What Can We Do?
What Can We Do? (WCWD), presented by the Asian American Arts Alliance (A4), is a grant program for artists creating community-care projects that engage and support Asian communities and other communities of color in NYC.
This program is presented by Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) and is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Special thanks to Council Members Christopher Marte and Sandra Ung. Programs serving cross-cultural solidarity and the Palestinian community are funded through a grant from the Ford Foundation for Social Justice.
A4 is pleased to announce the 2026 Awardees. Read the press release here.
View other Fellowships & Awards:
2026
Hala Alyan
Kan Yama Kan is a Brooklyn-based poet-run reading series and open mic centering community care, cross-cultural solidarity, and social justice through verse, language, and song. This season kickoff during National Poetry Month will feature acclaimed poet Hanif Abdurraqib, Arab musical guests, an open mic for new and returning voices, and a community raffle. Founded during COVID-19 as a safe outdoor space, Kan Yama Kan has become a vital home for artists and audiences, particularly people of color, immigrants, and multilingual creators, to gather in vulnerability, joy, and shared purpose, experimenting across genres and languages.
halaalyan.com
Wenjun Chen
“Hometown XR” is a community-centered art project delivered through participatory sessions in Chinatown (Manhattan) and Flushing (Queens), inviting Asian American, immigrant, and other communities of color to share short hometown memories and see them transformed into immersive, AI-generated audiovisual worlds. Participants contribute a brief story (a street, person, object, or sensory detail), then watch a live, artist-led generation process that makes the technology visible and approachable. Each “memory scene” is recorded, shared online, and returned to participants via a QR code. Accessible to all ages and requiring no technical skills, Hometown XR builds care, reflection, and connection through storytelling.
chenwenjun.net
Cecile Chong and Tao Leigh Goffe (Broken China)
“Celebrating Masculinities: Lunar New Year Workshop (Year of the Fire Horse)” is an interactive program by Broken China (Tao Leigh Goffe & Cecile Chong) in collaboration with the Boys Club of New York. Taking place on February 26, 2026, at the Abbé Clubhouse in Flushing, Queens, the workshop invites boys ages 11–15 to explore Afro-Asian-Latine ideas of masculinity. Through film, guided dialogue, calligraphy across Chinese, Quechua/ Kichua, Spanish, and English, music, and a shared food inspired by the cuisine of Asia, Africa, Caribbean and Latin America, participants reflect on ancestry, language, identity, and care in a welcoming Lunar New Year celebration.
cecilechong.com
Siyang Dai with Yejia Sun
天地通用市场 Tiandi Universal Market is a community-centered social practice art project. Through the crafting of paper offerings, the project collaborates with communities in participatory workshops that explore mourning, memory, ancestry, identity, and the imagination of the netherworld, positioning death culture as a space for dialogue, reflection, and collective care. The workshop creates an open space to discuss death—often a private or “taboo” subject in American culture. Through collective making and conversation, participants of all backgrounds are invited to engage with these traditions and, in the act of crafting, begin to imagine and create personal, symbolic, or future worlds.
Zoe Fuad (G-REBELS)
“Care Web NYC” will expand G-REBELS’ experimental peer-to-peer mutual aid program, which delivers food and material goods to predominantly housebound community members. We will create a tapestry map of New York to visually display this care web, with red threads stitched across to represent each peer-to-peer pairing. This piece is a play on the Red Thread of Fate myth, as well as Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha’s theory of “care webs.” It aims to offer an image of what disability intimacy can look like, beyond the dominant expectation of intimacy as in-person, physical touch.
Devika Girish (Another World)
“The People’s Torch” is a radical newspaper featuring articles by Brooklyn youth for their community. Published by Another World, a new movement space, the broadsheet is named after “The Freedman’s Torchlight”—the local paper, founded in 1866, of Weeksville, the free Black community that grew into Crown Heights. May, AAPI Heritage month, will feature a special edition dedicated to Afro-Asian solidarity in Central Brooklyn. The paper’s youth journalists will report stories on Caribbean and Asian immigration to Brooklyn; Black and Asian communities’ experiences with gentrification; the melting-pot culture (and entangled colonial history) of this predominantly West Indian area; and more.
Maya Han
“Mycelial May,” is a free workshop inclusive and accessible to all while focused on AAPI communities to raise awareness of the underrecognized role and benefits of fungi, fostering art and nature engagement and (re)discovery of rich myco-cultural heritages. “Mycelial May” will feature a beginner-friendly artist-led rolling “drop in and draw” mushroom drawing session, and a mycological urban mini-foray and “discovery” display. Celebrating the collaboration between art and science, this event will tap into the health benefits of drawing and walking in nature while cultivating community-building, cultural pride, and a restorative sense of wonder and delight.
hanprojects.net
Kitty Hu with Dave Yim (Always Chinatown Film)
“We Are Always Chinatown” is a youth storytelling workshop and showcase to equip young artists with the skills to create short films/videos that highlight the stories of small businesses in Chinatown. This series amplifies the rich fabric of Chinatown small businesses, moving beyond the popular, well-known locations to shed light on the many people and places that both hold this community’s history and are building its future. The workshops will cover basic interview skills, intro to ethics in storytelling, technical approaches, and audience/distribution to culminate in a public showcase.
shoesoffmedia.com
Samar Haddad King
Samar Haddad King of Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre will present three free Dabke workshops in partnership with Arab American Family Support Center (AAFSC). Two teaching artists will lead workshops in Arabic and English for high school girls/young women in AAFSC’s after-school program. The workshops introduce Dabke as a form rooted in collective celebration and resistance, blending traditional movements with contemporary dance and theatre. Open to dancers and non-dancers, the program fosters creativity, confidence, and cultural connection.
ysdt.org
Gigi Lin
“Threads of Resilience” is a series of intergenerational printmaking workshops for AAPI youth and elders, inspired by CAAAV’s 40-year archive of housing justice and tenant organizing. Participants explore oral histories and campaign materials, connecting past struggles to personal experiences. Using accessible techniques like linocut and collagraph, we will create prints channeling resilience and solidarity. Rooted in a print exchange, each person makes an edition– one to trade, one to keep, and one for a shared “archive-in-a-box.” This co-created living archive will be presented at community assemblies and CAAAV’s anniversary gala, weaving us closer through art, storytelling, and mutual care.
gigi-lin-studio.squarespace.com
Qiqing Lin
“Hands at Work” is a project featuring textile artworks by Chinese immigrant women in New York City, many of whom are first-generation immigrants with experience in garment factories. Drawing on skills developed through years of handwork labor once central to survival, the works are now reclaimed for creativity and self-expression. The project includes an exhibition and a hands-on fiber art workshop open to the public, creating space for making, intergenerational exchange, and cross-cultural connection.
linqiqing.com
Camille Luong with Pepi Ng
A zine on the street food vendors of three Queens Chinatowns: Flushing, Elmhurst, and Long Island City. While most New Yorkers see Flushing as the hotspot of Chinese urban culture in Queens, our goal is to also exhibit how Chinese culture (re)claims urban space throughout the entire borough. The zine will consist of interviews and photographs of street vendors, urban historical research on each neighborhood, and Know-Your-Rights materials. In the midst of ICE raids and anti-immigrant sentiment, we will show how street vending is political, and crucial in liberating the Chinese Queens community.
camilleluong.com
Angelique Molina and Kathleen Villanueva (The Y. Orosa Literary Society)
The Y. Orosa Literary Society will host nine events over five months to build cross-cultural solidarities in NYC. Monthly kwentuhan (community conversations) and likhaan (book discussions) will address issues affecting communities and share resources. Events will feature creative activities including bookmark making, candle making, zine-making, charm bracelet making, letter writing, and sign-making. Y. Orosa is a Filipina-led literary arts organization dedicated to uplifting and celebrating LGBTQ+ and BIPOC literature.
Nadine Nelson
Pantry Pollination is a food- and culture-based community project exploring shared histories and everyday connections across Black diasporic and Asian communities, including African American Caribbean, Latino, African, and Middle Eastern cultures. The project centers the pantry as a site of cultural memory, wellness, and exchange, highlighting ethnic markets as vital community spaces where traditions meet, overlap, and evolve. A self-guided scavenger hunt invites participants to explore neighborhood markets and identify shared pantry staples. An online workshop focuses on pantry-based cooking and wellness practices. The project concludes with an in-person gathering at Queens Botanical Garden featuring tea, small shared bites, seed sharing, and community conversation.
nadinenelso2.wixsite.com
Nikita Shah
“Fursat” is a textile-centered community and pedagogical practice led by artist Nikita Shah, carried out over two sessions. Rooted in South Asian traditions of leisure, reflection, and wisdom, participants create story-cloths using Kalamkari: a 3,000-year-old craft with bamboo pens and natural dyes, alongside domestic embroidery traditions of Gujarat and Sindh. Emphasizing process over product, the sessions foster slowness, conversation, and artisan-based learning through embodied making, food, and hospitality, centering care and storytelling within minoritarian, diasporic, queer, and trans communities.
nikita-shah.com
Nadia Tahoun
“Shared Language: Community Writing as Care” will be a participatory writing, listening, and visual project led by Palestinian-American artist and MSW candidate Nadia Tahoun. Through carefully held prompts, participants will anonymously contribute responses that gather in a shared visual field. As language accumulates, repeated words grow more visible, others shift and rearrange, and unexpected poems emerge. Participants are invited to reflect together on the poetry that forms, recognizing that some of us hold what others need, and that care and solidarity can emerge horizontally through relationships. Workshops will be tailored for teens, families, and expecting or newly postpartum mothers.
nadiatahoun.com
Ko Tanaka with Lalit Sritara
“Little Songwriters’ Lab” is a playful, hands-on songwriting workshop for kids ages 6-10 in Flushing, Queens. Led by professional music and musical theatre artists, kids explore sound, feelings, and imagination using synthesizers, beat machines, and looping devices. Across four interactive sessions, they experiment with beats, melodies, words, and rhythms, turning everyday emotions into original musical ideas through guided prompts, games, and group activities. Designed with social-emotional learning (SEL) at its core, kids try new sounds, share ideas, and build confidence in a supportive environment while learning how music can be a joyful, powerful way to express feelings and stories.
kotanaka.net
TD Tso
“Reciprocity: Black and Asian Feminist Solidarity with the Earth” will create a space dedicated to illuminating, unpacking,and strengthening our understandings of cross-racial feminist connections as a tool for environmental and food justice. The workshops and discussions will be held at a community garden in BedStuy, and will explore hands-on practices and healing modalities, from gardening and composting to mutual aid and herbalism, with contributors of the anthology We Are Each Other’s Liberation (Haymarket, 2025) and other Black and Asian practitioners in these spaces—in order to facilitate deeper engagement within these intersections.
late-bloomer.info
Ruby Wang
In TONGUES, language isn’t a barrier—it’s a source of power. This multilingual performance project explores how Asian immigrants navigate identity between cultures and languages. Each iteration unfolds in two parts: week-long community workshops where participants share stories of language misunderstandings, code-switching, silences, and the untranslatables, followed by a public performance devised from these stories. Through oral history, devising games, and collaborative playmaking, everyday multilingual experiences become theatrical material. By bringing community stories to the stage, TONGUES creates a space where linguistic diversity sparks connection, where mundane moments becomes art, where people feel heard, represented, and embraced through theatre and community.
Spica Wobbe with Abby Man-Yee Chan
“Prologue and More…” is a three-session community arts project in Manhattan that uses performance, storytelling, and shadow puppetry to foster intergenerational connection and cultural reflection. The project begins with Prologue, a live interdisciplinary performance based on the stories of five first-generation Chinese American immigrants, followed by a talkback. Participants then join embodied biographical storytelling workshops and collaborative writing. In the final session, they create self-portrait shadow puppets to animate their stories. Together, the sessions encourage personal expression, empathy, and the sharing of memory and legacy through multiple art forms.
doubleimagetheaterlab.com
2025
Michi Osato and Noelle Ghoussaini
“Between Heaven and Earth” is a healing space for various Palestinian-led organizations, running March-May 2025 offering ear acupuncture, meditation and collective creative ceremony, and homemade Syrian food.
Aminah Al Huqail
A series of events and workshops organized at Storm, an independent Arab-owned bookstore and community-centered space, including: two family workshops with Zane Elias, a Palestinian American environmental educator and gardener; “tatreez for kids” with Rita Lahoud, a Palestinian public school teacher blending Arabic language with Arab art and culture; and all-age workshops highlighting Palestinian artists.
Florence Almeda
“A Safe, Calm Place” will be a day-long sound installation in Flushing, Queens, that utilizes the power of sound to uplift the resilience of AAPI individuals within birthing spaces. Filipino American doula and musician Florence Almeda will work with AAPI birth workers and birthing people to create personalized, meditative tracks that center the question: What does a safe, calm place sound like to you? Utilizing music technologies and a meditative process inspired by EMDR therapy, Florence will host one-on-one workshops with participants to envision their safe calm place and bring it to life through sound. Each participant will walk away with a unique meditative track they can return to during difficult times.
Kristen Cawog
Palestinian-American artist Kristen Cawog will lead a series of workshops on tatreez, the traditional art of Palestinian embroidery. These workshops aim to unite Palestinian creators and their community in a way that celebrates artist achievement and inspires those in the diaspora.
Annette Cho
The Newcomer is a short animation and interactive digital art project that explores cultural pride of the Korean diaspora. The artist will facilitate a workshop in Flushing, Queens, among diasporic participants engaging them to reflect on their heritage using objects of cultural significance and the animation as prompts.
Shenghan Gao
A documentary film project centered on New Cameron Bakery, a staple of Chinatown, Manhattan. Despite its unassuming appearance, the bakery has fostered a unique ecosystem of care among workers, regulars, and other Chinatown business owners. The project aims to document these daily interactions through participatory documentary filmmaking, and will culminate with a community potluck and screening.
Kayhan Irani
“There is a Portal” is a hybrid story-sharing experience to remember love, connection, and community knowledge. The project provides a cultural nutrient for reclaiming and centering the poetics of im/migrant, refugee, and diasporic people through a participatory digital story and in-person storytelling workshops. The project will be offered to staff, leadership, and board members of Women for Afghan Women (WAW) an Afghan-women founded and run community based organization in Flushing, Queens.
Fatin Jarara
To preserve the tradition of song circles led by Palestinian women, “Ghanani” will teach folkloric songs of love, faith, community and the Homeland in three workshops in New York City spaces accessible to Palestinian women of all generations.
Da Hyun Kim
“Rhythm & Seoul” is a 90-minute beginner-friendly dance workshop series designed to introduce participants to the richness of Korean music, dance, and traditions. Held in cultural centers and studios across Flushing, Queens, it fosters creative exploration and cultural learning within one of New York City’s most diverse communities.
Rochelle Kwan
“Memories from Golden Song” continues a collaboration between Chinatown Records, dancer Mei-Yin Ng, and Manhattan’s Chinatown seniors at Knickerbocker Village. It provides a holistic experience for seniors to combine physical strength movement classes with music and storytelling. The collaboration will bring Chinese records from the Chinatown Records archive to listen and exercise to seniors’ favorite songs, creatively spark memories, and record oral histories together.
Haoju Lu
A “Know Your Rights” workshop series for Chinese delivery workers in Flushing, Queens will be conducted in Chinese and tailored to workers from delivery services Fantuan and Hungry Panda. The workshops will focus on key topics like the minimum wage law for delivery workers in NYC, safe working conditions, and broader labor and immigrant rights. The goal is to empower these workers with the knowledge they need to advocate for themselves and their well-being, and to build dialogue, community, and kinship across workers.
Kruthika N.S.
“Playing, Dreaming, Worldbuilding” is a series of community workshops empowering youth to envision and build the worlds they want to live in. This project utilizes an original deck of cards created by the artist, and offers a space to dream of futures that resist imaginations laced with dystopia, helplessness, and destruction. Through imaginative play and collaborative dialogue, participants will challenge existing societal structures, explore their collective desires, and lay seeds to future worlds they want to inhabit. The workshops will include a meditative dreaming session, collective play, and space to create art in the players’ medium of choice.
Waseem Alzer, Aya Aziz, and Sarah Bitar of Beitna Theater
Beitna Theater is a collective dedicated to uplifting New York City’s local Arab community with interactive theater in Arabic and English. The collective will organize a Palestinian dinner and a facilitated theatrical workshop inviting community members to invoke their connection to Palestine through memory; whether it be the sounds of a grandmother’s living room, a lullaby, a feeling. With these invocations, the group will make a tapestry from their collective memories of a place so many cannot return to.
Hind Shoufani
“Poeticians” is a live, monthly spoken word and musical gathering in Brooklyn hosted by Palestinian filmmaker and poet, Hind Shoufani. A platform for mostly Arab amateur artists to create, hone and perform bold, uncensored, and rebellious work, “Poeticians” has showcased and encouraged dozens of writers, musicians, actors and filmmakers over the past 18 years. It also serves as an ephemeral and creative space where the Arab community and their allies can meet each other, feel held, and build solidarity.
Tiffany Troy
An Asian American Diasporic Poetry Symposium in Flushing, Queens, will feature panelists of Asian American poets who have written about their Asian/mixed race identity in relation to theater and performance, worked with archives of declassified correspondences and photographs of war as a visual form, and thought about food as identity. The symposium will be open to the public, and there will be a Q&A after each panel.
Lour Yasin
AREA D is a Palestinian black-comedy musical following Lara, Samir, Rami, and Dana—four Palestinians from diverse regions of Palestine—who form a rock band to compete in Eurovision the year it is hosted in Israel. This provocative pop/punk Broadway musical explores identity politics, art as resistance, and the challenges of representing Palestinian voices internationally. Featuring an all-Palestinian cast and live band, AREA D highlights Palestinian narratives with humor, resilience, and raw emotion. The three-night reading at The Tank, a central and accessible NYC venue, ensures inclusivity and broad community participation. Each evening includes a talkback session to foster dialogue between creators and audiences.
XY Zhou
In the Mood for Love is a print publication project facilitated by Active Chapter that will document love stories from AAPI elders and residents of Chinatown, Manhattan. The publication will consist of work made in weekly workshops led by members of Active Chapter, where participants create poetry, creative nonfiction, collage, textiles, drawing, and painting to capture personal stories of love. In the Mood for Love will be distributed at independent booksellers and small businesses in Manhattan’s Chinatown, and the publication will be celebrated through a community gathering with readings and a showcase of visual work.
2024
Huiyi Chen with Yuanya Feng
Project: A series of engagements which included an edible plant tour, a foraging walk, and a film screening at the Queens Botanical Garden in Flushing, Queens, and Bush Terminal Park in Brooklyn.
chenhuiyi.com
Claire Choi
Project: CARES (Cultivating Asian Resilience, Empowerment, and Support) was a community project carried out in three sessions designed to bridge generational gaps and promote mental health awareness in Flushing, Queens. The sessions included story sharing, poetry and letter writing, physical team-building exercises, and zine making.
clairechoi.myportfolio.com
Caroline Chou with Angeli Magdaraog and Sally Kong
Project: “Roots of Renewal: Learning and Growing from Nature’s Decay” engaged and empowered AAPI youth aged 12-18 through a five-week program which included a blend of sustainability practices, art, and science education in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
wp.nyu.edu
Jody Doo in collaboration with Spellbound Theatre
Project: A theater production of a “Stand Clear of the Closing Doors, Please,” translated into Mandarin for children 0-7 years old and their families at University Settlement in Chinatown, Manhattan.
spellboundtheatre.com
Wesley Han
Project: An interactive treasure hunt created for locals at a small Korean-owned flower shop in Flushing, Queens.
Banyi Huang
Project: Two engagements including a Qigong workshop at the Older Adult Center at CPC Brooklyn and a beginners Tai Chi workshop in Sunset Park.
banyihuang.com
Anna Huang and Chloe Chan of Mott Street Girls
Project: “Gift a Lucky Red Envelope” program supported local Chinatown, Manhattan businesses by increasing foot traffic in the neighborhood post Lunar New Year and sharing historical context, culture, and community experiences.
mottstreetgirls.com
Cindy Hwang of Art Against Displacement
Project: A creative demonstration against the proposed Chinatown mega jail during the annual Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade.
aad.nyc
Dena Igusti
Project: A multimedia series including interviews with Southeast Asian Americans from Flushing, Queens, Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and Chinatown, Manhattan that explored their relationship to grief, both current and anticipatory.
denaigusti.com
Nami Kagami
Project: “Moving Through Transitions,” was a 10-week dance class tailored for older adults that involved gentle exercises, choreography, and exploration of various themes – held at the YWCA in Flushing, Queens.
instagram.com
Linda Kuo
Project: A series of three lei-making workshops; two were held at the University Settlement in Chinatown, Manhattan and one was held at the Queens Botanical Garden in Flushing, Queens and also included a self-defense workshop.
lindakuo.me
Cathleen Luo
Project: “Empowering Chinatown Through Ceramics” was a four-session seminar that took place at the Chinese Americans Arts Council in Chinatown, Manhattan and involved using ceramics and clay to create self-portraits while learning the basics of hand-building.
cathleenluo.myportfolio.com
Kathleen Ma with Alice Wang, Julie Chen, and Reb Ngu
Project: A poetry translation and zine workshop organized for high schoolers in partnership with the nonprofit Parent Child Relationship Association in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
kathleenma.com
Philip Poon
Project: A series of architectural walking tours of Chinatown, Manhattan that highlighted the history of gentrification in the neighborhood.
philippoon.com
Tian Tang
Project: “A Time Capsule of Important Portraits” was a photo/video essay, comprised of portrait photography and in-depth studio interviews, profiling the street vendors who set up shop on Forsyth Street in Chinatown, Manhattan, allowing them the opportunity to tell their story unfiltered and give voice to the many threats and problems facing their market.
tianvideo.com
Carrie Wang
Project: “Whose AI?” was a socially engaged art project and workshop series designed to empower young people from underserved and underrepresented communities to co-construct a clearer understanding of Conversational AI. The first workshop was held at the Glow Cultural Center in Flushing, Queens, and the second workshop was held at Chatham Square Library in Chinatown, Manhattan.
Rohan Zhou-Lee
Project: The first Children’s Pop-Up Book Fair, in collaboration with the Chatham Public Library, distributed free children’s books from Black, Asian, and Blasian authors. Taking place at the library itself, children and their parents made paper flower crowns and received coloring pages of Black and Asian historical figures that had education information about them.
diaryofafirebird.com
River 瑩瑩 Dandelion
Project: “We Are Multitudes” was a community poetry reading and curated open mic space that centered the works of trans and non-binary Asian diasporic poets held at the Chatham Square Library in Chinatown, Manhattan.
riverdandelion.com
2023
Press Release
Roxy Chang
Project: A two-day language justice and community interpreting workshop open to 20 interpreters of Asian Languages including Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, Bengali, etc. – held at the Minkwon Center in Flushing, Queens.
Ling Chen
Project: A Korean and Chinese drama-inspired creative writing workshop held at the Glow Cultural Center in Flushing, Queens.
离离草 Chinese Artists and Organizers (CAO) Collective
Project: “Strings of Touch,” was a multimedia collaboration between Chinese Artists and Organizers (CAO) collective and Red Canary Song that explored the theme of connection and intimacy among Chinese massage parlor workers through cat-and-cradle, participatory performance, documentary, animation, and video – in Flushing, Queens.
caocollective.com
Jin Yong Choi
Project: An interactive ink wash painting workshop for older adults that explored the beauty and technique of the traditional art form – held at the CPC Nan Shan Senior Center in Flushing, Queens.
Astrid Dong
Project: A puppeteering workshop for middle and high school students led by arts educator and performer Tau Bennett covered the basics of puppeteering technique and performance and invited participants to write and perform a short scene – held at the Queens Historical Society in Flushing, Queens.
astriddong.com
Chanel Matsunami Govreau
Project: “Bloom,” was a Black-Asian Friendship and Bouquet Making Experience held at Think!Chinatown in Chinatown, Manhattan.
chanelmatsunami.art
Christina (Ja Won) Han
Project: “Shift,” was a workshop series that included guided meditation and art making, inviting older adult participants to reflect on discomfort and create art with two materials: one familiar, and one less familiar. Both workshops were held at Hamilton-Madison House Smith NORK Senior Services in Two Bridges, Manhattan.
Maggie (Mei Kei) Hui
Project: “Mother May I,” was a sound bath session and artmaking activity held for mothers of all kinds at the Glow Cultural Center in Flushing, Queens.
Nami Kagami
Project: “A Collective Journey” was a workshop for older adults centered in movement exploration with the use of landscape imagery as means of expression and communication held in collaboration with the YWCA Queens at Kissena Park in Flushing, Queens.
instagram.com
Jay Khendar
Project: “Khendar’s Bazaar” was a pop-up shop and intimate Asian photo gallery featuring Asian models in original garments designed and made by the artist held in the East Village, Manhattan.
hausofkhendar.com
Ji Yong Kim
Project: A group mural painting session promoting peace and calm through collective artmaking with older adult participants from the CPC Nan Shan Senior Center in Flushing, Queens.
jiyongkim.com
Nina Kuo
Project: “Expanding Borders of Chinatown” was a workshop that invited youth and families to create collages using photos from and of Chinatown – held at the Taiwan Center, Inc. in Flushing, Queens.
mythicalmuse.com
Su Ji Lee
Project: “BYOB (Bring Your Own Belongings)” was a one-day photoshoot of the dedicated members of the Tai Chi group at the Queens Botanical Garden in Flushing, Queens.
su-ji.me
Clae Lu
Project: “Our Sonic Love” was a musical performance featuring queer, trans, gender-non-conforming performers of Asian diasporic identities connecting heritage, culture, and traditions held at the Queens Botanical Garden in Flushing, Queens.
clarajlu.com
Jessica LUU Pelletier with Cara Hinh & Sarah Shin
Project: “Don’t Tell Scarlett” was a speakeasy mixer for Queer and Trans Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders in Arts and Entertainment held in Chinatown, Manhattan.
Hannah Miao with Lynn Huynh
Project: A free workshop for digitizing physical photographs at Think!Chinatown in Chinatown, Manhattan – photographs were submitted to “Chinatown Photo Album,” a community-sourced digital archive of family photographs.
hannahmiao.com
Dominique Nisperos
Project: “Banana Ketchup” was a comedy show with Filipino flavor featuring AAPI women and nonbinary comedians held at NOREE in Chinatown, Manhattan.
instagram.com
Jesse Obremski
Project: A support workshop for AAPI artists that included guidance on their portfolio, understanding their rights, and learning about other resources to help in their pursuit of an artist’s Visa – held at 280 Gibney, Studio W in the Financial District, Manhattan.
jesseobremski.com
Linda Quach
Project: A diabolo performance and workshop event for all ages held at the Glow Cultural Center in Flushing, Queens.
instagram.com
Vivian Sangsukwirassathien
Project: A flower crown and linocut printing workshop that invited participants of all ages to create their own floral moments and take time to slow down to create something as a gesture of care of either themselves or to gift to others – held at the Queens Botanical Garden in Flushing, Queens.
instagram.com
Harley Spiller
Project: “Free Fruits for All” was a free, public event showcasing less common seasonal fruits outside of the Glow Cultural Center in Flushing, Queens. The event was presented in English with hand-written translations in Chinese, Hindi, Korean, and Spanish.
agentofchaos.com
Yasuyo Tanaka
Project: “Peace and Harmony” was an art making workshop in which participants dyed and folded paper into flowers and connected these origami flowers into a medicine ball, wishing for a healthy future – held at the Queens Botanical Garden in Flushing, Queens.
yasuyoart.blogspot.com
Rose Van Dyne
Project: Free meals were provided to the houseless population in Flushing, Queens in collaboration with Broadway Cooks.
rosevandyne.com
Ramona Jingru Wang
Project: A month-long reading initiative of AAPI books in collaboration with P&T Knitwear in the LES, Manhattan. All proceeds from book sales were donated to Red Canary Song in Flushing, Queens.
ramonajingruwang.com
Xixi Wang
Project: “It’s Okay to Ask” was a mental health campaign, in collaboration with Red Canary Song and Asians For Sex Positivity encouraging communities in Chinatown, Manhattan and Flushing, Queens to find available mental health resources through posters and fliers. The materials were printed in five languages including English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Tagalog.
instagram.com
Cindy Xu
Project: A polaroid portrait photo booth for low income families held near Seward Park in Chinatown, Manhattan.
cindyxu.net
Jiemin Yang
Project: An open-level dance workshop series in which participants learned a simple dance and drew inspiration from the food experiences of AAPI communities. The first workshop was held at the Museum of Chinese in America in Chinatown, Manhattan, and the second workshop was held at Flushing Town Hall in Flushing, Queens.
jieminyang.art
Cherrie Yu
Project: An abstract movement performance involving elements of table tennis in Chinatown, Manhattan.
cherrieyu.cargo.site
Grace Zhao
Project: “We Make This For Us” was an AAPI artists workshop centered on how cultural identity informs artistic practices of all media held at P&T Knitwear in the LES, Manhattan.
junshuzi 俊淑姿
Project: A collaboration with Undo Poverty: Flushing to design various graphics/illustrations for their upcoming documentary about poverty in Flushing, Queens.
junshuzi.cargo.site
2022
Karesia Batan
Project: A special Filipino music and dance performance, featuring a live Rondalla band and Tinikling folk dance lesson held at Windmuller Park in Woodside, Queens.
Audrey Thao Berger
Project: A free, open-level dance workshop for the AAPI community that explored community and self care through movement and play – held at the Brooklyn Arts Exchange in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Photo by CONFIDANZ
Rob Chen
Project: “The Blu Room” was a one-man multi-lingual, multi-cultural theatrical act presented in a late-night talk show format on topics like the generational gap, anti-Asian hate crimes, beauty standards, mental health, and empowerment – hosted at Prime Produce in Hell’s Kitchen.
This project is made possible with support from Prime Produce.
Photo by Dennis Kwan
Annika Cheng
Project: A collaboration with Alison Kuo of Sisters in Self-Defense to make garments and accessories for each of the Wing Chun students that both hold self defense weapons and band the members of the class together.
annikacheng.com
Prisca Choe
Project: An installation of depictions of women pulled from genre paintings from the Joseon Dynasty to uplift the influence of women, celebrating culture despite the historical erasure of their work and power presented at several community events including the Think!Chinatown Block Party in Chinatown, Manhattan.
priscachoe.com
Esther Choi
Project: An open discussion and interactive Q&A for BIPOC students and cultural workers about addressing sexual harassment in workplace and educational settings – held online and led by ACLU attorney Sandra Park.
office-hours.design
Anjali Deshmukh
Project: “Giving Space/Changing Space” was a participatory workshop for Queens locals that explored how children, women, new immigrants, and life-long New Yorkers give and change space, how to be part of a larger whole, and how to change the whole through the light of presence and participation – held at Travers Park in Jackson Heights, Queens.
anjalideshmukh.com
Carolina Do
Project: A public workshop of Buried Ruins, a full-length play with a cast of all Vietnamese/AAPI artists centered on healing and processing generational trauma, as well as, living in a society that fetishizes and enacts violence against women and femme bodies – held at 59E59 Theatre in Midtown, Manhattan.
Photo by Sub/Urban Photography
Paul Jochico
Project: “Embodying Pleasure as Resistance” was a workshop focused on nurturing the inner child through play and community care held at the A4 offices in DUMBO, Brooklyn.
Photo by Justin Kim
Karen Kang
Project: “Start with My Name” was a sewing workshop that invited participants to share their name through embroidery; each embroidery was sewn onto a community quilt – held at the Museum of Chinese in America in Chinatown, Manhattan.
This project was made possible with support from Fiskars.
EunHea Kim
Project: A custom quadriptych mural project painted in partnership with the youth members of SAYA in Elmhurst, Queens. The mural represents timeless themes highlighting the diverse communities and unique qualities around Queens that SAYA calls home.
Photo by Louie Herman
Alison Kuo
Project: A six-week training in Wing Chun, a Chinese self-defense form, and custom-designed training accessories were provided for free to community members – held at Baxter St. Camera Club in Chinatown, Manhattan.
Photo by Tommy Kha
Dana Leong
Project: Dana Leon of TEKTONIKmusic.org led a virtual healing music session for the AAPI community affected by domestic and public acts of violence in partnership with Womankind.
Photo by Zoe Zhang
Laura Li
Project: The Ciba Punch Performance, rooted in a feminist ethics of care, subverted the Chinese traditional ciba-making (food-making) process and revealed the often-hidden domestic labor performed by womxn – held at Sara D. Roosevelt Park in Chinatown, Manhattan.
lauralijingyi.com
Nancy Ma
Project: An in-person viewing party of a short film in Hoisan and Cantonese, subtitled in English, around emotional/mental health – held at The Market Line in the LES, Manhattan.
This project is made possible with support from The Market Line.
Photo by Peter Konerko
Janggo Mahmud
Project: A “Chaa & Paint” activity for the Women’s Circle invited the participants to relax, paint, drink chai, and socialize in a calming environment – held at the Sapna headquarters in Parkchester, The Bronx.
Beata Moon
Project: An interactive piano performance and workshop for the senior community at Hamilton-Madison House in the LES, Manhattan. The performance featured Chinese folk tunes, music of living Chinese composers, and some Western classical pieces sprinkled in.
Photo by Douglas Gorenstein
Mischelle Moy
Project: The creation of two photo posters as a shopping incentive for participating small businesses in Chinatown, Manhattan including Wing on Wo & Co., KK Discount Store, and Yu & Me Books.
mischellemoy.com
Tati Nguyen
Project: A storytelling pop-up book workshop serving youth, with the goal to help them tell their stories, express their truth, and take pride in their culture and identity held at the Chatham Square Library in Chinatown, Manhattan.
This project was made possible with support from the Children’s Museum of the Arts.
Philip Poon
Project: A story and zine “Mini in Chinatown” captured the complexities of a changing Chinatown, Manhattan was printed and distributed for free to community members.
philippoon.com
Melisa Tien
Project: A free workshop inviting AAPI women to share about their Asian heritage and life experiences – held at the Garment District, Manhattan.
Photo by Tom Matthew Wolfe
Cindy Trinh
Project: A zine of photographs taken in 2020-2022 capturing the joy of community members coming together for various Chinatown events was printed and distributed for free.
Photo by Michael Stewart
Noah Wang
Project: “All That We Hold” was a piece choreographed by Noah and his collaborator, Audrey Thao Berger, that explored the longing to understand ancestors through movement, narrative and music – held at Arts On Site in NoHo, Manhattan.
Photo by RJ Lewis
Hong-ling Wee
Project: A pottery workshop invited AAPI participants to explore the malleability of clay and the joy of making – held at the 92nd Street Y in the UES, Manhattan.
ceramicus.com
Ryan Wong
Project: A two-part Zen meditation workshop – the first part of the workshop introduced the basics of meditation, the second part deepened the practice and offered participants time to reflect on how practice has helped them. The workshop was organized for the staff of Communities Resist at Marsha P. Johnson State Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Photo by Beowulf Sheehan
Wynton Wong
Project: A block party for the whole family and neighborhood using music and art to reconnect our diasporic communities, across generations and borders – held at the intersection of Mott and Mosco in Chinatown, Manhattan.
Xiaoyin Xie
Project: Two letter writing gatherings invited community members to write letters to loved ones – the first was held at the ROAR Festival at Sara D. Roosevelt Park in Chinatown, Manhattan, and the second was held at the Elizabeth Street Garden in Nolita, Manhattan.
Photo by David Straange
Jing (Ellen) Xu
Project: “Elmhurst Project” was a participatory art workshop inviting AAPI community members to color in line drawings based on the neighborhood’s street style and immigrant cultures and backgrounds using a Halloween theme – held at Moore Homestead Playground in Elmhurst, Queens.
ellenjingxu.com
Jennifer Betit Yen
Project: A multimedia project called “DiscrimiNATION” shared cross racial experiences of anti-AAPI discriminatory acts, from victims and witnesses along with ideas for how to constructively handle the situations and build understanding – shown nationally on TV and online. To watch an edited version of the program, click here. For more information, visit the website.
jen-yen.com
Sammy Yuen
Project: Drawn Together was an array of exquisitely detailed line drawings depicting historical New York City Chinatown businesses, landmarks and community organizations – exhibited at Pearl River Mart Gallery in SoHo, Manhattan. A portion of the proceeds from this exhibition benefited the businesses featured in addition to the Chinatown Mural Project.
sammyyuen.com