Take a trip out to the island to make some art and learn some history while doing it! The second Saturday of every month is Hands on History day.
Experience the poems of Angel Island come alive through the words of poets Carlina Duan, Genny Lim and Nellie Wong on July 26th at 12:00pm.
Come explore the history of the Japanese Picture Brides on Angel Island with a musical performance by the Del Sol Quartet. The 45 minute performance will highlight Takuma Itoh's "American Postcards: Japanese Picture Brides" with additional music by Erika Oba and Andy Akiho, woven with stories of women who spent time on the island.
Come say hi to AIISF at this year’s World Refugee & Immigrant Day Festival! We’ll be showcasing some of the stories we’ve collected through our Immigrant Voices project as well as asking community members if they’d like to share their own stories.
The World Refugee and Immigrant Day Festival in Oakland, is a day of celebration that will celebrate refugees and immigrants in our community through art, music, food, and community, highlighting artists from Oakland’s own refugee and immigrant communities.
The Festival will be in Clinton Park, 655 International BLVD, Oakland. It will run from 12-3 on June 14th.
This event is hosted by East Bay Refugee and Immigrant Forum in Partnership with ARTogether and a long list of other amazing organizations.
This event is free to attend and doesn’t require a ticket.
Take a trip out to the island to make some art and learn some history while doing it! The second Saturday of every month is Hands on History day.
Oakland Parks, Recreation and Youth Development is looking forward to another fun-filled 2025 season at Lincoln Square. AIISF will be there June, July, and August so be on the lookout!
California State Parks Week is an exciting new annual event that celebrates the amazing diversity of California’s State Park System and the people who visit and help protect these iconic places.
Angel Island State Park will be hosting a variety of different events throughout the week. Come check one out and see why our state parks are so amazing.
Welcome to the Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Festival! Join us at Zelinsky Park for a day filled with cultural celebrations, delicious food, traditional performances, and so much more. Immerse yourself in the rich heritage of the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities through art, music, and dance.
Learn about Angel Island’s history as a site of Japanese American internment site. Join Danielle Wetmore, Director of Education at AIISF, and Brian Niiya, Content Director at Densho, as they view videos made with descendants of those who were interned on Angel Island.
Take a trip out to the island to make some art and learn some history while doing it! The second Saturday of every month is Hands on History day.
Join Facing History and the Angel Island Immigration Station for an online workshop to mark 143 years since the signing of the Chinese Exclusion Act.
May is AAPI Heritage month. Join the staff of Angel Island State Park and the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation in this webinar as they recount stories of Asian immigrants and the history of the Immigration Station.
The fourth collaborative webinar between Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island and AIISF. Join Director of Education, Danielle Wetmore, and Director of the American Family Immigration History Center, Stephen Lean, as they talk about what came before the opening of either immigration station.
Take a trip out to the island to make some art and learn some history while doing it! The second Saturday of every month is Hands on History day.
Come listen to a story about Angel Island online through Zoom
Celebrate women’s history month by learning about women important to Angel Island. We’ll be sharing stories of women like Tye Leung Schulze, an Angel Island translator who was the first Chinese woman employed by the federal government, through music by Shelley Washington, Reena Esmail and Tania León, alongside artwork by Flo Oy Wong and an exhibit celebrating Angel Island's women curated by Andi Wong.
Take a trip out to the island to make some art and learn some history while doing it! The second Saturday of every month is Hands on History day.
Planning summer for kids in grades K-8? Visit the SF Summer Resource Fair on Saturday, February 22 at the County Fair Building: 1199 9th Avenue! Explore camps, sports, STEM, & arts—all in one spot. Free! Details: https://www.sf.gov/san-francisco-summer-resource-fair
Come listen to a story about Angel Island online through Zoom
On December 14, 2024, Del Sol violinist Hyeyung Sol Yoon curates a program that explores the long history of Korean immigration to San Francisco, from those seeking refuge from Japanese-occupied Korea in the early 20th century to more recent immigration taking place post-1965. The program will feature San Francisco-based Korean composer Jungyoon Wie’s “Han”, which incorporates traditional Korean lullaby and an elegy that represents the complexity of han, a feeling of collective unresolved anger, grief, and regret amongst the Korean people. The concert will also feature newly-created pieces inspired by the responses of Joy from Korean-American elders of the Korean Community Center of East Bay’s Jikimee Senior Leadership Program.
Learn how to use Ancestry’s software and databases to learn more about your family and their history. Hear from a genealogist and a professor about the importance of Japanese American history.
About this event
The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation will be hosting an online event with Bill Wong. We will discuss his work on the book SONS OF CHINATOWN: A MEMOIR ROOTED IN CHINA AND AMERICA and take questions from the audience. We hope to see you on October 16th!
About the Book
William Gee Wong’s father entered the U.S. legally as the “son of a native,” despite having partially false papers. Sons of Chinatown is Wong’s evocative dual memoir of his and his father’s parallel experiences in America.
About the Author
William is a print journalist, author, and amateur historian.
A native of Oakland, California's Chinatown, William received his B.A. at the University of California at Berkeley and M.S. at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. His print journalism career was spent at The Wall Street Journal (1970-1979) and The Oakland Tribune (1979-1996). He also worked for The San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco News Call Bulletin, and has written for the San Francisco Examiner, East West: the Chinese American Journal, and Asian Week, among other publications.
In the mid-1960s, William served in the Peace Corps in the Philippines.
From 1995-1996, he was a regional commentator for The News Hour with Jim Lehrer on PBS.
William is the author of Yellow Journalist: Dispatches from Asian America (Temple University Press, 2001), Images of America: Oakland's Chinatown (Arcadia Publishing Co., 2004), and co-author of Images of America: Angel Island (Arcadia Publishing Co., 2007).
A Zoom link will appear after registering for our Author Spotlight. This link will allow you to access the program on October 16th. For questions, email programs@aiisf.org.
We are thrilled to welcome the Del Sol Quartet back to Angel Island on Saturday, September 14th!
This performance will amplify the Jewish experience on Angel Island, with musical selections that give a wide view of Jewish-American music. Del Sol will feature composer Derek David with his String Quartet no.4, “Kaddish” and David's performances of Yiddish folk songs, combined with short selections from from the Broadway standards of Jerome Kern to LJOVA to the chamber-music of Bay Area's own Gabriela Lena Frank.
There will be two performances: one at 11:30 am and one at 2:30 pm.
The performance is free, but $5 entry to the Detention Barracks Museum is required.
Stay tuned for information about Del Sol’s next performance on December 14.
Register below:
Mark your calendars! AIISF will be at Lincoln Summer Nights. Have fun at Lincoln Square Park on the 2nd Thursday of every month, May through October, 5-8pm. Lincoln Summer Nights is OUR chance to celebrate, connect, stay informed and get involved in our community.
Top: Ellis Island Immigration Station Hospital. Bottom: Angel Island Immigration Station Hospital.
Join us on Zoom on August 21 for the third event in our ongoing collaborative series with the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. This time we'll be discussing health and medicine at the Ellis Island and Angel Island immigration stations.
What kind of medical examinations did immigrants undergo? What were the hospitals like? What health conditions did the Public Health Service screen for and treat?
This event is free but pre-registration is required.
Register here:
Family Day is a celebration of family, connection, and heritage at the Angel Island Immigration Station.
Attendees will receive a roundtrip ferry ride from either SF or Tiburon, optional shuttle service, museum entry, crafts, and performances all for $10 per person. The day will be filled with music, dance, history, storytelling, and -- of course -- FAMILY!
With $2.50 in her pocket, Rosa Ginsberg left her family behind in Shanghai, China, in 1940 for an uncertain future in the United States. The 18-year-old native of Vienna landed at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, site of a U.S. immigration station that processed hundreds of thousands of immigrants from 1910 through 1940. She left Angel Island for the mainland on the basis of a mostly true story.
On July 14, experience the Angel Island debut of Shanghai Angel, a one-woman musical written and performed by Heather Klein, Rosa’s granddaughter. The 45-minute piece chronicles Rosa’s journey from Nazi-occupied Austria to Angel Island. The songs are composed from Rosa’s perspective, revealing the internal world of a young refugee woman held in detention.
Heather Klein is a classically trained soprano and Yiddish chanteuse who performs musical theater, Yiddish classical song, theater and folk music.
Tickets for the performance are free but registration is required to reserve a seat in the Detention Barracks Museum. The show will begin at 2:00 pm.
Register Here
Mark your calendars! AIISF will be at Lincoln Summer Nights. Have fun at Lincoln Square Park on the 2nd Thursday of every month, May through October, 5-8pm. Lincoln Summer Nights is OUR chance to celebrate, connect, stay informed and get involved in our community.
Del Sol Quartet are back on Angel Island, this time performing a 35 minute meditation from Takuma Itoh’s American Postcards - Picture Brides. 10 dollars to reserve a seat and get entrance to the Detention Barracks Museum.
Mark your calendars! AIISF will be at Lincoln Summer Nights. Have fun at Lincoln Square Park on the 2nd Thursday of every month, May through October, 5-8pm. Lincoln Summer Nights is OUR chance to celebrate, connect, stay informed and get involved in our community.
Learn how to use Ancestry’s software and databases to learn more about your family and their history. Create a family tree and learn from a genealogist!
