2024 COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS

2024 Community Conversations
Hosted by Colorado Dragon Boat at the

Denver Sie FilmCenter 

Denver Sie Lobby- 2510 E Colfax Ave, Denver, CO 80206- House 1

All Community Conversations are free and open to the public!

We invite you to continue engaging with our theme of "Connecting through Cultures: Food, Art, Cinema, & Beyond” with two Community Conversations! These two conversations will be hosted at the Denver Sie FilmCenter in House 1.

Each of these community talks will allow you, our audience, to learn more about other Asian organizations and community leaders who share our theme of "Connecting through Cultures"! Our guest speakers come from all over Colorado and the Denver metro area to share their expertise and personal stories. 

These community conversations are FREE to the public! Come join in the conversation and invite your friends! Then go see one of our amazing films afterwards. 

A suggested donation of $5 will go towards our honorariums for our moderators and panelists.

Join us for a community conversation “Connecting Through Cultures with Asian American Adoptees.” This engaging discussion will shed light on the unique experiences of transracial adoptees and ways they have navigated the intricacies of their cultural identities. This community conversation will explore how our panelists creatively connect with their roots, weaving a narrative that delves into the complexities of finding belonging and forging connections across hybrid identities. 

Attendees can expect a rich exploration of the ways in which Asian American adoptees add texture to the dissonance they may encounter, honoring the multifaceted layers of their cultural journeys. This panel will be a space for insightful dialogue and shared stories that celebrate the diversity within the Asian American adoptee community.

This community conversation is FREE to attend, but we do ask that you RSVP and there is a suggestion donation $5.

MEET OUR PANELISTS

​Meet our Moderator

Anna Eunjoo Ghublikian (b. 1985, Seoul, Republic of Korea) is a producer, curator, and artist. They are currently exploring issues of loss and grief, as well as Asian-American histories, identities, experiences, and connections in the West. They have done industry work as a development producer for educational and inspirational video series on art and craft, as well as on documentary videos for social causes. They received a BA in Art History from Swarthmore College and a MA in Public Humanities from Brown University. They currently live and work in Denver, Colorado, the occupied territory of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and úu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute).

Meet our Panelist 

Gene Rush (he/him) is a 32-year-old Chinese transracial adoptee from Wuhan adopted in 1993. He grew up in the Boston area around white family, friends, and community, and only recently began exploring his own racial and cultural identity. He has experienced the healing power of community, and is passionable about supporting fellow adoptees as they explore their identity and how they fit into the world. He has been a storyteller at BIPOC Adoptees Mirrors & Windows event. He has created Front Range Adoptees of Color, an local adoptee meetup group based here in Colorado. He has volunteered as a camp counselor and panelist for Heritage Camps for Adoptive Families. And, last but not least, he volunteers for Chinese Adoptee Alliance's virtual events committee, with the goal of providing meaningful and accessible online events for adoptees across the nation. He is humbled to be a part of this panel. 

Meet our Panelist 

Dewi Sungai Marquis-Houston is a mixed-race Native Bornean mother, wife, and filmmaker who was adopted as an infant by white American parents, renamed “Amy," and raised in white suburbia. Dewi's experiences as a transracial adoptee led her to a filmmaking career that centers Indigenous voices and challenges the narratives dominated by colonialist worldviews.

She and her life+creative partner, Jason Houston, founded eight16 creative, under which they produce independent nonfiction films and photography and champion sovereign storytelling in local and Native communities around the world.

​Meet our Panelist 

JinYoung (she/her) is a Korean American adoptee, filmmaker, and co-founder of Just Float Films.

JinYoung’s love for animals has led to some unique experiences, from being courted by a curious manatee to having a black-footed ferret asleep in her lap and a porcupine getting a little frisky with her leg. After several years working as an EMT, she shifted her focus to wildlife rescue and rehabilitation, contributing fieldwork as a citizen scientist studying endangered species such as black-footed ferrets, desert tortoises, jaguars, and ocelots. When not filming or digging up new stories, JinYoung can be found freediving in search of octopus, exploring the Colorado Front Range with her husband, and finding new ways to learn about and reconnect with Korea.

Embark on a culinary journey with our community conversation panel, “Connecting Through Cultures with Asian Food and Foodways.” We’ll explore the rich tapestry of Asian cultures through the lens of food and foodways, showcasing how food becomes a powerful vehicle for connection to one’s home culture. Foodways are the cultural, social, and economic practices at the intersection of food in culture, traditions, and history. Attendees will discover the unique traditions and rituals that weave together the diverse food landscapes of our communities.

From examining the cultural significance of ingredients and cooking techniques to addressing the injustices in communities experiencing food apartheid, this panel aims to illustrate how food serves as a meaningful bridge for individuals to strengthen their ties to heritage. Join us for an exploration of the diverse ways in which food can be leveraged to celebrate cultural identity and enable communities to thrive.

This community conversation is FREE to attend, but we do ask that you RSVP and there is a suggestion donation $5.

MEET OUR PANELISTS

Meet our Moderator

Cheshire Li (they/them) is a queer and non-binary first-generation Chinese-American director, filmmaker, and photographer based in Denver, Colorado. Their work spans commercial, narrative, and documentary sets in camera, grip, and electric departments. 

Well-traveled and always seeking the next adventure, they cultivate a deep curiosity for new experiences, a heart for community, and a passion for the underlying stories that move and shake our work. As a child of immigrants, they bring a complex, inclusive, and compassionate perspective to their storytelling. They are deeply passionate about elevating underrepresented voices in the outdoors and working with other BIPOC and queer creatives behind the camera. The heart of their creative work aims to explore inclusive and intersectional ideas in film while holding the complexity and nuance of those liminal spaces. 

Cheshire grew up surrounded by traditional Chinese food, cooked with love by their mom, great-aunt, and grandmother. Their commitment to social justice and food equity began when they spent over five years living out of a backpack, traveling between and supporting radical grassroots projects in the US. In 2009, they hopped on the Everybody’s Kitchen bus, a traveling activist kitchen built on a forty foot schoolbus. They’ve carried water and nonperishables to place for migrants crossing by foot in the borderlands of Tucson; prepared food for anti-mountaintop removal campaigns in West Virginia, the Tar Sands Blockade in Texas, and in solidarity with indigenous land defenders on Black Mesa; and managed volunteer disaster relief kitchens for relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Harvey, and Hurricane Michael. They believe in sharing food as a radical practice to honor their roots and build community.

Cheshire is an active member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia and a founding member of the Emergent Media Collective, a Denver-based queer and trans film collective that aims to disrupt the extractive nature of film to move towards a more just and liberated future.

Meet our Panelist 

Chef Pannah Son is a Cambodian- American who learned to love food from a young age. Her mother would cook a different Cambodian dish each night, from Somlar machu kreung to Sach Jakak. As she grew older and learned more of her family history she learned to appreciate the complex and delicious flavor profiles that Cambodian food had to offer. 

Both of Pannah’s parents lived through the horrific Khmer Rouge genocide and fled to the Thai border where they lived for ten years. There, both her parents married one another and had Pannah’s three older siblings. Her family was finally sponsored to America in 1993, a year later Pannah was born. Being the only child born in America, she had internalized a self-inflicted duty to learn about her Cambodian culture and give it justice. 

With the opening of Riceboxx she hopes to bring Khmer (Cambodian) food to a larger community.  

Meet our Panelist 
​
Thai Nguyen, the founder and executive director of Kaizen Food Rescue or Kaizen Food Share, leverages 20+ years of business, marketing and design experience. As a former refugee and survivor of war atrocities, Thai is deeply committed to food justice and actively addresses food inequality through various community services and advisory roles, including those related to sustainability, environmental justice, and new arrivals. In a world with persistent food apartheid, Thai works tirelessly to promote food autonomy for all.

Meet our Panelist 
​
Patty Kaowthrumrong joined the 5280 staff in July 2019 and is thrilled to be overseeing all of 5280 Magazine’s dining coverage. A Colorado native, she graduated in 2010 from the University of Colorado Boulder with degrees in journalism and psychology. Prior to joining the 5280 team, she wrote and edited travel marketing content for the Colorado Tourism Office and Wyoming Office of Tourism. 

In her spare time, Patricia enjoys cooking Thai and Chinese dishes with her mother and spending time with her husband, Gavin; son, Jack; and cocker spaniel, Teddy Roosevelt. Her other loves include anchovies, tequila, and fried chicken.