2024 Conference Theme: “Where do we fit?”
Location: Portland State University
Date: Friday, April 12, 2024 (8:00 am to 3:15 pm)
Registration is now closed.
Tentative Conference Program (8:00 am to 3:15 pm)
8:00-8:30 am: Registration & Breakfast
8:30-9:30 am: Opening Program and Keynote Presentation
9:30-9:45 am: Transition Break
9:45-10:45 am: Workshop #1 (College, Career and Opportunity Fair, Student Choice Workshop, The Story of Me Workshop [TBC])
10:45-11:00 am: Transition Break
11:00-12:00 pm: Workshop #2 (The Story of Me Workshop [TBC], College, Career and Opportunity Fair, Student Choice Workshop)
12:00-1:00 pm: Lunch
1:00-2:00 pm: Workshop #3 (Student Choice Workshop, The Story of Me Workshop [TBC], College, Career and Opportunity Fair)
2:00-2:15 pm: Transition Break
2:15-3:15 pm: Closing Program
Keynote speaker: Curtis Chin
A co-founder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop in New York City, Curtis Chin served as the non-profits’ first Executive Director. He went on to write for network and cable television before transitioning to social justice documentaries. Chin has screened his films at over 600 venues in sixteen countries. He has written for CNN, Bon Appetit, the Detroit Free Press, and the Emancipator/Boston Globe. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Chin has received awards from ABC/Disney Television, New York Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and more. His memoir, "Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant" was published by Little, Brown in Fall 2023. His essay in Bon Appetit was just selected for Best Food Writing in America 2023 and he just produced an episode of America's Test Kitchen's podcast, Proof.
Closing Program Presenter: Jhus Custodio
Jhus Custodio is a Portland-based community organizer, music producer, writer, rapper, beatboxer, and world-class percussionist. He toured the country with the Oregon Crusaders, a world-class drum and bugle corps. He also competed with OC Indoor, a world-class indoor marching percussion ensemble that was one of the top 10 percussion groups in the world in 2016. He also performed with Green Note, the a cappella group at Portland State University, who were the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella regional champions in 2018, the same year where he won the Outstanding Vocal Percussion award.
Jhus’ experience organizing with Portland Filipino nonprofit and grassroots organizations eventually had him focus his art on hip hop as a tool for activism, utilizing his background as a percussionist for unique music production techniques and lyricism that focuses on the struggles of underrepresented communities. To combine his community organizing efforts and a passion for performing arts, Jhus wrote Re-Presented, an original hip-hop musical about Filipino MCs who became a target of an FBI investigation. It featured the largest AAPI cast in a theater production in Portland’s history.
Outside of performing, Jhus is the Community Programs Specialist for the Portland Trail Blazers and one of the co-chairs of TAPA (Trail Blazers Pacific Association), the AAPI business resource group and employee network of the Blazers. In his free time, Jhus is constantly drumming on tables during inappropriate times and purchasing way too many PC video games on Steam that he will probably never actually play.
