HOT POT TALKS X MAYWORKS: ft. Rick Sin & Chiyi Tam

Mon, May 8, 2023 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM EDT

Register HERE.

Join Hot Pot Talks for a special edition episode in collaboration with Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts BC, featuring special guests Chiyi Tam and Rick Sin. Hosts Jen and David talk to Chiyi and Rick about intersectional labour organizing and Chinatown(s), while reflecting on histories and futurities of labour organizing.

“Hot Pot Talks” is a virtual talk show series hosted by David Ng and Jen Sungshine, co-founders of Love Intersections – an arts collective of queer artists of colour. Hot Pot Talks grows from their collaborations in the Chinatown community, and their desires to cultivate relationships on themes of diaspora, cultural sharing, decolonization, Land Back, food art practices, and cultural production. “Hot Pot Talks” is a virtual platform where artists, activists, and other cultural workers come to share stories and strategies for doing intersectional, anti-racist social justice work through the labour movement, through the co-op model, and through art and culture.

The Mayworks Festival of Working People & the Arts celebrates diverse artists and working people at the intersection of art, social justice, and labour. The festival will bring together artists and workers from a diverse range of organizations in the visual & media arts, community arts councils, cooperatives, and labour to celebrate the rich history of workers and labour unions in British Columbia.

The Mayworks festival will launch on May 1, Workers Day, with 2-weeks of public and ticketed programming in-person and online, with events scheduled in Vancouver, Burnaby, Abbotsford, and Victoria this year.

Speaker Bios:

Rick Sin teaches social work at York University. For over 30 years, he has worked as community organizer and human rights advocate in some of the most diverse and dynamic world cities including Toronto, Montreal, New York City, and Hong Kong. In Toronto, Rick has been actively involved with numerous community groups and citizen committees like Asian Canadian Labour Alliance. Chinese Canadian National Council, Urban Alliance on Race Relations, and Safe School Policy Review Taskforce of Toronto District School Board.

Chiyi Tam is an urban planner and community organizer raised in Vancouver, on unceded Coast Salish lands and waters, in the translation between places and culture. She is currently the development manager of Kensington Market Community Land Trust in Toronto. She also organizes with Friends of Chinatown Toronto, which is also exploring a community land trust as an anti-displacement strategy for racial & economic justice. She frequently consults with groups regarding social enterprise legislation, governance and cooperative strategies. She aims to reciprocate knowledge into community.