Lisa Gold
4:22:40
I'll go, I'll just go.
4:22:41
All right, thank you.
4:22:43
Good afternoon Chair Rivera, members of the City Council and friends from the Department of Cultural Affairs.
4:22:49
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
4:22:52
My name is Lisa Gold and I am the Executive Director of the Asian American Arts Alliance or A four.
4:22:57
We are a forty one year old nonprofit service organization that works to ensure greater representation, equity, the e word, and opportunities for Asian American Pacific Islander artists and arts organizations of all disciplines across this great city.
4:23:13
In fact, we are the only organization in the nation that does that.
4:23:17
I also am a member of the Cultural Equity Coalition and a facilitator of the Culture at Three Call.
4:23:23
I am here today to join my colleagues in asking the city to baseline $75,000,000 for culture in FY '26 with the ideal goal to increase cultural funding to 1% of the city budget and to also fully fund the city council initiatives, especially the Cultural Immigrant Initiative and the Coalition of Theaters of Color.
4:23:47
Small organizations like ours are currently in danger as Washington reels one executive order off after another in an attempt to suppress our voices and deny our existence.
4:23:59
With rollbacks of corporate and federal support for DEI, we are really suffering.
4:24:04
Just yesterday, my colleague attempted to boost a post on Instagram about a program from ours from the Bandung residency, which promotes black and Asian solidarity and the post was rejected.
4:24:17
So this work is important.
4:24:19
Obviously, they wouldn't be trying to silence us if it wasn't and without city funding, we cannot make it happen.
4:24:25
The AAPI community is one of the most diverse and fastest growing ethnic groups in New York City, making up almost 18% of the city's population, yet we receive less than 2% of Department of Cultural Affairs funding.
4:24:38
The arts obviously play a critical role in the city and the lives of our constituents, bringing understanding and tolerance in a time of increasing division and intolerance.
4:24:48
I just wanted to say that communities of color as a whole rely on city funding much, much more than private and predominantly white institutions.
4:24:56
And in this climate, when the federal government is doing all it can to erase us, it is critical that our city government can ensure equitable support to the arts and culture sector and to keep our city the cultural capital of the world.
4:25:09
Thank you for your work.
