Jodi Solomon Speakers: Asian American Speakers

Celebrating Asian American Pride

Rinku Sen is the President and Executive Director of the Applied Research Center (ARC) and Publisher of Colorlines magazine. She weaves together journalism with her extensive experience in community organizing to further social change. Sen has written extensively about immigration, community organizing and women's lives for a wide variety of publications. Her latest book, "The Accidental American: Immigration and Citizenship in the Age of Globalization" won the Nautilus Book Award Silver Medal.

Arn Chorn-Pond

How does a child who was both a victim and survivor of the Cambodian genocide grow to become an internationally recognized human rights leader? Subject of the documentary The Flute Player and a founder of Children of War, an international youth leadership organization for building community, activism and healing for teenagers, Chorn-Pond opens our eyes and hearts, and helps us to heal.

Christina Chan

Chan stars in the one woman play "Unbinding Our Lives" which shatters the exotic, subservient, “China doll” image. In this powerful show Ms. Chan portrays three real Chinese American women from China in the 1800's and their personal stories of being sold into child slavery, prostitution, and abandonment. An unforgettable look at forgotten history.

Gish Jen

Named one of the eight most important contemporary American women writers, Gish Jen is the author of three novels – “Typical American,” “Mona in the Promised Land” and “The Love Wife.” Her new novel, entitled "World and Town," will be published by Knopf in fall 2010.

Jianli Yang

A leading organizer in the Chinese student democracy movement, he is among forty-nine individuals blacklisted by the Beijing government. As research fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and President of The Foundation For China In The 21st Century, he continues to provide a forceful and unique perspective on this historic struggle. Jianli Yang, returned to his adopted home in 2007 in the United States after five years in Chinese prisons.

Urvashi Vaid

Vaid is an attorney and community organizer, and the author of the award-winning analysis of the gay rights movement entitled "Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay & Lesbian Liberation." Formerly Director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force's Policy Institute, she remains committed to community-based change through strategic thinking and coalition building.