Co-hosted by Chinatown Art Brigade & the W.O.W. Project
The Borough Based Liberation Project was a series of neighborhood cultural events and interventions to collectively vision abolition, climate justice, migrant justice, and housing futures in New York City.
ON DISPLAY
Art, photography, ephemera and socially engaged art presented by CAB, the W.O.W. Project, Cal Hsiao, Tif Ng, Sonia Tsang, Chris Deng, Asians 4 Palestine, Sunnie Liu, Malaika Temba, Louise Yeung, Daphne Lundi, Dandelions / BILM / Ashiñwaka / Legaia / Fridays for Future NYC, selected artists from our Abolition Art Open Call, and others.
Exhibitions, Art and Ephemera
Ground Level
Selections from Chinatown Art Brigade’s Archives
These works represents a small selection from their eight year history. The exhibition includes archival material, photographs, videos, placekeeping maps, large scale projections, as well as banners, posters and other direct action ephemera. One of the main features of the exhibition is their mapping and multimedia installation that centers the stories of people most directly impacted by displacement, with the long term goal of protecting and preserving our beloved neighborhood. The project features short videos and testimonials from tenants, residents and housing activists telling their own stories. Interactive media platforms like Augmented Reality (AR), QR codes, and mapping are used to present these stories to help viewers unpack the lived experience of evictions and gentrification. The selection highlights their abolition organizing against the jailscraper bring built in Chinatown that is being touted as the “tallest jail in the world”. We hope this exhibition will not only inspire people to take creative action, but also help unleash our collective radical imagination to fight for a degentrified, liberated and abolitionist future.
Selections from the W.O.W. Project
The WOW Project has a selection of artwork, banners, signs and other ephemera that were activated during their “Springs from Below: People’s Abolition Parade” that marched through the streets of Chinatown in June 2024.
"Chinatown is a Site of Resistance” photo exhibition curated by Cal Hsiao, Tif Ng, Sonia Tsang, Chris Deng
As the city continues construction of the world’s tallest jail in Chinatown, the neighborhood has organized protests, rallies, and even lawsuits to stop or delay the jail's progress. Community photographers have documented these actions and meticulously chronicle the site of their changing neighborhood. Through photographs and ephemera, Chinatown is a Site of Resistance showcases how a community documents itself and its own history of resistance in the face of the carceral state. The artists in this exhibit provoke questions around resistance, provide context of the space, and envision an abolitionist future. Chinatown does not want a megajail to be built in the neighborhood, that much is clear. However there are a multitude of opinions on what comes next. Participants are invited to consider: What might an abolitionist future look like in Chinatown?"
Works from Asians 4 Palestine
Featuring photos, video, ephemera and zines from the last 10 months of protest against the genocide in Gaza and in solidarity with the Free Palestine movement.
Mezzanine Level
“Amplitude” by Parallax: Malaika Temba and Sunnie Liu
A two-channel video envisions community-driven alternatives to incarceration sites in Harlem and Chinatown. By highlighting anonymous responses from both neighborhoods, the work reaffirms that both our struggles and liberation are intertwined. The installation and participatory social practice define abolition as an ongoing process and constant practice. Through abolitionist reimagining, Amplitude invigorates collective dreaming of what is possible and needed in Black and Asian communities instead of carceral logic and systems.
“Play + Placemaking for Afro-Asian Solidarity” by Daphne Lundi and Louise Yeung
How can we design cities to build solidarity between Black and Asian communities? "Play + Placemaking for Afro-Asian Solidarity" was a workshop led by artists and urban planners Daphne Lundi and Louise Yeung at the Laundromat Project in January 2024. Using found objects, participants reimagined places that have historically been sites of tension between Black and Asian communities in New York City. Tapping into the power of play and worldbuilding, participants created places for healing and reconciliation through transformed communal spaces, cross-diasporic food exchanges, and intergenerational play.
SELECTED PUBLIC PROGRAMMING
Fri, 9/6, 6-9pm
Borough Based Liberation Project Public Launch Opening
Sat, 9/7, 3-5pm
Share Your Chinatown Placekeeping Story (audio gathering workshop)
Sat, 9/7, 6-9pm
Prisoners’ Resistance: A Community Reading of Tip of the Spear
Sun, 9/8, 2-4pm
Abolition Tea Time
Wed, 9/11, 7-9pm
From Close Rikers Now to Queens Cop City: Resisting the Borough-Based Jail Plan Teach-in
Sat, 9/14, 4-6pm
"Chinatown is a Site of Resistance” Abolition Photo Exhibition Teach-in
Sat, 9/14, 6-7:30pm
“Collage with our Archives” Workshop
Sun, 9/15, 12-5pm
Letters for Liberation w/ Black and Pink
Thurs, 9/19, 6:30-8pm
Panel: “Envisioning Abolition Futures through Arts, Cultural Organizing, Media”
Fri, 9/20, 6-9pm
Opposing Carceral Design Panel
Sat, 9/21, 2-5p
Asians for Palestine Youth Workshop
Sun, 9/22, 12-2pm
Trees of Our Homes Workshop (for children ages 6-10)
Sun, 9/22, 2-4pm
Abolition Tea Time
Sun, 9/22, 3-5pm
Here to Stay - AR Placekeeping Walking Tour with Map Zine
Mon,9/23, 6-9pm
Climate Week Opening Event
Thurs, 9/26, 6:30-9pm
Climate Week film screening w/ BILM, Witness, and others
Sat, 9/28, 10-4pm
Indigenous & Community Justice Practices Teach-in
Sat, 9/28, 6-9pm
BBLP Closing event