The idea that our generation of artists and changemakers are future ancestors is central to the work of the Minnesota-based Paper Lantern Project.
“We hold this role as a sacred duty to work to create a world our descendants can be proud of,” says Rae Rowe, co-founder and executive director.
As a community-centered mutual aid and arts movement with the health of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community at its core, The Paper Lantern Project’s work reaches far and wide.
Their programming centers gender and reproductive justice, focusing on culturally nuanced care and resources, and they’ve organized zines, art shows, and community care clinics.
“After the shootings in Atlanta, we saw a vacuum in Minnesota, because we realized people stopped paying attention here, as far as gender and reproductive rights were concerned,” says Rowe.
“They heard that Minnesota was a trans refuge state, and that Roe v. Wade had been codified here. They really thought that provided enough protection for us, while at the same time, we were hearing from members of our community that they didn’t know what reproductive justice was; that they were having trouble paying their bills.”
RAE ROWE“We realized that sometimes the barriers and stigmas are so huge that people really don’t know how to access their own stories… but if you ease someone into it through the arts, it makes it more accessible for all of us.”
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PAPER LANTERN PROJECT
Though the organization came to be in the spring of 2024, Rowe and co-founder Lynn Nguyen had already been building the idea for years.
“When we started The Paper Lantern Project, we really viewed this as an opportunity to create new narratives by breaking down barriers and stigmas [around reproductive health] and providing accessible programming,” Rowe says.
Since its inception, The Paper Lantern Project has embraced art as a vehicle for their work. In addition to hosting workshops and shows, they also sell stickers with art designed by queer AAPI artists to support their mutual aid fund.
For them, it’s more about the process of art making than the product—it’s a way for the community to share their stories in a comfortable way.
“We realized that sometimes the barriers and stigmas are so huge that people really don’t know how to access their own stories… but if you ease someone into it through the arts, it makes it more accessible for all of us,” says Rowe.
“We want people to really take time to develop their own stories. We like art to be slow and intentional. In that trust building process, it’s been really, really important.”
Fifty years since the first Southeast Asian families settled in Minnesota, The Paper Lantern Project is honored their roots this summer with the opening of a groundbreaking art show; Alternate Routes, which ran for the month of June at St. Paul’s XIA Gallery & Cafe.
A celebration of queer Southeast Asian (SEA) creativity and curiosity, it featured paintings, poetry, video art, and more. Although the show was conceived in honor of the milestone year for the Minnesotan Southeast Asian community, it featured work from artists from around the country and world.
This was their second art show in as many months, with May having seen a gallery presentation of a queer reimagining of their inaugural “Cut Fruit” zine.
To Rowe and Nguyen, these opportunities for artistic expression have always been intrinsically tied to the mutual aid movement itself.
“When people are confident in their own gender and reproductive justice stories, we can advocate for the care that we deserve.” says Rowe.