Lecturer: Office of Storytelling, Denver Human Rights & Community Partnerships with Leyuan Li, Rowena Alegría, Emily Maxwell, and Roxana Soto

Title: Reclaiming Denver’s Chinatown

Date: Monday, April 10

Time: 6:00 p.m., MT

Location: Denver Art Museum

RSVP: Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management

Lecture Description
 

Please join us at the Denver Art Museum (DAM) for a screening of the documentary film Reclaiming Denver's Chinatown followed by a panel discussion with the filmmakers from the City of Denver's Office of Storytelling as well as members from Colorado Asian Pacific United (CAPU).

El Pomar Atrium
 

6 p.m. | Reception
6:30 p.m. | DAM Welcome
_________

Lewis I. Sharp Auditorium
 

6:45 p.m. | Introduction
6:55 p.m. | Film Screening
7:50 p.m. | Panel and Q&A

The Office of Storytelling

The Denver Office of Storytelling (DOST) preserves and shares the history and culture of the city primarily by creating #IAmDenver films in the voices of residents. Through story, the office strives to inform decision-making at City Hall and to uplift community voices for conversation and engagement, particularly around issues of social justice.

Since 2019, DOST has created more than 400 stories – from descendants of Denver’s first Chinese families to daring drag queens, unsung heroes, inspiring wheelchair activists, and so much more. In 2022, among the honors the team received were cultural heritage awards from History Colorado and the XicanIndia Film Festival for its first full-length documentary, Chicanas: Nurturers and Warriors.

The Storytelling Team
Rowena Alegría is Denver’s Chief Storyteller, founder and director of the city’s first Office of Storytelling and the citywide storytelling and cultural preservation project #IAmDenver. Alegría is an award-winning writer, editor, filmmaker, career journalist and communications executive.

Roxana A. Soto is an Emmy award-winning bilingual documentary filmmaker, producer and author who joined the Denver Office of Storytelling in 2019. A veteran journalist with over 25 years experience in broadcast, print and digital media, she has traveled extensively both nationally and internationally to explore issues and communities often misunderstood and historically overlooked. Bilingual is Better, her book on the benefits of growing up speaking more than one language, was published in 2012.

Emily Maxwell is an award-winning visual journalist and documentary producer whose adventures in storytelling have taken her from the forgotten streets of the Midwest to a rhino sanctuary in Indonesia. As the team’s sole visual journalist at present, Emily shoots and produces documentaries and short features about missing history and stories of Denver’s underrepresented communities.

The panel discussion will be moderated by Visiting Assistant Professor of Architecture Leyuan Li. Li is a Chinese architect, educator, and researcher whose professional and academic work focuses on interior and urban realms in the articulation of underrepresented identities, situations, and societies. He has practiced architecture internationally at OMA, SOM, and Affordable Housing Lab.

Presented by

The Catherine and Alec Garbini Fund
for Preservation and Placemaking

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