Assistant professor of music Emily Wong’s dreams are put on halt when she is denied tenure. Not knowing how to cope, Em interviews for a job as a game designer at a VR therapy company. For the interview, she must successfully play a game where she confronts ancestors, deities and fantastical versions of herself to experience catharsis. 

Solo performances of Citizen Wong will be presented in San Francisco and the South Bay during Constitution Week followed by panel discussions with Bay Area Asian American scholars, historians, and activists. Citizen Wong tells the story of Wong Chin Foo (1847-1898), the first Asian American civil rights leader. An accompanying Citizen Wong comic will be released. The comic is scripted by Richard Chang and Helen Wilborn, illustrated by Helen Wilborn and edited by Amy Grace Lam and Nick Sousanis. It is based on "The First Chinese American: The Remarkable Life of Wong Chin Foo" by Scott Seligman. The comic is a project of SFSU AA CARES and the SFSU Comic Studies in collaboration with the Citizen Wong Project (www.citizenwong.org).

AA CARES and the Department of Kinesiology at San Francisco State University formed a new partnership to integrate Ethnic Studies lessons into Gator Camp, a summer camp for ages 7-14. This program, benefiting over 400 youth and 25 SFSU Kinesiology student counselors, aimed to develop leadership skills, promote wellness, and address racial harm. The initiative encouraged young people to become vibrant, joyful, and grounded leaders; tend to personal and community wellness; heal from and prevent racial harm; critically analyze the world, their community, and themselves; and act on their beliefs and values. By including Ethnic Studies pedagogy, the collaboration demonstrates how non-traditional settings like summer camps can effectively foster inclusivity, amplify marginalized voices, and promote social justice.

 Asian American Collective Action for Racial Equity and Solidarity (AA CARES)–led a workshop to practice healing through poetry exercises in support of students and their success. We argue that poetry is underutilized, yet it is both innovative and a long-established practice with positive benefits for addressing individual and community-level pain. Participants expressed that they benefited from the poetry workshop as an opportunity to give voice to an artistic expression of challenges facing us as individuals and as larger communities. 

Larry the Musical tells the story of the life and legacy of Filipino American labor leader Larry Itliong and the Filipino American farm workers' contribution to the United Farm Workers Movement. The show was presented at the Brava Theater in San Francisco March 16- April 14, 2024.

AA CARES and the Department of Asian American Studies partnered with the Northern California United Vietnamese Student Associations (NorCal UVSA) to speak about stopping AAPI hate and reflecting on the impact of anti-Asian discrimination in our communities on November 3-5, 2023. SFSU hosted NorCal UVSA’s Leadership Conference, Summit XV, on its beautiful campus.