Chinatown Arts Week 2018: The Highlights
We are so excited to organize our first Chinatown Arts Week! There are many arts happenings in the neighborhood we are working on highlighting on our new platform, HowToChinatown.NYC which will be online in a few days, but for now we’d like to share with you the events Think!Chinatown is presenting for Chinatown Arts Week:
CHINATOWN ARTS WEEK OPENING NIGHT CELEBRATION
Wednesday Oct 24th 2018, 5:30-7:00pm info session, 7-9:30 celebration @ 5 Essex St
Celebrate the first Chinatown Arts Week with musical performances by Mencius Music Society, projections from Asian American art archives, tastings from Ming River Baijiu, Chinatown eats, and drinks with new and old friends. Come by at 5:30pm to hear Think!Chinatown and partners present their new map-based platform, HowToChinatown.NYC. We hope that Chinatown organizations will find this platform as a useful tool to cross promote, find synergies, and work together to strengthen the neighborhood.
Thank you to our hosts, DLJ for supporting this event.
THE ART OF TEA WITH LC TEA TRADING
Saturday Oct 27 2018, 12:00 noon – 3:00 pm @ 123 Elizabeth St
Sit down for a few rounds of tea with Mr.Chen. Learn about his wide collection of tea, specializing in leaves from Fujian. If you ask, he’ll share pictures of where the tea comes from and how the tea is produced. $10 a sitting (20-30 mins, and please tip if you stay if you linger). Seating is limited, so circle back around if he’s full up.
OPEN AIR TAICHI WORKSHOP
Sunday Oct 28th 2018, 11:00 am-12:00 noon @ Forsyth Plaza
Practice Tai Chi and make new friends with an amazing view of the Manhattan Bridge. Shifu Sherry will take us through empty hand formations. Wear loose clothing and comfortable shoes. Suggested donation: $5-$20 cash for instruction.
Sherry Zhang Xiao Qin is a faculty member at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, teaching tai chi and qi gong. A native of Hubei China, she holds a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Chengdu Physical Education Institute in Sichuan and was an associate researcher at the Chinese Wushu Research Institute in Beijing. Zhang also worked for the China Wushu Association for 15 years and was certified by the Association to teach tai chi and qi gong.
HISTORIC ARCHITECTURE SCAVENGER HUNT
Sunday Oct 21st 2018, 1:30-4:00pm (meet up at 5 Essex St)
Urban Archive is organizing a digital scavenger hunt for Chinatown Arts Week! The Hunt will be all across Chinatown, but we’ll meet up first at 5 Essex for hot cocoa and instructions. Enter in teams, or pick up a team with new friends! Explore Chinatown’s architectural history… maybe visit a local museum, and perhaps you’ll win some prizes from sponsors Pearl River Mart and the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. Prominent Chinatown photographer, Corky Lee, will share stories from his series, “Bygone Chinatown” which is mapped on our HowToChinatown.NYC platform.
Thank you for DLJ for hosting the event.
HAND IN HAND 手牽手 A SHADOW PUPPET PERFORMANCE BY SPICA WOBBE
Sunday Oct 28, 2018 5:00-6:30pm @ 21 Pell
What are hands made for? Are they for scratching, rubbing, or counting beats? In this work a mother holds her daughter’s hand, which conveys how the previous generation took care of the next generation. It also tells how a self-taught artist, Lisa Shia, used her paintings to document her life stories growing up in Meng Xia through a scroll that she painted. The show’s elements include shadow and light, object manipulation, Kamishibai style storytelling, and music.
The show is 20 minutes and will be performed twice: 5pm in English (英语) 6pm in Mandarin (普通话) Doors Open at 4:30pm. There will be a post performance Q&A with the artist.
VOTESart COMMUNITY CONCERT W/ E. FUZHOU OPERA ASSOC.
Monday Oct 29, 6:00-8:00pm @ 5 Essex
VOTESart is non-partisan organization that works with musicians to engage their local communities through pop-up concerts in community spaces. The program will include a special selection of classical music for a Chinatown audience and feature excerpts of Chinese Opera performed Eastern Fuzhou Opera Association. Audience members will be engaged in bi-lingual get out the vote activities interspersed through the performance.
CHINATOWN ARTS WEEK POETRY NIGHT
Tuesday Oct 30, 7:00 – 8:30pm @ HT Chen Dance 70 Mulberry
Chinatown Arts Week will close with a night of readings by Asian American writers curated by Julie Chen. Stay tuned for more info.