Photography: 19th Annual Asian American Activity Center Lunar New Year Celebration at Tangram Retail Mall, Flushing, Queens, NYC 1/26/25
If you’ve been frequenting this site over the course of its 15 year history, y’all will know this about me: I’m not just a native New Yorker, I’m a native Queens boy. I’ve always been the most proud of the fact that Queens, as the motto says is “The World’s Borough.”
Traveling through Queens is much like traveling across the globe: Go from neighborhood to neighborhood and you’ll come across Albanians, Bangladeshis, Punjabis, Indians, Mongolians, Chinese, Koreans, Greeks, Croatians, Romanians, Brazilians, Irish, Moroccans, Sri Lankans, Uzbeks, Afghans, Trinidadians, Jamaicans, Russians, Bolivians, Argentines, Chileans, Venezuelans, Colombians, Italians, Thai, Burmese, and so many others — within blocks of each other. You’ll come across Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and almost every other faith practiced on this planet.
Queens has taught me to be a global citizen. And unsurprisingly, my home borough has deeply influenced my life and work. I remind folks of that constantly.
From experience I can tell you this: Diversity and immigration in all of its forms makes us better, stronger, and a helluva lot more interesting. So there’s one thing ya’ll should know: I love Lunar New Year. The colors of the costumes! The sights! The sounds! The smells! The food! The pride of those celebrating their culture and languages!
Last week, I went to Tangram Mall in Downtown Flushing for the Asian American Activity Center‘s 19th annual Lunar New Year celebration. Because of our current, blindly stupid and hateful administration, it’s necessary for all of us to celebrate and foster diversity, understanding, kindness — and to be welcoming to migrants, immigrants and all other newcomers to this very weird place. I was also happily reminded of how much events like Tangram Mall’s Lunar New Year event celebrates the very best of us. More of this, please. And less fascists and racists!
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