Drawn Together
In the fall of 2021, I donated a drawing of Yu and Me Books to Lucy Yu. She was opening a bookstore in Chinatown to amplify A.A.P.I. and minority voices. Working in publishing I realized how slim the profit margins in books sales are so I wanted to support her mission. The drawing became incredibly popular, I decided it would be a great idea to draw pictures of other store fronts and landmarks in Manhattans Chinatown to help the community recover after covid and anti-Asian hate.
I contacted the Mott Street Girls with my idea and they curated the show. They reached out to the Pearl River Mart and secured our venue for "Drawn Together, Stories of Resilience and Renewal." I spent the next 9 months volunteering my time creating 26 drawings for the show. We got a micro grant from Asian American Arts Alliance to help us produce the pieces. We sold the original prints and postcards from the show and donated the profits ($2,360) back to the community.
It's incredible that what started as a drawing of a building lead to a drawing of a neighborhood, then to a drawing of an iconic highway, and then to Chinatowns nation wide. To me Chinatowns represent the start of the American Dream for many immigrants. Eventually I would like to research the effect of war on immigration to create empathy for anyone who has had to flee their homeland.