ABOUT THE EVENT: 
Are you a writer - storyteller - musician - creative - community member dabbling in the arts? Join us for a night of stories and performances centering memory, identity, and resilience across the diaspora. The Homeward Bound series is hosting its summer open mic night for the community to come together in the midst of all that is happening. We know the personal is political, we know creative projects write our people into history, we know that the arts are critical, always. We envision a night that embraces and holds all of that.

This event is open to anyone who identifies as part of a diaspora and centers people of color. The W.O.W. Project seeks to provide a safe(r) community space for rising diasporic/ immigrant/ artists of color. 

*Interested in participating? Fill out this form here: https://goo.gl/forms/2h4pR6T0f720ZH9h1
ABOUT THE SERIES:
Homeward Bound: Memories, Identity, and Resilience across the Chinese Diaspora is a series of public events that highlights everyday resilience in Chinatowns around the world. It is spearheaded by three local artists, ethnographers, and facilitators in collaboration with The W.O.W. Project: Mei Lum, Diane Wong, and Huiying Bernice Chan, who have spent the past several years conducting ethnographic research and oral history interviews with the Chinese diaspora in New York City, San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Seattle, Lima, Havana, Johannesburg, Ho Chi Minh City, Kuala Lumpur, and Sydney. Each of these communities have overcome extraordinary struggles due to the lasting impacts of war, violence, displacement, and dispossession. This public series is the first of its kind to preserve and build on the history of Chinatowns around the world through community-led and curated narratives from residents globally. By sharing an expanded collection of oral history interviews, photographs, and videos, we hope to build collaborative knowledge and space for community members to come together to expand our understanding of diaspora. Future tickets will be released soon! Donations for tickets are accepted on a sliding scale basis. Please message the hosts on Facebook or email wingonwo26mott@gmail.com if you would like a ticket and cannot make a donation. *No one will be turned away for lack of funds!*ABOUT THE SPEAKERS: Huiying B. Chan is a creative writer, multimedia storyteller, and aspiring healer with roots in Chinatown and the Toisanese diaspora. Huiying received the 2016-2017 Knafel Fellowship to travel solo to Chinatowns in eight countries around the world to understand and document global migration and resilience across the diaspora. As a current Open City Fellow with the Asian American Writers' Workshop, Huiying is covering stories of intergenerational arts and activism in Chinatown. Their writing has recently been published in Culture Push's PUSH/PULL Online Journal, The Blueshift Journal, and the Asian American Journal of Psychology. Huiying is continuing to dream a life that is oceanic. Mei Lum is the fifth generation owner of her family’s 93-year-old porcelain ware business, Wing On Wo & Co. (W.O.W.) In early 2016, her family’s building and business was on the brink of sale. In an effort to resist against contributing to the process of gentrification in NYC’s Chinatown, Mei decided to take on the role of running W.O.W. to continue her family’s five-generation-long legacy in the neighborhood and help protect the heart of Chinatown from encroaching gentrifying forces. In May 2016, with the help of Diane, Mei founded The W.O.W Project out of a desire to bring community members’ concerns of a rapidly changing Chinatown into a space for dialogue. At its core, The W.O.W Project is working to reclaim ownership over Chinatown's future by reviving, protecting and encouraging Chinatown's creative culture through arts, culture and activism.Diane Wong is a doctoral candidate at Cornell University, where she writes on race, gender, and the gentrification of Chinatowns. As a writer, educator, and multimedia storyteller, her research stems from a place of revolutionary praxis and deep love for community. Her current research explores how gentrification led displacement politically impacts the Chinese immigrant communities in New York City, San Francisco, and Boston. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Mellon Foundation, American Political Science Association, and Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, and it has appeared in a variety of publications, journals, anthologies, and podcasts. Diane is currently a visiting scholar at the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University where she is finishing her dissertation and working closely with The W.O.W. Project and Chinatown Art Brigade 唐人街藝術隊／ 唐人街艺术队. *This program series is co-sponsored by the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU. The flyers are designed by Vipul G. Chopra.