Love Me Long Time Reading Group

Love Me Long Time Reading Group, co-facilitated by Dorcas Tang and Alina Wang, explores desire, intimacy and love.

The reading group is part of Dorcas Tang’s residency with TILT Institute for the Contemporary Image to develop ‘Love Me Long Time,’ an audiovisual project examining overlapping themes of desire, intimacy, and Asian identity through portraits of and oral interviews with Asian/Asian diasporic women and non-binary people.

Join us on Wednesday nights (June 11, June 18, June 25) as we collectively read and discuss excerpts from different texts by Asian/Asian diasporic writers – come when you can, leave when you must. We hope to engage in intimate, lively, and curious discussions; to exchange gifts of knowledge, experience, and food (snacks will be provided); to feel nourished and to nourish.

Week 1 | June 11, 6:00-8:00PM: Stone Fruit by Lee Lai

Content warning: depression, racism

Stone Fruit reveals through intimately naturalistic dialog and blue-hued watercolor how painful it can be to truly become vulnerable to your loved ones - and how fulfilling it is to be finally understood for who you are. Lee Lai is a cartoonist and graphic novelist from Naarm/Melbourne, Australia, currently living in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal, Canada.

Week 2 | June 18, 6:00-8:00PM: I’m Laughing Because I’m Crying (Chapter TBD) by Youngmi Mayer

Content warning: TBD

An unforgettable memoir by Youngmi Mayer written with “raw, enviable freedom that simply floors you,” interrogating whiteness, gender, and sexuality in America, navigating a tumultuous childhood in Korea and Saipan, and coming to terms with her parents’ shortcomings (Michelle Zauner).

Week 3 (+ Potluck) | June 25, 6:00-8:00PM: The Year of Blue Water by Yanyi

Content warning: suicidal ideation, parental abuse, gender dysphoria, anxiety

Yanyi’s arresting and straightforward poems weave experiences of immigration as a Chinese American, of racism, of mental wellness, and of gender from a queer and trans perspective. Between the contrast of high lyric and direct prose poems, Yanyi invites the reader to consider how to speak with multiple identities through trauma, transition, and ordinary life (Yale University Press)

About the facilitators:

Dorcas Tang 邓佳颖 (she/they): Dorcas is an artist living, thinking, and playing on unceded Gadigal land. They are interested in conversations with people.

Alina Wang (she/they): Alina is an artist living and working on unceded Lenape land (Philadelphia). Through image-making, Alina explores gesture, process, materiality, and what it means to document and remember.

Accessibility information

The Storefront Gallery at Asian Arts Initiative is ADA-accessible. There are non-gendered restrooms and drinking water located near the space. Digital copies of the excerpts from each text that we will be discussing will be provided to participants ahead of each session. Snacks will be provided during each session, and the final session will include a potluck. We are able to cover ground transportation costs for two participants if transportation costs pose a barrier to attending.

We're looking forward to sharing the space with you.

Contact

[email protected]

for any access needs or questions

This reading group has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. Additionally, the reading group has been jointly supported by Asian Arts Initiative and TILT Institute for the Contemporary Image.

The first iteration of the Love Me Long Time reading group was hosted in March 2023 at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art and co-facilitated with Tian Zhang.

• Register Here!