“CAB: Degentrification Archives” is an exhibit that uplifts the stories of people most directly impacted by the gentrification of Manhattan’s Chinatown, with the long-term goal of protecting and preserving our neighborhood. "Degentrification Archives" is a curated collection spanning our seven year history. The exhibition includes archival material, photographs, videos, placekeeping maps, large scale projections, as well as banners, posters and other direct action ephemera.
Chinatown Art Brigade (CAB) is an intergenerational collective driven by the fundamental belief that cultural, material, and aesthetic modes of production have the power to create change. CAB is comprised of Asian American and Asian diaspora identifying visual artists, media makers, writers, educators, archivists, and organizers with deep roots in Manhattan's Chinatown. Together we make work that centers art and culture as a way to support community-led campaigns around issues of gentrification and displacement.
The show also highlights our collaborations with local and national cultural groups, movements, and formations including CAAAV Chinatown Tenants Union, the W.O.W. Project, The Illuminator, Decolonize This Place/MTL+, Grassroots Asians Rising, Asian Americans United, Mi Casa Resiste, CID Coalition, Coast to Coast Chinatowns Against Displacement (C2C) and many others.
Betty Yu, co-founder of CAB is one of the main creators of our interactive mapping project on display. One of the main features of the exhibition is our mapping and multimedia installation that centers the stories of people most directly impacted by displacement, with the long term goal of protecting and preserving our beloved neighborhood. The project features short videos and testimonials from tenants, residents and housing activists telling their own stories. Interactive media platforms like Augmented Reality (AR), QR codes, and mapping are used to present these stories to help viewers unpack the lived experience of evictions and gentrification.
This exhibition also features a dedicated space for celebrating the racial justice, housing justice and community organizing history of CAAAV, our partner organization. The gallery room will feature a timeline documenting their nearly 40 year history of movement building through photographs, videos and other ephemera.
This exhibition expresses our deep respect for our beloved Chinatown and for the communities organizing in the frontlines against displacement across the globe. We hope this exhibition will not only inspire people to take creative action, but also help unleash our collective radical imagination to fight for a degentrified and liberated future.
Acknowledgements:
Thank you to the incredible staff and students at Pace University and Pace University Art Gallery who made this exhibit possible: Sarah Cunningham, William Pappenheimer, Mariana García Tinoco, Kelley A. Kreitz, Elizabeth Hernandez, Hannah Arias, Mai Callahan, Francisco Maldonado, Jim Skuldt, Anna Zhang, Truman Coltrin, Gillian Johnson, Greer Jones, Asling Morales, Aya Krimou, Elizabeth Burger, Adam Al-Hatlani, and Derek Stroup.
📷:Heena Malhotra, Betty Yu, John Antush