Seven New Yorkers who came to the United States from Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Mexico, and Trinidad and Tobago have spent the fall telling the story of how they got here on a stage in Chinatown. The last scheduled performance of Echoes of Arrival: Becoming is Friday, November 6, at 7 p.m. at the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA), 215 Centre Street.

The hour-long show uses personal narration, poetry, music, dance and stand-up comedy. The performers look back at what they had to learn to get by and build a life here, what they decided to bring with them from home, and which parts of themselves took shape after they arrived. Tickets are $20 for general admission and $15 for MOCA members.

A Rotating Cast

The run opened October 2 and has played on select Thursdays and Fridays since, with five of the seven performers on stage each night. The November 6 cast is:

  • Nikkiesha N. McLeod, a Trinidadian singer-songwriter, drummer and writer who started on steel pan at age 12 with a neighborhood steelband and released two steelpan singles in 2025.
  • Timmy Ong, a Malaysian theater artist who has originated leading roles on stages in Malaysia and the United States and was a 2024-25 Performance Project Fellow at University Settlement.
  • Jeremy Rafal, a Filipino American actor, pianist and writer with a doctorate from Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, whose solo play The Boy from Bantay won him the Asian Arts Award for Outstanding Male Performer at the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
  • Nedelka Sotelo, a performer and arts organizer from Mexico City who has worked on Culture Pass NYC and Queens Rising and received a CUNY staff leadership award in 2026.
  • Fang Tseng, a trilingual performer, director and teaching artist born in Burma and raised in Taiwan, and a resident dancer at the New York Chinese Cultural Center.

The full company also includes Shan Y. Chuang, a Taiwanese dancer, choreographer and immersive theater artist, and Pascal Phoa, an actor from Indonesia. The show was conceived by Dennis Yueh-Yeh Li, a director and playwright who serves as MOCA's Director of Performance, Storytelling and Community, and the performers devised the material together.

Make a Day of It on November 7

The next morning, Saturday, November 7, MOCA leads its public walking tour, Chinatown: A Walk through History, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The roughly one-to-one-and-a-half-mile route traces the neighborhood from the Lenape village of Werpoes Hill to today, with stops that include some of Chinatown's oldest streets, a neighborhood park, a Catholic church, the area's oldest general store and an eatery that once served the turn-of-the-century bachelor society. Groups are capped at 15, the tour is recommended for ages 12 and up, and advance RSVP is required. Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for adults 55 and up and students, free for children under 5, and include museum admission.

That afternoon, from 2 to 4 p.m., teaching artist Yu Rong runs Writing From the Heart, a drop-in session for families with children ages 6 to 14 that explores Chinese characters through Ed Young's book Voices of the Heart, which is on view in the museum's current exhibition, Ed Young's Bright Worlds. It is free with museum admission ($15 adults, $10 seniors and students, free for children under 12), and New York City residents can pay what they wish in person with proof of residency.

Getting There

MOCA is at 215 Centre Street, between Howard and Grand Streets. The nearest subway stop is Canal Street, served by the 6, J, Z, N, Q, R and W trains. Walking tours leave from the museum lobby.

Echoes of Arrival: Becoming plays Friday, November 6, at 7 p.m. Tickets for the show, the walking tour and the family workshop are on MOCA's calendar.

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