By Sherica Daley | news@queensledger.com

“What year are we entering this Lunar New Year?” host  Kitty Kan  asked the audience with Queens residents shopping in the Queens Place Mall. “The year of the dragon!” shouted excited participants as they lined up to watch The Lunar New Year Celebration in collaboration with The Chinese Cultural Center(NYCCC),  The Brooklyn Dumpling Shop  and  Gong cha Bubble Tea. The show participants enjoyed free veggie and pork dumplings and green tea bubble tea samples.

The Lunar New Year is a yearly celebration that originated in China. The legend behind this tradition is the Chinese beast called Nian, which means “year” in Chinese. Nian would stalk the people in China in the Spring. Nian did like loud noises, fire, and the color red. These things were used to scare the mystical creature away. The Chinese celebrate this holiday with red lanterns and money in red envelopes called “hong bao” to signify good fortune, and dance along with the Chinese dragon to chase away evil spirits like Nian. The Chinese Dragon is a symbol of power and ambition. It is considered the luckiest sign out of the Chinese symbol.

“We wanted to celebrate the Lunar New Year with the community by sharing the beauty of the Chinese culture through folk and ethnic dances, traditional music, and martial arts,” explained Kan. Kan first joined the NYCCC as a student taking classes in Chinese classical, sword and ethnic dances.” I was invited to perform with the resident company as I had experience in wushu, performance-based Chinese martial arts.” said Kan

The show began with a sword dance with Jason Lee who demonstrated Chinese sword art and sword techniques for the audience. Next dancers Mingjun Han and Shuning Huang performed a ribbon twirling dance called Dunhaung, in the lucky color red. Chinese ribbon dance has been performed in Chinese culture for thousands of years. The dance is enchanting, depicting the gods and the nymphs flying in the sky. It is both philosophical and mythical.

The show had two sessions, and during the second session, participants watched the Northern Lion dance performed by Han and Huang in gold and blue. The Northern Lion Dance is a dance from Northern China. It symbolizes the purpose of the lion is to bring wisdom and luck and is popular for performing at business openings and religious ceremonies. “It was a lot of fun for me to interact with the audience as the lion and hear their joy and laughter while parading around” explained Kan.

The show closed with soloist  Wei Sun , who performed the Guzheng, the traditional Chinese plucking instrumental, which is a hybrid of a violin and guitar. Sun is an artist and teacher of the Guzheng based in New York City. Wearing the lucky color of red, Sun performed an original piece on the Guzheng.

To continue the celebration of the Lunar New Year of the Dragon. The NYCCC will continue to have shows throughout the year. The shows will celebrate AAPI Heritage Month in May and the Mid-Autumn Festival, or the Moon Festival, in September. There will be outdoor programs in the summer and fall participating in different festivals across the tri-state area.

“The message and goal of these shows, as we travel throughout the city is sharing Chinese culture through the arts to promote understanding and appreciation” explained Kan. For information on upcoming events, can be mailed to   info@nychineseculturalcenter.org.

By Charlie Finnerty | cfinnerty@queensledger.com

Tucked away on the corner of Vernon Blvd. and 44th Dr., NYC Bud celebrated its grand opening Friday. Customers flooded through the sliding glass doors into the storefront, modeled after an MTA subway station complete with classic MTA signage, subway cars, MetroCard ticket machine-styled ATMs and even a rat mascot posing for photos.

Owner Jon Paul Pezzo said the theme of the shop was an homage to New York City graffiti culture and a reflection of his time spent riding the subway across the city’s boroughs growing up in Bayside.

“We’re Queens kids, this is our vibe,” Pezzo said. “I was fifteen years old riding the 7 line. My mother thought I was right around the block when I was in downtown Manhattan buying fat caps to go do graffiti on the weekends. We hung out in parks, we drank, we smoked and this is our culture, you know? I feel like kids have lost community with video games and technology. What was once connecting us is disconnecting us now. We wanted to bring the essence of old New York.”

Pezzo said he wants his business to serve every community in surrounding Queens neighborhoods of LIC, Astoria and beyond, with plans to eventually open locations throughout the city.

“Everyone, everyone, everyone,” Pezzo said. “We’re really excited because we feel we’ve built something very different. We want to open stores in every borough. We’re an NYC brand.”

Pezzo said the lengthy licensing process and the challenges of navigating an emerging legal cannabis industry made the opening process especially drawn out and difficult. Competition with black market smoke shops — which do not follow the specific regulations of the legal industry and have proliferated under the state’s bumpy rollout of legalized cannabis — makes opening legal dispensaries especially difficult and costly, according to Pezzo.

“After a long long nightmare of a journey, we’re finally here,” Pezzo said. “Going through the licensing process, waiting, doing all the paperwork — struggling, really. Doing everything the right way while these illegal businesses are opening left and right. They shut them down and they open right up again. For what they put us through to open a business, to have that as an added thing is not really fair. It’s a recipe for disaster.”

Zion Foss is a founding member of Zizzle, a Queens-based cannabis cultivation and lifestyle brand and a featured brand at NYC Bud’s new storefront. Foss grew up in Flushing and founded Zizzle as one of the first legal New York City cannabis brands in the earliest days of legalization.

Foss said he would like to see the state and city support the legal industry by streamlining the licensing process and providing grants or other incentives to promote legal entrepreneurship.

“We need to simplify the process, not so much red tape and regulation,” Foss said. “We’re subject to all this compliance and rigorous testing. It’s overwhelming and capital intensive.”

Jeff North, an LIC native and longtime member of the cannabis horticultural community, said he is excited to see the industry being legalized and businesses taking off.

“I think in general, it’s a great thing to have new business avenues open in New York. We’ve always been a city striving for commerce, so why not take advantage of the commerce of this industry and move it more towards a legal market?”

As an experienced grower and educator in cannabis horticulture, North raised concerns about the growing industry inflating prices artificially for a product he knows is not particularly costly to produce.

“The entire concept that marijuana should cost this much money is absolutely ridiculous,” North said.

Foss said he is excited to see more legal and locally owned storefronts like NYC Bud opening in the city.

“It’s a special grand opening, it’s a special time in cannabis, it’s a special time for all New Yorkers.” Foss said. “We’re providing safe cannabis and I’m proud to be behind that.”