Interstate Artists' Salon and Fundraiser
Interstate Musical, LLC
On May 17, the producers are hosting an intimate backers’ salon to support Interstate, selected for this summer’s New York Musical Festival (NYMF). Join award-winning writers Melissa Li and Kit Yan for a night of songs from the show (sung by special guests!). Come learn about this important story and support Interstate’s journey to NYMF. Please RSVP to interstatethemusical@gmail.comMay 23rd is a community fundraising party to support Interstate’s journey to the NYMF this summer. Come join to hear songs from the show, meet show creators Kit Yan & Melissa Li, and to learn more about the project. For this event, please RSVP in advance: bit.ly/IMEBN
For more information about Interstate or these events, please contact interstatethemusical@gmail.com
Interstate can be followed on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
During these events, the host venue also includes the exhibit Come You Back to Maynila Bay by Karl Orozco. For further information about this exhibition, please see its event listing.
About Melissa Li
Melissa Li (Music, Lyrics, Book) is a composer, lyricist, and performer. She is a Jonathan Larson Award winner, whose most recent musical 99% Stone (The Theater Offensive), about the 1969 Stonewall riots, received an NPN Creation Fund and a NEFA Grant. Her first musical, Surviving the Nian (The Theater Offensive), won an IRNE award for Best New Play in 2007. She wrote her third full-length musical, Interstate, with poet Kit Yan and director Jessi D. Hill. Melissa has released music both as a solo artist and collaboratively. First, she released her solo album 2 Seconds Away in 2008, then as part of rock-poetry band Good Asian Drivers, she released Drive Away Home in 2009 . After forming her own pop/rock outfit Melissa Li & The Barely Theirs, the band released The Beginning in 2011. She is proud to be from Boston, and proud to live in Brooklyn.
About Kit Yan
Kit Yan (Lyrics, Book) is an award-winning New York-based spoken word artist from Hawaii. Kit has been seen on television programs such as HBO’s Asian Aloud and PBS’ Asian America. Kit’s poetry has been reviewed in New York, Bitch, Curve, and Hyphen magazines and he has toured internationally with Sister Spit, The Trans* Roadshow, and Good Asian Drivers. Kit’s work has recently been featured in Flicker and Spark and Troubling the Line, two new queer and transgender poetry anthologies, and has a forthcoming book with Trans-Genre Press. His recent performances include two national tours of Queer Heartache and a performance at the Brooklyn Museum. Kit’s solo slam poetry show Queer Heartache was recently awarded the spirit of fringe award, artists’ pick award, and audience choice award at the 2015 Chicago Fringe Festival. His solo show will be produced at the 2016 Trans Theater Festival and the San Francisco Fringe Festival. He has been recognized by the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and Babson College for his contributions in activism, literary arts, and theater.
About the Space
384 Broadway is a temporary art space presented by THINK!CHINATOWN and Chashama. With the mission to increase representation of Asian American artists and themes of concern to our community, this project seeks to test new ways galleries in Chinatown can better engage the neighborhood with cross-cultural and inter-generational practices. This project is not a commercial endeavor and is largely run on the energy of community volunteers.
THINK!CHINATOWN is a collective of neighbors and advocates working to keep Chinatown a vibrant place of inter-generational learning, cultural production & civic engagement. We are here to listen, to respond, and to build Chinatown’s capacities as a strong immigrant neighborhood of NYC. Our mission is to attract & connect resources for Chinatown organizations & businesses using the tools of design & community engagement. Join us in connecting past, present & future to ensure a resilient Chinatown.
For press images and additional information: hello@thinkchinatown.org
