In collaboration with the Northeastern Center for the Arts and Northeastern Archives and Special Collections, the Reckonings Project is delighted to announce Lani Asunción and Joanna Tam as Hidden Histories Artists in Residence. In their 2025-2026 residency, “Weaving Through History and Activism in Boston Chinatown,” Tam and Asunción are drawing on archival research and their backgrounds in performance, visual arts, and community engagement to build interactive workshops. Tam and Asunción will hold the first workshop on October 14 at the Center for Design, and their residency will culminate in Fall 2026 in an exhibit in Gallery 360 at Northeastern. Their project uplifts the stories of grassroots organizers in Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities fighting for labor rights, housing security, and climate justice–issues that continue to shape Boston’s Chinatown community today. Workshops with students and Boston residents will inform the final exhibition, transforming collective memory into new artistic forms.

Lani Asunción is a Filipinx multimedia artist and educator whose socially conscious practice uses transmedia storytelling, public performance, and video to challenge existing systems and envision collective liberation. They are the curator and public art manager of the 2024-2025 Un-monument initiative at Pao Arts Center (BCNC) and teach at MassArt. Asunción has received the 2022 Public Art for Spatial Justice Grant from NEFA and the 2022 Future Frequencies Fellow at Studios at MASS MoCA, and was a 2023 Kala Fellow at Kala Art Institute.

Joanna Tam is a Hong Kong-born visual artist and educator. Her interdisciplinary practice examines migration, the meaning of safety, and one’s connection to places through video, photography, performance, installation, and community engagement. She is the recipient of the 2024 Prilla Smith Brackett Award (presented by Davis Museum), the 2024 Collective Futures Fund’s Sustaining Practice Grant, and the 2020 SMFA Traveling Fellowship. She is a currently a visiting lecturer at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

On August 8, 2025, we had the opportunity to be in conversation with Asunción and Tam about their work and their experiences and connections to Chinatown. Read an excerpt of a conversation between Lani Asuncion, Joanna Tam, Octavia Zagorec, and Dzidzor Azaglo here.

“Re-Mix, Re-Map, Re-Imagine: Activism in Boston Chinatown”
Workshop with Joanna Tam and Lani Asunción
Tuesday, October 14, 5:30pm-8pm EDT
Location:  Center for Design, Ryder Hall, 11 Leon Street, Boston MA 02115