Events

Recent news about adoption has gotten a lot of media attention, including: China ending its international adoption program, South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commision disclosing the government’s role in forced adoptions, and the Frontline documentary about Korea’s adoption reckoning.
All of these revelations can be a lot to process. This forum—led by Andrew McFarland, PhD (Also-Known-As Board of Directors), and Alisha Bennett, LCSW (Integrative Therapy NYC)—will provide a space to talk about these media stories with other adoptees. Informal dinner/drinks to follow immediately afterwards; optional and pay your own way.

🍹🎉 Get ready to kick off the season with a bang! Join us for the first Happy Hour of the season at Counter & Bodega as we gear up for Hispanic Heritage Month! 🎊

This event is for our community members 21+ — let’s raise a glass to good times and great company! 🍷💃🎶 See you there!

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🧺 Mark your Calendars! Join Also-Known-As at Annual Friends and Family Picnic on Sunday, June 9th from 11am-3pm! It's our biggest event of the year. We will have delicious food, drinks, and fun raffle prizes. Come one, come all as we kick off Summer 2024!

The Queens Night Market is a large, family-friendly open-air night market in Queens, featuring independently owned vendors selling merchandise, art, and food and featuring small-scale cultural performances, all celebrating the rich cultural diversity and heritage of NYC. Join us on Saturday, May 18th as we explore all that the Queens Night Market has to offer. Bring your friends, family, appetite, and cash (as some vendors may not take cards)!

Join us during Mental Health Awareness Month for a writing workshop focused on addressing multi-faceted layers of grief as an adoptee, in partnership with Chinese Adoptee Alliance. Together in a safe space (in person and virtually), we will self-reflect on how grief has shown up in our own journeys.

Facilitated by Heather Schultz Gittens—founder and owner of Huh Healing Hub LLC, Certified Usui Reiki Master, and lecturer—some topics we’ll explore include:

• Defining and acknowledging grief (loss and ambiguous loss) and how it may show up and impact adoptees differently than non-adoptees
• Grieving 'another life'
• Grieving loss of birth country, language, culture & heritage through adoption
• Grieving family (adoptive or biological) who have passed away or may not be present

Also-Known-As and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop are thrilled to welcome back Nicole Chung, in conversation with Crystal Hana Kim, to celebrate the paperback release of her critically acclaimed memoir A Living Remedy. 

From the bestselling author of All You Can Ever Know comes a searing memoir of family, class, and grief—a daughter’s search to understand the lives her adoptive parents led, the life she forged as an adult, and the lives she’s lost. Exploring the enduring strength of family bonds in the face of hardship and tragedy, Nicole Chung examines what it takes to reconcile the distance between one life, one home, and another—and sheds needed light on some of the most persistent and grievous inequalities in American society.

Books will be available for purchase from our friends at Yu & Me Books. 

This in-person event will also be live-streamed for folks who are outside of the NYC area. RSVPs are required for all attendees, and masks are required for all in-person attendees. 

RSVP Here or using the button above: https://forms.gle/aT9xVzP6mFwY68uH9 [60 in-person max capacity]

Praise for A Living Remedy

“A Living Remedy is a profoundly moving account of one daughter’s love for her white adoptive parents and a damning indictment of the healthcare system that failed them. Nicole Chung writes with nuance and empathy about what it means to be ill and economically insecure in America today. She transforms her rage and anguish into luminous prose on the page, and the result is one of the most devastating portraits of a daughter’s grief I have ever read.” —Julie Otsuka, author of The Swimmers

“Like the best memoirs, Nicole Chung’s A Living Remedy is both an excavation of the self and the people who sustain it—but also, at its core, a work of art undergirded by a tender, forgiving, and awe-filled gaze at what it means to live and hurt in the human world. The result is a bone-deep enactment of love in all its valences.” —Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

*RSVP by Friday, April 19*

🥟 Did you know that there are over 160+ notable types of dumplings around the world? These yummy pieces of dough heaven wrapped around unique cultural fillings make anyone abundantly happy and full. Join us as we learn to fold jiǎozi (饺子), or Chinese dumplings with the one and only, 👩🏻🍳 Hope Johnson and sip at TapHaus33!

You probably know 👩🏻‍🍳 Hope from her time serving on the Board of Directors, her delicious food you may have tried before, or trying to catch her on the sports field.

Join us in April as adoptee leaders discuss their experiences volunteering with children in the social welfare system within their birth country. Aspects covered will include:

✔️ Why they got involved

✔️ Overall considerations to think about as an adoptee

✔️ What to look out for

✔️ The emotional toll this kind of effort may take for adoptees

RSVP for this in-person event here or using the button above.

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Thanks to our speakers: Also-Known-As founding member and current treasurer Mark Fermi, former Also-Known-As president and current Advisory Committee member Mike Mullen, former Board of Directors member Lindsay Fasano, and Janie Mortell.

We’re pleased to team up with Lost Lit Writing Workshops and writer/founder Lynne Connor to co-host a reading of Susan Kiyo Ito’s new debut memoir, I Would Meet You Anywhere, this spring!

After the reading, Susan will be in conversation with Alice Stephens, author of Famous Adopted People.

Please note seating is very limited. RSVPs will be honored on a first come, first serve basis.

Wondering how to incorporate your identity as an adoptee into a more meaningful way of life? Join us for this virtual event to hear from inspiring figures who have intentionally embraced their experiences as adoptees in their work and personal narratives, propelling them toward a path of purpose.

Featured guests Angela Tucker and Dan Matthews (danAKAdan) will exemplify what it looks like to parlay one's adoption journey into a life and/or career of meaning and impact. In a group interview/discussion, each will share their story and insights into how they turned their experiences into personal and professional progress.