Join the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, the Chinese Culture Center Of San Francisco, and other partners for “Exclusion/Inclusion,” a site-based, large-scale video installation outdoors at Fort Mason Center For Arts & Culture (FMCAC). Filmmaker Felicia Lowe and visual installation artist Ben Wood created “Exclusion/Inclusion” using videos of the Angel Island Immigration Station to observe the 140th anniversary of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

On Friday, May 6, 2022, 8:00 p.m. to 10:30 pm. “Exclusion/Inclusion” is projected onto the walls of the flyover passageway and walls between FMCAC’s Buildings B and C and also at the Guardhouse near the FMCAC entrance. On the following Fridays May 13, 20, and 27, 2022, the “Exclusion/Inclusion” projections re-appear at the Guardhouse to commemorate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

“Exclusion/Inclusion” features stories from the Angel Island Immigration Station and the people — primarily Chinese immigrants — forced to endure inhumane conditions there. Friday, May 6, 2022 marks 140 years since the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act by the U.S. Congress. The act, signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur, banned Chinese laborers from entering the country, the first such federal law prohibiting lawful entry of an ethnic working group.

While the act was repealed during World War II, quotas and other exclusionary policies affecting Chinese and other Asian immigrants were not lifted until the passage of the 1965 Immigration Act.

“Standing Strong For Inclusion” is one of several events scheduled this weekend to reflect on this history. Learn more at AIISF.org/May2022.

Free Admission