The W.O.W. Project sustains ownership over Manhattan Chinatown’s future by growing, protecting, and preserving Chinatown’s creative culture through arts, culture, and activism.

As a community-based initiative, W.O.W. envisions the future of Chinatown as one that centers women, non-binary, queer, and trans people as leaders in building intergenerational bridges of understanding across Asian American communities and beyond. Our projects include artist residencies, youth programs, and public artworks and events. W.O.W. creates spaces for artists to seed conversations that grow into community solidarity and resistance in the face of displacement in Chinatown. By using the arts as a point of connection, W.O.W. sustains and creates communal practices that connect the history of Chinatown with its future. Mei Lum founded The W.O.W. Project in response to a rapidly-changing Chinatown in 2016.