Interior/Exterior: Chinatown Reflections
Writer Valerie Luu and photographer Andria Lo (Chinatown Pretty) pair up with poet Hieu Minh Nguyen (Not Here)

This event will be held onsite.

Join a discussion with writer Valerie Luu, photographer Andria Lo, and poet Hieu Minh Nguyen exploring intergenerational stories and reflections of the culture of Chinatown. 

Revel in the fun, colorful, and sartorial images and stories celebrating the residents of Chinatown.

Chinatown Pretty features beautiful portraits and heartwarming stories of trend-setting seniors across six Chinatowns.

Andria Lo and Valerie Luu have been interviewing and photographing Chinatown's most fashionable elders on their blog and Instagram, Chinatown Pretty, since 2014. Chinatown Pretty is a signature style worn by pòh pohs (grandmas) and gùng gungs (grandpas) everywhere—but it's also a life philosophy mixing resourcefulness, creativity, and a knack for finding joy even in difficult circumstances. Photos span Chinatowns in San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, and Vancouver. The style is a mix of modern and vintage, high and low, handmade and store bought clothing. This is a celebration of Chinese American culture, active old-age, and creative style.

Chinatown Pretty shares nuggets of philosophical wisdom and personal stories about immigration and Chinese American culture. This book is great for anyone looking for advice on how to live to a ripe old age with grace and good humor—and, of course, on how to stay stylish.

 

Valerie Luu is a writer and one-half of the Vietnamese pop-up restaurant Rice Paper Scissors. She lives in San Francisco.

Andria Lo is a freelance photographer whose work has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, the New York Times, and Wired. She lives in Berkeley.

 

 

 

 

 

Hieu Minh Nguyen is the author of two collections of poetry, This Way to the Sugar (Write Bloody Publishing, 2014) and Not Here (Coffee House Press, 2018), which went on to win the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry. Some awards and fellowships Hieu has received include: the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University, a McKnight Writing Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship. His work has appeared in Poetry Magazine, Best American Poetry, The Atlantic, and The New York Times. He is a graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Originally from the Twin Cities, Hieu now lives in the Bay Area where he is a Jones Lecturer in Poetry at Stanford University.

 

 

 

 

NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.

El proyecto NEA Big Read es una iniciativa del National Endowment for the Arts (el Fondo Nacional para las Artes de Estados Unidos) en cooperación con Arts Midwest.

Mechanics Institute Members FREE

Public sliding scale, $5 to $10