On May 16, visit six performances across Boston Chinatown as part of “Performance Pilgrimages on the Immigrant History Trail.” This public program, presented with the current gallery exhibit “Temple of Our Ancestral Dreams” at @paoartscenter, invites you to experience Chinatown streets as memory archives activated through performance. RSVP and learn more about these performances taking place during the day on the event website: https://www.
Saturday, May 16, 2026
1:00-4:00 PM
Sites throughout Chinatown
Rain Date: Sunday, May 17“Temple of Our Ancestral Dreams” and its public programming are supported by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ Public Art for Spatial Justice program, with funding from the @barrfdn and the Fund for the Arts at @nefa_1976. This exhibit is curated by Sung-Min Kim and Wenxuan Xue @innerchildsings
Joanna Tam’s performance on Chin Park
Meditation on Water: Thank you, aunties, I wish I knew when I was younger
Chin Park Serpentine Path 34W Lincoln St.
Saturday, May 16, 2026 (Raindate: Sunday, May 17)
2:30-3:30pm
Meditation on Water: Thank you, aunties, I wish I knew when I was younger is a tribute to the aunties, immigrant activists, and community organizers in Boston Chinatown, such as those who fought for Chinatown children’s safety in 1975 and for garment workers’ rights in the mid-1980s. Referencing a street art practice in China, the artist’s meditation on water is rooted in her fascination with the ocean and water as metaphors for togetherness and transformation.
Joanna Tam is a Hong Kong-born visual artist who lives and works on the ancestral and unceded lands of the Wampanoag, the Nipmuc, and the Massachusett People, also known as Boston. Her practice examines migration, the idea of safety, and one’s connection to places through video, photography, performance, installation, and community engagement. Tam is the recipient of the Prilla Smith Brackett Award (presented by the Davis Museum), the Collective Futures Fund’s Sustaining Practice Grant, and the SMFA Traveling Fellowship. Tam’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Selected solo exhibitions include American Studies 2019 at the Center for American Political Studies, Harvard University; Visibility Studies at Regis College Fine Arts Center; Wasenstraße Story at Chrom VI in Idar-Oberstein, Germany; She has been invited to attend artist residencies at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, Kala Art Institute, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Boston Center for the Arts, among others. Photo courtesy of the artist
