Hello, Fishballs!

Hope everyone’s summer ☀️ is off to a good start and staying cool and dry amidst the sporadic heatwaves and summer storms!

8/3: TALK TOO MUCH 2024

At Fuzhou America (FZA), we’ve been busy planning TALK TOO MUCH 2024: Navigating Fuzhounese Identity. This year’s conference is on 🗓️ Saturday, August 3rd, 2024 at 📍St. John’s University. You can find out more about the conference and our speakers at: bit.ly/TTM0803.

 If you have ever been to one of our conferences before, then you know how special this event is ❤️. TALK TOO MUCH brings together over 200 community members in one space to engage in critical discussions and storytelling around issues important to us: family, immigration, intergenerational conflict, legacy, labor, language, and so much more.

As someone who did not grow up with many Fuzhounese/Fuzhounese American people, I was blown away when I attended my first conference last year - the energy, the love, and the people inspired me to take on a deeper role and commitment to FZA. Join me and our community as we celebrate our FIVE-YEAR anniversary and discuss how we can collectively uplift and share Fuzhounese American stories with the world. You can purchase tickets here.

7/21: OPEN MIC

Miss us and want to connect before the conference? Come out to our Open Mic, happening Sunday, July 21st from 3-5 PM.

This year’s Open Mic is in collaboration with Chinatown Basketball Club (IG: @chinatownbasketballclub). Come join us for an afternoon of music, creativity, and joy!

We have a suggested donation of $5-$20 at the door (venmo @fuzhouangela). All proceeds from this fundraiser will go towards supporting FZA and CBC. The event is public but let us and your friends know you’re going by RSVP’ing here.

MINI RECAP

In addition to planning our conference, we’ve welcomed our FIRST cohort of summer interns. Summer internships are so critical for developing our youth and exposing them to different careers. Our interns have been hard at work on programming, marketing, outreach, and language initiatives.

Since my last recap, we’ve hosted several events including a trip down to Philidelphia for the 2024 Hoyu Culture Festival at the end of March. Then in May, to celebrate AANHPI History Month, we had our first float for the NYC AAPI Heritage Parade. Most recently, we held our annual picnic where folks gathered and connected over food and games at Gantry Park. From the picnic, our ✨CONNECTICUT✨ chapter was born! Join the Facebook group to get added!

Lastly, we’ve been trying to expand our oral history arm. We’ve recently featured photos by Dominick Zheng who went back to Lianjiang, Fuzhou after more than a decade away.

“… seeing fam, eating local food, drawing my grandma’s home keeps me tethered.” - Dominick Zheng

We’re always excited to hear stories from our community so if you have a story that you want to share, please let us know! You can email me directly at [email protected].

And that’s it for now. See ya in the next one ❤️.