Events

Also-Known-As is excited to celebrate the publication of Between Two Worlds (Entre Dos Mundos), a special issue of Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis from Next Generation Guatemala. Featuring co-editors Gemma Givens and Carly Tagen-Dye, this free and virtual event will include a reading of their work, a discussion of the writing process, and a reflection on the publication’s significance to the Guatemalan adoptees and the broader international adoptee community.

Additional guest speakers include José Mario Dellow, Antonio Giannico, Thom LaPorte, and Leah Wall.

Speaker Bios:

Gemma Givens: Gemma Givens is the founder of Next Generation Guatemala (NGG). Her story has been covered by the Associated Press, Nomada Magazine, UC Berkeley News, and Emmy Award winning documentary, The Lost Children of Guatemala, by Telemundo. Gemma was a speaker for the forum, Volverte a Ver, Niñez Desaparecida en Guatemala hosted by Grupo Apoyo Mutuo, guest lecturer for the Vanderbilt GuateSeminar, UCLA course, Indigenous Diasporas: Adoption, and presented at the conference, 200 Years of CentralAmerica in the World/200 Jahre Unabhängigkeit Zentralamerikas in Berlin. NGG received an honorable mention in the new ideas for nonprofit organizations category for the 2020 Emprendete Guatemala competition.‍

Carly Tagen-Dye: Carly Tagen-Dye is a writer and editor based in New York City. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Augment Review, NY Press, Alma and The Sock Drawer, among other outlets. Her short story, "At The Water's Edge," was a winner of the 2021 Rehoboth Beach Reads Short Story Contest, and her novel, All That You Can See, was a finalist for CRAFT's 2022 First Chapters Prize. She has done editorial/reader work for The Brooklyn Rail, 826NYC, Patchwork Literary Magazine, and Maya America Journal.

As we wrap up 2022, we are already looking ahead to 2023. Also-Known-As is kicking off the new year with a Lunar New Year Food Crawl. Join us on Saturday, January 7th (rain date: Sunday, January 8th) as we scout for the best foods Chinatown has to offer. We will be meeting at Canal Street Market (265 Canal St, New York, NY 10013) at 1:00pm and then kick off the food tour. We will be visiting Tai Pan Bakery, Mei Lai Wah, Shujiao Fuzhou, and finishing with l’Milky. Please consider bringing cash, as some places may not accept credit cards, and weather-dependant warm layers. We cannot wait to ring in the new year with delicious food and treats with both new and familiar faces! For the Tour Map and more information, click here.

RSVP via Facebook

For non-members, to purchase tickets: Venmo (@also-known-as) or Paypal (paypal.me/alsoknownas). Please label pre-paid payments as “Holiday Party.”

Reconnect with old friends and make new ones. Never been to an Also-Known-As event? We are excited to meet you! Friends and family members welcome, or come solo! This event is not one to be missed! Come raise a glass as we wrap up 2022 and welcome 2023. Email us if you have any questions! board@alsoknownas.org

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Friendsgiving Potluck on Thursday November 17, 7-9pm! Come with your favorite dish to share. Stay to hang, eat, and try out the new golf simulators at GolfV.2 in Brooklyn Heights. They also have putting/chipping games!

RSVP is required as we have a 20 person maximum capacity!

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Join us Thursday November 10th at 6:00pm at Izakaya Juraku for this month’s Happy Hour. Izakaya Juraku has an incredible selection of Japanese Craft Beers, Sake, Cocktails and tons of delicious food. All are welcome. We hope to see you there!

For many of us adoptees, reclaiming the language and tongue of our birth country can go deeper and hold more weight than simply being a hobby or an ongoing side project. Perhaps you’re curious or working up the courage to step into that unknown space, or maybe you’ve been studying on your own. If this speaks to you, we’d like to invite you to the first in our Reclamation series (this one focused on language).

This forum will explore some of the experiences, challenges, and joys of touching out our birth country languages through the stories of three guest panelists, Joseph Pinney, Katie Iles, and Julia Jacobs.

* Light food will be provided at the beginning!
** To ensure that we create a safe space to explore all things adoption-related, we kindly ask that only adoptees attend this event

Mark your calendars! As the weather is getting more crisp, come warm up with us during our October Happy Hour at Jackdaw NYC! We will have an area reserved for Also-Known-As adoptees and friends of adoptees. All are welcome! Happy Hour drink deals run until 8pm (select beers, wines, and cocktails!).

Even if you've never attended one of our events before, we'd love to have you!

Friends, good news! We’re back!!

All are invited to our kickoff monthly Happy Hour at TapHaus33 to connect with our incredible adoptee community and have a few drinks (or just come to eat/chill!). Come reunite and meet old and new friends!

Happy Hour is $25 for unlimited beers on tap until 8pm. Bar drinks and food are a-la-carte.

Join Also-Known-As to kick off Summer 2022 with our Annual Friends and Family Picnic! It's our biggest event of the year.

**This is a FREE, FAMILY-FRIENDLY EVENT, so please feel free to bring your significant others and kids!**

If you have never attended an AKA adoptee event, don't hesitate! We have a welcoming committee and we welcome newcomers.

We'll have games, prizes, lots of amazing food catered by Korean restaurant, BulBap Grill, and soft drinks~/snacks!

Don't miss it, and please use this facebook event page to RSVP so we can order enough food for everyone!

COST: It's a FREE event. Why? Because Also-Known-As loves our community!

RSVP: Please RSVP on the FB event page so we can order enough food for everyone! https://www.facebook.com/events/3168447263396266

TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS !!!!!!

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COME SOLO! We welcome you!

Our May event, The Violence of Love and Ghostly Kinship in Adoptee Summer Camps, features a presentation and Q&A by Hong Kong adoptee and scholar, Kit Myers.

This talk examines two types of summer camps for adoptees: birth culture (or heritage) camps and a unique adoptee-run summer camp. It explores how these summer camps shape notions of community, family, culture, and identity in similar and different ways. It also considers how they attempt to address different forms of violence produced by adoption and love. More specifically, through the framework of ghostly kinship, it will explore the ways we can hold relationships with birth/first families that do not and are not supposed to exist.

Kit Myers is an assistant professor in the Department of History & Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Merced. He received his doctorate and master’s degrees from the University of California, San Diego in ethnic studies and his bachelor’s degree in ethnic studies and journalism from the University of Oregon. Prior to his current position, he was a chancellor’s postdoctoral fellow at UC Merced. His research examines adoption, family, and kinship, specifically in the ways that they intersect with race, gender, sexuality, immigration, citizenship, nation, and indigenous sovereignty. Kit has published articles in Adoption Quarterly, Amerasia Journal, Adoption & Culture, and Critical Discourse Studies as well as co-edited a special issue on adoption and pedagogy. He also serves as an executive committee member of the Alliance for the Study of Adoption & Culture. Visit his website for more information on his research.

This is a virtual event and is open to the public. No registration is required.