AIISF Newsletter / July 2025
A Message From AIISF’s Executive Director
Dear AIISF Friends and Family,
July marks the start of AIISF’s fiscal year. The board and staff are currently reflecting on the successes and lessons learned from the past 12 months, and I wanted to share a few statistics that highlight our accomplishments.
Over the past 12 months, our team:
Launched a new Poetry Finder
Relaunched our Immigrant Voices website
Reached over 533,610 through our social media and websites
Drew over 23,000 visitors to the site
Hosted 49 in-person programs, virtual programs, and outreach events
Managed 2 travelling exhibits and hosted 1 travelling exhibit
Provided field trip scholarships to 2,009 students
Keep in mind that this is with a team of just 4.5 staff (not including our amazing partners at Angel Island State Park who run the daily operations, maintenance, and tours on the site). This level of output is equivalent to museums with 3-5 times (or more!) the staff and budget that AIISF has.
We’re proud not only of WHAT and HOW MUCH we do, but also of HOW we carry out this work with our organizational values at heart. AIISF creates community, belonging, and inclusion in our workplace, events, programs, and exhibits. We ensure that our interactions are grounded in integrity, respect, and collaboration. We promote learning–particularly about the nation’s complex history of racism and exclusion – while also celebrating the strength, resiliencies, and contributions that immigrants have made and continue to make to the US.
As we start this new fiscal year amidst a sea of potential challenges, we stand strong in our refusal to sugar-coat Angel Island’s history. We won’t stop naming and calling out the racism and exclusion that led to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (and subsequent immigration policies) and to the creation of a U.S. immigration station (a.k.a detention center) at Angel Island. We will not erase the history of how Asian and Pacific Islander immigrants at Angel Island experienced more invasive and humiliating medical exams, more intensive interrogations, and longer periods of detention compared to their European counterparts.
We need your support to remain steadfast in our mission, vision, and values. Please consider making a donation, as we kick off this new fiscal year, to support our programs, exhibits, and operations. Or, help us raise the final $250,000 we need to complete phase 1 of our Pathways to Immigration special campaign, which will bring much needed repairs to the immigration station’s outdoor terraces.
The recent onslaught of anti-immigrant policies and actions have reminded us that racism and xenophobia are not relics of the past. They are current-day realities. Yet, all of us at AIISF remain committed to a more equitable and inclusive future: one that embodies how immigrants make nations better.
Thank you for your solidarity and partnership,
Edward Tepporn
Executive Director
Pathways to Immigration Special Campaign
Through our Pathways to Immigration Special Campaign, you can 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 ago or days ago, we welcome your name and your support.
Upcoming Events
Lincoln Summer Nights
June 10 | 5 - 8 pm
Lincoln Square Park, Oakland
Click here to learn more
Oakland Parks, Recreation and Youth Development is hosting another fun-filled season of Lincoln Summer Nights!
Come find us at Lincoln Square Park on July 10th and August 14th.
We’ll be doing a variety of arts and crafts, as well as showing off different ways you can learn about Angel Island’s history.
We hope to see you there!
Hands on History
July 12 | 12 - 3:30 pm
Angel Island Immigration Museum
Click here to learn more
Take a trip out to Angel Island and make some art while learning about the history of the site!
Alien Miss: Carlina Duan and the Last Hoisan Poets
July 26 | 12 - 1 pm
Angel Island Immigration Station
Click here to register
Experience live poetry at the Detention Barracks Museum on Angel Island! The performance will be included in the $5 admission to the museum.
Listen as accomplished poet and author Carlina Duan will reads selections from her work Alien Miss and debuts new poems.
Also, Genny Lim and Nellie Wong, members of the collective The Last Hoisan Poets, will read their work alongside guzheng accompaniment!
Gateways in Dialogue V: Staffing the Stations
July 30 | 5 pm PDT
On Zoom
Click here to register
Join us for the fifth event in our ongoing collaborative series with the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation.
Learn about staff personnel on both islands through a 1-hour presentation and Q&A!
The event will be hosted by Stephen Lean, Director of the American Family Immigration Center, and our Director of Education, Danielle Wetmore!
BBQ Without Borders
August 2 | 3 - 7 pm
Oakland Museum of California
Click here for tickets
Meet us at BBQ Without Borders, the family-friendly event by No Immigrants No Spice!
Savor food and performances while celebrating the diverse communities that make up the Bay Area!
AIISF will premiere special Immigrant Voices videos featuring the barbecue's starring chefs:
Tacos Mama Cuca's Maria Marquez; Popoca's Anthony Salguero; Cafe Colucci's Daniel Yeshivas; and Third Culture Bakery's Sam Butarbutar and Wenter Shyu.
Taken From Their Families is at Heart Mountain
Now to October 2025
Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, Wyoming
Our traveling exhibit, Taken From Their Families, is on display at Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, a museum located at a former World War II Japanese American confinement site in Wyoming.
Community and Partner Programs
Volunteer with Angel Island State Park!
Angel Island State Park is looking for volunteers!
Available roles include helping at the immigration station, supporting programming at Camp Reynolds, and contributing to park beautification!
For more information, contact Angel Island State Park:
Email: tours.angelisland@parks.ca.gov
Phone: (415) 435-5537
Become a Chinatown History & Art Tour Docent
Apply by: July 31
Click here to learn more
The Chinese Culture Center (CCC) is seeking Docents to lead their Chinatown History & Art Tour and support educational programs through the Learning Center, located in the heart of San Francisco Chinatown.
The tour program is an immersive, place-based learning opportunity that educates students and visitors on the art and history of Chinatown’s community activism and resiliency.
All candidates will receive hands-on training on Chinatown history, contemporary arts, and museum education practices.
All Eyes On Us: Invention & Ingenuity During Artistic Diasporas
March 27 - December 13
Edge on the Square
Click here to learn more
Visit All Eyes on Us at Edge on the Square!
The exhibition spotlights “hidden dragons”: individuals whose artistic careers, practices and expressions shape-shifted or became dormant as they navigated the complexities of immigration, assimilation and survival.
Featuring sound art, installations, and more, the exhibition centers Asian American and diasporic stories of resilience, ingenuity and triumph over adversity.
Community Resources
Oasis Legal Services
Oasis Legal Services provides legal assistance with asylum, residency, naturalization, VAWA, and family petitions for LGBTQ+ immigrants. Oasis also provides holistic social services to existing clients.
It is is the leading organization on the West Coast championing statewide and national policies benefitting LGBTQ+ immigrants.
Geographical areas served by Oasis include California, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, and parts of Nevada.
SIREN: Monthly DACA Renewal Clinics
Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN) serves low-income immigrants and refugees in California.
They are hosting monthly virtual DACA renewal clinics for the rest of 2025, with this month's on July 14.
Additionally, SIREN's Immigration Legal Services program provides free legal consultations on Thursdays for general immigration questions and Free Removal Defense consultations on Fridays. It offers information and referrals through its multilingual hotline on questions including immigration, naturalization, health and civil rights.
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.