The W.O.W. Project is a women, queer, trans and youth-led community initiative using art and activism to grow our community’s capacities for self-determination and nurture NYC Chinatown’s creative culture in a time of rapid change.
W.O.W. is turning 9 this June! Nearly a decade ago, we planted the seeds of a vision—one rooted in cultural resilience, intergenerational dialogue, and community power. Now, as we celebrate nine years of art and activism, we are also looking ahead: How do we ensure that our communities not only survive but thrive for generations to come?
We are building power from within. Growth, for us, means deepening our roots in Chinatown, ensuring that our neighborhood remains a place where immigrant, working-class, and queer communities can stay, create, and organize for our boldest dreams.
Join us in raising ✨ $18,000 ✨ to sustain our cultural organizing and abolitionist vision for Chinatown! Your support helps us in our fight against displacement and strengthens our youth in deepening their leadership:
- Youth Leadership Pipelines & Land Stewardship – W.O.W. youth are cultivating new generations of organizers and community stewards through Resist, Recycle, Regenerate (RRR) & the Arts, Crafts, and Urban Studies High School Summer Fellowship. These programs create space for intergenerational discussions and collective strategy-building to fight gentrification and steward the neighborhood that nurtures their Asian American identities.
- Mutual Aid & Small Business Organizing – Small businesses are the backbone of Chinatown’s working-class community. From Chinatown, With Love (FCWL) builds economic solidarity with small businesses by reimagining cultural traditions like red envelope giveaways and lion dancing, as tools of cultural organizing, and mobilizes a cross-generational and cross-class base to resist carceral state projects, like the magajail, and strengthen community safety nets.
