Smarty Pants Podcast

Looking In, Looking Out

Artist Betty Yu turns the camera on her family

By Stephanie Bastek | January 15, 2021
(Dis)Placed in Sunset Park, Intimate/Distant, De-gentrifying My Parents’ Block installation at “Brooklyn Utopias” at the Old Stone House Exhibition, August 20–October 18, 2020 (Photograph by Etienne Frossard)
(Dis)Placed in Sunset Park, Intimate/Distant, De-gentrifying My Parents’ Block installation at “Brooklyn Utopias” at the Old Stone House Exhibition, August 20–October 18, 2020 (Photograph by Etienne Frossard)

As an artist and activist, Betty Yu has spent her career focusing on the community around her: Sunset Park, Brooklyn, where she was born and raised. Whether, as a member of the Chinatown Arts Brigade, engaging art galleries on their role in gentrification, or projecting tenants’ life stories on the sides of buildings slated for redevelopment, Yu’s work has stressed the connection between art and social change. But what happens when Covid-19 makes interacting with your neighbors life-threatening? Yu, who first began turning the camera on her parents’ family life in 2019, joins us on the podcast to talk about getting even more personal in the pandemic.

Go beyond the episode

Dad – still, quiet and daydreaming by Betty Yu

Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.

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