Youth Researcher
Cover Media
Inis Chen
Inis Chen is currently a senior at LaGuardia High School, majoring in fine arts. In the fall, Inis will be attending Harvard, concentrating in History and Government. She identifies herself as an “artivist” who enjoys exploring how creativity is a powerful outlet for change-making. At LaGuardia, she has enjoyed creating a community of “artivists” through her initiative, LaGuardia’s Equitable Arts Program (LEAP), bringing art to under-resourced communities through the means of sketchbooks, symbolizing the first step to their creative journeys. Her research is rooted in her artistic upbringing and the importance of visual storytelling to preserve memories that are often erased by gentrification. She hopes to spotlight the real-world impact of the arts, showing how artistic practices have connected Asian American community resilience.
Inis Chen’s research project investigates intergenerational solidarity through art in Chinatown. Her project spotlights the Basement Workshop in the 1970s to contemporary collectives like the Chinatown Art Brigade and Apex for Youth, where Asian American artists & organizers have used visual storytelling, poetry, murals, projections, and education to push back against erasure caused by racism and growing gentrification. Inis shares insights from her oral history interviews and archival materials to challenge the stereotypes that portray Asian Americans as passive or apolitical. Instead, this project shows how artistic practices are a continuum of Asian American activism. Inis hopes to redefine the scope of art as not only a medium of expression but a voice within political landscapes.