PR for the People Spotlight: Diana Li | Kearny Street Workshop
photo by Willis Lai, from Agrarianaa
This is a series of interviews with participants in PapaLoDown’s ‘PR for the People workshop’. Hear first hand from amazing people and businesses, who are learning how to amplify their stories in the news, and growing their visibility and brand awareness in the process.
Meet Diana Li, Kearny Street Workshop:
What is your background and experience?
I am a curator and arts organizer, with a current focus on program coordinating with orgs like Kearny Street Workshop (KSW), Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center (APICC) and Asian American Women Artists Association (AAWAA). This past year, I co-curated Agrarianaa: Art Inspired by APA Agricultural Roots, presented by AAWAA, at SOMArts Cultural Center and at the Japanese American Museum of San Jose, and I am currently coordinating and working press for KSW's APAture festival. On the side, I am also a member of Appendix Collective, a video and video installation artist and an emerging backyard gardener.
What is the current Public Relations (PR) campaign you're working on about?
I am working on the PR campaign for Kearny Street Workshop's APAture festival, occurring October 4-27 at multiple venues in the city, including Arc Gallery & Studios, SOMArts Cultural Center, American Bookbinders Museum, Hotel Utah and Roxie Theater. This year, we are celebrating 20 years of APAture, and the fact that APAture has featured artists and entertainers like Ali Wong and Hasan Minhaj. So one of the main angles we are pitching to press is Why Asian American Arts Orgs Are Essential to Representation in Hollywood.
What goals do you hope to accomplish through this PR campaign?
Kearny Street Workshop has been around for 47 years now and is the longest running APA arts organization in the nation. It's been a home for many and has a huge impact on sustaining APA artists, turning them into community members, and vice versa! The APAture festival, in particular, is unprecedented in creating an ecosystem of emerging artists and arts organizers to start off their careers. Ali Wong is quoted to have said that APAture was her first real show to ever perform stand-up at and this year we are honoring the original organizers who created the foundation for the festival, 20 years ago back in 1999. My hope with this PR campaign is to highlight this kind of work and the impact it's had on the arts community in San Francisco and beyond in terms of media and representation in Hollywood. With all of this, it's orgs like KSW that create the resources and foundation for many APA artists to thrive and create an impact on our culture.
“My hope...is to highlight this kind of work and the impact it’s had on the arts community in San Francisco and beyond in terms of media and representation in Hollywood...it’s orgs like KSW that create the resources and foundation for many APA artists to thrive and create an impact on our culture.”
How has the experience of pitching and working with media to amplify the stories in your PR campaign been like so far?
What a whirlwind! I am just honored to be a part of the work that, all in all, has been a huge community effort (shoutout to Jason Bayani and Mihee Kim, KSW staff). In 2017, we planted the seeds by awarding Ali Wong, Hasan Minhaj, Michael Arcega, Kristina Wong and the late Justin Chin with the first ever APAture Focus Award (this is also when I first met Paloma and when KSW started working with PapaLoDown). Within the last two years, films like Crazy Rich Asians, Always Be My Maybe and The Farewell rose up. And just this week, Kearny Street Workshop, APAture and many other APA arts organizations and programs got highlighted in an NBC Asian America article, From Hasan Minhaj to Ali Wong, how Asian American arts groups are fostering stars. I believe in the way fractals work in nature AND in the organizing work we do, and I'm happy to be just one of the drivers in getting traffic to our stories.
What are a few things you know now about PR that you didn't know before you started?
RESEARCH AND STRATEGY! Before doing the PR for the People workshop with Paloma, I was used to doing social media marketing, which mostly involves creating content, spreading the word, outreaching and finding partners to co-present an event. Public relations is a whole different, yet connected sphere. I learned reading the news can actually be very strategic and fun and super important when figuring out timing for certain pitches to go out and following up with press. In terms of strategy, I also learned how useful Twitter can be to follow different writers, see what they're up to, like their posts and tag them. Some writers also respond quicker to DM's via Twitter than over email because it's just more immediate! There's also analytics, Google Alerts, website indexing, GALORE! Through learning all of these different strategies, I've been able to enhance my marketing skills, since it all goes hand in hand. Overall, I also feel like I am generally more aware and in the loop of what is happening in the APA community, both locally and nationally, and that feels good! Knowledge is power.
What other projects are you working on that we should have on our radar?
SO MANY! This year is also AAWAA's 30th anniversary and we have a fundraising campaign up, plus a symposium and party to celebrate it on Saturday, October 19. I've also been coordinating the revamp of AAWAA's new website, which will be launched to the public in time for our anniversary event, AND co-managing their Emerging Curators Program, which has a call for proposal out now. APICC has also just released a call for proposals for our annual United States of Asian America Festival. And KSW is having an Artist Market and Holiday Party fundraiser on Sunday, Dec. 1 (save the date). YAY!
In terms of my own art, my work is going to be in a show about glitch, technology and climate change in November at a special place called Galallery in the Mission at 180 Capp St. I'm also trying to see if I can grow beans and lettuce in my backyard during Bay Area autumn (aka second summer).