The Asian American Arts Alliance Presents a Closer Look at SWELL: Intimate Conversations with Asian Immigrants and Children of Asian Immigrants Who Turned Their Stories

The Asian American Arts Alliance will present A Closer Look at SWELL: Intimate Conversations with Asian Immigrants and Children of Asian Immigrants Who Turned Their Stories Into Song, a 75-minute performance and conversation series in celebration of Immigrant Heritage Month. It will take place as a two-part series on Tuesday, June 22, 2021 and Tuesday, June 29, 2021 at 6:00 p.m. online via Zoom.

SWELL is a new music song cycle written by ten composers who are immigrants and children of immigrants, with each song describing some aspect of the composers' immigrant experience. In partnership with HERE, SWELL had a premiere of a live, online run in 2021. Half the songs were written by Asian American composers with Filipino, Indian, Japanese, and Taiwanese heritage, comprising both first- and second-generation immigrants.

SWELL's producer and lyricist, Melisa Tien, and SWELL's music director, Tian Hui Ng, will facilitate illuminating conversations with the show's composers and singers. Each evening will showcase three composers along with their songs, and one of the singers.

The first evening on Tuesday, June 22 features:

• Carolyn Chen
• Justine F. Chen
• Hai-Ting Chinn
• Kamala Sankaram

The second evening on Tuesday, June 29 features:

• Joshua Cerdenia
• Justine F. Chen
• Leyna Marika Papach
• Alok Kumar

ASL interpretation will provided on both evenings. Closed captioning will be available via rev.com. ASL interpretation of the songs will also be available and provided by Jose Gomez, Justine Rivera, and Kathleen D. Taylor, in consultation with Alexandria Wailes.

Tickets to this two-part series are FREE and open to the public. RSVP is required HERE.