Chinatown Block Party 夏日傾情

Chinatown Block Party 夏日傾情 is a neighborhood block party for the whole family at the historic newsstand at Mott & Mosco Streets. Pulling from the ever-growing archive of the Chinatown Records project, YiuYiu 瑶瑶 shares some of her favorite Chinatown records inherited from her family and neighbors. All along the way, YiuYiu 瑶瑶 invites guest DJ’s and artists to celebrate the music, culture, and histories that connect communities, across generations and borders. 

💃 UPCOMING BLOCK PARTIES 🕺

This project is organized by Alison Kuo for Think!Chinatown. Special thanks to Karen Chan for her assistance.

This series is a growing continuation of our 2023 Chinatown Block Party 夏日傾情 season. With its unofficial roots stemming back to our Corky in a Box exhibit in 2020, featuring the dearly missed Corky Lee and friends, Chinatown Block Party 夏日傾情 dreams of carrying on this legacy of neighborhood gatherings and building upon these layers of memories, long into the future. 

💃 PREVIOUS BLOCK PARTIES 🕺

OUR CHINATOWN BLOCK PARTY 夏日傾情 TEAM

Think!Chinatown is a place-based intergenerational non-profit in Manhattan’s Chinatown, working at the intersection of storytelling, arts and neighborhood engagement. We believe the process of listening, reflecting and celebrating develops the community cohesion and trust necessary to work on larger neighborhood issues. By building strength from within our neighborhood, we can shape better policies and programs that define our public spaces, celebrate our cultural heritage and innovate how our collective memories are represented.

Chinatown Records is a homegrown community effort to celebrate the richness of music, memory, and history that comes with inherited family collections. Made up of close to 20 music collections inherited from families, friends, and neighbors, Chinatown Records is a community-powered, living archive, spanning records, CD’s, and tapes of Chinese music and beyond from the 1920’s-2000’s. From Chinatown block parties to sonic family histories to endless listening and research, Chinatown Records is an ever-growing record of the people we love who bring all this music back to life with us.

8OX SET is a creative collective of multidisciplinary artists based in NYC exploring the ideas of culture, legacy, and belonging across borders and generations. Converging from a variety of fields including events, film, journalism, photography, music, and beyond; Prisca Choe 최하연, Rochelle Hoi-Yiu Kwan (YiuYiu 瑶瑶), Cindy Trinh, and Wynton Wong, nurture meaningful relationships and intimate moments as the building blocks for revolution. Their practice is born out of community events and will always be rooted in their care and love for their neighbors. @8OXSET

ARTISTS

YiuYiu 瑶瑶 (aka Rochelle Hoi-Yiu Kwan) is a cultural organizer, oral history educator, and DJ based on Lenape land in NYC's Manhattan Chinatown. She takes on her childhood name YiuYiu 瑶瑶 as an artist and DJ for Chinatown Records, a community effort to celebrate the richness of music and history that comes with inherited family record collections. Alongside her family and neighbors, YiuYiu 瑶瑶 produces Chinatown block parties, sonic family histories, and listening sessions to foster intergenerational dancefloors and memories as powerful acts of resistance and resilience. @rochellehkwan

Canton Mambo 曼波 is a project and party based in Hong Kong dedicated to bridging cultural gaps and embracing diversity through Salsa and and Afro-Latin music. Through extensive research and study of the history and influences between different cultures, Canton Mambo aims to create an inclusive space where cultural blends harmoniously foster unity through music.  @cantonmambo

DJ Rekha (born Rekha Malhotra) is a DJ, producer, curator, and educator. Their dynamic dub and hip-hop informed DJ sets often incorporate South Asian Diasporic dance music with ears to a global sound that resonates with dancefloors across the planet. They founded Basement Bhangra, in 1997, one of NYC’s longest-running club nights. Their debut album "DJ Rekha presents Basement Bhangra" (featuring a track with Wyclef Jean) won much critical acclaim and was nominated for best DJ album by the 2008 Plug Awards. They are the founder of Basement Bhangra™, Bollywood Disco, Lipstick Optional, and co-founder of Mutiny (with Vivek Bald) and Ronak (with Atif Ateeq) club nights.

Melissa Lyde is from Brooklyn, NY, and is the founder of Alfreda’s Cinema, a long-running immersive Black video art series, currently working towards opening its own space in Brownsville. Sharing music is a healing practice and as a free dancer, Melissa's selections are a sensuous induction of the body to feed the mind. She welcomes eager listeners on a groove of discovery through an array of jazz, house, classics, spiritual, and Afrikan sounds. @melissalyde

Alfreda's Cinema is a long-running Black video art series, lifestyle and immersive, working towards opening its own space in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Melissa Lyde founded the organization in 2015 and has written for Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media in the Fall issues of 2019 and 2020, and was recently featured in the Journal of Film and Media Studies — In Focus: Curators Speak: Film Programming in the wake of Covid 19 (Fall 2022). Alfreda's Cinema screens films that express the depth and love and richness of our culture. @AlfredasCinema

Buckley Yung 翁百里 is a longtime music lover, starting with memories of music and records that his parents loved – many that then became among his favorites, alongside his own favorites too. Starting at the age of 13, he began searching out the latest direct-from-Hong Kong records in Boston’s Chinatown record stores. When he moved to New York to begin his first urban planning job after graduate school, he regularly frequented New York's Manhattan Chinatown – the mecca for record shopping on the east coast. Today, he spends his days enjoying the nearly 1,000 Chinese pop records scattered in every nook and corner of the home that he shares with his partner, Charlie. And with every record he brings home, he remembers those happy memories with his parents that started it all! @thevinylbuck

Arshia Fatima Haq (born in Hyderabad, India) works through film, visual art, performance, and sound, in feminist modes outside of the Western model. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally at museums, galleries, nightclubs, and in the streets, and has been featured at Hammer Museum, Broad Museum, MOMA New York, Centre Georges Pompidou, and several others. She is the founder of DISCOSTAN, a collaborative decolonial club space, radio show and record label. Over more than a decade, this diasporic collective has been conjuring past, present and future soundscapes from South and West Asia all the way to the Maghreb. From presenting a vast archive of golden-age music to the most forward-thinking creative producers from our regions, performance collaborations with avante-garde artists outside of the white cube, to galvanizing political engagement and mutual aid, Discostan is an ever-evolving space of possibility, imagination and liberation for its community.  Discostan has performed in Europe, Asia and the US, and our work has been featured on Pitchfork, The Guardian, The Economist, Red Bull Music Academy, KCRW, The Quietus, and beyond. @arshiaxfatima | @discostan

Les The DJ aka Les Talusan is a DJ, photographer, curator, teaching artist and organizer whose practice immerses people in the joy of discovery, empowerment, and community. This approach is informed by Les’ own story of resilience, liberation and courage as an immigrant, mother and v/s. Born and raised in Manila, Philippines, Les fell in love with music at a young age, DJing at local clubs and playing in bands. Les has lived in Washington, DC for over 20 years and continues to expand their talents, performing behind the decks in the U.S. and abroad. @lestalusan

OPM Sundays is a weekly program on Twitch hosted by Les The DJ, Joel Quizon, and meesterenriquez highlighting OPM + // Original Pilipino Music +⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ Roots, Pop, and Covers from the Philippines and the Diaspora.

Haoran Chen 浩然 began his journey in music as a collector and built his collection mainly with CDs, vinyl records and cassettes of Cantopop, Mandopop, and J-pop ranging from 1980s to 2000s. Haoran often looks for the electronic sound in these three genres which is often overlooked and curates a variety of dance tracks and remixes from these genres that are suitable for a dance party. During the search for ways to share the music and find the community for it, Haoran tapped into the world of DJing last year and started performing public sets since. Some of the artists and producers that influence him include Namie Amuro, Akina Nakamori, Sandy Lam, Dick Lee, Yu-Huan Lee, and Takkyu Ishino. On top of DJing, Haoran is a creative producer and art curator working in placemaking for public spaces. @haoranchen_

Ani Phoebe is the co-founder of Bad Times Disco (HK), an online and pop up record shop and party in Hong Kong, runs the Parallel Worlds radio show on The Lot Radio (NY), and champions underknown records and sounds. Drawing from cosmic synth, breaks, old school hip-hop, balearic choons, and wavy disco, she also leans towards the weird and oddball side of dance and electronic music. Her background in journalism and grassroots feminist organizing form the context for Bad Times Disco "solidarity, not charity, parties" throughout the pandemic, which have raised money and strengthened narratives about self-led advocacy with informal grassroots movement building and advocacy groups across India, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. @aniphoebe | @badtimesdisco 

Prisca Choe 최하연 is a multidisciplinary artist and production designer based in NYC’s Chinatown. Through plexiglass installations, film, and photography, her work explores the tension between conservation and transformation of culture especially for those who have the difficult task of navigating intersecting identities in the Asian Diaspora. @priscachoe 

Sponsored by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and NYC Dept of Cultural Affairs with support from NYC Dept of Small Businesses. Thank you to our community safety partner, Nonviolent Peaceforce.