Pearl Street Project: BON
First Friday: August, 2017 @ 5-8 p.m.
Lantern lighting ceremony at 7:30 p.m.
BON is a project influenced by Asuncion’s experience of the three-day Obon Festivals they did with family in Okinawa, Japan honoring their ancestors and passed loved ones.
This public event invited people from the Asian Arts Initiative [AAI] community in Philadelphia as part of AAI Pearl Street Project public art residency. Over the three days leading up to the event Asuncion hosted lantern making workshops with AAI Youth Art Workshop groups and the local public. During the First Friday event, a community potluck was held, and people were encouraged to bring a favorite dish that reminded them of their passed loved one(s). Then there was a community release of lanterns into the constructed river made in the Pearl Street ally. There was a live performance of traditional taiko Japanese drumming by Therese Stephen of Philly based Kyo Daiko.
For more info go to AAI site here.