"In My Feathered Pajamas" Honored To Be Part of APICC's 2025 United States of Asian America Festival
We are thrilled to share that In My Feathered Pajamas: Women’s Stories of Critical Refuge, led by interdisciplinary artist Badri Valian, has been selected for this year’s United States of Asian America Festival (USAAF) and is supported by a grant from the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center (APICC).
Building on the themes of migration, sanctuary, and resilience explored in In My Fluffy Pajamas, this new iteration transforms public spaces into sites of collective storytelling and creative action.
In My Feathered Pajamas invites participants into an interactive fiber art experience, where Badri and collaborator Kathryn Vercillo will crochet delicate feathers—symbols of fragility, displacement, and strength. These feathers will be scattered along pathways, gathered by participants into a communal nest, and ultimately woven into a wearable feathered robe, a living symbol of protection, care, and transformation.
Why This Project Matters
In My Feathered Pajamas is a reflection on the ways migration shapes both personal and collective identities. Through fiber art and shared storytelling, this project honors the resilience of those who have moved, those who have stayed, and those who continue to seek refuge. By transforming scattered feathers into a communal nest and a wearable robe, the project symbolizes the power of gathering, reclaiming, and rebuilding. It centers AAPI women’s stories, rewriting narratives of displacement to highlight the acts of care, strength, and solidarity that create true sanctuary.
Interactive Invitation
Participants will be invited to gather the scattered feathers, bringing them into a shared space where the communal nest will take shape. Alongside this process, historical and contemporary stories of migration will be shared through feather-shaped handouts, offering deeper reflection on how displacement has shaped individual and collective identities. These narratives will rewrite histories centering AAPI women's voices, honoring their often-overlooked roles in holding and rebuilding spaces of refuge. Through this participatory experience, the act of gathering and reclaiming becomes a form of storytelling, resilience, and solidarity.
Where & When
These performances will take place in May 2025 at three San Francisco locations with deep connections to local AAPI history:
Japantown
Chinatown
Ferry Building
About the USAAF Festival: Critical Refuge
The United States of Asian America Festival (USAAF) is an annual celebration showcasing the artistic accomplishments and cultural diversity of San Francisco’s AAPI communities. Organized by the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center (APICC), the festival provides a platform for artists to share stories that reflect their experiences and heritage.
This year’s theme, Critical Refuge, invites artists and audiences to explore how sanctuary is created, maintained, and reimagined amidst displacement and uncertainty. It highlights the ways in which immigrant and refugee communities build spaces of care, resilience, and belonging in times of unrest.
In My Feathered Pajamas embodies this theme by transforming public spaces into sites of reflection, storytelling, and collective art-making, where participants actively contribute to a living archive of migration, memory, and sanctuary.
We are very grateful to APICC for awarding the grant that makes this project possible.
We invite you to be part of this evolving journey. Stay tuned for more details!