As the closing program of Chinatown Arts Festival 2022, Think!Chinatown is proud to present four new T!C-produced short films honoring pioneering community advocates like Yee Ling Poon and Tomie Arai. There will also be a special live performance from multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, treya lam. treya will perform songs from “Yellow Pearl,” which will be familiar to those who attended the Oct 11th and 12th screenings at DCTV of An Ode to our Generations: Remembering the Music and Memories of Yellow Pearl and Basement Workshop.
This season’s ART OF STORYTELLING focuses on the pioneering advocate Yee Ling Poon, following her time with Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) and the Basement Workshop. Animated illustrations by Sophia Deng.
This season’s ODE TO GENERATIONS tells the story of the public artist and community activist, Tomie Arai, and her place-based work and time at Basement Workshop, the first Asian-American political and arts collective in NYC that was active in Manhattan’s Chinatown-based in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
SHE SAYS is a dance film featuring the work of dancer and choreographer, Mei-Yin Ng. With excerpts from Sit, Eat, Chew, Ng will take you on a guided immersive dance through Manhattan’s Chinatown to uncover two personal stories in exterior and interior locations throughout Chinatown. The Chinese proverb – Wu Wèi Zá Chén – references the five traditional tastes of cooking (sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty) to describe the complex emotions in life’s ups and downs. These stories have become the creative and emotional inspiration for the dance theater performance. The stories of two women in two different time periods of Chinatown come to life through this film. Choreographed and Performed by: Mei-Yin Ng | Director of Photography: Liam Lee | Editor: Cathy You | Curated and Produced by: Yin Kong
In Shorts from HEARTMIND, follow curators in conversation with Bob Lee, director of the Asian American Arts Center as they go through incredible collections defining Asian American art – “HEARTMIND: Exhibitions from the Bob Eng Lee and Asian American Arts Centre Collections.” Film by Tif Ng.