Think!Chinatown NYC 6/2/18 Think!Chinatown NYC 6/2/18

James Chan's "Where Are You REALLY From?" opens Wed Jun 6

Think!Chinatown Community Art Space @ 384 Broadway, NYC

June 6 – 23, 2018

Opening reception: Wed June 6 at 6 – 9 PM

Hours: [Tues – Fri] 6:30 – 8:30pm [Sat & Sun] 2 – 6pm

Where Are You Really From? follows artist James Chan’s journey through his own geneology research, as he learns more about his paternal family history. Beyond his grandparents, Chan never knew how he was related to family members he had met throughout his life. Family reunions were a foreign concept to him and the nearest relatives were thousands of miles way.

Using secondhand accounts, historical research, photos and unreliable personal memories, Chan takes the winding path to document his family’s history before it is lost forever. Along the way, he confronts key moments of reflection on personal identity and relationships. The discoveries, family stories, musings, and challenges encountered during the project are presented in a series of illustrations and paintings.

About the Artist
James Chan received a BFA in Kinetic Imaging from Virginia Commonwealth University. He plans to continue working on the Where Are You Really From? project to learn more about his family and the history of overseas Chinese.

Hashtags: #JamesChanIsFrom #thinkchinatown #384BroadwayNYC

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Think!Chinatown NYC 5/14/18 Think!Chinatown NYC 5/14/18

THINK!CHINATOWN X Chashama host: COME YOU BACK TO MAYNILA BAY by Karl Orozco

Think!Chinatown Community Art Space @ 384 Broadway
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 12th from 6-8pm
Open Hours: May 13-27 / Monday and Tuesdays (2-7pm), Saturdays and Sundays (12-6pm)
Workshop Dates: Sundays (May 13, 20 and 27*) from 1-5pm
Closing Reception: Sunday, May 27th from 4-6pm

Come You Back to Maynila Bay is a community engagement printmaking project by Karl Orozco that uses hand-carved mahjong tiles to retell family narratives of his lola’s1 underground gambling den in the Philippines. In partnership with Think!Chinatown and ChaShaMa, Orozco will activate the space at 384 Broadway to create a public game hall and lead intergenerational printmaking workshops with Chinatown's youth and elders.

As a Filipino-American artist and educator, Karl Orozco’s work grapples with the legacy of colonialism and seeks to challenge assumed notions of family, migration and power. Influenced by Tagalog creation myths, sociolinguistic research, and historical accounts of colonial resistance, Orozco has deconstructed meaning throughout the traditional Chinese mahjong tile set and reinterpreted them for a Philippine worldview. Orozco wrestles with the cultural dominance of the Philippines and seeks to reclaim a visual heritage lost through centuries of inter-Pacific trade, Spanish colonization and U.S. imperialism.

Orozco will run printmaking workshops throughout Sundays in May where he will invite audience members to play games of mahjong and create printed “bills” recording their winning hands. Inspired by his lola’s Manila gambling den - conceived to keep her absent husband homebound - and by his own childhood experiences being told that mahjong was “a game for adults”, Orozco hopes to create an inclusive gaming space where participants of all ages feel engaged and leave lucky.

1 grandmother in Tagalog

Karl Orozco is an artist and educator based in Queens, NY. Orozco is a teaching artist at the Queens Museum where he teaches sequential art, printmaking and animation. Orozco was a fellow at the 2018 Denver Independent Comics and Art Expo. In 2017, his sci-fi comic Low Tide was featured in New Frontiers, a comics anthology and exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum dedicated to the life and activism of actor George Takei. He is the upcoming 2018 National Artist-In-Residence at the Neon Museum in Las Vegas, NV where he will continue his mahjong print practice and transform the downtown Vegas gallery into a public casino.

384 Broadway is a temporary art space presented by THINK!CHINATOWN and Chashama. With the mission to increase representation of Asian American artists and themes of concern to our community, this project seeks to test new ways galleries in Chinatown can better engage the neighborhood with cross-cultural and inter-generational practices. This project is not a commercial endeavor and is largely run on the energy of community volunteers.

THINK!CHINATOWN is a collective of neighbors and advocates working to keep Chinatown a vibrant place of inter-generational learning, cultural production & civic engagement. We are here to listen, to respond, and to build Chinatown's capacities as a strong immigrant neighborhood of NYC. Our mission is to attract & connect resources for Chinatown organizations & businesses using the tools of design & community engagement. Join us in connecting past, present & future to ensure a resilient Chinatown.

Thank you to Tsingtao Beer for sponsoring the reception.

Hashtags: #ComeYouBack #thinkchinatown

Think!Chinatown NYC 3/31/18 Think!Chinatown NYC 3/31/18

Art X Archives Exhibit until April 22nd

T!C's residence @ 384 Broadway has been extended! We are happy to announce that T!C will continue to bring you programming for a couple more months in our pop-up space in partnership with Chashama.

Enjoy an extra few weeks to visit this amazing exhibit curated by Stephanie Tung. Come explore exhibited archives of contemporary Asian American Art.

Wanna learn more? Check out this video made by T!C member, Hai-Li Kong, about the Epoxy Art Group in interview with featured artist, Ming Fay.

Think!Chinatown NYC 3/22/18 Think!Chinatown NYC 3/22/18

EVERYDAY CHINATOWN Project

Many New Yorkers, Chinese or not, frequently pass through Chinatown to peruse the fresh markets, to eat dim sum, to wander. Of course, these brief visits rarely grant a full understanding of life in everyday Chinatown. EVERYDAY CHINATOWN captures stories of daily neighborhood life (beyond the bubble tea) through displays of Chinatown objects and the narratives associated with them. We collected and recorded these stories through a series of conversations with Chinatown community groups and collaborated with local businesses to display these objects throughout the neighborhood.

Try out an EVERYDAY CHINATOWN story by dialing the number and extension in the image above to hear a story about the bagua. Like it? Then visit the locations listed here before March 31.

· 心目華埠藝術空間 Think!Chinatown Art Space 384 Broadway

· 華埠眼鏡公司 Chinatown Optical 40 Mott St

· 寶榮行 Po Wing Hong 49 Elizabeth St

· 珠江 Pearl River Mart 395 Broadway (Mezzanine)

Think!Chinatown NYC 3/21/18 Think!Chinatown NYC 3/21/18

T!C Community Art Space @ 384 Broadway

T!C team member, Hai-Li Kong, catches up with the amazing artists who have shown their art @ 384 Broadway. Check out this awesome video!

Think!Chinatown NYC 3/21/18 Think!Chinatown NYC 3/21/18

'EVERYDAY CHINATOWN' Project @ Tribeca Art + Culture Night

Our"Everyday Chinatown" and "Art Across Archives: Postcards from Chinatown" exhibits are running until March 31st.

As part of Tribeca Arts + Culture Night on March 14, around 300 people came to celebrate the EVERYDAY CHINATOWN Project and meet the voices behind the stories. The evening of celebration started off with a papercut demo with artist Xinsong at Pearl River Mart, whose SPARKLING papercut installation is on view at the store. The festivities continued in our main art space at 384 Broadway with a Chinese dance performance by Ling Tang. It was wonderful to see so many familiar and new faces alike - thank you to all those who came and volunteered!

EVERYDAY CHINATOWN is running until the end of March, so make sure to stop by one of our four window displays and dial-in to listen to community members like Richard Young, Sophia Ng, and Meemee Chin share their stories, ranging from tales about teapots to sea cucumbers.

· 心目華埠藝術空間 Think!Chinatown Art Space 384 Broadway