Monday, April 9, 2012
Asian American activist to discuss documentary with local ties
Oakland University will welcome award-winning writer and producer Curtis Chin for a screening and discussion of "Vincent Who?" – the 40-minute documentary he filmed on the killing of Vincent Chin by two white autoworkers in Detroit.
In the case, which occurred during the height of anti-Japanese sentiments in 1982, a judge fined the killers $3,000 and sentenced them to three years of probation. Subsequent outrage prompted Asian Americans around the country to galvanize around a civil rights movement.
Chin's documentary was inspired by a series of town halls organized by Asian Pacific Americans for Progress on the 25th anniversary of the killing. It features interviews with key players at the time, as well as a new generation of activists, and asks how far Asian Americans have come since then.
As a community activist, Curtis Chin co-founded the Asian American Writers Workshop and Asian Pacific Americans for Progress. In 2008, he served on Barack Obama's Asian American Leadership Council where he participated in helping the campaign reach out to the AAPI community. He has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, NPR, as well as in Newsweek and other media outlets.
The discussion will take place from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Friday, April 13, in rooms 128-130 of Oakland Center. Interactive and printable maps are available at
oakland.edu/map. An open question and answer session will follow Chin's presentation.
Earlier on Friday, from 10-11 a.m., Curtis Chin will host a discussion on marriage equality in Room 100 of Kresge Library. He and his husband were one of 18,000 couples married in California prior to the passage of Prop 8.
For more information on these events contact Jean Ann Miller by phone at (248) 370-2400 or by e-mail at
jam@oakland.edu. For more information on Curtis Chin's film, visit
vincentwhomovie.com.