Jazz and 400+ archival artifacts tell the story of the Asian American fight for rights
At the Asian Arts Initiative's 'Crescendo,' music meets art meets archives that have never been digitized before.
A banner from the “Asian Americans for Jesse Jackson” campaign welcomes visitors to “Crescendo,” an ongoing archival exhibition at Asian Arts Initiative. The 1988 presidential campaign banner sets the tone for the show as it documents and explores intersectional activism in Asian American communities through the 1990s and 2000s.
Campaign fliers and photographs from Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition remind us how Asian American activists participated in this multiracial political movement, with community organizers rallying diverse neighborhoods across California.
But “Crescendo” is not all about this one presidential campaign. The exhibition unfolds in three sections featuring major collective projects: Asian Improv aRts/Records, the Afro Asian Music Ensemble, and the Far East Side Band. The artist-activists involved in the featured projects used music to bridge racial and generational divides, shaping the sociopolitical landscape of their time. Vinyl records such as Fred Houn and the Afro-Asian Music Ensemble’s We Refuse to be Used and Abused and Tomorrow is Now! hang on a wall above glass cases of well-preserved archival materials.
In one of the glass cases sit newspaper clippings from the 1985 publication Unity/La Unidad, featuring an article titled “National Student anti-apartheid conference.” The paper’s faded photograph of a young boy, masked and holding a flower, sits above a blurb for an interview with a Palestinian National Council member. This bimonthly publication (1978-1990), translated in three languages, English, Spanish, and Chinese, and published in San Francisco, was a key connector for communities of color and immigrants and provided information on workers’ rights, women’s liberation, and social justice.
Curator Joyce Chung, with assistants Cole Roberts and Liz Karceswki, collected more than 400 archival materials, many of which had never been archived or digitized, from the artists who preserved their movement documentation. That includes yellowed programs and newspaper articles detailing the work of a group called Asian American Artists Against Apartheid, who performed during events that campaigned to end apartheid in South Africa, standing with other activists worldwide.
Philadelphian Theodore Harris, renowned for his collage work and poetry, is a part of the exhibit. His collaboration with Amiri Baraka, founder of the Black Arts Movement, pairs Harris’ collages with Baraka’s prose, which serves as captions to the images. Philadelphia’s deep history of activism and artistic innovation is deeply woven throughout the archives, proving that art has long served as a catalyst for social change in the city’s legacy of resistance.
Among other featured artists is Fortune, a local artist collective whose Annotated Readers (2021) project explores queer movements, affordable housing, and civil rights through community reflections.
“Crescendo” reinforces that social movements do not happen in isolation, but with resonance and visibility. Asian Americans have long pushed back against the “model minority” stereotype, with a history of active involvement in civil rights activism, labor movements, anti-war protests, and community organizing. They have built alliances with other marginalized groups and used culture to showcase the diversity of their experiences.
“We often look at the accomplishments, but we aren’t aware of the struggle that’s involved,” Jon Jang, an American jazz pianist and composer whose collaborative work with Francis Wong for Asian Improv Records/aRts (AIR) is featured in the exhibition, said during a press event preceding the opening. Jang’s contributions to the exhibit include his 1999 album Self Portrait, a poster promoting “Tiananmen!,” his collaborative project with the Pan Asian Arkestra, program brochures, and a copy of the ImprovisAsians! Zine.
Listening stations allow visitors to experience the groundbreaking sounds of the Far East Side Band, which fused Chinese classical instruments with jazz, and the Afro Asian Music Ensemble, which blended traditional Asian scales with African polyrhythms.
Through its retrospective approach and deep appreciation for these creators’ contributions, “Crescendo” seeks to inspire future generations of activists. Tucked in the back room of the exhibition is a resource library of catalogs, artist monographs, and scholarly texts, inviting visitors to engage more deeply with the artworks. Guests are encouraged to borrow materials and leave their thoughts within them for others to discover.
“Crescendo: How Art Makes Movements (1981-1999)” is on view at Asian Arts Initiative, 1219 Vine St., Phila., asianartsinitiative.org.