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Alison Stewart: This is All Of It on WNYC. Flushing Town Hall has a new photography exhibit on view called This Is Home. The show opened last Saturday in honor of Lunar New Year centering around the work of three Asian-American photographer. Each showcases their experiences and concepts of home in New York City. One of the photographers is Janice Chung, a Korean-American photographer who was born and raised in Flushing.

Her photos serve as an homage to the community she grew up in, from a barbershop with Korean characters illuminated at night to a snapshot of a Roosevelt Avenue strip.

An Rong Xu is in New York City and Taipei-based photographer, whose series My Americans features scenes captured in Manhattan's Chinatown. Xu's collection demonstrates the beauty contained in everyday moments.

Cindy Trinh is a child of Vietnamese refugees and the founder of Activist NYC. Their photos demonstrate the diversity of the progressive activist movement in New York City and highlights bits of daily life in Flushing and Chinatown. The exhibition runs for the next month until Sunday, February 26th at Flushing Town Hall. Admission is free. The gallery is open on weekdays from 12:00 to 5:00. Here with us now is Cindy Trinh. Hi, Cindy.

Cindy Trinh: Hi. Thank you for having me, Alison.

Alison Stewart: Producer of the exhibition and Arts director of Flushing Town Hall is Dan Bamba. Dan Bamba?

Daniel Bamba: Bamba. Hi, Alison. Happy Lunar New Year.

Alison Stewart: Happy Lunar.

Daniel Bamba: Thanks for having us.

Alison Stewart: Of course. Dan, this was your idea, yes?

Daniel Bamba: I think it was an idea that we had as an organization for sure. We do a Lunar New Year exhibition every year. I just felt that this year we could do something a little bit different, move away from the traditional lanterns, red envelopes, the iconography like zodiac symbols whether it be the Year of the Ox or the Year of the Rabbit. Instead just celebrate the AAPI community here in New York City because this time of year there's so much focus on the Asian communities in New York, which is really great, but maybe hopefully shift some of the focus away from just talking about renewal and prosperity and just say, "Hey, the other 50 weeks of the year we're still here, we're working, we're living, and oftentimes fighting for us too, which is really great."

Alison Stewart: Why did photography seem like the right medium?

Daniel Bamba: Honestly, I think it was just something different. This is one of the first, if not the first group photo exhibition, that we've done in some time. I thought having known Janice, Janice showed some of her work in our space earlier this year, the idea of photography being able to encapture and tell these stories of everyday life was just the jumping-off point from there, and being able to meet and work with artists, other photographers like Cindy and An Rong was an added bonus for sure.

Alison Stewart: Cindy, what did you think about this idea when you first heard it?

Cindy Trinh: I think showing my photos and showing any kind of documentation of our communities is always important and so when Dan first came to me about doing the show-- This is the kind of event and exhibition that I always want to be a part of and I have been a part of in the past, showcasing our community. Showcasing our struggles and our fight, and what we've been going through the last couple of years, especially during the pandemic and fighting for our lives.

We're still fighting for our lives. With the news, the recent news of the shootings in California, it's become so apparent to us in the community and all around the country that we really need to come together more than ever. Art is such a great way to do that. Art is a way for us to start these conversations, start the dialogue, get inspired, get motivated to get involved. I think that's what I aim to do most with my work, with my photography, is to really get people thinking and get people to talking about what is happening and really reflect on our history.

Hopefully, years from now, we'll look back at my work, at Janice's work, at An Rong's work, at pretty much any Asian American artist, what they're doing right now. We will remember what our struggle was and what our fight was and how much we fought to get to where we're at today. That's the power of art and that's why anytime I get asked to do a show like this, I always want to jump on it because this is the kind of show that really is going to highlight my work best.

Alison Stewart: How did you decide what work to include?

Cindy Trinh: Actually, me and Dan, we had a very interactive collaborative process. What I like to do as an artist is really work with the curator because I don't want the curator just choosing everything, but I also want some kind of direction as an artist on what we feel is going to be best for the show. Me and Dan actually went through some of my work and we decided we wanted to show some photos of my documentation of Flushing, which is part of an ongoing series that I've been working on for many years now about Chinatowns, just documenting.

Chinatown is in New York, but not just in New York. All around the country and all around the world actually. I've gone to many different Chinatowns and I love photographing Chinatowns around the world because I like seeing the differences and the similarities between the different communities and enclaves and the different cities and countries. The Flushing photos I'm showing is part of that ongoing Chinatown series I've been doing.

My protest photos I felt were really important to have in this show in particular because of what we've been going through politically in this country for the last few years. It's been really important for me to showcase the AAPI community in civil engagement. This is probably one of the largest movements that we've seen in modern history in the AAPI community and I think we really need to continue these conversations.

Even when the media doesn't want to showcase these headlines anymore, even when the headlines have died down. Even when mainstream media has moved on to the next story, we're still suffering. We are still hurting. Our communities are still being attacked. We're still being killed. We're still suffering and these conversations need to continue to happen. I think with my work, with my coverage of protests and activism, that's how we can continue these conversations.

Like, "Hey, let's look at what people are doing right now, what they're showing up for, what they care about. What they want to share their voice with the world about." I think that's why I care so much about the work that I do and why I feel like this is the work that I'm most passionate about. It's just sharing our stories and sharing what is happening on the ground right now in our communities.

Alison Stewart: Dan, when you were thinking about putting together this exhibit, which is called This is Home at Flushing Town Hall, how did you think about these three artists, these three photographers, how they would complement each other? Tell a fuller story.

Daniel Bamba: To build off of what Cindy was saying, I think starting with Cindy at her work in various Chinatowns, those street scenes I think were so important because that was that connecting thread between three artists, is that they take photos and tell stories of everyday communities. Every day, not meaning that they're boring but this is what's happening outside of Lunar New Year.

That started as that connecting thread that they work with these communities. In my opinion, I think they do it the right way. That they are embedded in the communities. They don't just drop in and take photos and leave. This is their community. That's, I think, the biggest thing in terms of the artists that we wanted to work with for a show like this. From there, it was able to start with, we just want to tell Asian-American stories, Asian and Asian-American stories.

Then I had the same collaboration with Janice and An Rong as I did with Cindy, whereas, what do you have and what would you like to show? Then let's try to tell this story together.

When we were collaborating with Cindy and when we were having these conversations, from the jump, it was always, "I want to include scenes of Flushing but also what you've been doing in protests." I wanted this exhibition to go a step further of not just everyday life, people working, but, yes, we are fighting.

This is our home. We're still here. Even though the focus on it has died down, the community work, the organizing that's happening in our communities are still happening. and I think that especially that one wall is a reminder that it's still happening and that it's not going [inaudible 00:10:07]

Alison Stewart: Dan, would you describe An Rong's visual style a little bit for us?

Daniel Bamba: An Rong is incredible-- his style it's so cinematic and dramatic that his works. It tells the story in such a different way from Cindy in such a different way from Janice that it creates this scene of drama in the exhibition, which I really love. It's a fun little break from Cindy and Janice's work but also complements it at the same time. I would say just his use of light and darkness and space just, creates these cinematic scenes of his community.

Alison Stewart: I want to ask you about one of Janice's photo which shows a laundromat worker cleaning a coat, why is an image like that important?

Daniel Bamba: Janice's work is so incredible being Flushing born and raised. These are a lot of the businesses that she worked with and photographed with are businesses that have been around since she was a kid. I think her series HAN IN TOWN is so powerful because it tells the stories of these community members and these businesses that have been here for so long, and still existing. Elevates these every day "workers" that the person in your dry cleaners, your barber at the flower shop, they still are doing good work and incredible work in the community and they are an integral part of the community. Photos like the one you mentioned elevates them and celebrates the beauty in what they do every day.

Alison Stewart: You can see the exhibition, This Is Home at Flushing Town Hall. My guests have been photographer Cindy Trinh. You can see their work in the exhibition and Dan Bamba producer of the exhibit and Director of Art Services at Flushing Town Hall. Thank you so much.

Daniel Bamba: Thank you so much [crosstalk]

Cindy Trinh: Thanks for having us. Thank you.

Daniel Bamba: Take care. Happy New Year.

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Alison Stewart: Hey, All Of It listeners, it's a chance for you to hear your musical stylings on WNYC. We're launching an initiative called the public song project and we're inviting anyone 80 or older to send us an original recording of a song based on work in the public domain. At the beginning of every year, certain new works songs, books, movies, enter the US public domain, meaning they can be freely shared, copied, adapted, and recorded by anyone, including you.

If public domain drops make you think maybe I can make something out of that head to wnyc.org/publicsongproject where you can learn more about this. In 2023 new works entered the public domain from the year 1927 like this song you're listening to right now, The Best Things in Life are Free.

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We want you to help us explore this trove of material and show how it can be used creatively. You don't have to be a professional musician to submit. Maybe you only pick up a guitar every once in a while or maybe you're a lapse piano student. If you're not much of a singer, a spoken word is cool too, or just instrumentals. Your songs don't have to be straightforward covers, you can go for an original twist and an old composition with new music or lyrics, or even public domain literature and poetry set to original music is fair game. Your new recording could celebrate a work from the past, it could reimagine a composition for the present day, it could even challenge or engage in dialogue with the sometimes archaic sensibilities of art from that time.

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Just make sure you're using a work that's in the public domain. Submit your song to us by February 13th and you could be one of at least three winners selected by our team who has their song played on WNYC and even get to talk about it on All Of It. To learn more about the project, find a list of works that your song could draw from and send us your songs go to wnyc.org/publicsongprojects. That is wnyc.org/publicsongproject. We look forward to hearing from you.

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Tomorrow we have a great hour music plan the San Diego bass trio, The Sacred Souls will be in studio ahead of their performance at Brooklyn Steel this weekend. Dan our backs band The Arcs join us for a listening party for their latest album Electrosonic Course. That is all of it for today. I'm Alison Stewart. I appreciate you listening and I appreciate you. Meet us back here next time.

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