“Is America a Banana Republic?” Performance artist Kristina Wong poses this question to her audience multiple times, decked out in a pink and gray camo tank top and a tactical shoulder sash lined with, not weapons of mass destruction, but clothing pins, needles and spools of thread. Is America’s chain of command in crisis as inept as the fast fashion corporation is… generally? During “Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord,” Wong guides her audience towards the answer. In the show, she documents the rise and fall of her pandemic-initiated grassroots coalition “Auntie Sewing Squad,” a Facebook group dedicated to sewing masks for marginalized groups during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wong got her start in live theater in 2006 with “Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” — a one-woman show about the prevalence of mental illness among Asian American women. Now, in 2023, she is a Pulitzer Prize finalist in drama, and her projects are underlined by her commitment to amplifying underrepresented stories. This is where “Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord” began.
CM: How long did it take you to create “Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord?” How did the idea of performing a show about your sewing group even come to fruition?
Wong: I saw an article that hospitals needed homesewn masks, [and] I started sewing masks. It’s not like I’m sitting on a plethora of cotton fabric and elastic. The first ten days of this was so frantic — running around trying to get materials. My friends were like, ‘This is gonna be your next show.’ And I said, ‘No one wants to relive this. Do you want to relive this?’
Photo by Javier Vasquez
I started the “Auntie Sewing Squad” four days [into the pandemic] because I needed to help. It was supposed…
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