with Pathways Learning Center, Tim Hellendrung (HUGE Improv Theater), Heather Meyer (Brave New Workshop Comedy Theater) and Black Dog Coffee Shop and Annex

The Clapback Cabaret


The Clapback Cabaret is a series of monthly comedy cabarets and skill-building workshops on St. Paul’s East Side, designed to empower Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA)/Diasporic women and trans women-identified voices to combat microaggressions. The series is hosted by FAWK, who use comedy to talk about controversial issues and who identify a bind that Asian women live in: being quiet comes with the stereotype of being submissive, while being strong comes with the label “dragon lady”. Clapback Cabaret events will happen around the East Side, where there is a large community of APIA women.

About the artists: 

The Clapback Cabaret Project is led by overly confident (and funny) FAWK co-founding members Naomi KoMay Lee-Yang, and Saymoukda Vongsay. They are award-winning poets, performance artists, playwrights, screenwriters, storytellers, teaching artists, consultants, cultural producers, and community organizers. FAWK exists to combat the invisibility of Asian and Asian-Pacific American women by using comedy, and their work has been recognized by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, Warner Bros., the Bush Leadership Foundation, and the McKnight Foundation. All three artists have worked with APIAs in the East Side, and are committed to building and growing with the community.