August 28th, 2024 | Brooke Yeh

August 24th was a fulfilling day for Glow Cultural Center, with the Immigrant Rights Fair, Queensboro Dance Festival, and Back to School events consecutively serving hundreds of families and individuals from the Flushing community and beyond.

From 11 AM to 2 PM, the Immigrant Rights Fair featured free 1-1 legal consultations, tabling resources, and two key workshops, the “Report for Support – AAPI Anti-Asian Hate Tracker” led by Faye Qiu from Committee of 100, and an “Immigrant Rights Tea & Talk: Truth and Lies About the ‘Public Charge’ Policy” hosted by April Xu from Documented New York. These workshops sparked significant engagement and reflection among the participants, who also collected important resources & information from the NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, NYC Commission on Human Rights, Chinese Planning Council, and Asian American Bar Association of New York. As the AAPI community grows and organizes, we believe that creating opportunities for constituents to communicate transparently, form consensus, and support one another is the first step towards a better, vibrant future – and we are glad to see our community joining in on these discussions.

After a short lunch break, participants came back for an amazing array of performances curated by the Queensboro Dance Festival, presenting traditional Southern Philippine dance & music (Kinding Sindaw), Greek Zeibekiko Dance (Kalli Siamidou), a classical Indian Odissi dance (Monali NandyMazumdar), Barbara Mahler’s modern dance, two Argentinian Folk Dances (Silvana Brizuela Weigel & Jose Rojas), Tap Dance from the Cole Collective, and a Dai classical Chinese folk dance (by Dance For The People). At the end, audience members were even invited on stage to participate in a fun and coordinated danceback finale!

Wrapping up the day from 4:30 to 6:00pm was the much-anticipated Back to School Event, in which volunteers handed out hundreds of school supplies to families and children in need. Led by our upstairs neighbor Asian Americans For Equality (AAFE), this end-of-summer tradition stretches back over 30 years, and has helped thousands of families procure the necessary supplies their children need to start the semester with a school bag and confidence. Through these events, the power of community collaboration is exemplified, and a stronger, more supportive environment for the community is built. Glow would like to thank co-hosting organizations Committee of 100 and Documented NY for providing essential resources and fostering connections for the Immigrant Rights Fair; Queensboro Dance Festival for bringing the rich cultural diversity of Queens into our center; and AAFE for facilitating the Back to School supply giveaway in our space. We also want to express our sincere gratitude to the Google News Initiative and Metropolitan Park for their support of this ambitious initiative. We believe that through these efforts we have made a significant impact, and together, Glow’s 1st Summer Community Day was made a great success. See you next summer!

MEDIA LINKS:

• Documented NY | Immigrant Rights Fair Empowers Chinese Immigrants with Essential Resources

• 世界日報 | 法拉盛移民权益资源日 启扬中心热闹举行

• 星島日報 | 賦權移民社區 提供法律資源 移民權益資源日法拉盛登場

• 美國中文網 | 研究：全美逾四分之一亞裔稱遭遇過仇恨事件

–> SUMMER COMMUNITY DAY PHOTOS HERE!
–> QUEENSBORO DANCE FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE PHOTOS HERE!