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New York was built on the passion and perseverance of immigrants, a fact that Queens Night Market is celebrating this June by spearheading the second annual "This Is NY: Celebrating Our Immigrant Heritage and Communities" series, a citywide initiative taking place throughout the month (which is also, fittingly, Immigrant Heritage Month) with programming and partnerships that honor the city's many immigrant communities and their contributions.
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The series will include walking tours of Elmhurst, Queens and Manhattan's Harlem, a film screening at the Museum of Chinese in America, a family-friendly Dragon Boat festival, a fair spotlighting Juneteenth and One Love Little Caribbean Day vendors and traditions and a night of live Jewish music, as well as various book talks, oral history exhibits, outdoor concerts and more. Find event and ticket information at the official This Is NY website.
“This is our second year spearheading This Is NY, and in the long run, I hope it becomes a citywide resource that helps us all celebrate the immigrant history and immigrant New Yorkers that make this city such a vibrant, rich wellspring of food, arts, and ideas," said John Wang, founder of the Queens Night Market, in a press release.
As part of the This is NY series, Queen Night Market will also partner up with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to commemorate World Refugee Day and shine a light on all those who have had to flee their homes due to the threat of persecution, war or violence. On Saturday, June 17, the market will highlight the culinary traditions of vendors that are run either by refugees or other forcibly displaced persons, including Nomad Dumplings, Blintz Box, Cambodianow and Nansense. Along with the great food, there will also be live performances from forcibly displaced musicians, including The Brooklyn Nomads.
“Since it launched, the Queens Night Market has represented over 95 countries through our vendors and their food, and many of those vendors, or their families, were refugees seeking asylum here in the US. So, when the United Nations Refugee Agency asked if we’d be interested in collaborating, we couldn’t say yes fast enough,” added Wang.
Guests can help out the cause with a suggested donation of $5 upon entry, which will be donated to USA for UNHCR to support refugee communities. And Queens Night Market has pledged to donate 33-percent of its net proceeds from the June 17th event to charity.