2023 COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS
2023 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 "Celebrating our Stories" 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 "Celebrating our Stories"! 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.
Join us for a discussion with our panelists as we elevate the voices of our diverse AAPI communities. Colorado Dragon Boat will host “Celebrating the Stories of Our LGBTQ+ Asian American Pacific Islander Community,” a community conversation highlighting the intersectional identities, multifaceted experiences, and valuable contributions of members of Colorado’s queer AAPI community.
“Despite contrary thought, queer AAPIs have been around forever. They are the legacy of a long line of ancestors who flouted conventional norms and subverted the gender construct. The community is too often erased or ignored in the larger AAPI landscape, but their stories do matter.”
- Shawna Chen, Editor-in-Chief of The Yappie, a nonprofit newsroom informing and empowering AAPI communities
MEET OUR PANELISTS
Meet our Moderator
Marin Lepore is a screenwriter, director, and activist who grew up in Colorado, and lived in Beijing from age ten to sixteen. Now back in Denver, she currently works as a writer and producer at the film production company, Listen Productions.
Falling within these groups herself, Marin is passionate about creating inclusive films that celebrate women, POC, and LGBTQ people. Her work often explores the intersections of these identities through the lens of comedy, romance, both, or neither — most notably, her coming-of-age web-series I Put the Bi in Bitter.
Her films have screened at festivals across the country including SeriesFest, ClexaCon, and Denver Pride. She previously served as a board member for Women in Film and Media Colorado, and she was part of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Task Force at the University of Colorado Denver, where she graduated with a BFA in Film & Television.
Besides film, Marin cares about her fellow adoptee community, and currently volunteers with Adoptees. She also enjoys juggling, board games, playing violin, and collecting turtle figurines.
Meet our Panelist
Jordan Blisk (he/him) is an Associate Director at the American Constitution Society. He also serves as the Executive Director of the Colorado Name Change Project.
Jordan received his undergraduate degree from Ball State University and was the first out transgender student to earn a Juris Doctor from the University of Colorado Law School, later becoming the first out transgender president to lead the Colorado LGBT Bar Association in 2022.
Prior to joining ACS, Jordan was an associate attorney specializing in family law and estate planning, and before his legal career, he served in the US Air Force. In 2021, the National LGBT Bar Association named him as one of the "40 Best LGBTQ+ Lawyers Under 40". In 2022, he received the Stonewall Award from the American Bar Association for his work advancing LGBTQ+ individuals and causes in the legal profession.
Meet our Panelist
Stacey Shigaya is a third generation Japanese American, born and raised in Denver, CO. She is Executive Director for Sakura Foundation, the parent organization to Sakura Square LLC for which she is Executive Advisor. The Foundation’s mission is to celebrate and share Japanese and Japanese American heritage and culture in order to create a more compassionate, resilient, and equitable society.
She holds a BA in Human Development and Learning and an MS in Counseling and Personnel Services, volunteers for Okaeri (a community space based in LA for LGBTQ+ Japanese/Japanese Americans and allies), and serves on the Denver Women’s Commission.
As the daughter of WWII concentration camp internees and the mother of two adult children (one pansexual, one straight), Stacey strongly believes in standing up for those who experience discrimination and feels that sharing our unique stories will bring us closer together and build a more compassionate community.
Meet our Panelist
Yeong Cheng (they/them) is a DEI-focused executive and empowerment coach and founder of Denver Asian Collective, a community nonprofit focused on building and augmenting Asian capacity by creating resources for Asians and intersectionally-attentive unapologetically Asian-dominant and Asian-exclusive spaces. They have advised national Asian advocacy organizations including StopAAPIHate and Stand With Asian Americans, and will be releasing Asiancy, a storytelling program focused on reclaiming Asian agency in Asian stories, in Summer of 2023.
Prior to this, Yeong worked as a tech leader, executive, and consultant, focused on market research, data, strategic partnerships, and organizational development. Most notably, they have advised startups and Fortune 100 companies on data architecture and strategy, and built (regrettable) foundational solutions enabling data capture and monetization for the likes of Facebook, Google, and Twitter.
Meet our Panelist
Nishant Upadhyay (they/them) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. They teach in the areas of Asian American Studies, and Queer and Trans of Color Studies.
Sunday, March 12th
11:00 AM- Celebrating the Stories of our Multiracial
AAPI Community
Join us for a community conversation “Celebrating the Stories of Our Multiracial Asian American Pacific Islander Community,” which aims to provide a foundation for understanding our diverse AAPI community and notions of identity. How does our multiracial AAPI community see and describe themselves? How are they seen and described by others? What can members of the broader AAPI community and beyond do to create a sense of belonging and inclusion for individuals with multiracial and multiethnic identities? We’ll tackle these nuanced questions as we celebrate the unique stories of our multiracial AAPI community.
MEET OUR PANELISTS
Meet our Moderator
Catharine McCord (she/her) is a multiracial (Taiwanese + White) Asian American working as the Lifelong Learning and Accessibility Fellow at Denver Art Museum focused on wellness programming, and as a Program Educator and Mindfulness Guide with Veterans to Farmers. She also serves on the City & County of Denver's Asian American Pacific Islander Commission.
Catharine's wellness journey includes training in the Hatha yoga tradition, horticultural therapy, and trauma sensitive mindfulness. With advanced degrees in biochemistry and landscape architecture, she blends together the benefits of outdoor spaces with self care practices to regulate the nervous system. She leads her sessions through a lens of justice, equity, diversity, inclusivity, and accessibility. She is particularly excited about this panel and the representation and inclusion of stories about the Asian community by the Asian community.
Meet our Panelist
Maddy Santamaria is a director, editor, photographer, and motion graphics artist. Her love for digital art was rooted in filming and editing YouTube videos which then inspired her to pursue film school. She trained her eye for the arts through her passion for photography and began expanding her storytelling skill sets through short films, music videos, and animations. “I believe that change in the film and television industry needs to be made and I hope to be a part of that movement. Being a woman of mixed race, I seek to inspire and empower those around me so they can see that their lives and their stories are just as significant and deserve to be told. I challenge myself as a filmmaker to explore non-traditional ways of filmmaking to tell the legends of life as we know, putting me one step closer to my dream of becoming a Diversity-advocate female Director.”
Meet our Panelist
Miyana Shively was born in Alaska and raised in the Inland Northwest, Miyana Shively moved to Denver in 2016 for school. She proudly identifies as multiracial; Vietnamese, Yup’ik, & White. She earned her Bachelor’s in Media & Mass Communications from Johnson & Wales University in 2020. Her love for film goes back to childhood when she’d watch the best of 80s/90s rom coms and dramas on VHS with her family. She wants to see more live action films with main characters of color whose stories are as dynamic and rich as real life. As someone who chronically romanticizes daily life and authentic connection, Miyana likes to encourage friends who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) to positively embrace their main character energy.
Meet our Panelist
In 2007, Dayna Marshall emigrated to America with her younger brother and mother from Bangkok, Thailand. Dayna is multiracial with her mom’s side being Thai and Chinese, and her dad African American. Dayna is a junior at Metropolitan State University of Denver with a major in Finance. Since she is her family’s first generation to grow up in America, Dayna’s goal is to set a strong financial foundation for her family to build upon in the future. Dayna’s love for film comes from growing up watching Thai, Chinese, and Korean dramas with her mom. Some of her favorites are Full House, Meteor Garden, Ashes of Love, and Bupphesanniwat. Dayna identifies as a hopeless romantic who enjoys a good love story with dramatic action scenes. Dayna is also an artist who paints emotionalism or “expressionism”. Being multiracial motivates Dayna to push for others with similar experiences to express themselves proudly and purposefully.
Meet our Panelist
"Q The Blasian Badass" is a Brand & Social Media Director, Entrepreneur, Mindset Coach, Podcaster, and Content Creator. Q is the Marketing Director at The Next Paige Talent Management Agency in Kansas City. She is proud to be an Asian & Black Adoptee and being Blasian (Black + Asian = Blasian) or multiracial is a message that she advocates.
She holds a Bachelors Degree in Organizational Management & Leadership. She created The Blasian Badass Podcast to share the successes, struggles, mindsets and stories of her 'Blasian' Black & Asian communities. We do not see enough Asian & Black representation in film, media, social media, corporate, non-profit, or any other field. Thus, she is invading the Social Media, Podcast, and Coaching niches to be seen and heard. Follow & Connect with her @qtheblasianbadass on all social media platforms.