Charles “Charlie” Lai, a life-long Chinatown resident and community organizer, began working at the Basement Workshop in the 1970s. While running the summer youth employment program from ’76-’78, he and fellow Workshop member Jack Tchen began talking about the next steps of their community organizing goals. From these conversations, Lai and Tchen began formulating the basis for the New York Chinatown History Project – an organization dedicated to documenting and centering the dynamic communities of New York, especially the working class, through a dialogic approach.
By 1979, Lai and Tchen moved the materials of Basement’s Asian American Resource Center to their first space on East Broadway and began recruiting staff, salvaging the remnants of Chinatown’s history from the streets, and gathering oral histories in the community. Lai and Tchen’s Project’s first exhibition, Eight Pound Livelihood, would cement the Project’s mission and place in the community, as well as become a touchstone for executing future projects and exhibitions. Charlie Lai served two terms as the Executive Director of MOCA (1986-1989 and 2003-2009), focusing in his second term on the capital campaign for MOCA’s new permanent space at 215 Centre Street.
黎重旺，一位资深的唐人街居民和社区组织者，在上个世纪70年代开始在地下室工作坊工作。在1976年到1978年主持夏季青年就业计划的同时，他和工作坊的成员陈国维开始讨论他们社区组织目标的下一步计划。讨论中，黎先生和陈先生开始着手创建纽约唐人街历史项目（New York Chinatown History Project) 的基础工作——该组织致力于记录并关注纽约不断发展的社区历史，尤其是工人阶级的，通常以对话的方式采集口述历史。
到了1979年，黎先生和陈先生将地下室工作坊的亚裔美国人资源中心的档案材料移交到他们所创建的纽约唐人街历史项目位于东百老汇的第一个场地，并开始招募员工。他们从街道上挽救唐人街的历史遗迹，并在社区里采集口述历史。黎先生和陈先生项目的第一个展览，“八磅生涯”(Eight Pound Livelihood) ，巩固了该项目在华人社区的使命和地位，并成为了开展未来项目和展览的试金石。黎重旺分别在1986-1989和2003-2009期间担任了MOCA两个任期的执行总监，并在第二任期内，将工作重点集中在MOCA位于中央街215号（215 Centre Street）开设新馆址的资本筹集活动上。
Countdown to the TCS NYC Marathon on November 3, 2019: 216 Days.
2019年是美国第一条横贯大陆铁路建成150周年，为了纪念第一批华人来美建设这条铁路所做出的巨大贡献， MOCA将其2019 TCS NYC Marathon的活动命名为 MOCA Spike 150 – Running Forward With Our Stories！ 鼓励大家通过马拉松公益跑，全国线上接力，以及一天一个故事的方式讲述150个华人的历史故事，敬请大家持续关注， 讲出华人自己的故事，回顾过去，立足现在，展望未来，共同书写美国历史，使之更加充实完整。