THE Smithsonian Asia-Pacific American Center (APAC) canceled the 2023 Asian American Literature Festival just a month before its scheduled date, citing “unforeseen circumstances.” Left in the dark, the festival’s scheduled writers, editors and literary organizations fear the decision was politically motivated, perhaps in relation to the festival’s embrace of trans and non-binary writers and subjects.
The Washington Postby Sophia Nguyen broke the story of the sudden end of the festival on July 14. The next day, an attorney at the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit deposit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that the museum release all documents relating to the cancellation of the festival – as the Smithsonian is largely funded by the federal government, its internal documents are subject to public availability. On July 17, the partners and co-organizers of the festival posted a open letter at the head of the Smithsonian and revealed their financial losses due to cancellation. Concerned groups such as The Massachusetts Review and the Authors Guild wrote their own outrage open letters. Meanwhile, the APAC website vaguely acknowledges the cancellation in a banner on its home pagewhile his festival page lacks any mention of an event this year.
According The Washington Post, the literary festival had been “under routine review for controversial content just before the cancellation, although it’s unclear if or to what extent this may have contributed to the decision”. On July 5, APAC Acting Director Yao-Fen You emailed some (but not all) of the festival’s partners, apologizing for canceling it but offering no explanation. This was the first time any of the email recipients had heard of (let alone) you, which only added to the confusion.
“We had just spoken with the festival team a few hours earlier about very precise logistics. And it just seemed like it came out of nowhere,” said Rosabel Tan, who was organizing a group to travel from Australia and New Zealand for the event. The Washington Post. She revealed that after asking You to reimburse at least the nearly $24,000 already spent on flights, visas and incidentals for their attendees (the Australian and New Zealand governments had invested over $63,000 in programming for and in conjunction with the festival), the director offered a total of $1,000 in fees.
Other partners, including nonprofits and small publishers who had already factored festival proceeds into their budgets, were shocked, especially those who had participated in previous iterations of 2017 And 2019. A number of writers who were due to take part in the 2023 festival said The Washington Post that they had learned of his disappearance only by word of mouth. Poet Ching-In Chen, who organized a trans and non-binary reading room, was one of those who did not receive an email.
When approached for an explanation, the Smithsonian’s chief spokesperson claimed that the festival’s schedule had not been finalized and that organizers had missed critical deadlines to outline its audiovisual and technical components. “Put simply, the program was canceled a full month in advance,” the spokesperson wrote to The Washington Post. “The program was still in development and we made the administrative decision to cancel rather than present a festival that did not meet Smithsonian standards. No publicity had been made and attendees were notified immediately.
Organizers and program coordinators working on the festival disputed the Smithsonian’s version of events, and according to The Washington Post, emails prove that the planning and audiovisual needs of the festival had been finalized well before their deadlines. Emails shared with the newspaper also show You had asked the festival director to deliver a draft memo to Smithsonian management summarizing the event, as all upcoming programming was being reviewed “due to the current political climate” under Smithsonian Directive 603, which identifies anything potentially sensitive. or controversial that could cause a public outcry – again, due to the Smithsonian’s association with the US government. On July 5, the memo was sent to you. That night, the festival was canceled.
In their open letter to Smithsonian management, the festival partners and co-organizers condemn the cancellation of the event, noting that when they “contacted APAC staff from the festival planning team in shock, confusion and distress, we were told that staff were not authorized to speak to us about the cancellation.” They further blame the Smithsonian for blaming them for being unprepared: “From the partners’ perspective, everything was on track; we had no problem setting up our programs in a month. In fact, many of us have participated in the AALF over the past few years and have returned because of our confidence in working with this planning team. »
The letter also highlights the damage caused by this sudden turn of events: “Since the previous festival in 2019, the Asian American community has seen an increase in anti-Asian violence, with trans and non-binary Asian Americans in particular under siege. The cancellation of the festival compounds the violence our community has suffered. The Smithsonian doesn’t just dismiss our work; it eliminates the possibility of our community coming together to mourn and heal.
After expressing concern that the festival was canceled due to its inclusion of trans and non-binary programming (“We condemn in the strongest terms any attempt to censor any part of our community, especially our deeply vulnerable trans and non-binary members”), the letter ends with several demands, including that the Smithsonian provide a specific explanation for its decision to cancel the festival, commit to being transparent in the future, and supporting trans and non-binary writers by reinstating the venue. reading scheduled for later this year, pay the full fees due to scheduled attendees, and postpone the festival to 2024. They are also calling for You’s immediate resignation and a staff search for a new director. The letter is signed by more than 70 festival partners and co-organizers and more than 1,700 supporters, including the likes of Jenny Xie, Alexander Chee and Ocean Vuong.
The Smithsonian has been in the news a lot lately, and not necessarily for good reasons. In May, the National Museum of African Arts found itself looking for a new manager for the third time in six years after Ngaire Blankenberg was reportedly encouraged to resign following clashes with the administration of the Smithsonian. And earlier this month, Nancy Yao resigned from her position as founding director of the future American Women’s History Museum amid accusations of involvement in the unfair dismissals of victims of sexual harassment to her former position as director of the Museum of Chinese in America in New York. (The American Women’s History Museum is one of two new Smithsonian museums at advanced planning stages; the other is the National Latin American Museum.)
Internal struggles at the various Smithsonian entities have also been publicized recently on the Instagram account Change museum, which compiles anonymous complaints of bullying, racism, and toxic work environments at museums across the United States. In fact, the open letter to the Smithsonian cites two specific posts of the narrative that detail what the letter calls “hostile and abusive working conditions” at both ACAC and the Smithsonian generally.
