JADED kicks off Lunar New Year with rabbit rave, new spring programming

A new moon rose over the city Saturday. While oftentimes these lunar changes go unnoticed, Pittsburgh-area Asian American Pacific Islander people and their allies marked this one by dancing through the night in celebration. The reason: Lunar New Year, ushering out the year of the tiger and welcoming the year of the rabbit.

JADED, Pittsburgh’s Asian American Pacific Islander artist collective, in collaboration with Pittsburgh DJ Formosa, hosted a moon rabbit rave Saturday at Cobra Lounge in Bloomfield. 

The Lunar New Year is celebrated extensively across Asia as well as by the Asian diaspora. The celebration lasts 15 days and is marked by many traditions before ending with a lantern festival.

Each year corresponds with one of 12 zodiac animal signs along with one of the five natural elements. The year’s animal and element are believed to indicate what the next 12 months will bring.

This lunar new year begins on Sunday and is the year of the water rabbit. In Eastern Asian culture, the rabbit is a lucky sign of longevity, peace and prosperity. The water element will amplify psychic ability and negotiations in the new year.

For the Vietnamese zodiac, 2023 is the year of the cat, which is said to bring attentiveness, compassion and sensitivity.

Stephanie Tsong, who performs under the name of Formosa, said she knew pretty early that she wanted to throw a Lunar New Year party, so she reached out to JADED to create a comprehensive, multi-act event.

Her residency at the club started Saturday, and “I was like, ‘Well, it’s the same day. I have to,’” she said. “I always like to do something for Lunar New Year, like a potluck with friends or going out to eat together, so this seemed like a way to include as many people as possible.”

Tsong said she was inspired by the younger queer AAPI DJs she met over the summer in Brooklyn, New York. For Saturday’s party, she was joined by DJ artist ciringe.

“That generation just plays a lot faster,” Tsong explained. “The music is a little ravier. I knew I wanted to book them sometime in the winter or spring and this seemed like the perfect opportunity because rabbits are fast and in the same way kind of rave-y with their intense kicks and speed.”

When putting together music for her set, Tsong said she drew inspiration from her mother, who was born during the year of the rabbit. Tsong explained how rabbits can be soft and sweet while also strong and fast, something she worked on translating into her musical mixes.

Although traditional celebrations may include large family gatherings and great meals, Tsong said this rave was a reimagined celebration for the younger, newer generation of Pittsburgh-area AAPI. 

“While I love elements of those traditions, I want to bring them into a space that’s maybe a little edgier and more culturally interesting for younger people,” Tsong said. “We’re also including some performers from different generations to invite people from their generation to come and hang with us, too. I want to see everyone, every type of person, there.”

At the rave, City of Asylum artist-in-residence Mai Khôi and Appalachian erhu player Mimi Jong collaborated in an experimental musical performance. Dances from the Yanlai Dance Academy followed. 

Video visuals created by Yoo and the Han Diaspora Team also were showcased. Throughout the night, attendees could get temporary rabbit tattoos and pen postcards to loved ones created by Yang Zhen Lee.

“I think something like this really brings together people from different talents,” Tsong said. “It’s not just music. It’s singers, dancers, instrumentalists, etc., etc. — artists, too — so I think this event goes from a lot of different communities for that reason.”

Tsong said that planning the moon rabbit rave involved a lot of logistics and was a different challenge than what she was used to during her typical residencies. Yet, she called the rave a fun and important event so “to do it pays off in a way that that I’m proud of.”

Excited to be a part of JADED’s new programming, Tsong also is looking forward to what the collective’s new leadership will bring to the table. 

“I’m excited to help them realize their visions, too, as best as I can,” Tsong said. “I have very, very high hopes for what they will do.”

Co-founder Caroline Yoo is joined by Bonnie Fan, organizer; Sara Tang, multidisciplinary artist; and Elina Zhang, writer and organizer.

Yoo, an artist and MFA candidate at Carnegie Mellon University, called working with the new leadership amazing and wonderful. 

“The new team has taken on a lot of labor,” Yoo said. “There are definitely moments where we’re sort of bombarded with things, but at the end of the day I think all of us really understand what JADED’s vision is … and then we’re sort of bringing on each of our own more specific political agenda or maybe a specific arts agenda in how to expand JADED out into the future.”

Being on the new team feels “a little unreal,” according to Fan.

“The original team of JADED laid so much groundwork so I’m just really happy to be part of the collective, part of moving things,” Fan said while in a karaoke room at Saturday’s rave. “Our collective member, Sara, was saying it was great to see how much joy and happiness people’s faces have.”

Though the collective faces a different set of obstacles than those of last year, including higher expectations and less grant money, the team rose to the challenge.

“This year we had to be a lot more creative just in terms of collaborations, making that work, while making sure that we were still paying people, being on a tighter budget, but I think that it really worked out,” Fan said. “I think a large part of it is just the community, having people that we’ve gotten to know over time being here, coming to events, other people having events and us all being together, getting to know each other better and having those relationships.”

JADED’s new spring lineup of events runs from January through April.

Currently, JADED is hosting an open call for Pittsburgh-area AAPI artists to submit art for the collective’s Year of the Rabbit: Lunar New Year Art Show. The displayed collection will kick off with an opening reception on Feb. 3 and can be viewed through Feb. 19 at Radiant Hall Studios in McKees Rocks.

Other events include a screening of the documentary “Free Chol Soo Lee” and JADED’s Culture Weavers series at Downtown’s Harris Theater in February and an AAPI writing workshop spanning two weeks in March.

“The screening came out of wanting to do some sort of collaborative space where we talk among folks who are in collective organizing and Asian community in Pittsburgh. We want to make sure that our arts programming is not separated from the context of why JADED was formed in the first place post-Atlanta,” referring to the 2021 shootings at Atlanta-area spas that killed eight people, six of whom were of Asian descent.

Earlier this month, JADED unveiled its “Finding Kin” community photo shoot mural in Bloomfield, on the corner of South Millvale Avenue and Lima Way, as part of sidewall, a mural project dedicated to showcasing artists local and abroad.

Yoo said it feels like a gift to be able to continue the work of bringing AAPI-focused events to the community.

“We maybe had thought that this could be something, but we didn’t expect there to be such a response so it was really wonderful to have the opportunity to put on new programming and to know that people wanted this,” Yoo said.

“It seems like everybody was just looking for this type of gathering. We started off as, and we still are, an art programming organization, but I think in ways we’ve become more of a gathering center for people and so it seems like it was really needed,” Yoo said. “I feel like so many people in the AAPI community have come out and have found us.”

“Finding Kin” is inspired by the “community outpour of love” that came as a response to last year’s JADED events. Yoo said they received positive feedback on the intimacy of workshops as well as public events open to AAPI and allies alike. 

Essentially, AAPI folk are hungry for a space to gather and celebrate their heritage with one another.

“All of these Asian American creatives, businesses, organizers, we’ve always been here,” Yoo said. “I think, with JADED, we’re not trying to do something new, right? All these people are brilliant people who have been doing this labor for way longer than we have. What JADED has maybe afforded has just been gathering all those people and trying to bring events where we can all be in one place together, rather than so separate.”

JADED hopes to continue to be that space by offering more opportunities to come together during its spring programming. 

“I think what the amazing thing that we really learned from our last JADED programming in 2022 is there is a difference when prioritizing Asian or Asian American bodies and putting them in a room together,” Yoo reflected. 

“There really is a safety that naturally allows people in the room who might feel ashamed or embarrassed about talking about certain heritage things that allows a lot more openness to come out in a conversation when you prioritize a space through intimacy and through not prioritizing any bodies that might make us feel unsafe in those type of really personal settings,” she said.

Recently, JADED also was named Pittsburgh City Paper’s People of the Year 2022 in Visual Arts. Yoo said she and co-founders Anny Chen and Lena Chen were dumbfounded when they learned of the award, but the acknowledgment helped affirm their work. 

The trio didn’t anticipate how big JADED was going to become, Yoo said.

“Our community wants this,” Yoo said. “They’re willing to show up for this, and I think the award really speaks to that … [Pittsburgh] understands that these types of community spaces were needed, which is why I think we’ve grown so quickly through word of mouth.”

Having lived in Pittsburgh for the past 12 years, Tsong said she has never seen anything like JADED until last year. 

“I think we all needed it, but we didn’t realize that we needed it for so long,” Tsong said. “I feel like a new hope has been given to me but also in the city because of it.”