Awareness and Activism Through Art
By Charlene Tonai Din | She/Her/Hers
Oakland, CA
Jodo Shinshu Buddhist, Berkeley Buddhist Temple
In 2017, during my freshman year of high school, I entered the “Growing Up Asian In America” Bay Area art contest which encouraged students to share their concerns for their community and nation with Senator Kamala Harris. At the beginning of brainstorming, I knew I wanted to somehow highlight the ways in which the U.S. government’s incarceration of 125,000 people of Japanese ancestry, including my grandparents and great-grandparents, was horrifyingly similar to problems today. My digital drawing shows San Francisco Japantown’s illuminated peace pagoda, with an Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer arresting and escorting a father away while two children wave goodbye from a train. The children’s sullen faces are juxtaposed with the activist Malala’s comforting expression as she holds a sign that reads: “No Ban, No Wall. Sanctuary for All.”
As a descendant of those wrongfully incarcerated and a person living in an area where Latinx and Southeast Asians are currently being deported, I wanted to illustrate how the separation of families, violations of basic human rights, and racial prejudice of over 75 years ago are still present today. I was ecstatic when my art was named one of three “Best In Class” winners for the high school category!
From a young age I have wanted to make the world a more aware and positive place in some way or another, and this experience made me realize I could use art to do so. Attending the awards ceremony and being interviewed on the local news with other impassioned youth, some still in elementary school, encouraged me to look for other ways to take action. The following year, I joined an Oakland-based Asian youth leadership and activist organization, AYPAL, and participated in their annual May Arts festival. A few other young artists and I painted a large-scale painting for the event, highlighting the various ways our families came to the U.S. and emphasizing the importance of knowing history in order to know oneself. We felt it was very important to show gratitude to our ancestors in order to inspire others to feel the same. In more recent years I have regularly volunteered to create designs and merchandise for my school’s Asian Student Union and my temple’s Junior Young Buddhists Association. It was so fulfilling to see people wearing crewnecks with my designs, representing organizations that I led, and being proud to do so. I am endlessly continuing to learn how to use art as a medium to express important parts of my identity and family history, and to help promote awareness and activism. And while I haven’t made as much art as I would have liked to during recently, this prompt has encouraged me to dive back into my creative work...maybe I’ll even start a lil’ sticker shop, so stay tuned!
