Submitted by Chinese Progressive Association
R Visions for Chinatown is a one-week series of temporary art interventions in Boston's Chinatown highlighting public parcels or properties with potential for community development.
In response to displacement and the pressure of luxury development, the community created its own Chinatown Master Plan and is working for the goal of 1000 new or newly preserved affordable housing units, for a community-led library, a permanent facility for the Josiah Quincy Upper School, and to stabilize working class residents and small family-owned businesses.
These art projects, curated and sponsored by the Wong/Yee Gallery of the Chinese Progressive Association, represent a part of the community's efforts to reclaim public land and to rebuild a strong sense of community as Chinatown organizes for the right to remain.
R Visions for Chinatown features five projects created by nine local artists and include visual art, multi-media pieces, installations, interactive projects, as well as performances, running at different times during the week of October 19 - 25. Grab your R Visions for Chinatown Walking Guide from the Chinese Progressive Association's Wong/Yee Gallery (One Nassau Street Unit 2, or 28 Ash Street) or just walk around Chinatown and look for these sites.
Please join the artists at a fundraising reception to benefit Right to the City Boston on Thursday, October 23, 5:30 - 7:00 pm at the Wong/Yee Gallery of the Chinese Progressive Association, One Nassau Street, Unit 2. Suggested donation $10 or more. Arrive by 6:00 pm to join us for an Art Walk!
For more information, call 617-357-4499, or go to https://www.facebook.com/cpaboston for further details.
Home: We Live Here
Location: Parcel 12, 290 Tremont Street, next to the Double Tree Hotel
Artists: Chu Huang, Jennifer Lin-Weinheimer and Catalina Tang
Home: We Live Here is an interactive multilingual audio and visual-based art installation raising awareness about affordable housing issues in the Chinatown neighborhood while encouraging residents and allies to question, seek information and demand affordable housing. What will be the future of Chinatown? Through live audio recordings of residents' voices and stories, and a visual map that represents residents' choices and action, the installation invites people to recognize the power they can have over the future of their lives and their communities.
Installation Dates:
Sun 10/19 1-5PM
Mon 10/20 - Fri 10/24 6-8PM
Sat 10/25 3-5PM
Open Library - Open Minds
Location: Chinatown Park by the Chinatown Gateway
Artists: Andrea Zampitella and Monica Mitchell
"Closed Libraries - Closed Minds" is a phrase that many protesters chanted after the closure of the Tyler St. Chinatown Library in 1956. Our library, "Open Library - Open Minds" aims to bring awareness to Chinatown visitors that Chinatown residents still do not have a library branch, as well as to provide free access to reading materials for all ages and reading levels. This mini-library will house many new books and various articles from historic newspapers on the closure of the Chinatown Library. All purchased books will be donated to the Chinatown Cultural Center and Library Project after the completion of the project.
The mini-library will be open:
Sun. 10/19, 12:00 am - 2:00 pm
Wed. 10/22, 3:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Thurs. 10/23, 5:30 - 7:30 pm
Sat. 10/25, 12:00 am - 2:00 pm
We Are Here
Location: Josiah Quincy Upper School, corner of Washington Street and Marginal Road
Artist: Maryann Colella
"We Are Here" is a series of golden fabric webs which will suspend tiny red matchbox and sardine-can miniature dioramas, which will convey the "Remain, Reclaim, Rebuild", "There is no Chinatown without Chinese people," messaging from the Chinatown stabilization campaign. The performance aspect of "We Are Here" will consist of two days of roving performances around Chinatown. One will be with community adult volunteers, the other will be with the drama class students from Josiah Quincy Upper School.
Installation: Monday 10/20 to Saturday 10/25
Performances: Wednesday, 10/22, 11:00 am and Thursday 10/23, 6:30 pm
"Fight to Remain"
Locations: UNITEHERE building (33 Harrison Avenue), Phillips Square (Harrison and Essex), and Chinatown Park
Banner artists: Pampi Thirdeyefell and Loreto P. Ansaldo
Dance performance by Chien-Hwe Carol Hong, Iris Cutler and Kramer Gibson
"Fight to Remain" brings three story banners that recall the Jataka Fables of Buddhist philosophy, featuring animals mindfully engaging their instincts for self-preservation to resolve challenging situations. By recalling these class tales, we hope to support and encourage Chinatown residents and visitors to mindfully call upon their fighting instincts, rooted in animal bodies, to exercise their right to reclaim and remain in their neighborhoods. The dance performance by Chien-Hwe Carol Hong of 1000 Virtues Dance Company calls on the city to support Chinatown's goal of 1000 units of affordable housing.
Installation: Thursday 10/23 to Saturday 10/25 at UNITEHERE building (33 Harrison Avenue), Sunday 10/19 to Saturday 10/25 at Chinatown Park
Performances: Tuesday, 10/21, 10:00 am and 11:00 am at Chinatown Park
Under Pressure
Locations: Parcel R1 (Tyler Street and Harvard Street), China Trade Center (2 Boylston Street), Parcel A (corner of Tyler Street and Marginal Road), Parcel 12 (next to Double Tree Hotel) and Chinatown Gate Park.
Artist: Keith Francis
"Under Pressure" is composed of multiple pieces (banner, posters and 250 red helium balloons) that address the compression and pressures on affordable housing within the Chinatown community caused by the increase of luxury and market rate housing projects. This has led to a significant loss of affordable housing and a displaced Chinatown in danger of collapse. The goal is to visually bring the public's attention to the housing crisis.
Alternate locations, October 19 to 25