Mei Lum’s Civic Practice Partnership Artist-in-Residence Projects

W.O.W. collaborated with Abrons Arts Center and Welcome to Chinatown on a 2021 Lunar New Year calendar project that uplifted and continues to build the resilience of the Chinatown community. Working with photographer Mischelle Moy (梅雪莹), Lum created a 12-month photo calendar featuring products from 18 Chinatown businesses that evoke a celebration of the new year and explore the deep meaning Chinatown holds for so many in the Asian American community. Local businesses were promoted through posters featuring images from the calendar, which were printed as part of Mei’s Civic Practice Partnership project with The Met.

On February 26, 2021, the date of the Lantern Festival, which is the final day of traditional Lunar New Year celebrations, Lum and The W.O.W. Project sponsored a ceramic wishing well by artist Heidi Lau. Drawing from vessels in The Met collection as inspiration, The W.O.W. Project facilitated a mobile, participatory celebration of reciprocity where community members were invited to reflect upon the year; the cargo that we have accumulated and hold close as a community, and the aspirations that we look to carry into the future together.

Artist activist, Tomie Arai unveiled her collaboration with The W.O.W. Project as part of the Civic Practice Partnership Residency. Tomie created ritual ceramic vessels adorned with imagery of a parade of Asian women, queer, and trans people depicting a world where we are celebrated. Nourishing Our Roots: Seeding Rituals activated these vessels and invited the Chinatown community and greater public to create our own parade, celebrating the women, queer, and trans-led space The W.O.W. Project has cultivated and nourished in its 5 years. The W.O.W. Project paraded with over 30 community member in celebration of the completion of this work and the femme, queer, trans empowerment that nourishes our communities!⁣

MetFest was the first-ever Museum-wide block party and a celebration of the transformative power of the arts. Artists and community partners from across New York City came together for live music, performances, art-making activities, unique tours, and more. MetFest honored the central role of art in our lives and highlighted the resilience of New York City and its people. Among over 100 performers, the Civic Practice Partnership artists in residence made significant contributions to programming, including a performance by Mei Lum and the W.O.W. project weaving opera and poetry into a performance centering the voices and narratives of the Asian American diaspora. “The Butterfly Lovers” was a collaborative performance and queer exploration of a Chinese legend of the same name, which tells the tragic story of a pair of lovers. This performance featured the work of Wo Chan, Vincent Chong, Clara Lu, OHYUNG, Monica Chen, Sueann Leung, Joy Mao, Lorraine Lum, and Masayuki Akzawa. The W.O.W. Project, a femme, queer, and trans-led community initiative, uses arts and activism to resist gentrification in Manhattan’s Chinatown.

Learn more in the press release.

For her culminating project, Mei Lum and the W.O.W. Project designed and produced Infinite Beginnings, hosted at Columbus Park in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Participants were invited to engage with an interactive thangka⁠—a traditional Tibetan artwork on a fabric scroll⁠—that immersed them in a mythical journey of self-transformation. Illustrated by Singha Hon and inspired by a mythical narrative by K-Ming Chang, Infinite Beginnings prompted attendees to place themselves in a fantastical world where possibilities are infinite. The program included a reading by Chang, a qigong movement workshop by Lingji Hon, and a rest and dreaming space curated by ceramicist Cathy Lu.