Artist Conversation with Rina Ayuyang and Thien Pham, moderated by Jenifer K Wofford

Refreshments provided

Join award-winning artists Rina Ayuyang and Thien Pham as they discuss their works in Long Distance Relationship: Asian American Comics Artists and the Complexities of Connecting with curator Jenifer K Wofford. Topics will include food, Dancing with the Stars, noire, family, zines, and the transdisciplinary practice of creating graphic novels and memoirs.

About the speakers:

Rina Ayuyang (she/her) was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. She has been making comics for over 20 years. The Man in The McIntosh Suit, (Drawn & Quarterly Press, 2023) is a Filipino-American take on Depression-era noir set in San Francisco’s Manilatown. Her acclaimed Blame This on the Boogie, (Drawn & Quarterly Press, 2018) is an homage to the American Musical, exploring themes of ethnic identity, family, and pop-culture fanaticism.

Thien Pham (he/him) is a graphic novelist and educator based in Oakland, CA. Author and illustrator of the graphic novel Sumo and the illustrator for the middle-grade graphic novel Level Up, written by Gene Luen Yang. His latest book is the Eisner Award winner Family Style (First Second, 2023), a graphic memoir about his family's immigration from Vietnam to America told through the lens of food.

Moderator Jenifer K Wofford is a San Francisco artist and educator whose work investigates hybridity, history, calamity and global culture, often with a humorous bent. She is also 1/3 of the Filipina-American artist trio M.O.B. Among the courses she teaches at USF are Filipino American Arts and Comics in the Margins.

Co-presented by the AAPI Center