Lunar New Year Celebrations Return To Flushing Town Hall This February

For the first time since the pandemic's onset, Flushing Town Hall will once again celebrate the Lunar New Year in person, welcoming back audiences and artists to kick off the Year of the Tiger together in community.

Throughout the month of February, the Queens-based Smithsonian affiliate will present an art exhibition, film festival, and global music concert to celebrate this new season of renewal as New York reemerges in omicron's wake.

The Lunar New Year, celebrated throughout many Asian countries with varying traditions and activities, is a festive occasion to mark the ending of winter and welcoming of spring.

A longstanding tradition, Flushing Town Hall's Lunar New Year programs were canceled early in 2020 and presaged the pending shutdown in March of all of New York. They returned in virtual form for an online audience in 2021.

"This year's Lunar New Year celebrates the Year of the Tiger, symbolizing Strength and Courage- qualities we've all harnessed as covid variants have swept the world," says Executive & Artistic Director Ellen Kodadek. "Flushing Town Hall is pleased to offer new programs this year that celebrate and honor this important holiday and that bring our community safely back together through the arts. We invite audiences to celebrate the Year of the Tiger and draw strength and courage from the incredible artists and works we'll be presenting!"

On Saturday, February 5 at 3:00 PM, Flushing Town Hall will host a free, opening reception with an artist walkthrough for its group exhibition, Reconcile: Begin Anew, which runs through February 16.

Curated by Chemin Hsiao and Stephanie S. Lee, Reconcile features works by eight Asian American, immigrant artists who live and work in New York: Sophia Chizuco, Cui Fei, Chemin Hsiao, Woomin Kim, Stephanie S. Lee, Weihui Lu, Pony Ma, Yu-Whuan Wang. Throughout the pandemic and this time of uncertainty and struggle, each artist confronts their emotions through a visual and creative lens. At the same time, the exhibition reconnects the audience to the artists' cultural heritage as they reconcile their past and reach a new balance for the Lunar New Year 2022.

For more information on this FREE exhibition and the featured artists, visit: https://www.flushingtownhall.org/reconcile-begin-anew

Flushing Town Hall will also present its very first Lunar New Year Chinese Documentary Film Festival on Saturday, February 5 and Sunday, February 6. The festival features three films, each 60 to 90 minutes in length:

• Curtain Up! (SAT Feb 5 @ 1PM), directed and produced by Hui Tong, follows elementary school kids in New York's Chinatown as they prepare for the musical production of "Frozen." The children begin to discover their identities while grappling behind the scenes with cultural stereotypes, family expectations, and post-graduation uncertainties. There will be a post-screening Q+A.

• Ride with Delivery Workers (SUN Feb 6 @ 1PM) explores the heavy toll of the coronavirus pandemic on New York City's immigrant delivery workers, who experienced financial and mental health struggles, racist attacks, and robberies. Filmmaker Jing Wang has filmed with local Chinese delivery workers for the last five years. She was also a key organizer helping to mobilize immigrant workers in the campaign to legalize e-bikes in New York State. There will be a post-screening Q+A.

• Please Remember Me (SUN, Feb 6 @ 2:30PM) is a tender portrait of an emblematic couple, living alone without the traditional support of extended family. With intimacy and perceptivity, director Zhao Qing follows Feng and Lou, her great-uncle and great-aunt, over three years as Feng adjusts to Lou's increasing dependency and works to remedy her loss of memory. With a dignified tone of reflection, this heartfelt documentary evokes the importance of personal histories and pays tribute to the navigation of old age with quiet courage, love, and dignity. There will be a post-screening Q+A.

For more information on these FREE screenings, visit: https://www.flushingtownhall.org/lny-film-2022

To conclude its Lunar New Year festivities, Flushing Town Hall invites world music lovers to enjoy the next concert in its Mini-Global Mashups series, "Korea Meets Armenia", taking place Sunday, February 13 at 1:00 PM.

The series, which presents a new mini mashup each month, pairs musical artists from different countries and cultural traditions on stage for an inspired collaboration. "Korea Meets Armenia" will feature Korean violinist Sita Chay with Armenian-born, American oud player Ara Dinkjian. They will be accompanied by Japanese percussionist Satoshi Takeishi.

Sita Chay is the only Korean artist to have won a Latin Grammy, which she received in 2017 for Best Mariachi Album as violinist in the world-renowned ensemble, Flor de Toloache. She was also nominated for a 2020 Grammy in the Best Jazz Large Ensemble category as a member of Miho Hazama's M Unit. Chay is the founder and music director of SaaWee, which performs Korean shaman ritual music, and director of the Cosmopolis Collective - Immigrant Story Telling Band.

Ara Dinkjian's began his musical journey accompanying his father Onnik Dinkjian, a renowned Armenian folk and liturgical singer, and went on to learn several Western and Eastern instruments that included piano, guitar, dumbeg, and clarinet. He holds the country's first and only special degree from Hartt College of Music in the instrument for which he has become most well-known, the oud.

Satoshi Takeishi is a native of Mito, Japan. While studying at Berklee College of Music, he developed an interest in South American music and moved to Colombia for four years where he joined the group Macumbia and performed with the Bogota Symphony Orchestra. He continues to engage with diverse musical traditional back in the United States.

To purchase concert tickets ($15/$12 Members), visit: https://www.flushingtownhall.org/mini-global-mashup-6

In adherence with New York City's Covid policy for performance venues, Flushing Town Hall will require all visitors, performers, and staff to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 with matching identification. Additionally, masks will be required at all times. For more details on Flushing Town Hall's Covid-safety measures and vaccine requirements, please visit: https://www.flushingtownhall.org/covid-safety.