Celebrate the Year of the Snake at Flushing Town Hall this Lunar New Year. Throughout January, the arts and culture hub will hold a month-long celebration with programming from Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Japanese and Tibetan artists.
Festivities include a shadow puppetry exhibition, a global music mashup, Korean folk music and more.
This year’s Lunar New Year officially begins on Wednesday, Jan, 29, celebrating the sixth animal of the lunar zodiac, the snake. The snake represents wisdom, intuition and transformation, and has traits of elegance, mystery and resilience. Also known as the Chinese New Year, the Lunar New Year is celebrated across multiple Asian countries.
Below is a roundup of the month-long programming.
Mini-Global Mashup: DoYeon Kim (Gayageum) Meets Cooper-Moore (Diddley-bow)
Date: Saturday, Jan. 18
Time: 1 p.m.
Location: Flushing Town Hall Theater
Tickets: $15 for general admission, $13 for seniors and students with ID
Flushing Town Hall will present its popular Mini-Global Mashup series, showcasing artist DoYeon Kim, a Korean gayageum virtuoso, and her accompanist, drummer and percussionist Satoshi Takeishi. They will share the stage with Cooper-Moore, a hand-crafted instrumentalist versed in the Diddley bow, a single-stringed instrument that primarily influenced the development of the blues.
Kim is known for her skills in the gayageum, a traditional Korean string instrument. In addition to traditional Korean music, Kim is well-versed in free jazz, jazz and improvisation. She is a graduate of the New England Conservatory and protege of Yi Jiyoung, the world’s top gayageum master.
Cooper-Moore is a New York-based music educator, composer, improviser and multi-instrumentalist known for designing unique musical instruments. He graduated from Catholic University with a degree in music education and is a composition student at Berklee. Moore came to New York in 1973, where he began creating instruments from materials such as bamboo and metal.
Takeishi hails from Mito, Japan. He is an acclaimed drummer, percussionist and arranger who studied music at Berklee. Takeishi’s musical influence can be traced to Columbia, where he worked with composer and arranger Francisco Zumaque on a traditional jazz and classical music project entitled “Macumbia.”
Chinese Theatre Works – “Red Gate: Pauline Benton & Chinese Shadow Theatre in America”
Opening Reception: Saturday, Jan. 18, 5–7 p.m.
Exhibition Dates: Jan. 19 – Feb. 23,
Hours: Open daily from 12–5 p.m.
Location: Flushing Town Hall Gallery
Admission: Free
Experience a nearly extinct, ancient Chinese art form dating back to the Han and Qing Dynasties.
Queens-based Chinese Theatre Works will exclusively showcase Chinese shadow theatre puppets from the Pauline Benton Collection at Flushing Town Hall. The collection includes centuries-old donkey hide figures, intricate panels, traditional Chinese instruments and artifacts.
Kuang-Yu Fong, Executive and Co-Artistic Director of Chinese Theatre Works, told QNS that visitors are encouraged to attend the opening reception for a special presentation of antique shadow puppets of the White Snake in honor of the Year of the Snake. The White Snake is a popular Chinese story about a female snake spirit named Bai Suzhen, or Lady White.
Fong explained that the art form represents a link between the physical and spiritual world.
“The puppetry has been a visual bridge between the human world and the spirit world. So puppetry is always kind of representative of how humans use supernatural spirit energies through puppets to worship, heal and communicate with another world.”
She added that it is important for people of Chinese descent and those who admire Chinese culture to appreciate the art form, which has become forgotten. “This Chinese shadow theater is already becoming an intangible treasure under UNESCO. It is an international intangible cultural heritage for the people of the earth, not only for the Chinese, but most Chinese have never seen this form [of art],” she said.
Date: Saturday, Jan. 25
Time: 2:15 p.m.
Location: Flushing Town Hall Theater
Tickets: $15 General Admission
Elena Moon Park and friends will host an interactive, family-friendly performance to take audience members on a musical adventure through East Asia. The performance will feature traditional children’s songs from Korea, China, Taiwan, Japan and Tibet, blending the native languages with English and traditional music for all to enjoy.
Sangjaru in Concert at Flushing Town Hall
Date: Friday, Feb. 21
Time: 8 p.m.
Location: Flushing Town Hall Theater
General Admission: $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and students with ID, $18 for Flushing Town Hall members
Korean folk fusion band Sangjaru will take the stage at Flushing Town Hall this February. The band merges traditional Korean music with gypsy swing, funk, rock and improvisation for a unique listening experience. The band’s name originates from the Korean words “sangja” (box) and “jaru” (sack), which alludes to the band’s unique way of creatively influencing traditional Korean music. The band consists of Cho Sungyoon on guitar, Kwon Hyochang on janggu (hourglass drum) and kkwaenggwari (small gong) and Nam Seonghun on ajaeng (bowed zither).
