What is Listen to the Silence?

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Listen to the Silence (LTS) is Stanford's annual Asian American issues conference. It was first held in 1995 out of a need to increase the visibility of Asian American issues as well as the conditions of the Asian American community. The theme of this year's conference is "Strengthening Solidarity: Joining Forces in a Distanced World."

Each year’s conference features workshops hosted by students, nonprofits, and community leaders, all centered around the intersection between history, identity, and social change. By providing a platform to discuss this intersection, LTS opens an avenue for taking action and creating cross-cultural coalitions. To this end, it is open to everyone, including those who do not identify as Asian or Asian American, in order to provide a space for diverse perspectives and dialogue.

Ultimately, LTS aims to provide tangible tools and resources to empower participants to work towards creating a more equitable society as part of the broader movement for social justice.
Listen to the Silence is organized by Stanford AASA (Asian American Student Association).
The 25th annual LTS conference will be held virtually over Zoom in the last week of February (2/21 - 2/26). This year’s theme, “Strengthening Solidarity: Joining Forces in a Distanced World” focuses on ways to build coalitions and fight for collective justice, even in a pandemic reality. This theme was chosen in light of a year filled with causes for radicalization and urgent calls for meaningful change. We aim to engage with and understand topics like the recent surge in COVID-fueled anti-Asian hate crimes and this summer's renewed calls for Black lives all through the lens of the Asian-American identity. By the end of the conference, we hope participants can apply newfound knowledge and tools to the collective struggle towards liberation, justice, and equity. 

There’s no denying that 2020 was a challenging year. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken the lives of nearly 400,000 Americans, and has disproportionately impacted Black and Indigenous communities. It has also been used to justify a wave of hate crimes and incredibly harmful rhetoric toward Asian Americans. Simultaneously, the United States experienced a renewed call for Black lives after the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the shooting of Jacob Blake, three out of far too many victims of police brutality. In many ways, 2020 was symptomatic of the need to dismantle the deep-seeded white supremacy that has pervaded the United States since its conception. 

The history of Asian American solidarity is complex. The model minority myth was created to diminish racial justice movements and used to sustain white supremacy. Asian American complicity with the myth comes at the expense of other people of color, as well as underrepresented groups within the Asian American community. Asian Americans have also been complicit in a history of anti-Blackness and colorism within their own community, and should be held accountable for the way that they have harmed other communities. 

But, Asian Americans have also built powerful coalitions to fight for both their own liberation and the liberation of others. Inspiration comes from the work of activists like Yuri Kochiyama and Grace Lee Boggs, who were active voices in the 20th century Civil Rights movement. It comes from leaders on our own campuses, like the students who fought for increased ethnic studies programs in the 1989 Stanford takeover of the president’s office. But it doesn’t just come from those on the face of movements—in many of our own circles, there are Asian Americans who have committed to educating those around them, contributing to grassroots organizations, and advocating for legislation that protects the rights of all people. When Asian Americans stand alongside others in the fight against oppression, their voices can be powerful forces for positive change.

The goal of this year’s Listen to the Silence is to discuss the need for true solidarity and inspire a continued fight for collective justice, even in a pandemic reality. When we recognize the way that our liberation is interconnected with other marginalized communities, and work to uplift the voices of those around us, we are more effective in building an equitable and just future. Though the pandemic has increased feelings of stagnation and isolation for many, we hope that this conference helps you see new ways to bring energy, hope, and connectedness to your fight for liberation. 

 Recognition of Space During Black History Month

 The LTS team understands that our conference will take place during Black History Month. We stand in support and solidarity with the Black community. While also on this website and engaging with our conference, please check out some of their resources below:

Recognition of our Geographic Space 

Though we are virtual this year, Listen to the Silence typically takes place on Stanford campus, and we acknowledge that Stanford campus is located on Muwekma Ohlone land and that our institution has  a history of marginalizing and stealing from native and indigenous communities. Thus, in addition to this acknowledgement, we encourage you, as well, to learn more and better understand on what native lands you reside. Please check the resource below, which is by no means the only resource you can explore:


SCHEDULE

When: Sunday, February 21, 2021 - Friday, February 26, 2021

Where: Virtual!

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Michelle Kim

Michelle Kim is an entrepreneur and diversity, equity, and inclusion thought leader who believes in creating compassionate space for uncomfortable conversations that go beyond just “checking the box.” She is the CEO of Awaken, a leading provider of interactive DEI workshops, where she has consulted hundreds of organizations and top executives from Fortune 500 to tech giants to spark meaningful change. Michelle has been a lifelong social justice activist and has served on a variety of organizations such as the San Francisco LGBTQ Speakers Bureau, SF Human Rights Commission’s Advisory Committee, and LYRIC nonprofit’s Board of Directors. Her work has appeared on world-renowned platforms such as Harvard Business Review, Forbes, The New York Times, and NPR, and she has been named Medium’s Top Writer in Diversity three years in a row. Michelle is also the author of the upcoming book, The Wake Up: Closing the Gap Between Good Intentions and Real Change!

Subscribe for book updates here: https://tinyurl.com/yy6g2a2v
 
Follow Michelle on:
Instagram: @michellekimkim
Twitter: @mjmichellekim
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjmichellekim/


Workshop Leaders

Nandini Ray  

​Lisa Doi
Workshop Time: Monday, Feb 22 4:00PM PST
Nandini Ray, Manager of Maitri’s Outreach & Prevention Program: Nandini holds M.A. in Journalism, B.A in Philosophy from University of Calcutta, India. And B.A. in Sociology from University Of Toronto, Canada. Prior joining Maitri, Nandini worked as a freelance journalist at leading publications in India. Nandini is multilingual, fluent in English, Bengali, and Hindi.

​ At Maitri she builds relationship with community based organizations & community groups, attends community events, presentations, panel discussions, provides trainings for service providers, and work for media presentation for Maitri. Her effort has strengthened Maitri’s social media presence and she hosts Maitri’s podcast, Between Friends, Conversations with Maitri
Workshop Time: Tuesday, Feb 23 4:00PM PST
Lisa Doi’s family was held at Rohwer, Crystal City, Santa Anita, and Tanforan. She is the fourth generation in her family to make a home in Chicago. There she is the president of JACL Chicago and a member of the Midwest Buddhist Temple. With JACL Chicago, Lisa focuses on youth leadership and identity development and has facilitated several youth-focused pilgrimages to Manzanar, Rohwer, and Jerome. Lisa has completed M.A. research on Japanese American residential patterns in Chicago. She is for Issei voices and stories of those who did not survive their confinement. 

Tsuru For Solidarity is a direct action, nonviolent project organized by members of the Japanese American community in collaboration with allied national organizations and networks. Their mission is to end detention and separation of families in the United States.

Sneha George

Workshop date/time: Wednesday, 2/24, 4 PM PST

Dr.  Russell Jeung

Presentation date/time: Thursday, 2/25 3:30 PM PST
Sneha works with SouthAsians4BlackLives, CAT911, and the movement to abolish campus police and policing (UCFTP, and other UC abolitionist organizing). She is also a Ph.D. candidate in Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Riverside.
 
Sneha’s academic and organizing work centers women of color feminisms and queer theory and practice to address the following: identity as relationality, relationships with antiblackness and indigenous genocide, and other worldly possibilities that can emerge from communal and relational self-reflexivity as praxis and being.
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Professor of Asian American Studies at SF State University, Dr. Jeung is author of several books and articles on race and religion, including, Family Sacrifices: The Worldviews and Ethics of Chinese Americans (Oxford University Press, 2019); Moving Movers: Student Activism and the Emergence of Asian American Studies (UCLA Asian American Studies Center, 2019); and At Home in Exile: Finding Jesus among My Ancestors and Refugee Neighbors (Zondervan, 2016).

In 2020, Dr. Jeung co-founded Stop AAPI Hate with Chinese for Affirmative Action and the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council. It is the leading aggregator of anti-Asian hate incidents and a policy advocacy organization addressing COVID-19 discrimination.