Designing and Leading a tour of “Small Businesses in Boston Chinatown “ for the “Anti-Displacement Studio” of Northeastern University, founded by Urban Planning professor, Dr Lily Song of Northeastern University’s Urban Planning Department.

September 30, 2024

t was such a joy to give these Northeastern University Urban Planning /Architect students , members of NU Asst Professor of Race, Social Justice and the Built Environment , Dr. Lily Song’s “Anti-Displacement Studio,” a walking tour of Small Businesses in Chinatown. We started with “nai cha” Hong Kong style milk tea and pineapple polo buns at 180 Cafe, symbols of anti-colonial resistance , visited with YAN, the street vegetable seller who grows her own vegetables, herbs, and flowers in a community garden in South Boston and carts them fresh to Chinatown everyday to sell , IVY TAN, the herbal store owner at 8A Tyler Street , visited Mr GAO , Chef/owner of NEW WING’S KITCHEN on Hudson where he cooks the most authentic southern Chinese cuisine, snacked on almond cookies at the last Taishanese bakery, HO YUEN Bakery on Beach , took a peek at a modern cafe, CAFE DARQ, owned by the ever -friendly Dutchman, Axel, and his Vietnamese wife, Kathy who travel annually to Vietnam to buy the freshest coffee beans and tea leaves. We ended by walking Knapp Street, once the center of the Garment District and a former Combat Zone prostitution alleyway, where my Breakwater Studio film co-storyteller, Gwen Liu , cafe owner, Axel, and I lived at some point, to show what happens when children are displaced in neighborhoods with limited housing stock, and end up in substandard environments with unsanitary conditions . These students were wonderful in their interest and curiosity! I thoroughly enjoyed teaching them. It was heartwarming to see their smiles and enthusiasm. Many of these students are multi-talented, multi-cultural , multi-lingual, inner city youth who work hard in a school environment with many cooperative work/ study opportunities. I showed them my bay window at 7 Knapp where my TV sat, on which I watched my favorite Westerns and Superheroes , and where I typed and aced my term paper, “ On the Influence of Minor Characters in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD,” while prostitutes paraded below me in the alleyway, and strip bars played their loud music . I was determined to fly, to be a Superhero, a Cowgirl who tamed the Wild, Wild West, and in a way, I did exactly that.