From local to global: Asians and Asian Americans on the side of Racial Justice, Climate Justice, and Gender Justice

Lecture by Helena Wong

How should Asians and Asian Americans be relating to social movements of our time like Black Lives Matter, Standing Rock, and Not1More? How are grassroots organizers in Asian communities around the country pushing back against gentrification, discriminatory policing, environmental racism, and what happens when communities are hit with (un)natural disasters? How do we understand what is happening in China and bring it back to what it means to organize with a racial and gender justice lens here in the US?

Helena Wong is a National Organizer with Grassroots Global Justice (GGJ) Alliance and coordinates the US chapter of the World March of Women. She is former executive director of CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities in New York City and has organized in low-income Asian immigrant and refugee communities for nearly twenty years around gentrification, community development and land use, and police violence. Helena has served on the national steering committee of the Right to the City alliance and was previously on Board of Directors of GGJ. She has led delegations to China, meeting with organizers who do work around land rights, migrant workers, environmental protection, and queer visibility.

Cosponsored by Chellis House - Women’s Resource Center, Franklin Environmental Center, East Asian Studies, Community Engagement, and Soc/Anthro Dept.