2025 AWGC Grantees: Eleven Grants Totaling $88,000 Awarded to Arts & Social Justice Projects
NEW YORK — A self-defense project that combines video game avatars with traditional Filipino martial arts, a public theater work about inland flooding in the age of global warming, and a film about the community fight for justice in the death of Private Danny Chen are among the projects that received grants from the Asian Women Giving Circle this year.
“At a time when political forces are seeking to erase our past and threaten our future in this country, these artists and organizations are countering with passionate narratives that tell the truth of our lives and demonstrate the power of community,” said Hali Lee, co-founder of Asian Women Giving Circle and author of The Big We, a book about collective giving and community impact that features AWGC’s origin story and evolution. The collective celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
The 2025 grantees, each of whom receive $8,000, are:
Akiko Fujiwara | Manzanar: Our Town
A theater project telling the story of five women of Japanese descent incarcerated at Manzanar internment camp during WWII, forced to perform a propaganda play portraying the camp as a dreamland. Akiko Fujiwara of Kimi’iro Playhouse presents the first English-language production of Hisashi Inoue’s play.
American Central Asian Association Inc | Echoes of Central Asia
A multidisciplinary arts and culture initiative designed to amplify the voices and stories of Central Asian women and artists. Through a series of poetry readings and a community-wide arts festival, this project will celebrate the cultural heritage of Central Asia within the broader AAPI community in New York City.
Caroline Garcia | Defanging the Snake
An interactive arcade video game console, custom designed to include character-avatars based on real-life members of The Chrysalis Kali Collective, a group of Filipina/x women and gender-expansive femmes that train together in Kali (the national Martial Art of the Philippines). This project will serve as a catalyst to promote self-defense resources for underserved communities, especially for the Asian Pacific-Islander immigrants.
Chithra Jeyaram | Amma’s Pride
A short documentary that seeks to address the profound challenges faced by trans individuals, particularly within South Asian communities in the US. Its accompanying campaign, Path to Pride, will bring Amma’s Pride to NYC, where the film will foster healing conversations that center trans voices while promoting family acceptance and support for trans and queer individuals within South Asian communities.
Jason Rhee, Zoe Sua Cho | Untitled EJ Lee Documentary
A feature-length documentary about EJ Lee, a Louisiana legend Sports Illustrated called the “Korean Magic Johnson of NCAA women’s basketball” who has been overlooked her entire career. But finally, at the age of 60, EJ receives her first opportunity to become a college head coach and lead an underdog team of young women in West Texas.
Keerati Jinakunwiphat | Of Dishes and Dreams
A new evening-length creation that will premiere at Baryshnikov Arts choreographed by Keerati Jinakunwiphat. Inspired by her experience growing up in a family-run restaurant, Jinakunwiphat explores the intersection of service, synergy, and the act of balancing chaos. In collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya, the dancers transform an everyday space into a sphere of healing and belonging, driven by themes of lineage, community, and the American Dream.
ManSee Kong | What Happened to Danny
A feature-length documentary film about Private Danny Chen, an American soldier who was found dead in a US Army base in Afghanistan after relentless hazing by supervisors. Highlighting the resilience and power of community organizing for well over a decade, this story follows Danny’s family and community leaders in New York's Chinatown as they mobilize to demand justice for Danny and his family.
Mekong NYC | The Storytelling Project
Mekong NYC’s first-ever book commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War and genocide in Cambodia. A collection of interviews of Southeast Asian community members in the Bronx, sharing their lives before, during, and after the wars in Southeast Asia.
Oof Stories | Yu and Me Books Documentary (Working Title)
A documentary about Lucy Yu of Yu and Me Books, New York’s first Asian American woman-owned bookstore. When a fire destroys the beloved community bookstore, thousands of friends and supporters come together to revive Lucy’s dream. Through it, Lucy learns that community is necessary for survival.
Sabina Sethi Unni | Build Build Build!
A socially engaged public theater piece that aims to teach NYC and Long Island residents about inland flooding, while also having a good time. Halfway between a comedic play and a public education project about knowing your flood risk, Build Build Build! is a mock community board meeting about a proposed waterfront development that neighbors are worried will displace residents (but local seagulls are hoping will increase the number of fries per capita).
Taylor Lee Hom | Altar for Cici
A documentary short about Song Yang, a young masseuse who dies during a police raid in Flushing, Queens—America’s largest Chinatown—and the grassroots movement that sprouts out of the world of Asian massage parlors. The film traces Song Yang’s journey from rural China to her life in New York where she became Cici, one of the city’s thousands of migrant massage workers.
In addition to these grants, AWGC made $1,000 “Boost” Grants to support these artists who continue to break new ground with their work:
Cindy Tran | Two Projects on Family Estrangement
Cindy is working on two new projects that build from stories of family estrangement and challenge our ideas about forgiveness.
Kayhan Irani | There is a Portal
There is a Portal is an arts and healing initiative using an immersive digital journey and a community pedagogy. This Boost Grant will support the research design of There is a Portal “Creative Pause” workshops geared toward human services workers of Asian heritage working in Asian immigrant communities. The Creative Pause workshops are where workers engage body, mind, and hi/stories to re-examine narratives of belonging, heal from the hurts of assimilation, and orient toward the possible with fresh language and relational practices.
ABOUT THE ASIAN WOMEN GIVING CIRCLE
The Asian Women Giving Circle, the first and largest giving circle in the nation led by Asian American women, funds art projects that contribute to cultural and political change created by Asian American women artists and activists in New York City. AWGC is fiscally sponsored by the Ms. Foundation for Women. www.asianwomengivingcircle.org
