Celebration: Corky Lee’s Asian America: Fifty Years of Photographic Justice (SF Main Library)

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Experience Corky Lee’s Asian America at our book launch celebration! This new book features over 200 breathtaking photos celebrating the history and cultural impact the Asian American social justice movement. Join panelists Mae M. Ngai, Fae Myenne Ng and Curtis Chin as they honor Corky Lee’s legacy and discuss his impactful work reshaping narratives.

Known throughout his lifetime as the “undisputed, unofficial Asian American photographer laureate,” the late photojournalist Corky Lee documented Asian American and Pacific Islander communities for fifty years, breaking the stereotype of Asian Americans as docile, passive, and, above all, foreign to this country. Corky Lee’s Asian America is a stunning retrospective of his life’s work–a selection of the best photographs from his vast collection, from his start in New York’s Chinatown in the 1970s to his coverage of diverse Asian American communities across the country until his untimely passing in 2021.

The book chronicles Lee’s decades-long pursuit of photographic justice, capturing Asian American social movements and iconic moments, with reflections and historical context from prominent writers and artists, including Hua Hsu and Ai Weiwei.

Mae M. Ngai is Mae M. Ngai, Lung Family Professor of Asian American Studies and History, is a renowned U.S. legal and political historian and author of award-winning books on immigration, citizenship, and the Chinese diaspora.

Fae Myenne Ng, a first-generation Chinese American author from San Francisco, is an acclaimed writer and recipient of multiple prestigious fellowships who teaches creative writing at UC Berkeley.

Curtis Chin, co-founder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and a social justice documentarian, has received numerous awards and has a memoir, “Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant,” coming out in Fall 2023.

Books will be available by Eastwind Books of Berkeley. 

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.