Town Hall
photos by: Ashok Sinha, Maria Gonzalez Terrazas, and Elena D
Town Hall
Upcoming Town Halls | What It Is | Why We Do It | Who Attends | What People Say
Help Us
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Gallery |
Potluck Recipes
| Thanks
Upcoming Town Halls
June Town Hall
Tuesday, June 5, 2012, 10:00AM-12:00PM
New York Insight Meditation Center
28 West 27th Street (between Broadway and 6th Ave)
Subways: N R 6 to 28th St, F M E to 23rd St
Share a fresh cup of morning coffee with us this June at the beautiful New York Insight Meditation Center in Chelsea. Featuring spoken word artist YaliniDream, film producer Jaideep Punjabi, and... YOU!
Plus a special presentation by Judith Moldover of the Lawyer's Alliance, an organization dedicated to providing pro-bono legal advice to non-profits.
July Town Hall
Tuesday, July 3, 2012, 6:00PM-8:00PM
Chen Dance Center
70 Mulberry St, 2nd Floor (between Canal and Bayard Sts)
Subways: N Q R J Z 6 to Canal St
Join us at Chen Dance Center in Chinatown this July for the first of two summer evening Town Halls.
August Town Hall
Tuesday, August 7, 2012, 6:00PM-8:00PM
The Garden at Greenwich House Music School
46 Barrow St, (between Bedford and Bleecker Sts)
Subways: A B C D E F M to West 4th St, 1 to Christopher St
Join us in the enchanting garden of Greenwich House Music School's beautiful brownstone for a special midsummer night's outdoor Town Hall.
RSVP for August Town Hall here
What it is
Town Hall is the Asian American Arts Alliance's regular gathering for the Asian American creative community. It has taken place every first Tuesday of the month since February 2009 and brings together artists, arts workers, curators, producers, as well as other professionals from non-profits and other sectors, to share ideas, promote events, learn about opportunities and find collaborators. Town Hall is intended to nurture and catalyze the creative energy of this vibrant community by providing a regular, safe space for people to come together and be inspired.
The format of Town Hall is simple. The event lasts two hours. During the first hour you can give a one-minute pitch or a performance of up to four minutes. You can pitch to promote an event, to ask for help or collaborators for a project, to show a trailer for your new film, to inform others about a new grant or new residency program, or simply to introduce yourself to the community. The second hour is a potluck where you are free to enjoy the food and the presence of others.
Town Hall has and continues to take place in different locations each month, including in Manhattan at Chen Dance Center in Chinatown; at the Asian / Asian American Research Institute (CUNY) in Midtown; at Greenwich House Music School in Greenwich Village; at New York Insight Meditation Center or the LGBT Center, both in Chelsea. We have also had Town Halls in Flushing, Queens, and DUMBO and Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
Why we do it
a4 has historically been a hub for information sharing and dissemination. We grew out of the civil rights movement and our mandate has been to find, circulate and share information and resources for and about our community. In this sense we have been building community from our very beginnings. Town Hall provides a physical space for our community at large to come together to reinforce existing ties and create new ones. With these monthly gatherings, we hope to support our community in developing a sense of self-worth and collective identity, from which can spring rich and unusual collaborations and partnerships, inspiring people to fulfill their ambitions and dreams.
Town Hall attracts artists in all disciplines: musicians, composers, dancers, choreographers, actors, filmmakers, visual artists, writers, designers and others. We also get many arts workers from small to large arts organizations, including from the Harlem Arts Alliance, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Museum of Chinese in America, Public Theater, Rubin Museum and many others. Additionally, Town Hall welcomes professionals from other sectors, including colleagues from other non-profit organizations. Many funders have come to Town Hall to present grant opportunities, including Asian Women Giving Circle, Brooklyn Arts Council, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Queens Council on the Arts and many others. City Council Members Jimmy Van Bramer and Peter Koo, both of Queens, have also participated.
What people say
“The session this morning was truly inspiring. Such an abundance of talent!”
-Jonathan Hollander, Battery Dance Company
“I've met many people at Town Hall that have led to new alliances…I learned about the [Lower Manhattan Cultural Council] grant at one of the Town Halls, applied and recently found out that I am getting funding for a new project. It is the first Asian American networking event I have ever been to (repeatedly) that genuinely feels like community bridge building.”
-Christine Toy Johnson, Filmmaker
“Thank you for letting me do my pitch today. It was great to hear about the work that artists are doing in the community.”
-Cheryl Ikemiya, Senior Program Officer for the Arts, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
“We are always grateful to you for this forum to promote our events and the networking opportunities afterwards. This is what makes a4 unique in that these events are bringing people together not just for events and projects but for ‘community’.”
-Karen Kriegel and Athena Najat, Dancers
“QCA connected with a4 and Theresa Loong at a Town Hall and subsequently, they participated in a professional development panel that QCA held re: Kickstarter. Wonderful community connections demonstrate how mutually beneficial the Town Halls are.”
-Jackie de Dios, Queens Council on the Arts
“The greatest benefit of all has been the nurturing and supportive environment that I always experience at every Town Hall--it is as if I have found a whole new "family" of brothers and sisters all engaged in the arts. I find every Town Hall inspiring and come out of them "high" on artistic excitement."
-Caroline Sun, Visual Artist
Help Us
Town Halls benefit greatly from volunteers. We welcome any help you might like to offer. Town Hall Volunteer roles include:
- Photographers/Videographers – help us document Town Hall for our archives
- Outreach Ambassadors – help us get the word out about Town Hall
- Set-up/Break-down Helpers – help us prep and clean up the Town Hall space
- Space donations – donate your space to host a Town Hall
If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Jinjin at jsun [at] aaartsalliance [dot] org with the subject line “TOWN HALL VOLUNTEER”.
Gallery
Find more images like this on Asian American Arts Alliance
Images courtesy of Elena Chang, Elena D, Kevin Huang, Ashok Sinha, Jinjin Sun, and Maria Gonzalez Terrazas.
Potluck Recipes
At every Town Hall, we hold a potluck. Check out some of the photos and recipes of some of the great dishes we’ve had at Town Hall.
Kazakh Manty - Alia Alhan, Cultural Center of Kazakhstan NY
Thanks
What is the Asian American Arts Alliance?
© 2012 Created by a4 - Network Admin.
