Playwright • Memoirist • Essayist • Educator

Performer • Acoustic Punk Raconteur • Spoken Word Poet

*At Wei Hing Theatre, City University of Hong Kong / Photo by Sunny Wong*

NEWS & EVENTS

Fall 2024 News:
2024-25 NYPL Fellowship!

Subject of 10-minute “mini-doc,”
Punk to Protest: Writing is Activism

Highlights from 2023-24 Season

It’s official: I will be the 2024-25 NYPL Long-Term Fellow! At NYPL, I will research a companion piece to my memoir, titled Urban Oracle Bones. This second book will examine the profound impact of The Opium Wars and opium on the Chinese diaspora in New York City as well as on the “heroin chic” punk rock counterculture that was so prevalent during my teenage years in 1970s NYC. Here is their announcement:

The Gregorian Center at The New York Public Library is pleased to announce that Alvin Eng has been selected to receive an NYPL Long-Term Fellowship. Eng is a native New York City author, playwright, educator, and acoustic punk raconteur. His memoir, Our Laundry, Our Town: My Chinese American Life from Flushing to the Downtown Stage and Beyond, was published by Fordham University Press. During his fellowship, Eng will research a memoir/NYC Asian American historical non-fiction book, tentatively titled Urban Oracle Bones, which will adapt and expand one of his stage works, Here Comes Johnny Yen Again (or How I Kicked Punk). Urban Oracle Bones will examine the profound impact of The Opium Wars and opium on the Chinese diaspora in New York City as well as on the “heroin chic” punk rock counterculture that was so prevalent during Eng’s teenage years in 1970s NYC. This examination will be undertaken through the dual prisms of William S. Burroughs’ character Johnny Yen (immortalized in the Iggy Pop & David Bowie song “Lust For Life”) and Eng’s own grandfather’s opium overdose in NYC’s Chinatown in the early 20th Century. As the book’s principle characters bookend the Bowery––Eng’s grandfather in Chinatown and Burroughs in punk rock’s ground zero, the East Village––The Bowery’s history will also be researched to create a metaphoric/geographic bridge between eras, cultures and subcultures.

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Subject of 10-minute “mini-doc,”
Punk to Protest: Writing is Activism
Directed by Ken Dai

Honored to be the subject of a new “mini-doc” by exciting young filmmaker, Ken Dai. Hope you enjoy his sharp cinematic skills and smarts as much as I do. Here is a YouTube link to the 10-minute video.

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2023-24

Our Laundry, Our Town was published as a paperback edition in October 2023. The book was chosen as one of the Top Memoirs of the Year by Yu & Me Books––the NYC hub of Asian American and indie literature, and was also one of 15 books chosen for Books are Magic’s 2023 Holiday Gift Guide.

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The paperback launch was on October 24, 2023 at the Chatham Square branch of the NYPL in Chinatown. The SRO event was co-presented by the Chatham Square/Asian American Writers Workshop series, Talking Books: Asian American Authors in Conversation and Think!Chinatown’s Chinatown Arts Festival. The event was emceed by Think!Chinatown Board President, Amy Chin and featured yours truly reading and rapping from the book with special guests, author Henry Chang and musician extraordinaire (& Chatham Square branch manager!), Sean Ferguson. Sean joined me to perform “Chinatown Beat,” a song inspired by Henry’s debut novel of the same name.

Here is a YouTube link to a video of the paperback launch as well as a timetable of events. Much gratitude Vic Huey and COMA (Chinatown Organization for Media Awakening) for creating this high quality video of the event.

(0:00) Chatham Square NYPL welcome from Branch Manager, Sean Ferguson
(01:15) Think!Chinatown Welcome and Introduction of Alvin Eng
by event emcee and T!C Board President, Amy Chin
(07:14 ) Alvin reads from and discusses Chapter 1 (The Urban Oracle Bones of Our Laundry (Channeling China’s Last Emperor and Rock & Roll’s First Opera), with visual accompaniment
(21:50 ) Alvin raps “Rock Me Gung Hay” (a capella with audience participation)
(24:20) Cantonese lullaby, sung on audio by Alvin’s mother aka “The Empress Mother” (in the memoir)
(25:15) Alvin reads from and discusses Chapter 10 (Trip the Light, Gorgeous Mosaic:Double Happiness: Discovering Playwriting and Activism), with visual accompaniment
(32:31) Author Henry Chang joins Alvin in conversation
(47:20) Amy joins Alvin & Henry in conversation (including the “Henri” incident.)
(1:05:00) Sean Ferguson & Alvin perform “Chinatown Beat” a song inspired by Henry Chang’s novel of the same name.
(1:10:30) Amy moderates discussion with audience and Alvin

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
from Feb. 8. 2024:
Asian American Artists Night:
Celebrating U+ME: Milton Resnick & Matthew Wong
Curated & Hosted by Alvin Eng

Untitled design - 1 — *Upper Collage (clockwise from Top Left): **Alvin Eng, Yuchen Chang, Stefani Mar, Bing Lee, Siyan Wong, Helen Oji** Lower Collage: :**Milton Resnick, Matthew Wong**, panel discussion still from* *video*

Excited to share a video of the artist talk and poetry reading, Asian American Artists Night: Celebrating U+ME Milton Resnick & Matthew Wong––Hosted by Alvin Eng, at the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation in New York City on February 8, 2024. Edited and filmed by Alvin Tsang and Siyan Wong, the video vividly captures this special event––thanks again to everyone who joined us in person!

U+ME was an illuminating exhibition of painting and poetry by Milton Resnick and Matthew Wong, two late renowned artists of different generations and backgrounds. To deepen this interdisciplinary dialogue, I was joined in discussion by an accomplished, intergenerational group of Asian American artists including Yuchen Chang, Lanie Lee, Stefani Mar, Helen Oji and Siyan Wong. In the spirit of the exhibition, curated by Alex Paul Chapin, the artists reflected on the show with their own poetry before a group discussion on the exhibition and Asian American arts.

Here is a YouTube link to the video along with a timeline of the video’s sections. Enjoy!

(00:07) Welcome, Exhibition History: Alex Paul Chapin
(12:15) Alex introduces Alvin Eng
(15:03) Alvin introduces Artists
(21:36) Artists read poetry
(32:12) Artists Q&A
(01:25:36) Audience Q&A

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Finally, looking forward (and back), I was honored that the legendary Mabou Mines hosted two private developmental workshops for my solo acoustic punk raconteur performance piece, HERE COMES JOHNNY YEN AGAIN (or How I Kicked Punk). The workshops were very productive and I look forward to performing this work on a stage near you in 2025!

I am most grateful for your ongoing interest and support.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Holiday Season 2023 News

OUR LAUNDRY, OUR TOWN

As a lifelong New Yorker, it is the greatest joy and honor to see my memoir, Our Laundry, Our Town, being even a small part of the amazing cultural, literary fabric of this great city (and world). Thank you one and all for your support of the paperback edition that was published in October.

This Holiday season, if you are considering giving the paperback as a gift––signed copies are available in NYC on the lower east side (Yu & Me Books) and the upper west side (Barnes & Noble at Broadway & 82 St), as well at the Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill stores of Books Are Magic.

At Yu & Me, the paperback was on their October & November Best Sellers list. Books Are Magic chose the memoir as 1 of 15 books for their Holiday Gift Guide.Finally, please also consider the gift of writing a brief review at Goodreads and/or Amazon.

Happy Holidays and thanks again for your support of this book and all things––it is all greatly appreciated.

Come celebrate the paperback book launch of Alvin Eng’s memoir, Our Laundry, Our Town: My Chinese American Life from Flushing to the Downtown Stage and Beyond––Tue. OCT. 24 @ 6:30pm, Chatham Square NYPL, 33 East Broadway, Chinatown, NYC. Alvin will be in conversation with author Henry Chang and special guest emcee, Think Chinatown’s Board President, Amy Chin. Alvin will also read and rap from his memoir and perform a song with a special guest.

Co-Presented by Chatham Square New York Public Library’s Talking Books: Asian American Authors in Conversation series and Think! Chinatown’s Chinatown Arts Festival.

Our Laundry, Our Town will be available for purchase during the event from Yu & Me Books.

In-Person and Virtual RSVPs are encouraged but not required.

RSVP links and bios follow.

In-Person Event Info & RSVP:

Virtual Event Registration (Please click on “Register Now”)

More information on Chinatown Arts Festival:

ALVIN ENG is a native NYC playwright/memoirist, performer and educator. His memoir, “OUR LAUNDRY, OUR TOWN: My Chinese American Life from Flushing to the Downtown Stage and Beyond,” was published by Fordham University Press (hardcover in May 2022, paperback in October 2023). The memoir was covered by The New York Times and NPR/WNYC among others. THREE TREES, the first of Eng’s Portrait Plays series of historical dramas about artists, was recently published by No Passport Press. He is currently developing a solo acoustic punk raconteur work-in-progress, HERE COMES JOHNNY YEN AGAIN (or How I Kicked Punk). Through monologues and songs, this work explores the impact of opium and the Opium Wars on the Chinese Diaspora as well as NYC’s punk/counterculture through the dual prisms of William S. Burroughs’ character, “Johnny Yen”––immortalized in Iggy Pop & David Bowie’s ”Lust For Life”––and his own Grandfather’s opium overdose on the streets of NYC’s Chinatown. Honors include: two-time appointee to the Fulbright Specialist roster as a U.S. Studies/Theatre scholar; three-time recipient of NYSCA/NYFA Fellowships––most recently in 2020 for Nonfiction Literature; LMCC Creative Engagement and Creative Learning grants. Eng’s plays and performances have been seen Off-Broadway, throughout the U.S., as well as in Paris, Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China. Follow Alvin at IG: alvin.eng8 Twitter: alvineng8 or http://www.alvineng.com 

HENRY CHANG is the author of the Chinese-American Detective Jack Yu series- “Chinatown Beat,” “Year of The Dog,” “Red Jade,” “Death Money,” and “Lucky.” He is Executive Producer of ‘A Father’s Son’, a short film based on characters from the series. A graduate of CCNY, his work has appeared in the seminal ‘Yellow Pearl’, and he has been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, the Boston Globe, New Yorker Magazine among others. He is a native New Yorker, a son of New York City Chinatown, where he resides.

AMY CHIN 陳雪媚 is a cultural leader who has advanced the role of arts and culture in communities large and small for over 30 years, through leadership and service in organizations like the Chinatown Partnership Local Development Corporation, the Cultural Arts Advisory Commission for the City of New York, the New York Chinese Cultural Center, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Also an experienced genealogist and researcher, Amy lectures and conducts workshops nationally and internationally. Amy’s grandfather came to New York in 1903 and lived on Pell Street. After a childhood in her father’s Chinese laundry in the Bronx and Sundays in Chinatown, Amy earned a degree in East Asian studies from Barnard College and speaks Toisanese, Cantonese and Mandarin.

NEXT MONTH:

Sat., NOV 11, from 12 noon – 2pm

Meet-n-Greet at Yu & Me Books @The Market Line (downstairs from Essex Market)
115 Delancey St, Stall 11, New York, NY 10002

To order: Our Laundry, Our Town

Memoir in Paperback – 10/10/23!

Paperback Publication Celebrations in Flushing, OCT 5

with a Launch on OCT 24 in Chinatown, NYC!

New Podcast Interview

Excited to share that my memoir, Our Laundry, Our Town: My Chinese American Life from Flushing to the Downtown Stage and Beyond, will be published in a paperback edition this October by Fordham University Press! Pre-Order links follow.

Paperback Pre-Order with Bookshop

Paperback Pre-Order with Amazon

Paperback Publication Celebrations in Flushing (Oct. 5)

and Chinatown (Oct. 24)

Event/Ticket Info

**Come celebrate the paperback book launch of Our Laundry, Our Town: My Chinese American Life from Flushing to the Downtown Stage and Beyond–-in-person and online!**

Alvin will be in conversation with Henry Chang (author of the acclaimed Detective Jack Yu crime novel series) and special guest emcee, Think! Chinatown’s Board President, Amy Chin. Alvin will also read and rap from his memoir and perform a song with a special guest.

Info &RSVP for In-Person Event

Virtual Event Regi stration (Please click on “Register Now”)

More info on Chinatown Arts Festival

CUNY Book Beat podcast

“Tales From the Eng Dynasty”

Please click here to listen.

Thrilled to be featured in The New York Times’ “Sunday Routine” on June 12, 2022.

Read the full article here.

May 2023

AAPI Asian Heritage Month

Virtual & In-Person Events & News:

Happy AAPI/Asian Heritage Month! Over the next few weeks, I will be participating in a few virtual and in-person events ––links and details follow. If you’re free, I hope you will consider joining us!

Wed, May 10 from 2:15-3:30pm (EST)

The American Studies program of CUNY/ Brooklyn College

Presents

Punk, Plays and Protest with Alvin Eng

Virtual Book Reading and Discussion
Hosted & Moderated by Prof. Alexander Ho
The event is part of BC’s APIA Heritage Month celebration.
Click here for webinar link
(Passcode:AMST3143)

• • •

Thursday, May 11 @ 7pm (EST)

Word Thursdays

Virtual Reading and Discussion

I am thrilled to be making my third appearance as a Featured Reader in the long-running Word Thursdays series from Bright Hill Press. I will be reading alongside Frank Haberle.
To attend the event, please click this link just before 7 PM EST:

Click here for Webinar link
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/522623079969554

• • •

Tuesday, May 16 @ 1pm (EST)

NYC Department of Records and Information Presents

#AAPI Heritage Month Lunch & Learn with Author Alvin Eng

More Info & RSVP

A recording of the program will be posted to the NYC DORIS Public Programs playlist on YouTube

• • •

Excited to get on stage again to workshop new songs and monologues from this acoustic punk raconteur work-in-progress. For in-person and webinar link and more: More info & RSVP:

• • •

Coming Up…

I have been invited by Golden Notebook bookstore in Woodstock, NY, to be one of four authors readers in their monthly series, Tinker Street Social. on Sunday, June 11 at 2pm. More info.

• • •

Finally, my play THREE TREES, has been acquired for the Brooklyn Public Library‘s circulating collection! This is the first of my Portrait Plays series of historical dramas about artists. Three Trees explores the haunting relationship between renowned sculptor, Alberto Giacometti, and his primary 1950s muse/model, Japanese philosopher & professor Isaku Yanaihara.

Our Laundry, Our Town is also available in the BPL collection.

To order the books:

Our Laundry, Our Town (Fordham University Press)

Three Trees (No Passport Press)

• • •

January 2023 News & Events:
OUR LAUNDRY, OUR TOWN

As we bid farewell to The Year of the Tiger (my year) and welcome in The Year of the Rabbit, I want to share my immense gratitude. I am honored that my memoir made such a strong connection with so many of you. Thank you, thank you, thank you for taking the time to read the book, attend in-person and virtual events and share many moving, personal reflections. It all contributed to making the past lunar year a most meaningful and memorable one. May we carry on in such an endearing and enduring community.

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Gong Xi Fa Cai!

(Now, as they say on NPR, “the news is next.”)

• • •

Our Laundry, Our Town Spotify playlist

Long Lost Audio Found…

At long last, this playlist of popular songs mentioned in my memoir, Our Laundry, Our Town, along with two original tracks, is complete! I have been searching for one of those original audio tracks for years. That track, which bookends the playlist, features my late mother, Toy Lain Chin Eng, singing a verse from “People’s Lives Are Like Dreams.” This was a Cantonese lullaby that The Empress Mother (as mom is named in the book) used to sing around the laundry and the house.

This audio track was used in the 1994 production of my punk-rap musical, The Goong Hay Kid, at the legendary Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Loisaida, NYC. The long lost audio was found when Tim Cramer, the sound designer from that production, attended a recent Author Event for the book. When I told Tim of my search, he scoured his home and he found the DAT in his… laundry room. Thanks, Tim!

The second original track (#23) is “Rock Me, Goong Hay”––that punk-rap musical’s title song. This version was recorded live at the 21 Pell St Community Center in Manhattan’s Chinatown last summer. I’m rapping, the audience is clapping along and Skyler Chin (my second cousin, and composer of the powerful musical, Illegal), is on guitar. Thanks to Devin Chin (Sky’s bro), for all of his technical wizardry in placing these tracks on Spotify.

To access the playlist-in-progress, please click here.
Or cut & paste:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7KQHqy3SGstXcHExyeMuxc?si=25954ddfedd04d4b

To complete this flashback,
here’s a ’90s promo photo of yours truly as The Goong Hay Kid.

• • •

New Amsterdam branch of NYPL
9 Murray Street (btw Broadway & Church St) Manhattan

The Lower Manhattan Book Club of the NYPL New Amsterdam branch has chosen my memoir, Our Laundry, Our Town, for their Lunar New Year book selection!
On Tuesday, January 24, from 5pm–6:15pm, I will be reading from and discussing the book to celebrate The Year of the Rabbit. Hope you can hop over and join us. The event is Free. Books will be available for purchase and signing. RSVPs are encouraged but not mandatory. To RSVP and for more info.

• • •

Our Laundry, Our Town was recently featured on the CUNY-TV show, Book It With CA. The thoughtful and entertaining interview was conducted by Ernabel Demillo, who is also the host of CUNY-TV’s Emmy Award-winning Asian American Life. (Ernabel also interviewed me for their 10th Anniversary program that aired last fall.)

Please click here to see this 10-minute interview. (Thank you Ernabel and all at Book It With CA for your great work!)

• • •

Starting in the Spring ’23 semester, Our Laundry Our Town will be taught in Asian American studies courses at the City University of New York’s Brooklyn College and Borough of Manhattan Community College campuses.

If you, or anyone you know, would also like to teach this book, please contact me or Fordham University Press, thanks!

• • •

Finally, my play THREE TREES, has been acquired for the New York Public Library Collection and is available at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts as well as the Chatham Square (Chinatown) branches! This is the first of my Portrait Plays series of historical dramas about artists. Three Trees explores the haunting relationship between renowned sculptor, Alberto Giacometti, and his primary 1950s muse/model, Japanese philosopher & professor Isaku Yanaihara.
Our Laundry, Our Town is also available in the NYPL collection.

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Gong Xi Fa Cai!
Happy Year of the Rabbit!

To Order the Books:

Our Laundry, Our Town (Fordham University Press)

Three Trees (No Passport Press)

• • •

OUR LAUNDRY, OUR TOWN
October/ November 2022 Events

Plus OCT 14 NYC Interdisciplinary Event & Panel Discussion: 25 Years After the Hong Kong Handover:
– NYC Chinese American Artists Respond, in Images, Words and Music

On the shelf sometimes has a negative connotation…not when your memoir is on the same shelf with Harvey Fierstein’s and Patti Smith’s memoirs! Grateful for the reception and response to Our Laundry, Our Town: My Chinese American Life from Flushing to the Downtown Stage and Beyond. Excited to share details on October Author Events in NYC––including my hometown of Flushing!––as well as in the Hudson Valley in November.
Also honored to be curating and hosting 25 Years After the Hong Kong Handover: NYC Chinese American Artists Respond, in Images, Words and Music, an Interdisciplinary Event & Panel Discussion on Friday, October 14 from 7-9 pm. Church Street School of Music & Art Performance Space, 41 White St., Tribeca, NYC.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Wednesday. OCT 12 , from 6:30- 7:30pm
NYPL In-Person & Virtual Conversation & Reading
Chatham Square branch, 33 East Broadway, Chinatown, NYC

Info & RSVP for In-Person Event
Virtual Event Registration (Please click on “Register Now”)

Friday, OCT 14 from 7-9pm

Church Street School for Music & Art, 41 White Street, Tribeca, NYC

In this year, the 25^th Anniversary year of the “Hong Kong Handover” from Great Britain back to China, NYC Chinese American artists will gather to explore Hong Kong’s relationship with and impact on NYC’s Chinese American community through images, words and music. The goal is to create a space to share and process personal experience as well as the historic precedents that planted the seeds of anti-Asian American laws and biases that have been festering in this country since Asians first arrived.

Artist Presentations from: Chen Yi and Zhou Long (symphonic composition via video); Alvin Eng (memoirist/acoustic punk raconteur); Nina Kuo (painting); Lorin Roser (video art/installation); Xu Xi (novelist/essayist, longtime HK chronicler) and Sammy Yuen (artist/illustrator). EVENT PAGE with Artist Bios

Curated and Hosted by Alvin Eng

Panel Discussion moderated by Joanna C. Lee

Free Event: Please email sage@churchstreetschool.org to RSVP!

This is an LMCC Creative Engagement event.

Tuesday. OCT 25 from 3:30 – 4:30pm

“Hometown Author Talk”
Flushing Main Street branch, 41-17 Main St, Flushing, NY

No registration required. More Info

Saturday, NOV 12 @ 7pm

Inquiring Minds Bookstore

65 Partition Street, Saugerties, New York (845) 246-5775

Reading and Discussion with Sarah Litvin, Executive Director of Reher Center for Immigrant Culture & History (Kingston).

Co-sponsored by

For nearly a century, two generations of the Jewish immigrant Reher family ran a bakery from the storefront of 101 Broadway in Kingston, New York, and lived upstairs. Kingston residents of the surrounding Rondout neighborhood, mostly working class and immigrant, came to Reher’s for bread, canned goods, and gossip. Today, the site is reborn as a museum and cultural center that preserves and honors the legacy of Reher’s Bakery and amplifies immigrant stories of the Hudson Valley, past and present. The Reher Center’s mission is to foster belonging by engaging all people through culture, community, work, and bread.

More info: Inquiring Minds Bookstore / rehercenter.org/events
(scroll to November events)

Monday, NOV 14 @ 5:30pm

“Local Author Showcase” Meet and Greet

Rough Draft Books

82 John Street | Kingston, NY 845-802-0027

Saturday, NOV 19 @ 8pm

Reading and performance with Judith Sloan & Friends
People’s Voice Cafe (in Judson Memorial Church), 239 Thompson St., Greenwich Village, NYC

Ticket Info: People’s Voice Cafe

~~Saturday, DEC 3 @ 2pm~~
To be Re-Scheduled for May Asian Heritage Month Celebration

NYPL Immigrant Heritage Festival / Asian Heritage Month
Hudson Park NYPL, 66 Leroy Street, West Village, NYC
Performing a revised version of my acoustic punk raconteur work,
Here Comes Johnny Yen Again (or How I Kicked Punk).
More info soon!

Recent Interview

ASIAN AMERICAN LIFE (CUNY-TV)

To order the books:

Our Laundry, Our Town Three Trees
(Fordham University Press) (No Passport Press)

Update: OUR LAUNDRY, OUR TOWN
September/Fall 2022 Events

CUNY-TV Asian American Life Interview
NPR/WNYC Brian Lehrer Show Interview audio

Three Trees staged reading, Monterey, CA 9/18/22

Word on the street is still going strong for my memoir, Our Laundry, Our Town: My Chinese American Life from Flushing to the Downtown Stage and Beyond! Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read the book, shared the book and shared a reflection––it is all greatly appreciated. Thanks as well to all of the bookstores that are carrying the book (I am pictured above in front of Word Bookstore in Green Pt, Brooklyn.)

Also glad to share some new media coverage: Last month, I was interviewed on the esteemed The Brian Lehrer Show (NPR/WNYC. This month, the memoir is being featured on two CUNY-TV programs, the Emmy-winning Asian American Life and Book It with Ca.

This Fall, I will be participating in some exciting Author Events and Group Readings and performances in NYC, as well as in the Hudson Valley. Here are listings and links to the September events. My next update will include October and November event links. Next year, I hope to arrange events in other states––so please let me know if you have any recommendations, thanks!

Finally, speaking of other states, my play, Three Trees, will be presented as a staged reading on Sunday, Sept. 18 @ 3pm in The Sandbox in Sand City, near Monterey, California area. More info on all of the above follows. Happy almost Autumn!

UPCOMING EVENTS

I have lined up a very busy Fall Schedule of Events. As soon as event links are live I will send them to you.

Thur. SEPT 15 @ 7pm
Drunken! Careening! Writers!
At KGB BAR (85 East 4th St, East Village, NYC) group reading

September: Do You Remember, with
Alvin Eng, Charles Salzberg Kathleen Warnock

Sunday. SEPT 18 @ 3pm
Three Trees staged reading
Produced & directed by Harriet Lynn/ Monterey Coastal Lifestyles
Sandbox Gallery, Sand City, 440 Ortiz Ave, Sand City, CA 93955

Three Trees is the first of my Portrait Plays series of historical dramas about artists––and explores the haunting relationship between sculptor Alberto Giacometti and his primary muse/model of the 1950s, Japanese philosopher, Isaku Yanaihara. The play was recently published by No Passport Press.

Friday, SEPT 23 @6pm
Word Bookstore Jersey City, N.J.
29 MCWILLIAMS PL,. Jersey City, N.J.
Spotlight reader in Open Mic night

Wed. SEPT 28 @7pm
Guerilla Lit Reading Series
at Dixon Place (161A Chrystie St, Lower East Side, NYC) – group reading

Alvin Eng, Beth Lisick & Philip Brunetti

OCTOBER
SUNDAY OCT 2 – Brooklyn Book Festival

Wed. OCT 12 @6pm
Chatham Square (Chinatown) branch of NYPL
Talking Books: Asian American Authors in Conversation!

Fri OCT 14 @ 7pm
25 Years After the Hong Kong Handover
– NYC Chinese American Artists Respond,

Producing and hosting event for my LMCC Creative Engagement grant at Church Street School of Music and Art in Tribeca. Will read from memoir and perform from HERE COMES JOHNNY YEN AGAIN in this group show. Line up currently includes novelist Xu Xi, video artist Lorin Roser, painter Nina Kuo and the award-winning composing team of Chen Yi and Zhou Long

Tue. OCT 25 @ 3:30pm
Flushing Main St branch of Queens Public Library (Author Event)

NOVEMBER
Sat NOV 12 @ 7pm
Inquiring Minds Bookstore, Saugerties, NY

Reading and Discussion with conversation partner: Sarah Litvin, Executive Director of Reher Center for Immigrant Culture & History (Kingston) Here’s the rehercenter.org/events — please scroll to November programs.

Mon NOV 14 @ 5:30pm
Rough Draft Books (Kingston, NY)
“Local Author Showcase” meet and greet

Sat NOV 19 @ 8pm
People’s Voice Cafe @Judston Memorial Church, NYC
Reading and performance with Judith Sloan & Friends

Recent Interviews

ASIAN AMERICAN LIFE (CUNY-TV)
Here are the airtimes on CUNY-TV, Channel 75 (Spectrum Canle NYC)
September 2022 Tenth Anniversary Edition
Tuesday, September 13 – 8:00pm
Wednesday, September 14 – 8:00am, 2:00pm
Saturday, September 17 – 6:00pm
Sunday, September 18 – 8:30am
Tuesday, September 20 – 9:00am, 2:00pm

NPR/WNYC The Brian Lehrer Snow (8/4/22)

To order the books:

Our Laundry, Our Town Three Trees

(Fordham University Press) (No Passport Press)

OUR LAUNDRY, OUR TOWN News

May 20, 2022 Two-Part Book Launch
Media & Press Coverage • May-June Events

“If you wept while reading the memoir Crying in H Mart, ached at the injustice in Minor Feelings, and laughed during graphic novel Messy Roots, then Our Laundry, Our Town is the sweet spot between these three.”

From GoodReads book review by @the_pundlit

I am proud to share that next week my memoir, Our Laundry, Our Town: My Chinese American Life from Flushing to the Downtown Stage and Beyond, will be published by Fordham University Press/Empire State Editions! As such, I hope you will consider joining us on Friday, May 20, for an In-Person or Virtual Book Launch reading and talk. Event registration links follow.

Virtual Book Launch, May 20 5:30pm – 7pm (EST)
Asian American/Asian Research Institute, City University of New York

In-Person Book Launch May 20 at City Lore (7-9PM), at 56 East 1st St, East Village, Manhattan

Media/Press Coverage

Also excited to share that the book has been receiving positive press/media attention. This week I was interviewed on NY1’s Live at Ten with Cheryl Wills, as well as for a future “Sunday Routine” feature in The New York Times. A full index of press/media coverage on the memoir will soon be available on my website. Here’s a link to the NY1 interview.

NY1 Live at Ten interview with Cheryl Wills, May 9, 2022
Interview Video

Finally, this book has been acquired for both the New York Public Library and the Queens Public Library. I am honored that my memoir will be part of these collections that have nurtured me and so many.Grateful that we are on this journey together. Thank you for your interest and support all of these years.

UPCOMING EVENTS

MAY 19 – POETRY IN NEW YORK
Book Club Bar, 197 East 3rd St., East Village – 8pm

Doing a 20-minute spoken word set, including some a cappella acoustic punk raconteur “Johnny Yen” songs” and memoir excerpts, on an amazing bill with Mel Chanté and host/curator Galinsky.

MAY 25, AARP Houston Virtual Talk
4pm-5pm (Central Time)
Asian-American Family Secrets: Hidden in Plain Sight

Virtual reading and talk with genealogist and

community advocate Amy Chin.
Event Registration

MAY 26 – Virtual Reading & Talk 7-8pm
KEW & WILLOW BOOKS

Fantastic Female-owned Independent Bookstore in Queens!!!

Virtual Reading & Book Talk with AMY CHIN,
Genealogist and Think!Chinatown Board President

Event Registration

MAY 31 – WNYC/NPR Interview – app 12:30pm
ALL OF IT with ALISON STEWART

NPR/WNYC radio wnyc.org

JUNE 2, Virtual Reading & Talk, 4-5pm

Queens Public Library Literary Thursdays
Our Laundry, Our Town With Author Alvin Eng
Presented by Cambria Heights branch
EVENT REGISTRATION

Wed. JUNE 8, Book Signing, Meet & Greet, 5-7pm

Yu & Me Books, 44 Mulberry St., Chinatown, Manhattan
Only Asian American female-owned indie bookstore in NYC!

Sat., JUNE 25, NYPL Author Talk, 2-3PM

Hudson Park Branch
66 Leroy Street, West Village, NYC
NYPL event link
Eventbrite Registation Link

To Order the Book:
Fordham University Press
Bookshop (please select a favorite indie bookstore!)

•

PLEASE SAVE THE DATE
Friday, MAY 20, 2022

Two-Part BOOK LAUNCH!
Virtual & In-Person/NYC

OUR LAUNDRY, OUR TOWN
My Chinese American Life from Flushing to the Downtown Stage and Beyond
A memoir by Alvin Eng

Part I (May 20)
Virtual Book Launch

Reading & Talk 5:30pm–7pm (ET)
AAARI/CUNY’s online Friday Lecture Series

Asian American/Asian Research Institute, City University of New York

Event Registration link

Part II (May 20)
In-Person Book Launch / 7pm – 9pm (ET)
CITY LORE Gallery, 56 East 1^st Street,

East Village, NYC

“Alvin Eng’s masterful, sweeping memoir about growing up with his five siblings in a dysfunctional family in the back of the Foo J. Chin Chinese Hand Laundry in Flushing, Queens is laced with his marvelous humor, family anecdotes and metaphors that bring a century of the Chinese American Experience to life. I was deeply touched, especially by the spirits parallels between the folks in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town and the laundry and the beautiful idea that his parents didn’t really see each other either––like the characters in the play. Just a beautiful book.”
STEVE ZEITLIN author Poetry of Everyday Life, Founding Director of City Lore
Hope you can join us online or in-person to celebrate the publication!
More details soon!

OUR LAUNDRY, OUR TOWN
My Chinese American Life from Flushing to the Downtown Stage and Beyond
Publication date: May 17, 2022

Available for Pre-Order now:
Fordham University Press
Bookshop (please select a favorite indie bookstore!

Our Laundry, Our Town

My Chinese American Life from Flushing
to the Downtown Stage and Beyond

To be published by Fordham University Press on May 17th!

“From behind the counter of his parents’ laundry and a household rooted in a different century and culture to the turbulent, exciting streets of 1970s New York City, playwright Alvin Eng shares his riveting, tender story of finding voice, identity and community through the transformative power of Asian American arts, activism, punk rock and theater.” press release

Happy Lunar Year of the Tiger, one and all!!!

As we enter this new year, I am thrilled to share that on May 17, Fordham University Press will publish my memoir, Our Laundry, Our Town: My Chinese American Life from Flushing to the Downtown Stage and Beyond. Being a Tiger, I couldn’t be happier that my memoir is coming out this Year of the Tiger!

For more info, press/media queries or to pre-order the book, please click on one of the following links.

Gung Hay Fat Choy / Gōnɡ Xǐ Fā Cái!

Fordham University Press
Bookshop
Amazon

Press/Media contact:
Jennifer Richards, Over the River Public Relations
201-242-9637 / Jennifer@jrichardspr.com / @otrpr

Presents

Sunday, March 6, 2022, 4pm & 5pm
44 Mulberry Street, Chinatown, NYC
info@yuandmebooks.com / (646) 559-1165 / @yuandmebooks

Thrilled and honored to partner with Yu & Me Books, NYC’s only Asian American female-owned indie bookstore, for a dramatic scene reading and discussion of my play, THREE TREES––recently published by No Passport Press. The reading will be performed by Ernest Abuba and Marcus Ho, the director and lead actor of the play’s premiere with the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre.

The store has limited capacity. There will be two reading/discussions––the first one at 4pm, and then repeated at 5pm. If you are unable to attend, the session will be archived on my YouTube channel, please consider subscribing by clicking here.

Also, please consider supporting Yu & Me Books by purchasing Three Trees (and any other books!) virtually through their bookshop.org link

THREE TREES explores the haunting relationship between sculptor Alberto Giacometti and his primary muse/model of the 1950s, Japanese philosopher, Isaku Yanaihara. It is the first of my Portrait Plays series of historical dramas about artists.

Book cover design by Zonia Tsang / Alvin’s photo by Louis Chan

THREE TREES

A Dramatic Portrait of Alberto Giacometti and Isaku Yanaihara

Published by No Passport Press

Excited to share that my play, THREE TREES, has been published as a print-on-demand book by Caridad Svich’s No Passport Press. The book includes an amazing Foreword from Hana Sharif and a beautiful cover design by Zonia Tsang.

Thank you, Caridad, for creating this outstanding platform for playwrights and for your invaluable support of them. The book is available for $8 from Lulu and Amazon. A brief description of the play follows, along with links to order the book.

THREE TREES explores the haunting relationship between Parisian sculptor Alberto Giacometti and his primary muse/model of the 1950s, Japanese philosopher, Isaku Yanaihara. It is the first of my Portrait Plays series of historical dramas about artists.

To order the book:

Lulu

Amazon

2021 CHINATOWN ARTS WEEK
Performances & Reading

Sat. Oct 16 at app. 3:45pm and 5:10pm
Here Comes Johnny Yen Again (or How I Kicked Punk)
10-minute excerpts from solo acoustic punk raconteur work
Outside 21 Pell Street, NYC

Sat. OCT 23, btw. 5:30 – 7pm
Reading of “It’s Only a Paper Son” from Our Laundry, Our Town,
a memoir to be published by Fordham University Press in May 2022.
Inside 21 Pell Street, NYC
Both events are Free

The OCT 16 “Chinatown Door Jams” is a full afternoon of performances on the pedestrian street in front of the historic First Chinese Baptist Church at 21 Pell St. My former Emperor’s Club bandmate, Geoff Lee, will join me for “Chinatown Beat,” a song I wrote inspired by Henry Chang’s novel of the same name. Link for complete line-up.

Inside 21 Pell St on Sat OCT 23, between 5:30-7pm is “Story Night.” Alongside the premiere of five new short films from Think! Chinatown’s storytelling project, I will be reading “It’s Only a Paper Son” from Our Laundry, Our Town: Portraits of a NYC Chinese American Life-in-Progress.

I am honored to be performing for the second time in Chinatown Arts Week. Please check out the entire schedule and come on down to Chinatown!!!

Link to complete 2021 Chinatown Arts Week schedule

…and that’s a cartoon me in the upper left corner of the poster!

HISTORY, NOT NOSTALGIA,
CROSSROADS, 2021: For JAMES BALDWIN

Essay, Spoken Word Video and Playlist for
National Sawdust’s Fire This Time Project

Excited to share HISTORY, NOT NOSTALGIA: CROSSROADS 2021, for JAMES BALDWIN, an essay, spoken word video, and Baldwin-inspired playlist––all created at the invitation of the Brooklyn-based music/arts venue, National Sawdust, for their website. The five-minute video was shot on location at City Hall Park, NYC. The current Public Art Fund installation of sculptures by Melvin Edwards seemed the ideal visual counterpoint to contemplate the impact of the great James Baldwin’s words on this unique moment in American and world history.
Click for National Sawdust page
Click for Video only

This project was created in conjunction with National Sawdust’s salon project, Fire This Time, hosted by poet Lynne Procope. You can also checkout these amazing salon sessions on their website.

“CHI CAN’T BREATHE”

a spoken word offering for George Floyd

––posted on the eve of sentencing of his murderer,

the former Minneapolis cop.

From the 04.17.21 “Playwrights Keeping Vigil” virtual reading produced by the Reset Theatre Coalition: Braata Productions, Conch Shell Productions and Kumu Kahua Theatre.

Video link: https://youtu.be/V67gY9MyHLk

The reading was a book launch for their anthology, “We’re Not Neutral: Reset Series 2020 Collected Short Plays.” Shout out to Antonyio Artis and Tanya E. Taylor, performer and director of the first version of this piece. That clip is also on my YouTube channel.
Book link: https://www.amazon.com/Were-Not-Neutral…/dp/B092P9NWWG

2020 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship: Nonfiction Literature!

2 FB NYFA logos

Honored to be awarded a 2020 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Nonfiction Literature. During these most challenging of times, I am incredibly moved and inspired by this affirmation of my memoir-in-progress––somedays titled Our Laundry, Our Town and other days, The Last Emperor of Flushing’s Final Communique.

I am forever grateful to the New York Foundation for the Arts for their long-term support. This is my third Artist Fellowship but first one in 24 years! (Previously awarded a 1996 Playwriting/Screenwriting Fellowship and a ’91 Performance Art/Emergent Forms Fellowship.) Thank you, NYFA, for recognizing myself and other “mature artists” in this era of rampant ageism as well as lifting up so many artists––decade after decade in your ongoing essential work. The Arts matter in every era and at every stage and age of our individual and collective journeys. Keep on doing!

_{CHI CAN’T BREATHE (Reset! Video)
Now available on YouTube channel}

Also excited to share that CHI CAN’T BREATHE is now available for viewing on my YouTube channel.

CHI CAN’T BREATHE was written at the invitation of the RESET! Theatre Coalition Series for BIPOC playwrights to respond to the killing of George Floyd and related current events during the Summer of 2020. The monologue was powerfully performed by Antonyio Artis and magically directed by Tanya E. Taylor. The RESET! Theatre Coalition was formed by Braata Productions, Conch Shell Productions and Kumu Kahua Theatre. The Series consisted of live performances of the newly invited written works streamed on the three theatre’s YouTube and Facebook Live pages during the Summer of 2020 Reckoning. CHI CAN’T BREATHE had its premiere performance in the RESET series on July 24, 2020. The work runs approximately 7 minutes.

Finally, as it does not look as if we will be sharing shows and stories in person anytime soon, hope you will consider subscribing to this YouTube channel. channel where Wendy and I will be sharing new work. Stay safe and resilient…VOTE!!!

CHI CAN’T BREATHE (Reset! Video)
Now available on YouTube channe

HERE COMES JOHNNY YEN AGAIN news:

SPECIAL GUEST PERFORMANCE
Friday, 9/25, from 8-9pm EST
Tell Me a Story, Annie: A City Lore Virtual Salon
With Annie Lanzillotto & Alvin Eng

GUEST SPEAKER- CENTER FOR ETHNIC STUDIES

BMCC / City University of New York
Tue., October 6 – Asian American Literature course

Hope everyone is staying safe and resilient during this time like no other. Just wanted to share some news regarding my new acoustic punk raconteur solo work-in-progress, HERE COMES JOHNNY YEN AGAIN (or How I Kicked Punk). Of course, the re-scheduled Dixon Place Workshop Residency performance has been cancelled.

But this Friday, September 25, from 8-9pm (EST), I am excited to be performing part of the show as a Special Guest in a City Lore Virtual Salon hosted by Annie Lanzillotto. The salon will include performances from Annie and myself, followed by a discussion on Asian American/Immigrant disenfranchisement––from the Chinese Exclusion Act to the spike of anti-Asian violence and immoral ICE raids during the Pandemic.
Joining the conversation will be actor/activist Ariel Estrada from Racism is a Virus and City Lore board member and Think! Chinatown president, Amy Chin.

RSVP to the FREE event: tellmeastoryannie.eventbrite.com
Click here for Facebook Event/Facebook Live page

Then on October 6, I am honored to discuss HERE COMES JOHNNY YEN AGAIN as a Guest Speaker in my colleague, Dr. Linta Varghese’s, Asian American Literature course in BMCC/CUNY’s Center for Ethnic Studies.

9-25 CITY LORE flyer

If you cannot join us on Friday, the piece will eventually be archived on my YouTube channel. As it looks like we will be sharing work on the streaming screen and not the stage for the foreseeable future, hope you will also consider subscribing to my YouTube channel.

New Video:
The Last Emperor of Flushing at 70 Mulberry St.

Restore Chen Dance Center & the Arts to 70 Mulberry St.

Now you can tear a building down, but you can’t erase a memory…”
From “Open Letter (To a Landlord)” by Living Colour & Tracie Morris

Last October, Wendy and I had the honor of presenting a 10-minute excerpt from my memoir monologue, “The Last Emperor of Flushing,” at Chen Dance Center in the historic 70 Mulberry St., building in Chinatown, NYC. This work humorously recalls Alvin’s odd odyssey of growing up in one of Flushing’s few Chinese families in the 1970s––that ran a Hand Laundry on Union St, no less!––to later becoming one of its few citizens who could not speak fluent Chinese. Flushing had become NYC’s second Chinatown! (Eng is currently expanding this work into a prose memoir.) Please click here to see The Last Emperor of Flushing at 70 Mulberry St.

As many of you know, 70 Mulberry St., a longtime artistic and spiritual hub of the Asian American/NYC Arts world and Chinatown, suffered a devastating fire on Lunar New Year’s Eve, 2020. The building is being razed by the city right now. Please consider supporting efforts to demand that NYC officials recognize that Chen Dance Center and the Arts must have a home in the “new 70 Mulberry St.” For more information, email Dian Dong at diandong@chendancecenter.org

New Video…
The performance was part of Chinatown Arts Week presented by Think!Chinatown. In many ways, this elegy to a pivotal turning point in NYC/Asian American history was a perfect fit on that storied Chen Dance Center stage…please join us in the fight to restore this home to the Arts in Chinatown, so we can once again create and celebrate our history and legacy at 70 Mulberry Street.

(Still photos courtesy Chen Dance Center & Think!Chinatown)

HERE COMES JOHNNY YEN AGAIN

…on Video from Dixon Place, NYC

20-10-24, ALVIN ENG, photo by WROLF COURTNEY

Photo by Wrolf Courtney

Hope this finds everyone staying safe and engaged in all that moves you.

A quick update on the Dixon Place Workshop Residency of HERE COMES JOHNNY YEN AGAIN––an acoustic punk rock raconteur work written and performed by Alvin Eng and directed by Wendy Wasdahl.

Tonight (April 18) would have been the third and final performance. Of course, this has been cancelled (but rescheduled for Saturday, October 24, 2020!). To have the show go on tonight, and keep running in a different way, we are excited to share on YouTube, a two-camera video from the March 7th performance at Dixon Place. The video will be available indefinitely.

Please click here for HERE COMES JOHNNY YEN AGAIN…on Video!

This 25-minute video is from the second of three workshop performances. We were joined by Special Guests, Rick Ebihara and Perry Yung from the Slant Performance Group, for a “Tai Chi Music-Meditation Tribute to Lou Reed”…with Wendy also appearing!

The video was directed, filmed and edited by Wrolf Courtney with second camera by John Quincy Lee.

As this is a work-in-progress, we welcome any feedback, comments or questions.

Finally, we greatly appreciate everyone who worked on this video and performance––as well as everyone who joined us onstage and off in February and March at Dixon Place. Hope to see you again on October 24!

Until we can reconvene, take good care,
Alvin & Wendy

DIXON PLACE Presents 2020 Workshop Residency

HERE COMES JOHNNY YEN AGAIN (or How I Kicked Punk)

Dixon Place Presents a Three-Performance Workshop Residency a new solo work Written and Performed by Alvin Eng

Direction and Dramaturgy by Wendy Wasdahl

A solo acoustic punk rock raconteur work, Alvin Eng’s ‘HERE COMES JOHNNY YEN AGAIN (or How I Kicked Punk)’ explores the impact of opium on the Chinese Diaspora as well as NYC’s punk/counterculture through the dual prisms of William S. Burroughs’ character, “Johnny Yen”––immortalized in Iggy Pop and David Bowie’s ”Lust For Life”––and Eng’s own Grandfather’s opium overdose on the streets of NYC’s Chinatown.

(Card design by Ivy Arce, photo by Jim Goodin)

Link to Dixon Place listing:

Acoustic Punk Rock Raconteur Saturday Nights @ 7:30pm -Free Admisssion

February 8, March 7, April 18, 2020

The Lounge at Dixon Place, 161-A Chrystie Street, New York City

(btw. Rivington & Delancey Streets) / 212.219.0736 / dixonplace.org

Fall 2019 Events follow… (full new website soon!)

THREE TREES A Staged Reading and Workshop

OCTOBER 7, OTTERBEIN UNIVERSITY, Westerville, Ohio

Otterbein University Department of Theatre & Dance will present a staged reading and host workshops around THREE TREES, a play that explores the complex relationship between philosopher Isaku Yanaihara and sculptor Alberto Giacometti. THREE TREES is the first work of Alvin Eng’s Portrait Plays, a cycle of historical dramas that examines the parallels between portraiture, history and power as manifested in the convergence of different disciplines, eras and cultures. This play was presented Off-Broadway with the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in NYC, as well as in staged readings with Baltimore Center Stage and The Moving Parts Theatre in Paris. https://www.otterbein.edu/theatre-performances/

THE MOURNING AFTER: A Play Reading and Discussion

City University of New York, Borough of Manhattan Community College

Tuesday, September 10, 7-8:30pm

On the Eve of the 18th Anniversary of 9/11, the BMCC Theatre Department presents The Mourning After, a one-act play written and directed by Professor Alvin Eng featuring Dominick Allen and Simone Zalusky. After the play reading, there will be a discussion and open mic: 9/11 themed poems and reflections of 2–3 minutes in length are welcomed!
The Mourning After was written on 9/11/03 aboard the A train as part of the “A Train Plays” 24-hour play festival. The play explores the then two-year aftermath of 9/11 through the prisms of class and perception as two strangers meet aboard a Queens-bound A-train. How far have we come as a country since then? Where do we need to go from here? RSVP to Facebook Event Page

Coming Soon:

THE LAST EMPEROR of FLUSHING: Our Laundry, Our Town, a memoir travelogue through Chinese America. The story begins growing up in a 1970s Chinese Hand Laundry in what was then one of the few immigrant Asian families in Flushing, Queens, to performing his one-man show, “The Last Emperor of Flushing,” in English in a former People’s Hall of the Cultural Revolution in his family’s ancestral Guangdong province.

Fall 2024 News:2024-25 NYPL Fellowship!Subject of 10-minute “mini-doc,”Punk to Protest: Writing is ActivismHighlights from 2023-24 Season

Subject of 10-minute “mini-doc,”Punk to Protest: Writing is Activism Directed by Ken Dai

HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2023-24

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––from Feb. 8. 2024:Asian American Artists Night:Celebrating U+ME: Milton Resnick & Matthew WongCurated & Hosted by Alvin Eng

Holiday Season 2023 News

OUR LAUNDRY, OUR TOWN

Meet-n-Greet at Yu & Me Books @The Market Line (downstairs from Essex Market)115 Delancey St, Stall 11, New York, NY 10002

To order: Our Laundry, Our Town

Memoir in Paperback – 10/10/23!

Paperback Publication Celebrations in Flushing (Oct. 5)

and Chinatown (Oct. 24)

Come celebrate the paperback book launch of Our Laundry, Our Town: My Chinese American Life from Flushing to the Downtown Stage and Beyond–-in-person and online!

Alvin will be in conversation with Henry Chang (author of the acclaimed Detective Jack Yu crime novel series) and special guest emcee, Think! Chinatown’s Board President, Amy Chin. Alvin will also read and rap from his memoir and perform a song with a special guest.

Virtual Event Registration (Please click on “Register Now”)

“Tales From the Eng Dynasty”

May 2023

AAPI Asian Heritage Month

Wed, May 10 from 2:15-3:30pm (EST)

The American Studies program of CUNY/ Brooklyn College

Presents

Punk, Plays and Protest with Alvin Eng

Thursday, May 11 @ 7pm (EST)

Word Thursdays

Virtual Reading and Discussion

Tuesday, May 16 @ 1pm (EST)

NYC Department of Records and Information Presents

#AAPI Heritage Month Lunch & Learn with Author Alvin Eng

Coming Up…

January 2023 News & Events:OUR LAUNDRY, OUR TOWN

Long Lost Audio Found…

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Gong Xi Fa Cai!Happy Year of the Rabbit!

To Order the Books:

Our Laundry, Our Town (Fordham University Press)

Three Trees (No Passport Press)

• • •

OUR LAUNDRY, OUR TOWNOctober/ November 2022 Events

Plus OCT 14 NYC Interdisciplinary Event & Panel Discussion: 25 Years After the Hong Kong Handover:– NYC Chinese American Artists Respond, in Images, Words and Music

UPCOMING EVENTS

Wednesday. OCT 12 , from 6:30- 7:30pmNYPL In-Person & Virtual Conversation & ReadingChatham Square branch, 33 East Broadway, Chinatown, NYCInfo & RSVP for In-Person EventVirtual Event Registration (Please click on “Register Now”)

Friday, OCT 14 from 7-9pm

Tuesday. OCT 25 from 3:30 – 4:30pm

“Hometown Author Talk”Flushing Main Street branch, 41-17 Main St, Flushing, NY

Saturday, NOV 12 @ 7pm

65 Partition Street, Saugerties, New York (845) 246-5775

Monday, NOV 14 @ 5:30pm

“Local Author Showcase” Meet and Greet Rough Draft Books

82 John Street | Kingston, NY 845-802-0027

Saturday, NOV 19 @ 8pm

Reading and performance with Judith Sloan & FriendsPeople’s Voice Cafe (in Judson Memorial Church), 239 Thompson St., Greenwich Village, NYC

Update: OUR LAUNDRY, OUR TOWNSeptember/Fall 2022 Events

CUNY-TV Asian American Life InterviewNPR/WNYC Brian Lehrer Show Interview audio

UPCOMING EVENTS

Update: OUR LAUNDRY, OUR TOWN

Upcoming June Book EventsRecent Broadcasts/Podcasts and Published Interviews

UPCOMING EVENTS

Wed. JUNE 8, from 5-7pm

In-Person Book Signing, Meet & Greet

Yu & Me Books, 44 Mulberry Street, Chinatown, NYC

Sunday, JUNE 12, from 3-4:30 pm

In-Person Book Readingwith Musical Guest, Skyler Chin (my cousin!)

21 Pell St. Community Center, Chinatown, NYC

Sat., JUNE 25, from 2-3PM

Virtual and In-Person NYPL Author Talk

Hudson Park Branch 66 Leroy Street, West Village, NYC

Recent Broadcasts/Podcasts

Recently Published Interviews

Update: OUR LAUNDRY, OUR TOWN

Upcoming June Book EventsRecent Broadcasts/Podcasts and Published Interviews

UPCOMING EVENTS

Wed. JUNE 8, from 5-7pm

In-Person Book Signing, Meet & Greet

Yu & Me Books, 44 Mulberry Street, Chinatown, NYC

Sunday, JUNE 12, from 3-4:30 pm

In-Person Book Readingwith Musical Guest, Skyler Chin (my cousin!)

21 Pell St. Community Center, Chinatown, NYC

Sat., JUNE 25, from 2-3PM

Virtual and In-Person NYPL Author Talk

Hudson Park Branch 66 Leroy Street, West Village, NYC

Recent Broadcasts/Podcasts

Recently Published Interviews

Fall 2024 News:
2024-25 NYPL Fellowship!

Subject of 10-minute “mini-doc,”
Punk to Protest: Writing is Activism

Highlights from 2023-24 Season

Subject of 10-minute “mini-doc,”
Punk to Protest: Writing is Activism
Directed by Ken Dai

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
from Feb. 8. 2024:
Asian American Artists Night:
Celebrating U+ME: Milton Resnick & Matthew Wong
Curated & Hosted by Alvin Eng

Meet-n-Greet at Yu & Me Books @The Market Line (downstairs from Essex Market)
115 Delancey St, Stall 11, New York, NY 10002

**Come celebrate the paperback book launch of Our Laundry, Our Town: My Chinese American Life from Flushing to the Downtown Stage and Beyond–-in-person and online!**

Virtual Event Regi stration (Please click on “Register Now”)

January 2023 News & Events:
OUR LAUNDRY, OUR TOWN

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Gong Xi Fa Cai!
Happy Year of the Rabbit!

OUR LAUNDRY, OUR TOWN
October/ November 2022 Events

Plus OCT 14 NYC Interdisciplinary Event & Panel Discussion: 25 Years After the Hong Kong Handover:
– NYC Chinese American Artists Respond, in Images, Words and Music

Wednesday. OCT 12 , from 6:30- 7:30pm
NYPL In-Person & Virtual Conversation & Reading
Chatham Square branch, 33 East Broadway, Chinatown, NYC

Info & RSVP for In-Person Event
Virtual Event Registration (Please click on “Register Now”)

“Hometown Author Talk”
Flushing Main Street branch, 41-17 Main St, Flushing, NY

“Local Author Showcase” Meet and Greet

Rough Draft Books

Reading and performance with Judith Sloan & Friends
People’s Voice Cafe (in Judson Memorial Church), 239 Thompson St., Greenwich Village, NYC

Update: OUR LAUNDRY, OUR TOWN
September/Fall 2022 Events

CUNY-TV Asian American Life Interview
NPR/WNYC Brian Lehrer Show Interview audio

Upcoming June Book Events
Recent Broadcasts/Podcasts and Published Interviews

In-Person Book Reading
with Musical Guest, Skyler Chin (my cousin!)

Hudson Park Branch
66 Leroy Street, West Village, NYC

Upcoming June Book Events
Recent Broadcasts/Podcasts and Published Interviews

In-Person Book Reading
with Musical Guest, Skyler Chin (my cousin!)

Hudson Park Branch
66 Leroy Street, West Village, NYC

Upcoming June Book Events
Recent Broadcasts/Podcasts and Published Interviews

In-Person Book Reading
with Musical Guest, Skyler Chin (my cousin!)

Hudson Park Branch
66 Leroy Street, West Village, NYC

Upcoming June Book Events
Recent Broadcasts/Podcasts and Published Interviews

In-Person Book Reading
with Musical Guest, Skyler Chin (my cousin!)

Hudson Park Branch
66 Leroy Street, West Village, NYC

Upcoming June Book Events
Recent Broadcasts/Podcasts and Published Interviews

In-Person Book Reading
with Musical Guest, Skyler Chin (my cousin!)

Hudson Park Branch
66 Leroy Street, West Village, NYC