Red Canary Song

(2019 — )

Red Canary song is a grassroots organization based in NYC advocating for the rights and safety of Asian migrant and non-migrant sex workers and massage parlor workers. It is led and run by Asian migrants, immigrants, and sex workers.

Tom began organizing with Red Canary Song in March of 2019.

redcanarysong.org

8LIVES VIGIL (2022)

        March 16th 2022 marked the one-year anniversary of the tragic Atlanta spa shootings. Red Canary Song, in collaboration with the Asian American Feminist Collective and NYU's Intersectional Feminist Queer Collective and Center for Study of Gender & Sexuality hosted a live memorial vigil - both in-person and digital - for the eight lives lost.

        MJ assisted in the production of the vigil as well as designing a portion of the art memorial altar and funerary ritual to activate the memorial.

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SEX WORKERS’ POP-UP EXHIBITION (2020)
        The Sex Workers’ Pop-Up is an exhibition in New York City that features artwork and performances about sex work from around the world. This pop-up exhibit asks visitors to listen to the voices of sex workers, and reflect on how society defines work. MJ led the concept development and build for Red Canary Song’s installation, Mouth of the Coalmine.

In Mouth of the Coalmine, Red Canary Song is situated temporally and relationally. Initially congregating around the death of Yang Song and the imminent needs of migrant massage parlor workers, the composition of RCS has since shifted towards a wider population of Asian labor organizers. Included in this installation are personal affects from current RCS organizers, ephemera from past protests, photos from past actions, and a reconstruction of an altar from the 2019 vigil of Yang Song, foregrounded against photos of conditions of police surveillance.