What is 9-man? Eighteen men play ball on an unvarnished urban landscape, shredding elbows and knees on the asphalt, smacking balls into puddles of broken glass. 9-Man’s faster than any volleyball you’ve ever played. Filmmaker Ursula Liang says, it’s “like Rutgers park street ball basketball to Duke basketball as 9-man is to indoor Olympic volleyball.” In a word, chaotic.

After raising over $40,000 through Kickstarter, Liang made a documentary focusing on this incredible sport, whose rules require two-thirds of each team to be “100% Chinese” and has remained largely unknown to those outside the nine-man community. The sport grew out of the isolation of the early Chinese American community, nearly entirely male because of immigration restrictions. “There was this small percentage of people who were ghettoized to the Chinatown,” Liang says, “but they wanted to connect to the other Chinatowns.” A part of contemporary Chinese America can be seen in 9-man–an element of Chinatown that’s both a cultural inheritance and sport dripping in swagger.

On Wednesday, March 27 at 6:30pm, Liang will be screening a preview of her documentary and speaking at the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) along with two nine-man athletes, Frank Gee and Wayne Chow. Devin Gordon from GQ will be moderating.

RSVP required at programs@mocanyc.org. Admission is $7 for MOCA members, $12 for non-members.

Check out the Q&A Liang did with us in December!

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Kyla Cheung is a contributing writer at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. Continue the conversation by posting a comment here, on OurChinatown’s Facebook page, or on Twitter at @ourchinatown.

The Museum of Chinese in America invites you to its Second Annual Celebration of Community Heroes! Last year, with David Henry Hwang as emcee, MOCA honored the work of OCA-NY and the Chinese American Medical Society.

This year, the dinner takes place Wednesday, April 17. Honorees include May Y. Chen, who serves on the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and Rocky Chin, who in 2007 was appointed Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity & Diversity at New York State Division of Human Rights. Families with Children from China of Greater New York and Peter Lau, of Confucius Mannings Pharmacies, will also be honored at the celebration.

Festivities will be held at Golden Unicorn Restaurant, and dinner starts at 7pm, cocktails at 6pm.

You can register with this form (pdf). For more information, please contact Emily Chovanec Schappler, 212.619.4785 ext 4152.

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Kyla Cheung is a contributing writer at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. Continue the conversation by posting a comment here, on OurChinatown’s Facebook page, or on Twitter at @ourchinatown.

“Your Day is My Night” tells the stories of immigrants living in two “shift-bed houses” in Chinatown. Most of the performers were recruited through Chinatown’s Lin Sing Association, and play roles and tell stories close to their autobiographical selves. The bed becomes a catalyst for bringing forth the stories of the transnational, the urban, and the historical, as well as the intimate, the familial, and the personal.

Purchase tickets at MoMA’s website. Screenings run on Feb. 24th and 25th.

To keep yourself updated on future screenings and live performances of “Your Day is My Night,” check the Facebook and the director’s website.

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Kyla Cheung is a contributing writer at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. Continue the conversation by posting a comment here, on OurChinatown’s Facebook page, or on Twitter at @ourchinatown.

David Henry Hwang’s play is back on stage!

On Tuesday, March 5 at 7:30 pm, join MOCA for a special performance of David Henry Hwang’s The Dance and the Railroad at the Signature Theatre with an exclusive post-performance Q&A.

The story is about two Chinese workers struggling through poverty and hunger to reconnect with the traditions of their homeland while on a California mountaintop in 1867 near the Transcontinental Railroad. The Dance and the Railroad follows the twice-extended Golden Child as the second production in the Residency One: David Henry Hwang Series.

Come and experience the story with the actors’ brilliant and nimble performances. $25 per ticket. Limited tickets are available.

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Mia Wang is a contributing writer at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. Continue the conversation by posting a comment here, on OurChinatown’s Facebook page, or on Twitter at @ourchinatown.

The parade is going for the Guinness World Record of Most Dancers in a Lunar New Year parade! Better Chinatown has maps to follow the dancers and marchers.

With support from CAAAV, NYAGRA, the Queens Pride House, APICHA, and NQAPIA, the Lunar New Year For All contingent will also be marching on the 17th, recruiting LGBTQ members of the API community, as well as their family and allies. “It’s a reminder to our families and communities of origin that we are someone’s brother, sister, son or daughter,” says organizer Ryan Shen. “We’re here to show our community that we are here and proud.”

The Lunar New Year For All marchers will convene at 11:30 AM at Hester Street and Mott Street. Look for their banners! You can also go volunteer and help them create their “GIANT SNAKE” at 10am at Project Reach.

If you can’t make any of the above, join them for an after-march banquet at Project Reach at around 3pm until 5pm. No RSVP required.

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Kyla Cheung is a contributing writer at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. Continue the conversation by posting a comment here, on OurChinatown’s Facebook page, or on Twitter at @ourchinatown.

Immigrant Movement International will be presenting the bilingual and interactive play American Nightmare? Pesadilla Americana? tonight at 7 pm at 108-59 Roosevelt Ave in Corona, Queens. Written and acted by community members of Corona, the play will address some of the issues that many immigrant workers face:

“One day in the American Dream – Rosa is looking for work, but is her English good enough? Lucho has not been paid for three weeks, and Maria has serious problems at home with her son. Can they find a way out?”

- Immigrant Movement International

Admission is free, and drinks and snacks will be served.

Immigrant Movement International also offers free classes every Tuesday and Thursday from 7:30 to 9 pm, led by social theatre practitioner and facilitator Reka Polonyi and Chilean actress Montserrat Hernandez, for those who would like to practice their English through theatre. No theatre experience is necessary in order to participate, and the workshops will allow attendees to write and perform plays based on current issues and stories from the community.

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Gina Chung is a contributing writer at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. Continue the conversation by posting a comment here, on OurChinatown’s Facebook page, or on Twitter at @ourchinatown.

Make sure to dust off your worst (or best?) holiday sweater for MOCA’s ugly sweater fest tonight! Sponsored by MOCA, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, and Hyperallergic, the festivities will include live music from rapper Masia One and tunes from DJ Mas. Comedian Sheng Wang will host the festivities. Come enjoy spiked punch and compare ugly sweater patterns and stories with other holiday revelers! Best of all, part of the proceeds will be donated to CAAAV towards their advocacy work in helping post-Sandy Chinatown.

The party starts at 8 pm tonight, at 215 Centre Street in the Museum of Chinese in America. Make sure to RSVP to programs@mocanyc.org if you haven’t yet. Admission is $20, and $15 for MOCA members.

And tomorrow night from 6 to 9 pm, you can continue supporting Hurricane Sandy relief efforts by attending a fundraising dinner co-hosted by Chinatown Partnership and Chinatown Business Improvement District. For $25, you can enjoy an all-you-can-eat buffet at Grand Harmony on 98 Mott Street. All dinner proceeds will go towards businesses in Chinatown. Buy your tickets here. You can also contact Chinatown Partnership at 212-346-9288 or info@chinatownpartnership.org for more information, or if you’d like to be a sponsor.

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Gina Chung is a contributing writer at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. Continue the conversation by posting a comment here, on OurChinatown’s Facebook page, or on Twitter at @ourchinatown.

DREAMers

Directed by Adam Odsess-Rubin

Written by: Alton Alburo, Krystal Ballard, Rachel Lin, Adam Odsess-Rubin, Reka Polonyi, Luis Restrepo, Aamira Welthy

On Monday evening, the cast of DREAMers, a work of investigative theater presented by Theater for the New City’s NEW CITY, NEW BLOOD Reading Series in association with The Civilians Education Program, presented monologues collected from interviews with undocumented youth in NYC.

The performance took the form of a scripted reading, with the actors portraying various anonymous interviewees and their monologues gradually overlapping to form an increasingly synchronized chorus of voices. The actors, who conducted the interviews themselves before editing and compiling them to create a final script, presented the stories with sensitivity and nuance, touching on themes such as family, home, and what it means to be “American.” Despite the anger, sadness, and fear felt by many of the undocumented youth whose stories were featured in the performance, an overarching theme of the night was hope, as many of the interviewees discussed their ambitions for the future and expressed the hope that their stories would make other undocumented immigrants feel less alone.

Luis Restrepo gave a particularly spirited reading of a DREAMer who, despite having his illusions about life in the U.S. shattered upon his arrival to the States, remained undaunted and hoped to pursue his love of dance and theater: “I told myself, I’m here, I have to keep on going.” Rachel Lin portrayed an interviewee who, faced with the threat of deportation, consulted lawyers who told her to be on the lookout for the DREAM Act: “The DREAM Act didn’t come through, but DACA did.” Others, such as the interviewee played by Reka Polonyi, were skeptical about DACA, which was instituted under President Obama in August of 2012. The interviewee recalled seeing friends crying at the news: “Why are you crying? It’s nothing. It’s giving you only one piece of the cake.”

The performance also addressed the term “undocumented,” which is considered to be less offensive and dehumanizing than “illegal.” “I’d rather be called undocumented than illegal,” said an interviewee played by Aamira Welthy, adding that being considered “illegal” is burdensome, “like a shadow on our face.”

Recently, activists like journalist Jose Antonio Vargas have also urged media outlets to refrain from using the term due to its marginalizing effects and its inaccuracy.

“‘Ironically, describing an immigrant as ‘illegal’ is legally inaccurate,’ he said. ‘Being in a country without proper documents is a civil offense, not a criminal one.’”

—Ted Hesson, via ABC Univision

The aspirations of the young DREAMers were also a focal point of the piece, with many wanting their own achievements to lead to gains for their community or family members. “I dream of opening a clinic. Not here. In my own country,” said one interviewee. “If one day I could get citizenship that would be – wow. I would feel like nothing could stop me,” said another.

Lin’s interpretation of one interviewee’s experience provided a powerful and poignant look at the psychological effects of being undocumented. The interviewee spoke of the isolation and bitterness she often felt about her status: “People don’t realize how much this status separates you from others.” As a child, she felt that she couldn’t discuss her dreams with others: “I hated talking about other people’s dreams because I couldn’t have it. I couldn’t have those dreams. . . . But you can’t say that to people.” When the interviewee heard anti-immigrant jokes and slurs, she felt she didn’t have the right to speak out: “I felt wrong. I felt like I was lying to this country.” She added that she would never want anyone else to experience what she did, and hoped that her story, through the DREAMers project, would inspire others: “You have a community. You have a voice. There’s this hope you have.”

That same hope was epitomized in the words of another interviewee, played by Krystal Ballard, who declared, “I love this country. I love New York. Something really great awaits me in the future.”

In a talkback after the performance, audience members had the opportunity to talk to and ask questions of the cast and two interviewees. In response to a question from the audience regarding whether people were on the whole willing to discuss their stories with the actors, director Adam Odsess-Rubin spoke of one interviewee who thanked him for taking the time to record his story, as otherwise no one would ever have heard it.

“You get so much about an institutional issue if you only get five to ten minutes of someone’s personal experience,” said Steve Cosson, founding artistic director of The Civilians, at the conclusion of the talkback.

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Gina Chung is a contributing writer at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. Continue the conversation by posting a comment here, on OurChinatown’s Facebook page, or on Twitter at @ourchinatown.

Tenants of 128 Hester Street have filed a lawsuit against former landlord William Su, who also threatened back in August to sue Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) for their condemnation of his eviction of the tenants. Downtown Express reports that Christopher Kui, Executive Director of AAFE, and John Gorman, the lawyer who is representing the tenants, spoke about the issues at a press conference on Tuesday.

“The suit, filed in State Supreme Court on Oct. 25, lists 10 plaintiffs and seeks a combined total of $11 million in damages based on both ‘illegal and wrongful eviction’ and ‘the defendants’ negligence and wrongful intentional actions.’

The former tenants are also seeking a refund on rent they paid from October 2006 to August 2009, when the city’s Department of Buildings ordered the evacuation and subsequent demolition of 128 Hester St. — even though Su didn’t purchase the building until July 2007.

In addition, the suit calls for the defendants to return each plaintiff’s security deposit, along with accrued interest. The deposits for each evacuated apartment were kept by the landlords even after the building was gone, ‘in violation of law and contract,’ according to the suit.”

—Downtown Express

AAFE has been the main advocacy group behind the displaced tenants since 2009. Downtown Express also reports that AAFE “claims that the owners neglected to repair the apartment building, with the ultimate goal of simply knocking it down” to clear space for the Wyndham Garden Hotel, which now stands at 93 Bowery near where 128 Hester once stood.

Stefan Krasowski

Despite previous claims from lawyer Stuart Klein, who is representing Su and his associates, that the new establishment “would provide jobs to about 60 area residents,” it appears that the hotel has not fulfilled its promise, according to Susan Stetzer, district manager of Community Board 3.

“Stetzer said many qualified locals applied online for jobs at the hotel, but, ‘They were all rejected without any explanation. The hotel didn’t even give them interviews.’”

—Downtown Express

For more information on AAFE’s 128 Hester Street Campaign, visit http://justiceforchinatown.org.

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Gina Chung is a contributing writer at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. Continue the conversation by posting a comment here, on OurChinatown’s Facebook page, or on Twitter at @ourchinatown.

In case you missed our post last week on Second Generation (2g)‘s new writing workshop, “Community Voices: Queer API,”with GAPIMNY (Gay Asian Pacific Islander Men of New York), Q-WAVE, and SALGA (South Asian Lesbian and Gay Association) for “queer, Asian writers interested in exploring their relationship to ‘gender,’” here’s a reminder that applications are due TODAY, December 7th! Submit your applications to kyoung.park@2g.org.

“Community Voices” is an exciting new program at Second Generation (2g), a 16-year old not-for-profit theater company that has dedicated itself to bringing Asian-American stories to the world’s stage. 2g began by supporting Asian-American actors who were in need of a theatrical home, and throughout its history, developed new programs to further support Asian-American playwrights and directors. “Community Voices” is an organic extension of this mission, providing an opportunity for minority voices in our audience to share with us their stories and bring them to light. This year, we are focusing on the queer API community and are thrilled to work with GAPIMNY, Q-Wave, and SALGA with support of the Stonewall Foundation and the Asian Women Giving Circle.

–Kyoung H. Park, 2g’s Director of Strategic Planning

Nine writers will be selected to to participate in four 3-hour writing sessions and a public reading of their work.

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Gina Chung is a contributing writer at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. Continue the conversation by posting a comment here, on OurChinatown’s Facebook page, or on Twitter at @ourchinatown.