7th Year Anniversary: Trusting Our Tides

TRUSTING OUR TIDES harnessed the power of low and high tide for quiet reflection and loud celebration inspired by the collectivity, joy, and wisdom we built through change. We honored the cycling tides of our cultural organizing work over the past 7 years and reflected on what it means to leave an imprint– to both receive and offer support to the place and the people who make up our Chinatown community.

THE SUN IN OUR SAILS
Saturday, May 27th • 1-3 PM • Columbus Park
The W.O.W. Project kicked off its 7-Year Anniversary celebrations with TRUSTING OUR TIDES: The Sun in Our Sails! The Sun in Our Sails invited youth (16-21) participants with a connection to Chinatown to consider their relationship with the neighborhood using the cyanotype process to create bandanas. Cyanotype is a printing process that uses sunlight to capture shapes on fabric. Together we asked ourselves what it means to leave an imprint? Each participant was invited to bring and create objects to place on their individual bandanas and on a collective tapestry.

‍POLITICAL EDUCATION IN ACTION: Turning the Tides of Anti-Gentrification Work
Saturday, June 10th • 6-8 PM • Bluestockings Coop Bookstore
For the past year, the W.O.W. Project has been engaging in Rootwork, a political education practice created for our team to develop shared analyses about the issues and communities that shape our cultural organizing. To share our experiences, we also created a zine that documents Rootwork’s process, learnings, and resources. To close out and celebrate this pilot year, we hosted a panel discussion about how political education strengthens our relationships to each other and to movement-building. W.O.W. was joined by CAAAV/Chinatown Tenant Union and Mexicanos Unidos to discuss different methods of conducting political education within our communities and the value of developing a consistent study practice alongside other programming, campaigns, and actions.

‍TRUSTING OUR TIDES: Celebrating The W.O.W. Project's 7 Year Anniversary
Friday, June 23rd • 7-9 PM • DCTV
We wrapped up our 7 year anniversary with an unforgettable night of loud celebration! Our community harnessed the power of cycling tides with performances, poetry, and theater. We kicked off the evening with Monica and a spirited drag performance! Followed by an intimate ceremony with yuniya edi kwon as she activated our wind chime from Naming the Lost. Clae and Daria moved us through a sonic journey through the body with sounds from the guzheng and a series of Qigong healing breaths allowing us to reflect and unify. Serena shared their poetic wisdom that meditated on our 7 year anniversary theme: Trusting Our Tides. We concluded our lineup with a table read of a speculative play with W.O.W. folks sharing the story of the on goddess Chang’e and her navigations in her changing world.