A TIME & PLACE FOR CELEBRATION: PAO ARTS CENTER’S ANNIVERSARY HONORS AAPI COMMUNITY

The dancers were like lit matches. We, on the other hand were five years late, and yet, on April 21, we are taken in like family at the Pao Arts Center, now celebrating its fifth anniversary, for its presentation of Lenora Lee Dance’s “Convergent Waves: Boston,” an immersive, multi-media dance performance to celebrate the contributions of local activists and non-profit leaders in Boston’s Chinatown community.

The Pao Arts Center’s philosophy is that we are all late- comers to this favored continent of North America, and we’re all dancers thinking that wherever our own feet hit the ground is ours to keep. And we’re so right. And so wrong!

Since the present pandemic has claimed this world as its very own, my fellow adventurer, Madeleine, and I have barely ridden the Red Line, so we jumped at the chance when we were invited to “Convergent Wave’s” world premiere.

We traveled by T from Porter Square, Cambridge to South Station, and proceeded, immersed in the anxiety of arrival, to 99 Albany Street, and the Pao Arts Center — a short walk away.

Communication and Development Director Sophia Chen met us at the door and introduced us to many people tied to the center, helping us comfortably enter into a new series of relationships. After we listened to a short but very intense speech by a personage of palpable dignity, it was time for the evening’s performance.

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