unpublished typescript titled “Five Years of the Left Opposition in China: An Attempt to Explain Its Failure to Make Progress,” which is a critique of the leadership and policies of Chen Duxiu, leader of the Left Opposition in China until he was jailed in 1932.
Nodutdol for Korean Community Development is a non-profit Korean American community advocacy organization that seeks to promote the unity and self-determination of the Korean people through grassroots organizing and community development. The collection contains materials relating to the organization's annual exposure and education programs titled Korea Exposure & Education Program (KEEP) and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Exposure & Education Program (DEEP) and includes study materials, participants’ forms, songbooks, photographs, itineraries, fundraising materials, and clippings.
Born in New York City in 1910, Saul Mills was a union activist, PR representative and journalist who was subpoenaed in 1956 to appear before a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Internal Security Committee and questioned regarding his activities while an executive member of the Greater NY CIO Council, his association with the Chinese Communists (U.N. delegates) in 1945, his 1949 trip to China, and his business affiliations with Communist sympathizer, Frederick Vanderbilt Field. Of particular relevance in the collection is material which documents Mills’ travel to and observations of China during his 1949 visit as a representative of an export-import company.
Over the span of his fifty-year career, Sidney Gluck has been a successful businessman, professor, artist, and public interest advocate. The collection contains periodicals, subject files, printed materials and books relating to Gluck’s work and interest in China and Cuba.
The New York University Student Life Collection documents student life from the founding of the University up to present day. The collection contains annual reports, minutes, promotional materials, directories, handbooks, reports and yearbooks documenting student life at New York University. A large collection of photographs supplements the textual material on student life.
