Thank You, Enjoy
curated by Katie Salisbury
Asian Americans lack representation in the media. This is not a new complaint, but rather a fact that has become an unfortunate refrain inside the Asian American community over the last decade. “Representation requires agency. If we want to be represented by the media, to have our stories heard and acknowledged, we need to be the ones to tell them,” says Katie Salisbury, artist and curator of Thank You, Enjoy.
Thank You, Enjoy—which refers to the words printed on those iconic takeout boxes—features work by Asian American artists who have chosen to focus on subjects that reflect the concerns and experiences of their communities. Their work explores issues as wide-ranging as racial discrimination, preserving cultural heritage, intergenerational relationships, assimilation, and economic exploitation, and provides a powerful antidote to the problem of representation by shining a light on stories overlooked by mainstream media.
384 Broadway is a temporary art space presented by THINK!CHINATOWN and Chashama. With the mission to increase representation of Asian American artists and themes of concern to our community, this project seeks to test new ways galleries in Chinatown can better engage the neighborhood with cross-cultural and inter-generational practices. This project is not a commercial endeavor and is largely run on the energy of community volunteers.
About the Artists
Katie Salisbury is a storyteller based in New York City. She is a writer, editor, and photographer whose work has appeared in Marie Claire, VICE, Refinery29, Lucky Peach, Roads & Kingdoms, On Being, The Rumpus, Asian American Writers’ Workshop, and elsewhere. Most recently, Salisbury was a Spring 2017 TED Resident working on a photojournalism project that peers inside the lives of Chinese takeout and restaurant workers in New York. In 2016, she contributed to the documentary project She Is Syria, which chronicles the stories of women and girl refugees. Salisbury has edited award-nominated books for Amazon Publishing and HarperCollins.
Louis Chan was born in 1981 in New York City, where he is still currently working and living. He recently exhibited at Pearl River Mart in TriBeCa, and had a solo show at the University of Tennessee Downtown Gallery. Chan is an alumnus of Borough of Manhattan Community College, and has a BFA and MFA degree from Hunter College. Chan began photography through analog techniques and processes and now primarily works with digital photography. He had the pleasure of studying photography with the late American artist Roy DeCarava. Chan is interested in exploring socio-economical issues with his art. Besides producing his own work, Chan has been working at the Office of Public Affairs at the Borough of Manhattan Community College since 2005. He is the staff photographer, photo editor, and social media coordinator for BMCC.
Albert Wang is an Alabama-born, Brooklyn-based writer and filmmaker focused on producing genre films that explore the Asian American experience as a means to gain broader mainstream acceptance of those stories. Wang was a recipient of the 2017 Made in NY Writers Room Fellowship with the Writers Guild of America, East.
Alexandra (Alle) Hsu is a director/producer born and raised in Orange County, CA. She recently graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Asia with an MFA degree in Film Directing and Film Production. Prior to Tisch, Hsu earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Scripps College of the Claremont Colleges, double majoring in Media Studies (Film) and Asian Studies. In graduate school, Hsu co-wrote, directed, and producedSophie in Hong Kong, which had its World Premiere at Austin Film Festival, and its international premiere at Foyle Film Festival, both Oscar Qualifying Film Festivals. Sophie went on to screen at over 15 film festivals around the world.
Imran J. Khan is an award-winning writer, director, and editor. Khan got his start in filmmaking at the University of California, Davis where he pursued a degree in Biological Systems Engineering while making viral online comedy sketch videos revolving around his distinct cultural perspective as a Pakistani American. After receiving his B.S. in 2008, Khan held a career in medical devices while making short films in his free time. In 2012, he decided to pursue filmmaking professionally and enrolled in NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Asia MFA Film program in Singapore. His NYU thesis film Prom illustrates the difficulties of South Asian Americans trying to reconcile their parents’ culture with wanting to integrate into mainstream America.
Rachel Leyco is an award-winning filmmaker; she won a student Emmy at the 2013 College Television Awards as Writer/Director/Producer in the pilot web series, The Sub Club. As an actress, she started off in theatre, starring in Beauty and the Beast and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, then began her TV/Film career upon moving to LA, starring in commercials (Reebok, Head & Shoulders), web series (Batman Beyond: The Series), short films (Rise, Highbrow) and indie features (Teacher of the Year). Leyco’s TV Network debut was a top of the show Guest Star role on NBC’sChicago Fire in its Season 6, Episode 4, “A Breaking Point,” which aired on October 19, 2017. Her short films, Maple’s Tree and Bicultural, have been official selections in many film festivals around the country.
Brian Redondo is a Brooklyn-based, multi-disciplinary creative with a passion for documentary storytelling in its many forms. His short documentary films focus on stories from the margins of society and have screened at film festivals around the country. His first short Why We Rise chronicles the struggles of undocumented youth in New York City and won Best Social Issue Documentary at CAAMFest 2014. His next short The Lookout explores the refugee crisis in Europe through the eyes of a young volunteer. It won a UN OCHA Special Recognition from theConscious Good Humanitarian Film Festival 2016. Redondo has two upcoming short films that will be released by Field of Vision and PBS’s Art21 respectively in early 2018.
Erica Liu is a Taiwanese-American filmmaker based in Los Angeles. In 2015, Liu was one of ten directors selected to participate in the AFI Conservatory Directing Workshop for Women. Her films have screened at AFI Fest, Clermont-Ferrand and Palm Springs Int’l Shortfest, among other festivals. Liu’s short film, Springtime, received the Crystal Heart Award at Heartland Film Festival and aired on public television nationwide via KQED and affiliate stations. The Disappointment Tour received a Panavision New Filmmaker grant and the Will & Jada Smith Family Foundation grant. Liu is currently incubating her first feature, Mushroomers, a film about estranged family relationships, super fungi and the idiosyncratic ways in which we mourn. It was a finalist for the 2017 NYU Sloan Feature Award.
THINK!CHINATOWN is a collective of neighbors and advocates working to keep Chinatown a vibrant place of inter-generational learning, cultural production & civic engagement. We are here to listen, to respond, and to build Chinatown’s capacities as a strong immigrant neighborhood of NYC. Our mission is to attract & connect resources for Chinatown organizations & businesses using the tools of design & community engagement. Join us in connecting past, present & future to ensure a resilient Chinatown.
