Boston's Chinatown: Community, Power, and Placemaking

Join the BU Arts Initiative, BU Initiative on Cities, and BU Diversity & Inclusion for a discussion on the legacy of Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood, community, urban expansion, displacement, public health, and the birth of the Pao Arts Center.

Featuring

Núrí Chandler-Smith, Dean of Academic Support and College Pathway Programs, Bunker Hill Community College. She oversees the Boston Welcome Back Center for Internationally Educated Nurses, as well as an array of support, college transition, and partnership programs. She is an artist, activist and educator from Boston, with a degrees from Northeastern University and Harvard University.

Angie Liou, Executive Director, Asian Community Development Center. Angie has worked in the community development and affordable housing field since 2004. Under her leadership, Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC) has expanded its programs in areas of housing, resident and youth, community planning and placekeeping.

Heang Rubin, Chair, Friends of the Chinatown Library, Assistant Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine, Tufts University. ​Heang is a community-engaged researcher and applies her training in ethnic studies, urban planning and education and advocacy work in the Asian American community to address health, wellness, and quality of life in Boston’s Chinatown. Heang believes in community building, authentic relationship building, and deep listening to the community in order to be a responsive as a researcher, teacher, and advocate.

Cynthia Woo, Director, Pao Arts Center, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center. Cynthia has been the inaugural Pao Arts Center Director at BCNC since Jan 2017. She has more than fifteen years of experience in the non-profit arts, and arts education sector. Prior to joining the staff at BCNC, Cynthia worked at the Chinese American Museum of Los Angeles, LynnArts Inc, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Boston Center for the Arts.

Moderated by Ben Hires (CAS ’00, STH ’03, MET ’08), CEO of Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center. Ben joined BCNC as CEO in June 2020, with a wealth of experience in nonprofit leadership and serving young people and families. He has held leadership positions in programs, strategy, and external relations at the Boston Children’s Chorus and at the Boston Public Library.

This event is part of a series on Race, Place, and Space, co-hosted by the Initiative on Cities, BU Arts Initiative, and BU Diversity & Inclusion. The series focuses on the ways in which racial and ethnic groups access, inhabit, occupy, shape, and are memorialized in urban contexts—as well as the ways their contemporary and historical contributions have been made invisible, disregarded, or denigrated. Learn more at bu.edu/ioc/rps