Curtis Chin Book Talk
November 12 2023 | 2:00pm to 4:30pm
Join us as we celebrate the release of Curtis Chin's memoir, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant, which coincides with Detroit Historical Museum's newest Community Gallery exhibition Detroit's Chinatowns.
Now a filmmaker and writer living in LA, Curtis Chin spent his youth amidst the bustling Chinese restaurant his parents owned in Detroit's Chinatown neighborhood, and his new book explores the lessons and experiences gleaned from his unique upbringing.
2:00-3:30pm Book Talk - Auditorium
3:30-4:30pm Meet & Greet - Community Gallery (requires additional ticket)
Book Talk
- Free for members
- Free for students (student ID required at check-in); first 50 students receive a free copy of the book
- Included with general museum admission ($10 adults, $8 students/veterans)
add-on Experience Packages
- $20 meet and greet with the author
- $50 VIP - priority reserved seating at the book talk, meet and greet with the author, signed copy of the book
About All I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant
Nineteen eighties Detroit was a volatile place to live, but above the fray stood a safe haven: Chung’s Cantonese Cuisine, where anyone—from the city’s first Black mayor to the local drag queens, from a big-time Hollywood star to elderly Jewish couples—could sit down for a warm, home-cooked meal. Here was where, beneath a bright-red awning and surrounded by his multigenerational family, filmmaker and activist Curtis Chin came of age; where he learned to embrace his identity as a gay ABC, or American-born Chinese; where he navigated the divided city’s spiraling misfortunes; and where—between helpings of almond boneless chicken, sweet-and-sour pork, and some of his own, less-savory culinary concoctions—he realized just how much he had to offer to the world, to his beloved family, and to himself.
Served up by the cofounder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and structured around the very menu that graced the tables of Chung’s, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant is both a memoir and an invitation: to step inside one boy’s childhood oasis, scoot into a vinyl booth, and grow up with him—and perhaps even share something off the secret menu.
