FEBRUARY 11, 2004—Award-winning journalist Helen Zia and activist/performers Fred Ho and Magdalena Gomez are among some of the country’s leading Asian American advocates, educators, and artists who will take part in the13^th Biennial Midwest Asian Pacific American Students’ Conference at Oberlin College this month.

Titled Changing Faces, Facing Changes: Reinforcing Our Commitment to the APA Movement, the conference will be held Friday, Feb. 20 to Sunday, Feb. 22 under the auspices of the College’s Asian Pacific American Conference Committee. "The conference commemorates the history of the struggle for Asian American Studies at Oberlin and links it to a radical activism in the wider APA community," say co-chairs Vivian Liao and Rashne Limki.

Helen Zia will give the keynote address at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21, and Fred Ho and Magdalena Gomez will present a program, titled Music and Poetry for Third World Unity and Liberation, at 9:30 p.m., also on Saturday.

The conference program will include a wide variety of panels, speakers, performances, and workshops. Registration information and a complete schedule are available online and by contacting Vivian Liao (Vivian.Liao@oberlin.edu) or Rashne Limki (Rashne.Limki @oberlin.edu).

A second generation Chinese American and a Woodrow Wilson scholar, Zia has been outspoken on issues ranging from civil rights and peace to women's rights and countering hate violence.  She is a contributing editor to Ms. magazine, where she formerly served as executive editor. Her articles, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Washington Post, The Nation, Essence, OUT!, Social Policy, and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Fred Ho is a Chinese American musician, composer, writer and activist. His martial arts and music/theater epic, Voice of the Dragon, toured 33 U.S. cities in 2003. He has recorded 15 albums and has performed with many of the top names in jazz. He edits the popular annual Sheroes/Womyn Warriors Calendar, and his Sounding Off! Music as Subversion/ Resistance/Revolution (with Ron Sakolsky) won the 1997 American Book Award.

Magdalena Gomez is an award winning poet, playwright, arts educator, and performer. She is currently on the faculty of SmART Schools, which provides arts/academic integration programs for over 500 schools internationally. She also is a guest artist with the Arts Literacy Project at Brown University and serves on the faculty of the Women of Color Leadership Network at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.