{"id":482317,"date":"2022-01-24T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcity.org\/features\/nyc-chinatowns-cultural-power-steps-out-of-basements-into-the-mainstream"},"modified":"2022-01-24T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T12:00:00","slug":"in-new-york-chinatowns-cultural-power-steps-out-of-the-basements-and-into-the-mainstream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/01\/24\/in-new-york-chinatowns-cultural-power-steps-out-of-the-basements-and-into-the-mainstream\/","title":{"rendered":"In New York, Chinatown\u2019s Cultural Power Steps Out of the Basements and Into the Mainstream"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
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On a brisk evening last September, just as New York City descended into fall, musician Treya Lam situated herself on the impromptu stage inside Forsyth Plaza. Wedged directly below the Manhattan Bridge, the plaza sits at the heart of Manhattan\u2019s Chinatown. Most nights, this graffiti-lined space stays empty. That night, a crowd packed inside to listen to Lam, while food trucks served bubble tea, banh mi and momos on the street below alongside artists, set up on folding tables to sell braided straw art and elaborate sugar sculptures. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n

She strummed her guitar and began to sing: \u201cWe are the children of the migrant worker, we are the offspring of the concentration camp. Sons and daughters of the railroad builder, who leave their stamp on America.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Close by was Yin Kong, director and co-founder of Think!Chinatown, the local organization hosting the event along with a second local organization, Asian Americans for Equality. Kong has a talent of being everywhere at once: securing Lam\u2019s microphone, answering questions from volunteers, ensuring distribution of the bilingual programming. But she listened attentively as Lam repeated the chorus: \u201cSing a song for ourselves, what have we got to lose?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

The vision for this event, a series of pop-ups <\/span>known as Chinatown Nights<\/a>, was to build space for fresh approaches in the neighborhood: to kickstart economic recovery from COVID-19 by claiming space for local artists and vendors at night, when footfall drastically declines, and begin planting seeds for a permanent cultural anchor in Chinatown. To create safe space for the community amidst anti-Asian attacks, a time people were afraid to leave their homes.<\/p>\n\n

The vision also built off a deep, sustained movement merging the arts with political organizing in Chinatown, as well as a decades-long fight to secure resources and space for a dedicated cultural anchor. \u201cOur work here in Chinatown,\u201d Kong says, \u201cIs about place-keeping. It\u2019s about celebrating, strengthening and amplifying.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n

Lam\u2019s song, <\/span>We Are The Children<\/a>, served as a reminder of that movement-building history. \u201cWe are a part of the third-world people,\u201d she sang, \u201cWho will leave our stamp on America.\u201d In a neighborhood determined to assert itself and its resilience amid the devastating impacts of COVID-19 and an increase in anti-Asian violence, the lyrics Lam sang spoke deeply to this moment. And yet We Are The Children was written as part of a 1973 compilation of writing, art and music by Asian American artists called Yellow Pearl<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Yellow Pearl was a project of Basement Workshop, an Asian American arts collective formed in Manhattan\u2019s Chinatown in the early 1970s to advocate for healthcare, jobs and resources.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

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