Angel Island Foundation Dinner - September 12, 2008

CGS member Jeanie W. Chooey Low sent this announcement:

There's still time to get your tickets to the The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation Annual Fundraising Dinner held next Friday, September 12, 2008 at the Westin San Francisco Market Street, 50 Third Street, San Francisco. Tickets are $200 and proceeds go to continuing the Foundation's efforts to inform the public about the rich history of the Immigration Station and its implications today.

The keynote speaker is Dr. Erika Lee, co-author of Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America with Judy Yung. The book is due out in 2010, but you will get a preview of the new stories emerging from their studies of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Russian immigrants, who passed through Angel Island between 1910 and 1940.

Pianist/composer Jon Jang will perform Prologue to Angel Voices, a series of musical compositions inspired by new translations of the Chinese poems carved on the Detention Barrack walls, Japanese poems written about the Angel Island experience, and excerpts from a Russian immigrant's letters about his stay on the island.

Come learn about the upcoming reopening of the Immigration Station on February 15, 2009. To buy tickets, email your contact information to info@aiisf.org or call Julie at 415-262-4429.

From the The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation Web site:

The immigration experience is a common thread binding the histories of most Americans. Whether escaping persecution, poverty or lack of economic prospects, immigrants have come to the United States for the ideals it represents — freedom, democracy, and opportunity. Most Americans know the story of Ellis Island, where immigrants crossing the Atlantic Ocean were processed. But the story of its West Coast counterpart, Angel Island, is little-known.

Located in the middle of San Francisco Bay, Angel Island Immigration Station was routinely the first stop for immigrants crossing the Pacific Ocean. The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation (AIISF) is the nonprofit partner of California State Parks and the National Park Service in the effort to preserve, restore and interpret the historic immigration station.