Dragon Fruit Project

In 2012 historian Amy Sueyoshi initiated The Dragon Fruit Project.

The Dragon Fruit Project is an intergenerational oral history project that explores queer Asian Pacific Islanders and their experiences with love and activism in the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s.

Dragon Fruit represents our efforts around cultural preservation, knowledge production, and dissemination. By uplifting our queer API community histories, we’re breaking through the silence that is a byproduct of systematic and institutionalized oppression. When community members engage with this work as interviewers, transcribers, cataloguers and archivists, we are actively resisting the systems that have isolated us from each other and keep us out of mainstream present-day and historical narratives. Not only are we active agents archiving our individual histories, we are also piecing together organizational, community, and movement histories that will contextualize our collective narrative. When we document our history we’re also laying the groundwork for future work.

Interested in joining the Dragon Fruit Project team?

No experience required! All you need is a great attitude and a willingness to make a small time commitment.

Transcribe audio recordings
Interview an LGBTQ API person
Be interviewed
Catalogue transcriptions
Sit on our Dragon Fruit panels
Manage history dissemination
Outreach and bring our materials to campuses, classrooms, and groups

Hello are you there? Reflections from our Dragon Fruit Phone Tree

Posted on 08-26-2020 in Dragon Fruit ProjectSource: API Equality Northern California

As we organize mutual aid networks, workshop series, and community-based research projects, we know how important it is to reflect on our experiences. Over the course of the next few weeks we’ll be launching a four-part series entitled, “Organizing in the time of COVID-19: A Reflection Series from APIENC”. Stay

Daily Acts of Resistance – A NEW Dragon Fruit Project Zine!

Posted on 09-11-2017 in Dragon Fruit ProjectSource: API Equality Northern California

Daily Acts of Resistance – A NEW Dragon Fruit Project Zine! Image description: A preview of the center page of the 3rd Dragon Fruit Project Zine. Background graphic is orange with overlayed text and graphics such as “What keeps us alive?” This summer saw the release of the 3rd Dragon Fruit Project (DFP) Zine! For those unfamiliar, a zine, shortened from fanzine or magazine, is a self-published work often featuring original texts and images

Contribute to the THIRD Dragon Fruit Project Zine!

Posted on 07-06-2017 in Dragon Fruit ProjectSource: API Equality Northern California

[Image Description: A flyer advertising the DFP Zine. The background is white, with accents of a Dragon Fruit pattern on the corners.] Do you fancy art? Are you an artist? We need your help to make our 3rd Dragon Fruit Project Zine happen! Hello APIENC Community! My name is Ralph and I am an APIENC summer intern. I will be helping with the Dragon Fruit Project, ensuring that the hxstories of our community are accessible. One way I’m doing

The Dragon Fruit Project Digital Portal is now LIVE!

Posted on 11-09-2016 in Dragon Fruit ProjectSource: API Equality Northern California

Image Description: Two APIENC community members browsing the Dragon Fruit Project Digital Portal on a Google Chromebook; a historical timeline of LGBTQ API movements is in the background; taken at the 10/23 Digital Portal Launch Party (photo credits: Mary Luong) The Dragon Fruit Project is an intergenerational oral hxstory project that explores queer Asians and Pacific Islanders and their experiences with love and activism in the 1960s, 70s,

A Hello from our Springterns!

Posted on 03-08-2016 in Dragon Fruit ProjectSource: API Equality Northern California

Dear Community, This is Nancy and Christine. We were ~winterns~ from Brown University and we worked on the Dragon Fruit Project for two weeks this past winter break, specifically writing short-form narratives for some of the people who were interviewed in preparation for the Dragon Fruit Digital Portal launch. Even though we worked with APIENC for only two weeks, we received valuable mini trainings on many things, from conflict resolution

Live Blogging from the 2nd Digital Portal Working Day

Posted on 03-06-2016 in Dragon Fruit ProjectSource: API Equality Northern California

Our second Dragon Fruit Project Digital Portal Working day was held on March 6th! 16 volunteers joined us to transcribe, edit, code, and write narratives, all in preparation for the launch of our Dragon Fruit Project website! Throughout the day, we took photos to document the process. Meta. Check out our live photo-blog below! 9:50am — Getting set-up and ready for everyone to join us on this beautiful morning! Image Description: A view

Storytelling, StoryCorps, and Reflections

Posted on 11-09-2015 in Dragon Fruit ProjectSource: API Equality Northern California

Through our partnership with StoryCorps, Dragon Fruit Project interviewers and storytellers have come together to share stories of love, struggle, identity, and activism. Check out some of our interviewer’s reflections on the experience, and hear about why they think storytelling …

Source: API Equality Northern

A Series on Intergenerational Conversations

Posted on 07-27-2015 in Dragon Fruit ProjectSource: API Equality Northern California

What does it mean to listen to each other? What does it mean to communicate across generations? To explore these questions, the Dragon Fruit Project is putting on a collaborative series on Intergenerational Conversations. From August 12 to August 15 …

Source: API Equality Northern California