The Asia North Festival returns for its eighth year to Baltimore’s Station North Arts District, running from May 1–31.
Central Baltimore Partnership (CBP) and Towson University’s Asian Arts & Culture Center will co-produce the month-long festival, which coincides with APIMEDA Heritage Month. “APIMEDA” stands for Asian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and Desi American cultures. The programs will celebrate Baltimore’s Charles North/Station North neighborhood, whose identity continues to evolve as a Koreatown, arts district, and a creative hub.
“We are thrilled to present Asia North’s signature exhibition at the historic SNF Parkway Theatre, located at the intersection of North and Charles, the heart of Station North and the geographic center of Baltimore City,” said Abby Becker, director of Station North Arts District, a CBP program, in a statement. “At this moment, so often characterized by divisiveness and isolation, we offer an exhibition focused on the practice of hospitality, honoring cultural memory, and cultivating a sense of belonging.”
Expect a signature exhibition, community programs, artist talks, and neighborhood activations. Asia North’s signature exhibition will be “Shoes at the Door,” guest-curated by Dylan Kaleikaumaka Hill, who is Meyerhoff-Becker Curatorial Fellow at the Baltimore Museum of Art. “Shoes at the Door” shines a spotlight on hospitality and how it is practiced depending on a culture’s diasporic history, tradition, colonial impact, and celebration. It will feature sculpture, video, photography, and community-based projects about welcome, displacement, and cultural memory.
“The works in this year’s signature exhibition capture the breadth and diversity of hospitality customs and notions of home through installation, ceramics, painting, sculpture, drawing, and textiles,” Hill said in a statement.
The festival’s Opening Event will take place on Friday, May 1, from 5–9 p.m. at the SNF Parkway Theatre and Currency Studio. “Shoes at the Door” will be on view, with musical and dance performances curated by host Kandi Wong. Attendees can meet with the artists and hear the music of Korean samulnori and Japanese taiko drums. Performances will also include the art of Odissi dance, synth, and indi-pop. Light bites will be provided courtesy of the Baltimore Xiamen Sister City Committee.
“Some of the featured artists engage explicitly with intergenerational practices associated with welcoming others into our homes, reimagining household objects that evoke familial gatherings and celebratory meals,” Hill said. “While such works incite nostalgia and joy, they also excavate the gendered labor and colonial legacies that inform them.”
As part of the Asia North Festival, the organizers will unveil initial concept designs for historic markers they created for “Preserving Baltimore’s Koreatown,” a public history project being led by artists Phaan Howng and Hayelin Choi. The goal of the project is to document and honor the social and culture history of Baltimore’s Koreatown.
“Asia North has become a beloved annual tradition for springtime in Station North – a time for us to invite new visitors to the Arts District, bring our growing community together, celebrate our enduring history as the home of Baltimore’s first Koreatown, all while showcasing the incredible artists who are working here today,” Becker said.
