Knockdown Center hosts the Yellow Jackets Collective’s 3rd Queer Lunar New Year Party, PIG: Year of Abundance, a party to celebrate joy and community for queer diasporic people of color.

In 2017, the year of the Rooster, YJC threw our very first queer lunar new year party. We were forged in fire, giving shape to our chosen family in the making and unmaking of things. This last year, 2018, was the year of the earth dog; when what remained from the devastation was nurtured. It was a year of grounding and healing, where people built anew and rooted in what had survived. Now it’s the year of the pig, and for Yellow Jackets, it will be a year of abundance. For us this year is about warm, generous love. It is about believing in the strength of our collective dreams, and scheming with our communities to manifest prosperity and joy. It is a year of reaping what you sow.

The party is meant to center queer people of color. There will be a slew of QTPOC DJs and performers as well as a night market with vendors selling zines, art, and other treats. Most of these performers and vendors are community that we’ve built in the last 3 years collaborating in NYC, and this party is meant as a celebration of our love, commitment and gratitude we have for our chosen families.

There will be NO TOLERANCE for anti-blackness, appropriative garb, harassment, anything nonconsensual. We are asking everyone to be financially transparent, as no POC folks will be turned away. We will have clear community guidelines in the space that we ask everyone to follow.

For context, the Lunar New Year is the first day of a calendar year that cycles with the moon. Hindu, Bengali, Buddhist, Islamic and traditional East Asian calendars are based on this system, and many of us in the U.S. who have ancestors from these ‘othered’ spaces still live and celebrate by it. The new year is a time of family reunion and we want to reinterpret this tradition by celebrating with our chosen families and our queer diasporic families.

Set List: Ushamami, DJ Ushka, Landline Sanrio Service, Br0nze_G0dd3ss, and Oscar Nñ [JUST ADDED]

Hosts: Discwoman, BUFU, BARS Collective, Shama Rahman, Alice Sparkly Kat, Ada Wrong, Yung Nihilist, Poppy and Yin of Mercy Mistress, Neon Christina (RAGGA NYC), China Residencies, Papi Juice, KT + Emilio [JUST ADDED], and Wing on Wo & Co [JUST ADDED]

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YELLOW JACKETS COLLECTIVE YJC is chosen family of yellow queers collaborating towards radical futures.