Museum Square Blooms
Chinatown Park
I St NW, Washington, DC
There are less than 300 Chinese residents remaining in DC’s Chinatown, many of them our elders and many of them facing active displacement. When Chinatown Arts Studio invited me to join their efforts to #savemuseumsquare without hesitation I said yes.
So much of my work in the last few years think a lot about what happens during occupation and war and what gestures and rituals we hold as places of comfort. And so the idea of home for me is more about how do I carry the memories of geographic longing that belong to my parents, how do I carry the ones that belong to me, and how do I carry both at the same time.
As the fight to preserve the history of Chinatown DC continues by protecting the remaining living residents now, instead of this practice of asking Where are you from? Where are you really from? What is your name? What is your real name?
We can ask:
Where do you claim? What claims you?
How do you carry memories of home?
How do you long to be remembered?
Whose stories do you carry?
Thank you to the organizers for doing the real work, for the opportunity to witness and support, and for believing art and flowers can nourish movements like this.
Immense gratitude for the floral support from Flowers By MJ.
This event was funded in part by the Awesome Foundation.
Visit www.SaveChinatownDC.org to learn more.
Photos provided by Save Chinatown DC
Chinatown Park
I St NW, Washington, DC
There are less than 300 Chinese residents remaining in DC’s Chinatown, many of them our elders and many of them facing active displacement. When Chinatown Arts Studio invited me to join their efforts to #savemuseumsquare without hesitation I said yes.
So much of my work in the last few years think a lot about what happens during occupation and war and what gestures and rituals we hold as places of comfort. And so the idea of home for me is more about how do I carry the memories of geographic longing that belong to my parents, how do I carry the ones that belong to me, and how do I carry both at the same time.
As the fight to preserve the history of Chinatown DC continues by protecting the remaining living residents now, instead of this practice of asking Where are you from? Where are you really from? What is your name? What is your real name?
We can ask:
Where do you claim? What claims you?
How do you carry memories of home?
How do you long to be remembered?
Whose stories do you carry?
Thank you to the organizers for doing the real work, for the opportunity to witness and support, and for believing art and flowers can nourish movements like this.
Immense gratitude for the floral support from Flowers By MJ.
This event was funded in part by the Awesome Foundation.
Visit www.SaveChinatownDC.org to learn more.
Photos provided by Save Chinatown DC