Island Bound: Women Making History gathers, preserves and shares the stories of inspiring women whose collective action helped to carry Angel Island history forward into the future.
Genny Lim is an American poet, playwright, and performer of Chinese-descent. She is co-author of Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940, winner of the American Book Award with Judy Yung and Him Mark Lai.
Her 1985 play, Paper Angels, set in the Angel Island immigration barracks, was the first Asian American play to air on PBS’s American Playhouse and was produced throughout the U.S., Canada and China.
(above) On May 17, 2009, Genny Lim read a poem dedicated to her mother, Lim Lin-sun (pictured at left; photo courtesy of Genny Lim.) during the 2009 Asian Heritage Month program at Angel Island State Park, Angel Island: Voices of Old and New. She also performs Chin Moo’s monologue from her 1980 play, Paper Angels.
Video by Jeffrey Gee Chin, leapmanproductions.
Lim collaborated with Gen Taiko, Lenora Lee Dance on librettos for Within These Walls (2017) and Dreams of Flight (2019) at the Chinese Immigration Detention Station on Angel Island. Lim began her collaboration with Del Sol Quartet with Huang Ruo‘s Angel Island: Oratorio for Voices & String Quartet premiered on October 22, 2021 at the Presidio Theatre in San Francisco and October 23, 2021 on Angel Island, with poetry readings by The Last Hoisan Poets, Lim with sister poets Nellie Wong and Flo Oy Wong, who trace their roots to China’s Hoisan villages, home of the Hoisan-wa (a.k.a. Toisanese/Taishanese) Chinese dialect. Together, they conduct special poetry readings in English and Hoisan-wa, to pay homage to their mother language which is at risk of fading from collective memory.
In 2024, Lim was appointed as the ninth poet laureate of San Francisco, the first Chinese American to serve in the role.
Building upon the Angel Island Project, Lim’s new collaboration with Del Sol Quartet will feature poetry set to music by Chinese-diaspora composers, Theresa Wong, Vivian Fung and Meilina Tsui. Songs of the Diaspora, a multimedia performance, will premiere October 2025.