On March 20th, CAO Collective gathered with @feministcenterforcreativework and @welcometolace for a collective poetry workshop — and we began, simply, by asking: how have you been sleeping?
We started with ourselves. with the body. with what wakes us and what holds us. Participants wrote and drew into journals — tracing the textures of rest, of waking, of what safety feels like when it actually arrives.
Then we turned to each other.
Through our signature exquisite-corpse-style collective writing, each person continued what the person before them had started — building intimate, layered poems across pages, across strangers who became kin. queer feminist poetics as conversation. as call and response. as care.
We wrote about dreams — literal or symbolic — where we felt warmth, love, tenderness, safety. and through collective breathing and guided meditation, we wove those dreams together into something shared.
At the end, we sat in a circle. Each person offered one word from their writing.
what came back to us:
holding. embracing. jumping. flying. circling. grass. sky....
nature. love. connection. community.
this is our collective future — dreamed together, tended together 🌿
thank you to everyone who brought your dreams into the room 🙏
photos by huiyin
Thank you for joining us for a weekend of workshops led by @caocollective in celebration of the spring equinox.
Together, we explored themes of sleep and dreaming through poetry, participated in conversations on feminist and queer care, and engaged in the preservation of memory through the collective act of ciba punching ₊˚⊹♡
Special thanks to our friends at @feministcenterforcreativework for hosting us while LACE’s Hollywood gallery is under renovation.
Join LACE and the Feminist Center for Creative Work (FCCW) this Sunday from 2–5 PM to celebrate the spring equinox with a 𝗖𝗶𝗯𝗮 𝗣𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 facilitated by Chinese Artists and Organizers (CAO) Collective, featuring a performance by Julia Santoli.
The Ciba Punch is a participatory, feminist public art performance that reclaims the traditional, often feminized, labor of making ciba (Chinese sticky rice cakes). Participants pound steaming rice, channeling emotions like rage and love to foster community healing and queer/feminist solidarity. This workshop is multigenerational and open to all!
Santoli is a Viet-Am multi-disciplinary artist, musician, and arts organizer. Santoli creates immersive and precarious environments with voice, feedback, electronics, and installation. Her approach to vocalization integrates embodied practice with an attention to close listening, in compositions and structured improvisations often tipping the scales between resonant clarity and extreme sonic states.
𖡡 Feminist Center for Creative Work | 3053 Rosslyn St, Los Angeles, CA 90065
RSVP at the link in bio.
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Photos courtesy of CAO Collective.
🥬草草聊事Seedlings Newsletter Update 🥬
Mailchimp threw us and our 500+ subscribers under the bus with an updated paywall, so we moved our newsletter to 🐙EmailOctopus thanks to friends’ suggestions!
👉If you’re a new subscriber, please sign up at our linktree or website: caocollective.com under “newsletter”!
If you’re an existing subscriber and successfully received our March 11 issue （slide 4) no need to take any action.
We look forward to keeping in touch❤️🔥
poster design by yanki🌱
LACE and the Feminist Center for Creative Work (FCCW) invite you to celebrate the spring equinox with 2 workshops facilitated by Chinese Artists and Organizers (CAO) Collective.
𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝗲𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽, 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝟮𝟭, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲, 𝟮–𝟱 𝗣𝗠
CAO Collective carefully designs guiding questions on queer/feminist kinship, food, and memory, to which each participant starts on one page and turns to the next page(s) to continue what other people have written. These queer feminist poetics are intimate conversations with each other, holding space for joy, grief, and otherwise inexplicable feelings living in diaspora. This workshop focuses on QBIPOC folx, but all identities are welcome!
𝗖𝗶𝗯𝗮 𝗣𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲, 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝟮𝟮, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲, 𝟮–𝟱 𝗣𝗠
Rooted in a feminist ethics of care, the Ciba Punch subverts the Chinese traditional ciba (food)-making process and reveals the often hidden domestic labor performed by womxn. By punching, chanting, making together, this collective feminist performance reclaims our own definitions of (em)power(ment) from patriarchal definitions of force and gendering. Together, we reimagine a powerful yet non-punitive way of community building and healing. This workshop is multigenerational and open to all!
Learn more + RSVP at the link in bio!
💚On 12/15, Monday night, we hosted a private gathering and belated 3rd year anniversary/ birthday celebration for CAO离离草 at a friend’s place in Brooklyn! It was amazing to gather with so many friends and collaborators of the Asian diaspora, mapping out our circuits of connections from past lives to near futures. We shared Xi’an food together, massaged each other’s shoulders, did a sprouting exercise, and shared the strawberry shortcake that has accompanied CAO’s yearly celebrations.
This work is not easy, and we’ve come so far :)
❤️🔥We have some exciting news and more programs to share for 2026. If you haven’t, subscribe to our newsletter at link in bio to keep in touch!
希望大家可以继续和小草一起茁壮成长🌱
With much care and gratitude,
CAO Collective离离草
Recap💧Writing Diasporic Dreams and Futures💧
🌊On December 20, a Saturday afternoon, we gathered on zoom for a sweet session about nostalgia, diaspora and memory. Inspired by @oliviaongevans ‘ ongoing film project, Kota Hujan (City of Rain), we journaled, meditated, and cocreated collective bodies of water in relation to our memories and dreams.
Our bodies and earth are both made up of 70% water. If you imagine yourself to be a body of water, what shapes, velocities, temperatures do you embody? Where do you get the water from, who nourishes you, where are you going?
Thank you @squeakybuffalo for hosting us and everyone for dreaming together 💤
Facilitation and 35mm film photos by huiyin Zhou and Laura Dudu; the screenshots shared here include contributions from workshop participants.
⭐️Announcement⭐️
In December 2024, The Amp published an online profile of CAO Collective written by @hannahhhzhang : “CAO Collective Bridges Art, Healing, and Community,” as we closed out our exhibition at @bricbrooklyn .
After a busy and fruitful year, CAO is excited to share that this article has been included in the third print issue of The Amp! It was great to attend the launch party and holiday gathering at @welcome.to.chinatown on Dec 18, and receive these freshly made physical copies💌
CAO Collective is featured alongside artists like Sheida Soleimani, Eiko Otake, Wen Hui, Rujuta Rao, Charlene Kaye and Ishita Mili and other The Amp contributing writers like Ashna Ali, Yasi Alipour, Hannah Bae, Caroline Cao, Lili Emtiaz, Joyce Keokham, Isabel Ling, Zachary Lee, Sophia Park, Pallavi Surana, Jenny Wu, and Hannah Zhang.
Cover design by @ramaduwaji
🍚The Ciba Punch女拳手打糍粑🍚
~ Behind the scenes of our 12/11 performance at @performanceproject_us ~ the sticky rice constantly transformed, from soaking, cooking, punching, eating to making 红糖糍粑 and 腊味锅巴饭 from the leftovers. We will be holding these memories dear as we close out a fruitful year, nourished by the sticky connections we continue to build 💌
Grant support from @lmcc_nyc
Recap of 🥊The Ciba Punch女拳手打糍粑🥊 12/11
These photos show how spiritual figures interacted with the Ciba Punchers - moving between the past, present, and future.
Who are the spirits that guide you? What presences and absences haunt you? Where are you moving towards?
🌱
Performance organized by @caocollective@lauradudupersonal@huiyin.zhou@ilotnasailuj
Projection Poster Design by @yankikboom
Photo documentation by @huiyin.zhou
Video documentation by @lillian.xuege.li
Clothing Design by Qile Sun / “Alchemist”
Lighting support from Emma Rivera at Performance Project
Onsite support by many friends
Funding support from @lmcc_nyc
Recap of 🔴The Ciba Punch女拳手打糍粑🔴 12/11
In this post, we share the many ways in which participants engaged with sticky rice - punching, kneading, folding, expanding. Together, we weaved a fluid web of emotions, memories, curiosities, and wonder mediated through the intimacy of food-making. Thank you for sharing your rage, grief, and love with us and transforming it into food that nourishes us.
🌱
Performance organized by @caocollective@lauradudupersonal@huiyin.zhou@ilotnasailuj
Projection Poster Design by @yankikboom
Photo documentation by @huiyin.zhou
Video documentation by @lillian.xuege.li
Lighting support from Emma Rivera at Performance Project
Onsite support by many friends
Funding support from @lmcc_nyc
🔴a recap of our 12/11 Ciba Punch 女拳手打糍粑 @performanceproject_us 🔴
In this post, we share photos of the Spiritual Figures performance led by @ilotnasailuj and @lauradudupersonal . This time, spiritual figures began and closed the performance — inviting audience participation through breath and humming. They braided each other’s hair, played, and rested, while providing spiritual guidance to the punchers. The spiritual figures embody the fluid formations of queer feminist ancestors and our future selves. They also embody kinship, care, and the dance between the sticky rice grains we were punching together.
Stay tuned for more!
🌱
Performance organized by @caocollective@ilotnasailuj
Projection Poster Design by @yankikboom
Photo documentation by @huiyin.zhou
Video documentation by @lillian.xuege.li
Lighting support from Emma Rivera at Performance Project
Clothing Design by Qile Sun “Alchemist”
Onsite support by many friends
Funding support from @lmcc_nyc
