In the Future Our Asian Community is Safe, by Jess X. Snow

In The Future our Asian Community is Safe is a mural in Manhattan’s Chinatown that imagines how we transcend white supremacy and anti-Asian violence. Depicting a local Asian American elder and youth practicing mutual care and healing, this portal uses meditation music, augmented reality animation, and poetry to collectively envision a future of safety for our Asian American community. The mural was envisioned and painted by artist Jess X. Snow with local youth artists, and co-presented by The W.O.W. Project and the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.

Throughout 2021, we are building an augmented reality companion to the mural as a way to broaden access and deepen engagement with the work's themes. Led by artist Wiena Lin, in collaboration with the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU and the Smithsonian Digitization Program Office, the mural will come to life and immerse visitors in a  healing space of animations, music, and poetry. Visitors globally are invited to share an offering that manifests safety, mutual care, and communal protection for the future of our Asian community.

Lead Artist:
Jess X. Snow

Co-presented by:
The W.O.W. Project
Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center

Collaborators:
Family-owned Businesses of Chinatown
Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU
Smithsonian Digitization Program Office

Produced by:
Mei Lum

Curator:
Adriel Luis

Envisioned and Painted with local Chinatown youth in W.O.W. Project’s Resist Recycle Regenerate program and local BIPOC community.