Message from the Founder and Director

Our 2019-2020 program year ended our in-person programming during Chinatown’s most festive time of the year. For the rest of 2020, I looked back at our Lunar New Year photos as a reminder of what community care and joy looked like. This year was the toughest for our Chinatown community. When it felt like we were all just trying to make ends meet, and stay safe and healthy with our loved ones in the thick of the pandemic, The W.O.W. Project team went into deep reflection about the role that art can play in a time of crises.

We found strength in waging love. In response, we launched our Love Letters to Chinatown Project, collecting over 100 letters for our neighborhood and its mainstays and institutions. We posted the letters around the neighborhood on shuttered gates, lampposts and doors, reminding each other of the care, joy, and resilience our Chinatown community embodies. We acknowledged our interconnected struggles as a local place based initiative in Chinatown with the national Black Lives Matter uprisings. Our 4 year anniversary marked the first time we grassroots fundraised over $30K (a new record!) some of which was donated to Chinatown Youth Initiatives and Communities United For Police Reform in support of Chinatown’s resiliency in the wake of COVID-19 and the fight for community safety and police accountability. This year has taught us more than ever that care and healing, especially in community, is key to a pathway to our collective liberation.

I am so inspired and excited to see where year 5 will take us. The W.O.W. Project team continually shows me that as long as we’re moving at the speed of love, trust, and community building we will build a future where we are all free.

Mei Lum Founder and Director of the W .O .W . Project