WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.905 align:middle line:90% Hi, everyone. 00:00:00.905 --> 00:00:01.530 align:middle line:90% How's it going? 00:00:01.530 --> 00:00:02.298 align:middle line:90% Pretty good. 00:00:02.298 --> 00:00:03.174 align:middle line:90% How are you? 00:00:03.174 --> 00:00:04.050 align:middle line:90% Hey. 00:00:04.050 --> 00:00:05.924 align:middle line:90% Good to see you. 00:00:05.924 --> 00:00:08.290 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:08.290 --> 00:00:14.590 align:middle line:84% My name is Ching-in Chen, and I'm very grateful to be here. 00:00:14.590 --> 00:00:18.870 align:middle line:84% Thank you Prageeta for gathering us all in solidarity 00:00:18.870 --> 00:00:20.850 align:middle line:90% with each other. 00:00:20.850 --> 00:00:25.290 align:middle line:84% And something that in a conversation 00:00:25.290 --> 00:00:30.750 align:middle line:84% brought up today at the Troubling Lineages 00:00:30.750 --> 00:00:33.990 align:middle line:84% and Genrequeer panel was about the question 00:00:33.990 --> 00:00:38.340 align:middle line:84% of desire and the desire to have connection with each other 00:00:38.340 --> 00:00:42.200 align:middle line:84% and to have this, I guess, this-- 00:00:42.200 --> 00:00:44.900 align:middle line:84% I don't want to call it family, but some kind 00:00:44.900 --> 00:00:52.280 align:middle line:84% of familial, familiar connection that some of us 00:00:52.280 --> 00:00:56.960 align:middle line:84% don't often have with each other or find, especially if we're 00:00:56.960 --> 00:01:00.740 align:middle line:90% in unfriendly institutions. 00:01:00.740 --> 00:01:04.620 align:middle line:84% And I came to the last Thinking Its Presence. 00:01:04.620 --> 00:01:09.590 align:middle line:84% And it was a game changer to have 00:01:09.590 --> 00:01:12.290 align:middle line:84% folks who are further down the path 00:01:12.290 --> 00:01:14.360 align:middle line:84% be willing to be really vulnerable. 00:01:14.360 --> 00:01:19.220 align:middle line:84% And I'm looking at some of you who I remember sitting here. 00:01:19.220 --> 00:01:24.530 align:middle line:84% And that's the stuff people don't really often are 00:01:24.530 --> 00:01:27.740 align:middle line:84% willing to share with you, except maybe 00:01:27.740 --> 00:01:30.680 align:middle line:84% if you get pulled aside, it's a whispered conversation. 00:01:30.680 --> 00:01:32.660 align:middle line:84% But it's not something that people 00:01:32.660 --> 00:01:35.570 align:middle line:90% are willing to be public about. 00:01:35.570 --> 00:01:40.250 align:middle line:84% And that's really important to changing the communities 00:01:40.250 --> 00:01:42.470 align:middle line:84% that we're all part of and having 00:01:42.470 --> 00:01:44.190 align:middle line:90% things be more equitable. 00:01:44.190 --> 00:01:45.530 align:middle line:90% So thank you all. 00:01:45.530 --> 00:01:47.390 align:middle line:90% Thank you Prageeta. 00:01:47.390 --> 00:01:53.420 align:middle line:84% And I'm going to share two or maybe three pieces that-- 00:01:53.420 --> 00:01:55.790 align:middle line:84% I'm also really obsessed with the archive. 00:01:55.790 --> 00:02:01.040 align:middle line:84% I grew up in Massachusetts, which has a troubled lineage. 00:02:01.040 --> 00:02:06.270 align:middle line:84% And I have a troubled history with history. 00:02:06.270 --> 00:02:10.340 align:middle line:84% So a lot of this work is about that. 00:02:10.340 --> 00:02:17.360 align:middle line:84% And "Dear Story of a Risk, 1878." 00:02:17.360 --> 00:02:21.380 align:middle line:84% I found them in box, rights directory 00:02:21.380 --> 00:02:26.960 align:middle line:84% of Milwaukee, their printed names dusty on page. 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:31.880 align:middle line:90% Shane Ring, 276 Third. 00:02:31.880 --> 00:02:36.800 align:middle line:90% Wing Wau, 86 Mason. 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:43.700 align:middle line:84% Clean as sheet, near in their rows, shelved. 00:02:43.700 --> 00:02:49.580 align:middle line:84% A thin woman's back attempting to see, covered. 00:02:49.580 --> 00:02:51.650 align:middle line:90% Paths cut off. 00:02:51.650 --> 00:02:55.640 align:middle line:84% As if wore on skin, how many left behind this book? 00:02:55.640 --> 00:02:59.150 align:middle line:84% In paper, this sergeant, this gunmaker. 00:02:59.150 --> 00:03:04.940 align:middle line:84% She says, I do not want a window in the fucking sky." 00:03:04.940 --> 00:03:09.860 align:middle line:84% So that poem is about going through archives in Milwaukee 00:03:09.860 --> 00:03:13.070 align:middle line:84% looking for Chinese-American names. 00:03:13.070 --> 00:03:17.030 align:middle line:84% There was a riot in Milwaukee in the late 1800s around the time 00:03:17.030 --> 00:03:19.540 align:middle line:90% of the Chinese Exclusion Act.