Corky Lee’s Asian America: Fifty Years of Photographic Justice

Columbia University Libraries and the Center for the Study of Ethnicity & Race invite you to a conversation about Corky Lee’s Asian America, a stunning retrospective of the photographer’s life’s work—a selection of the best photographs from his vast collection, from his start in New York’s Chinatown in the 1970s to his coverage of diverse Asian American communities across the country until his untimely passing in 2021. Known throughout his lifetime as the “undisputed, unofficial Asian American photographer laureate,” the late photojournalist Corky Lee documented Asian American and Pacific Islander communities for fifty years, breaking the stereotype of Asian Americans as docile, passive, and, above all, foreign to this country.

Author, historian, and winner of the 2022 Bancroft Prize, Mae Ngai, will join Joanne Kwong CC ’97, and Ava Chin for a conversation moderated by Marie Myung-Ok Lee about Corky Lee and Asian American community in New York.

Local bookseller, Wordup, will also be onsite with copies of the book for purchase.

Please note: For members of the general public, RSVP is required for entry by September 23. Your registration will generate an email with a QR Code on or before 10/24/2024. Please bring this code, along with your ID, for admittance to the Columbia campus. It is recommended that you arrive early, as you will need to check-in with Public Safety at the Butler Library entrance upon arriving.