Photo by Becky Yee

What is the soundtrack to your living room? From our favorites on the radio to the conversations woven over them, our living rooms ring with the sounds and stories of our families.

Bringing together music and oral history, Rochelle Hoi-Yiu Kwan (aka YiuYiu 瑶瑶) will gather us for an intimate living room listening through the Chinatown Records 華埠錄音 archive. Pulling from over 30 record collections inherited from her family and neighbors, we'll listen together to songs that have long filled Chinatown living rooms – and the histories and memories that come with them. 

Rooted in the belief that we can all be DJs and oral historians, we invite you to bring a favorite song of your own to share and soundtrack our living room with us, whether on a vinyl record or online. Come step into these musical portals with us, back to a time – whether 50 years ago while dancing in our youth or to our childhood singing along at family karaoke parties – that etched every word and beat into our memory.

Pay-as-you-can RSVP required!

Sponsored by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and NYC Dept of Cultural Affairs

Rochelle Hoi-Yiu Kwan (aka YiuYiu 瑶瑶) is a cultural organizer, artist, and oral history educator based on Lenape land in NYC's Manhattan Chinatown. She takes on her childhood name YiuYiu 瑶瑶 as a researcher and DJ for Chinatown Records 華埠錄音. Bringing together art and history, she leads oral history projects and training with Think!Chinatown and a wide variety of classrooms that have taught her so much all along the way. @rochellehkwan

Chinatown Records 華埠錄音 is a homegrown community effort to celebrate the richness of music, memory, and history that comes with inherited family collections. Spanning across Chinatown block parties, sonic family histories, living room listenings, and endless learning with family and neighbors, Chinatown Records 華埠錄音 is an ever-growing record of the people we love, who bring all this music back to life with us. @chinatownrecordsproject