Think: an asparagus knife used by Filipino/a workers, a photograph of Hollywood’s first Chinese American actress Anna May Wong, and a Hello Kitty bento box.
According to Gonzalves, part of the art of being a curator is looking at how the physical properties of an object connect to a greater context. This is especially important for Asia Pacific Americans due to their history of movement. “There is a great deal of narratives and stories that concern labor, migration, travel, solidarity, standing up for each other, and building cultures of resistance and communities together,” he says. “We find that time and again in shared experiences of a group of people, whose stories have really been centuries in the making.”