Visual Artists Guild 視覺藝術家協會 Cordially Invites You To The  

33rd Tiananmen Commemoration 六四紀念 頒獎活動 & Annual Award (On-Line)

視覺藝術家協會
六四紀念 頒獎活動 在線

May 29, 2022 Sunday at 2 P.M. (PST)
日期：2022年5月29日，週日下午2點
HONORING:

Enes Kanter Freedom (Professional Basketball Player 職業籃球運動員）
          NBA Boston Celtics, Utah Jazz, New York Knicks, Portland Trail Blazers

Hong Kong Alliance 支聯會
         (Organization for Hong Kong Tiananmen Candlelight Vigil)

         Lee Cheuk-yan 李卓人 (Former Chair)
          Albert Ho Chun-yan 何俊仁 (Former Chair)
          Chow Hang-Tung 鄒幸彤  (Former Vice-Chair)

SPECIAL GUESTS
         Jing Zhang 张菁
                  President, Women's Rights in China 中國婦權
                  Visual Artists Guild 2015 Awardee
          Samuel Chu
                President, The Campaign for Hong Kong
                  Visual Artists Guild 2021 Awardee
         Louisa Greve
                Director of Global Advocacy, Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP)
                  UHRP is Visual Artists Guild 2021 Awardee
 

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Live Stream YouTube & Facebook
Watch Live on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/visualartistsguildgroup/
Watch Live on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmt032_hMve6vSp0qdC6-TA

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE HONOREES & SPECIAL GUESTS:

Enes Kanter Freedom who is formerly with the NBA Boston Celtics, Utah Jazz, New York Knicks, Portland Trail Blazers will join us on-line to accept the award.  We honor Enes Kanter Freedom for his stand on human rights issues especially during the 2022 Winter Olympics when he used his unique platform to bring international attention to the Uyghur Genocide, Tibetan freedoms and Hong Kong's loss of civil liberties despite knowing full well the price he has to pay as in the case of former Houston Rockets manager's tweet in support of Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters in 2019.
Enes had said, “I am telling all my athlete friends: All the gold medals in the world that you can win is not more important than your morals and your values and your principles.”  He further urge his fellow athletes and those who have a platform, "... to stand for innocent people out there and be their voice who don’t have a voice.”

For his activism, Enes Freedom was traded to the Houston Rockets but the Rockets waived him resulting that he is no longer on any of the NBA rouster.

Visual Artists Guild will also be honoring Lee Cheuk-yan, Albert Ho Chun-yan, Chow Hang-Tung, former Chairs and Vice-Chairs of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movement of China.  The Hong Kong Alliance was founded in May 21, 1989, two weeks before the Tiananmen Massacre.  Since the massacre, its main goal was the accountability of the massacre with the estimates of death toll vary from hundreds to thousands.  Every year, the Alliance had held candlelight vigil in commemoration of the the massacre until 2020 with Beijing's imposed National Security Law onto Hong Kong and subsequently had to disband last year.

All three of the honorees from the Alliance have been arrested, denied bail and waiting to be tried under the National Security Law.

Jing Zhang is the President of Women's Rights in China (WRCHINA), a non-profit organization which aims to protect and advance the political, economic, social and cultural rights of women and children in China.  The group's volunteers have  exposed cases of human trafficking in China in particular of children and girls.  She will talk about the case of the Chained woman which had become the topic which millions in China responded to with personal knowledge.

Samuel Chu is the President of The Campaign for Hong Kong which mission is to advocate for US and international leadership and policies that advance human rights and democracy for all Hongkongers.  Samuel, an American citizen, is the first foreigner to be issued arrest warrant against him under China's imposed National Security Law in Hong Kong.

Louisa Greve is the Director of Global Advocacy for Ughur Human Rights Project, a non-profit organization which advocates for the rights of the Uyghurs and other Turkin Muslims.  She has served on the board of Amnesty International as well as on other human rights Boards and advisory committees.

Please donate to Ukraine Humanitarian Aid postangeles.org 100% donation goes to Postangeles.org, a volunteer organization collecting humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
捐款 100% 的捐款將捐給 烏克蘭人道主義援助志願者組織 Postangeles.org. 

Here is the link and QR code for the 'Go Fund Me' page:

Go Fund Me:

https://gofund.me/3db123f0
 

Or click below to donate through Visual Artists Guild
100% of donation will go to postangeles.org for Ukraine Humanitarian Relief

PRESSS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
 May 11, 2022

Visual Artists Guild condemns the arrest of the trustees of the Hong Kong Humanitarian Relief Fund.

The Hong Kong government ongoing attacks on freedom of speech and freedom of assembly is now extending their attack on Freedom of Religion.

The Hong Kong Humanitarian Relief Fund is a non-government organization acting as a Good Samaritan to provide medical and legal assistance to the protesters who had been mercilessly attacked by Hong Kong's CCP controlled police force during the 2019 protests.  Up to 2 million people joined the peaceful protests including Catholic and Protestant groups.  

By arresting Cardinal Joseph Zen, barrister Margaret Ng, pop singer Denis Ho, academician Hui Po-Keung and former lawmaker Cyd Ho based on their activities with the Humanitarian Relief Fund, the Hong Kong government is violating its own Basic Law and its Bill of Rights Ordinance which guarantee the people of Hong Kong the rights as enshrined under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

By arresting Cardinal Zen, Hong Kong's government is in fact sending a chilling message to all Christians in Hong Kong; even loving their neighbor as thy selves may violate the National Security Law as imposed by Hong Kong government's master in Beijing.

Visual Artists Guild calls on all democratic governments around the world to demand the immediate release of these five activists.  
Loving they neighbor is no crime.  
Being a Good Samaritan is no offense.

CONTACT:  Ann Lau, Chair, Visual Artists Guild
                   310-433-0697

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