On May 12th, 2018, Kundiman hosted our first Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon at Asian American Writers’ Workshop in New York City, co-sponsored by AAWW, PEN America, and Wikimedia NYC. Participants brought their own laptops and were encouraged to come without any Wikipedia experience: Wikimedia NYC provided a training presentation and also gave one-on-one assistance to participants. Kundiman provided a list of suggested pages to edit, but everyone was encouraged to add their own favorite writers and books to Wikipedia!

The event was a huge success: Over 200 edits were made and over 35 pages were edited, including new pages created for Asian American Literary Review, Kaya Press, Tanwi Nandini Islam, Alice Sola Kim, and others. In the three-hour event, which included a short training on Wikipedia, we added almost 10,000 words to Wikipedia pertaining to Asian American literature!

Karen Ho from The Outline attended the event and wrote a feature about the Edit-a-Thon here called “If An Asian American Author Doesn’t Have a Wikipedia Page, Do They Exist?” Kyle Lucia Wu, Kundiman’s Programs & Communications Manager, is quoted as saying, “[Wikipedia] is massively important because it's the first thing that people go to...As a kid I would have never known how to find Kundiman or Asian American Writers’ Workshop, but I did know Wikipedia...By increasing the visibility and accuracy of pages of Asian American literature and writers, we're making those writers and that literature instantly more accessible.”

We're hosting a second Edit-a-Thon at The Ace Hotel on Sunday, May 27th. Since photos can only be uploaded to Wikipedia by the person who owns the copyright, Kundiman and Wikimedia NYC will be offering to photograph any author of color and change their Wikipedia page photo to one that they can approve!

Thanks to everyone who joined us on May 12th. Check out our Facebook album to see pictures from the event!