Southeast Asian Community Alliance (SEACA)

Today marks 6 DAYS until our YLPs’ “Who Makes Chinatown?” art gallery opens for one night only ! Our youth split into teams based on topics and interviewed folks from early March to end of April. The youth asked a range of questions such as what each interviewee’s connection to Chinatown was to how high rent affects small businesses and renters alike.

The interviews featured prominent community members such as local artist and William Mead resident , Librarian Lynn from , business owner Jess from , business owner Ken from , Dynasty Center’s Minh Phat owners David and Jonathan, Aronriti from .recreationcenter, and our very own SEACA board member Angelica Moyes. We’re very appreciative of all of our interviewees, including those not pictured, for their time and warmth towards our youth.

If you’re reading this, YOU’RE invited! In addition to our YLPs’ art, we’ll have free food, a screenprinting table, a photobooth, and opportunities to learn more about SEACA’s community work. RSVP to our Eventbrite in our Linktree!

Thank you to our friends for hosting a storytelling workshop for our youth back in March! As a way to prepare for interviewing, we had some of our YLPs come in for a session on “The Truth is a Good Enough Story” led by Trevor and Julia. The youth warmed up with a writing exercise inspired by silly hats, and leaned into how to advocate through storytelling.

Want to know what they wrote? Catch their writing and storytelling projects on Wednesday, May 27th at from 4-8 PM! Our community members, families, and high school youth are invited to take part in the art, food, and activities we have prepared, for FREE!

Who’s excited?? 🙌🏽

Communities like Chinatown, Solano Canyon, and Lincoln Heights have long endured environmental injustice. Racist covenants and red lining pushed communities of color into heavily contaminated areas that were once oil fields, refineries, rail yards, and other industrial sites. Later, our community was encircled up by the 101, 110, and 5 freeways, leading to some of the poorest air quality in the state.

Since 2016, when the Buena Vista luxury development was first proposed, local residents have been raising alarms about the environmental and health effects of this project. The City’s environmental review process fails to account for heavy metal contamination even as they acknowledge the presence of past oil wells and underground storage tanks on the site. The developers, owners of continue to dismiss our concerns and gaslight the community. To learn more about contamination on the site visit https://www.growlincolnheights.org/developments/buena-vista-project

As Youth Leaders we decided to take matters into our own hands! We partnered with Solano neighbors to canvas homes around the project site and collect soil samples to test for heavy metals and toxins. supported through lending us access to soil testing equipment. Preliminary results show alarmingly high levels of lead, but more samples are needed. The City and the developer need to take this issue seriously! Our low-income Asian and Latinx communities are tired of bearing the brunt of environmental injustice, while developers profit.

Email [email protected] to join us in protecting communities from predatory developments
Contact us to test your soil for heavy metals
Join a community canvass
Stay connected and learn more about how we fight bad developments
If you’re a high school student, join SEACA’s youth programs!

Show up for youth power this Friday 5/1! We’re going all out for our workers, for our immigrant families afraid of ICE’s terror on our communities. Our multicultural, multilingual working-class Chinatown residents are especially impacted by the rise of violence and economic instability.

Join our SEACA youth in front of Cathay Manor (600 N Broadway) by the dragon gate at 4 PM to take our voices to City Hall! Share this with 5 folks you know who will be attending the larger protest earlier in the day and can march with us!

Thank you to and their artists Victor and James for teaching our youth about soft block printing! This was such a fun and unique experience that our YLPs will never forget. Can’t wait to collab again! 😁

You’ll be able to see some of these prints at our youth gallery at on Wednesday, May 26th from 4-8 PM! Community members, our SEACA families, and youth curious about our programs are invited. Our youth are from and . Help us spread the word and share! 👾🎨🖌️

We are excited to announce that our SEACA Youth Leaders are presenting art based on their interviews with local Chinatown residents and workers!

“Who Makes Chinatown?” is a storytelling project designed to connect youth to the experiences of community members across Chinatown. After conducting interviews, the youth will weave common threads together through art and demonstrate how storytelling can be used as a tool for advocacy.

Through this project, the youth are developing the leadership skills they need to be Youth Organizers and will apply the knowledge they’ve gained from the Chinatown community’s stories to organizing for change with SEACA.

This semester, our Youth Leaders have been working on their interviewing skills to complete their storytelling project. As part of the Youth Leadership Project, students are interviewing Chinatown residents and workers on their experiences, which will prepare them to become Youth Organizers next year!

In addition to interviewing, our YLPs were also given the opportunity to learn more about their interpersonal relationships and their relationships with their own bodies.

We’re immensely grateful to our community partners , , and for taking the time to prepare lessons and connect with the next generation of leaders!

Would you like to see more of our YLP youth?

Even though we spend a lot of time learning about topics such as our family roots to community organizing, it’s also important to ground ourselves and connect with our creativity through art! Thank you to for the ceramics lesson! 🫶

Help us continue this important work by donating to SEACA!!
Click link in bio or visit ➡️ www.seaca-la.org/donate

This November we'll be sharing key ways we've mobilized to fight against the assault on our beautiful and diverse communities!

Help us continue this important work by donating to SEACA at link in bio