Afro-Asian Poetic Pantry: An Interactive Installation on Governor’s Island by Margaret Rhee, Assistant Professor of Media Studies
The Afro-Asian Poetic Pantry is a dynamic installation that recently opened on Governor’s Island in NYC. It melds poetry, literature, media art, food, and participation, fostering celebration and honor of Black and Asian American communities. As part of the installation, there is a multi-media refrigerator sculpture, pocket poems, interactive contributions, poetic index, music, and letters to future generations — all aimed at healing, remembering, and forging renewed bonds of community and solidarity.
Margaret Rhee, Assistant Professor of Media Studies, curated the installation through participation in The Bandung Residency 2023, led by The Museum of Contemporary Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) and the Asian American Arts Alliance. The residency is aimed at resisting anti-Black and anti-Asian violence. In creating the installation, Margaret also partnered with Parsons faculty member Amy Andieux, the executive director and curator of MoCADA who founded the Bandung Residency and MoCADA staff Zola-Jourdan Savage.
Together with the installation, on September 30, an Afro-Asian Poetic Index event will take place at the MoCADA Abolition House, led by New School School of Media Studies and Creative Writing graduate students Dennica Pearl Worrell, Kate McDonough, Johann Yamin, who are research assistants to Margaret Rhee. They will perform poetry and music alongside activist and poet Rohan Zhou-Lee at the event and run a writing workshop. You can find out more and register for the event HERE.