“Joyful Stitch”: a beautiful new public art installation by Thai visual artist and landscape architect, Ponnapa Prakkamakul, will have an Opening Reception Saturday, July 1, 2023 , from 2-5:00 pm at Boston’s Leather District Park . My poem, “My MaMa’s Back”, will run through and over the new installation, in English , Chinese, and Braille. This tribute to the history of the textile/ garment industry in the neighborhood and the Chinese and Syrian garment workers of Chinatown will be up for 3-4 months. It has been a great pleasure and honor to collaborate with this talented, respectful, and sensitive artist, Ponnapa Prakkamakul, who also created the mural, “Where We Belong” on Oxford Street. I hope you can come from across neighborhoods, sit, eat, chat, enjoy each other’s company, and this new work of public art. I personally think it is a work of Pure Genius.
Ponnapa Prakkamakul, we, the sons and daughters and former garment workers, thank you for your beautiful public art installation honoring the immigrant women garment workers of Chinatown and the history of the textile industry in Boston !
Hudson Street Chronicles 