AIISF Newsletter / April 2026
A Message From AIISF’s Executive Director
Dear AIISF Friends and Family,
Over the past months, we’ve witnessed ongoing attempts to erase history and to target immigrants. This week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the Administration’s 2025 executive order to end birthright citizenship. In 1898, the Supreme Court decided in the United States vs Wong Kim Ark that the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship clause applied to all persons born in the US. This included those of Chinese ancestry, even though the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited Chinese immigrants from becoming US citizens. While Wong Kim Ark was not processed or detained on Angel Island, at least two of his sons were while the station was in operation. Like many of you, I will continue to closely follow the court’s deliberations.
During these turbulent times, it can be difficult to find glimmers of hope and joy. Some of you may remember the Mosaic Whispers, WashU’s oldest all-gender a cappella group, from our 2020 virtual gala. This past weekend, I and about 1/3 of all the Mosaic Whisper alumni traveled back to St. Louis for our 35th Anniversary Splash of Color concert. I also had the chance to reconnect with several college classmates as well as to catch dinner with several colleagues from my first job at St. Louis Effort For AIDS.
All of my experiences this past weekend reminded me that we must actively cultivate joy and connection in order to fuel our resilience and resistance in these challenging times. I hope that in the coming weeks and months, each of you finds opportunities to do the same.
One of the events that refuels me every year is AIISF's annual Immigrant Heritage Awards. It’s one of our main fundraisers, and it is also always a wonderful opportunity to come together to celebrate our awardees and to be in community with one another. This year, we are thrilled to be recognizing:
Former AIISF Board President Buck Gee with a Lifetime Achievement Award
Kai Li, PhD for his efforts to lift up immigrant contributions to science and tech
PG&E for their continued corporate partnership
Charles Egan, PhD for his work to help translate the inscriptions on Angel Island
Sponsorships and tickets are still available at www.aiisf.org/iha2026 but act fast as we do anticipate that this event will sell out.
There are quite a few exciting projects that we have been working fast and furiously on for the past several months. Stay tuned for more information about Family Day 2026 (Saturday, June 13); an updated virtual tour experience (May 2026); and several exhibitions that are currently in development for the Fall.
None of this is possible without your support. So even if you are not able to join us for our 15th Annual Immigrant Heritage Awards, I hope that you will consider making a contribution to support our work. Like many other nonprofits, over the past few months, we have seen a slowdown in donations. Without you continued support, we won’t be able to maintain our current team and pace in our efforts to preserve the site, uplift its histories, and to help build a future where belonging is a collective right and responsibility.
With deep appreciation,
Edward Tepporn
Executive Director
2026 Immigrant Heritage Awards Reception
15th Annual Immigrant Heritage Awards Reception
April 25 | 5 - 7 pm
Westin St. Francis San Francisco on Union Square
Click here to learn more
Join us for an elevated evening on the top floor of the Westin St. Francis San Francisco on Union Square featuring:
Guest musical performances
Tasting stations
Open beer and wine bar
Awards ceremony for this year's honorees
Come and support AIISF's preservation work, programs, and operations throughout the year!
Pathways to Immigration Special Campaign
Through our Pathways to Immigration Special Campaign, you can have your family or company name engraved onsite at the Angel Island Immigration Station! Commemorate your own immigration journey, honor your family’s immigrant heritage, or show your allyship with immigrant communities.
Whether you or your family came through Angel Island or elsewhere, and whether you arrived in the US decades or days ago, we welcome your name and support!
Upcoming Events
Hands on History
April 11 | 12 - 3:30 pm
Angel Island Immigration Station
Click here to learn more
A new month means more Hands on History!
Stop by the 2nd floor of the Angel Island Immigration Museum to make origami with us. Fold boats and learn about the steamships that brought immigrants to the U.S.
Gateways in Dialogue: Through Young Eyes
April 30 | 5-6 pm PDT
On Zoom
Click here to learn more
What was it like for children to immigrate to the United States? Join us for the next installment of Gateways in Dialogue, a collaboration with the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, to find out!
The session will be presented by Stephen Lean, Director of the American Family Immigration History Center, and AIISF's Director of Education Danielle Wetmore. There will be an audience Q&A.
Registration is required. We welcome new participants who have not attended Gateways sessions previously.
Field Trips: Summer Tours, Now Open!
Angel Island State Park's summer tour slots (for July through early September 2026) are now open!
Tours have a limit of 40 people (students and teachers) for K-12 groups; the limit is 30 for the general public. Scholarships are available! To help with the booking process, Angel Island State Park has also created this guide.
Virtual Field Trips
Virtual programs for middle and high schools with block schedules will also be available from July to early September. For more information about virtual field trips, please email Angel Island State Park at tours.angelisland@parks.ca.gov.
Community Events
Mix, Mingle & Be Moved: An Evening with SF Poet Laureate Genny Lim, Musicians Christ Trinidad and Pianist Unpil Baek
April 6, 2026 | 5:30 - 8 pm
The Commonwealth Club of California - Taube Family Auditorium
Click here for tickets
Come to the Commonwealth Club for an evening of poetry, music, and conversation, featuring San Francisco Poet Laureate Genny Lim. Doors open at 5:30 pm; the main program runs from 6-7 pm; and the night wraps up with a reception and book signing from 7-8 pm.
Tickets are required. Copies of Genny Lim's book, Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, are for sale when you register (the "Book & General Admission" option).
Lenora Lee Dance's 1st NEW WORKS Festival
April 10, 2026 | 8 pm
April 11, 2026 | 8 pm
April 12, 2026 | 3 pm
Dance Mission Theater
Click here for tickets
Lenora Lee Dance (LLD) is thrilled to present its 1st NEW WORKS Festival with performance works & film by choreographers Lynn Huang, Amber Julian, Flora Hyoin Kim (NYC), SanSan Kwan, Lenora Lee & Moyra Silva Rodríguez, Johnny Huy Nguyen, Catalina O’Connor, dazaun soleyn.
Image: Installation view of Chiharu Shiota: Two Home Countries at Japan Society Gallery, New York, 2025. Photo by Waso Danilenko. © ARS, New York, 2026 and Chiharu Shiota.
Chiharu Shiota: Two Home Countries at the Asian Art Museum
April 3, 2026 - July 20, 2026
Asian Art Museum
Click here to learn more
Osaka-born, Berlin-based artist Chiharu Shiota's first solo museum exhibition in the Bay Area, Two Home Countries, opens this month!
Featuring works from throughout Shiota’s career, the exhibition offers a timely meditation on belonging, impermanence, and living with “in-betweenness.” Navigating an existence suspended between Japan and Germany, absence and presence, isolation and belonging, Shiota explores the threads of memory, history, and identity that make up the complex fabric of our shared reality.
Oakland Ballet Company's Angel Island
May 8-9 | 7:30 pm (Friday) and 2:30 pm (Saturday)
Herbst Theatre San Francisco
Click here to purchase tickets
The Oakland Ballet Company along with the Del Sol Quartet and the Volti singers conducted by Robert Geary is proud to present this profoundly poignant, but also inspiring interpretation of Angel Island by composer Huang Ruo. Angel Island portrays the anguish and aspiration experienced by hundreds of Chinese immigrants detained on Angel Island Immigration Station in the decades between 1910 and 1940.
Choreographed by AAPI artists Natasha Adorlee, Phil Chan, Lawrence Chen, Elaine Kudo, Ashley Thopiah, and Wei Wang this work is an informative, impressionistic, sadly relevant, but ultimately uplifting tribute to the fortitude of the human spirit. It is a heartfelt collaboration by a singular group of extraordinary artists, not to be missed.
How Can You Forget Me: Filipino American Stories
Open daily, 10 am - 5:30 pm
Smithsonian National Museum of American History (Washington, DC)
Click here to learn more
The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center's (APAC) first exhibition at the National Museum of American History is now open!
How Can You Forget Me: Filipino American Stories explores the overlooked history of a trailblazing Filipino community in California from the 1910s to the 1970s through twenty-six steamer trunks found in 2005, three of which are on display in the gallery. The trunks belonged to mostly male migrants who settled and established a vibrant community in Stockton ("Little Manila").
While DC is far from the Bay, APAC's website features exhibition-related resources, including articles and oral histories!
Community Resources
SIREN: Free Legal Clinic
April 14 | 4-7 pm
KIPP Heritage Academy (423 Los Arboles St, San Jose)
On April 14, SIREN (Services, Immigrant Rights & Education Network) is offering an evening of free immigration-related legal consults, 20 minute appointments, no sign-up necessary.
SIREN’s mission is to empower low-income immigrants and refugees through community education and organizing, leadership development, policy advocacy, civic engagement and legal services. They believe that all people regardless of legal status or nationality are entitled to essential services, human dignity, basic rights and protections, and access to full participation in society.
For questions about the event, contact SIREN at (408) 453-3003.
AIISF is a small (but mighty) nonprofit that has worked tirelessly for the past 42 years to preserve the buildings at Angel Island and to elevate the stories of immigrants. Our ability to continue these preservation efforts and to continue to offer free or low-cost programs is dependent on the support of community members like you. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to AIISF.