Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord

Do you remember the terrible mask shortage at the beginning of the COVID pandemic? Did you know about the anonymous heroes and heroines who sewed masks for medical workers and firefighters? Not only did Kristina Wong found a sewing team of volunteers—Aunties' Sewing Squad (ASS) to produce masks for aid workers, she also created a hilarious solo performance about her sewing experience, which is both a social commentary and personal reflection at a time of devastation.

Sweatshop Overlord is a scathing critique of how America's pursuit of global empire has left its citizens scrambling to provide basic PPE to essential workers and to keep themselves healthy. At a time of xenophobia and hostility against Asian Americans, Kristina Wong reexamines the labor of sewing—the historically gendered and racialized invisible labor for Asian American women and women of color.

Kristina Wong is an LA based performance artist, comedian, writer, and activist. She was featured in the New York Times Off Color series that highlights "artists of color who use humor to make smart social statements about the sometimes subtle, sometimes obvious ways that race plays out in America today." Center Theatre Group honored her as the 2019 Sherwood Award recipient for her exceptional contribution to the Los Angeles theatre landscape. In 2022, Sweatshop Overlord was named the Pulitzer Finalist for Drama.

Her most representative works include Mad Hatter Gin and Tea Party, the viral web series How Not to Pick up Asian Chicks, and Radical Cram School, The Wong Street Journal, and her long running show Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

For more about Kristina Wong, see http://kristinawong.com/

We will provide lunch boxes for attendees.

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