What do I do in my spare time?
A friend once described me as “the busiest person they know”.
Book Harvest (supported by Bindlestiff Books)
In 2022, I co-founded a pop-up bookshop specializing in Asian & Pacific Islander diaspora stories. The pop-up is supported by a West Philadelphia bookstore, at which I’ve been volunteering since 2021. Book Harvest has hosted 4 Scholastic-Book-Fair-esque events in Philly Chinatown, was the 2023 official bookseller for The Free Library’s One Book, One Philadelphia program, and has held various other community programs such as a works-in-progress reading and a book swap.
Film Programmer & Organizer
In my experience, film is storytelling medium that always brings community together, especially in a city as diverse as Philadelphia. As an independent film programmer, I’ve had the great pleasure of organizing film screenings and panels that center the voices and experiences of BIPOC communities.
November 2023: "The Fight For Our Communities: Stories from Save Chinatown & Save UC Townhomes" was a film screening and panel event held during PAAFF’s 2023 festival. The event saw over 100 attendees and drew attention to the parallels between the historical and current experiences of Black & Asian Philadelphians in hopes to strengthen solidarity between these communities.
February 2024: “The Fall of the I-Hotel” Community Discussion was a film screening and community gathering space for community organizers from all over the city to come together and create sustainable relationships based in common experiences and a desire to strengthen community ties.
“Staying Put: Stories of Chinatown’s Resistance”
As part of Scribe Video Center's Precious Places Community History Project is a community oral history project inviting members of Philadelphia region's many neighborhoods to document the buildings, public spaces, landmarks, etc… that hold memories of our communities and define where we live. As part of Precious Places Project Vol. 8, I produced a short film summarizing the history of inequitable development during Urban Renewal in Philadelphia Chinatown and focuses on the voices of residents who have advocated for this community every day since. The film was completed in 2018 and has been screened as part of multiple Scribe Video Center programs including a local public broadcast on WHYY in 2021 and the Street Movies summer series in 2024, where audiences watched the film at a new Chinatown community park and participated in a thoughtful discussion on the importance of advocating for neighborhoods whose needs are often disregarded when cities desire to redevelop and grow.
