AWC Spotlight | Kristina Wong

Performance artist, comedian, and writer Kristina Wong reminisces back twenty years ago on her time as an AWC fellow.

Kristina Wong is a Pulitzer Prize finalist in Drama and has received recognition from her commentaries and work by several media outlets, including: American Public Media’s Marketplace, PBS, VICE, Jezebel, Playgirl Magazine, Huffington Post and CNN. Describing her aesthetic as “subversive, humorous, and endearingly inappropriate”, Wong employs humor to address difficult subjects, social issues, and amplify marginalized experiences.

“Artists are the ultimate hope for real social change. Art does the work of social work, therapy, community building, education, and culture shifting to set the stage for legislative change.”

-Kristina Wong (kristinawong.com)

Read more about how AWC shaped the future of Kristina’s performance work and what projects she has been working on.

Tell us how have you been, and what have you been up to since your AWC fellowship.

It's been 20 years since I was an AWC fellow and I've since created and am proud to report that I'm still creating a massive body of mostly live theater work!  Last year was an epic career year. I was named a Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Drama and I continue to make my living creating, performing, writing and touring.  In 2017, I had a TV pilot with truTv that they ultimately passed on.  This led me to run and win a local elected office in Koreatown which would be the subject of "Kristina Wong for Public Office" (a solo show that plays out like a campaign rally) which I premiered February 2020 with plans to tour live until the Presidential election of November 2020.

Then the pandemic hit, I was deemed non-essential as all artists were and my tour of "Kristina Wong for Public Office" was cancelled.  I started the Auntie Sewing Squad, a face mask sewing group getting mask to the most vulnerable of communities until the government stepped into help. They never did. The experience of leading a national mutual aid collective of over 800 Aunties providing PPE for over 500 days of the pandemic became the subject of my currently touring "Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord.” The Auntie Sewing Squad also has a book out from UC Press.   

I've also been making film projects.  I am so proud of my two web series-- Radical Cram School and How Not to Pick Up Asian Chicks. 

What was it like being part of one of the early cohorts of AWC (Class of 2003)? How has that impacted your career?

My project [Beat the Bus] was following my friend Larry Katata in his attempt to outrun a bus that had passed him up one night. This became a whole event with an entire community cheering him on throughout the streets on his race.  People showed up in costume and it played out like a boxing match. It was part performance stunt and mostly Larry's redemption. I think it helped shape the future of the next two decades of my performance work which often uses and aesthetic of disrupting reality with absurd spectacle. 

What were some memorable moments during AWC?

I just remember a lot of funny bickering with AWC Fellow Daniel Hsia. A lot of conversations with then VC director Leslie Ito at the office. But also the excitement of having a first film at the festival, and going to the filmmaker brunch event and feeling like I was with a bunch of new parents talking about our babies.  

Tell us about your upcoming production.

I am bringing my Pulitzer Prize finalist show "KRISTINA WONG, SWEATSHOP OVERLORD" to Los Angeles February 12- March 12!  It plays for four short weeks at the Kirk Douglas Theater in Culver City.  It's co-presented by Center Theatre Group and East West Players. 

Anything you’d like to add?

The whole "I'm going to start being an artist now" thing is overwhelming when you graduate from college and come from a family who has no idea why you'd take your degree from UCLA to become a performance artist. 

I feel so grateful that Armed With a Camera gave me the opportunity to flex my muscles as a young just out-of-college storyteller, work with a cohort of other young filmmakers, and have a structured and nurturing space to develop this work.

The interview was edited for space and clarity. Photo courtesy of Kristina Wong.