With Chiarina Chen, John Tsung, Siyi Chen, Jiaoyang Li

Guòzǎo (过早), a morning ritual from Hubei, traditionally takes place between 6–9 AM. You rise early, visit bustling breakfast stalls and noisy street corners, and become part of the city’s most vibrant soundscape. Here in New York—12 hours behind Wuhan—we gather from 6–9 PM for a surrealist dialect salon after dusk. A breakfast that haunts the night.

Join us for an evening where food, accent, and noise become language. We’re transforming Creative Time’s East Village office into a sonic archive, a late-night food stall, and an open-mouth choir.

Through the forgotten edges of the Hubei dialect, we gather not to translate, but to tremble—to mispronounce, to echo, to slip. Dialect here is not a code but a diasporic glitch. Expect dialect lessons from Wuhan-born writer and researcher Chiarina Chen; a live sound ritual by John Tsung, Siyi Chen, and Jiaoyang Li, with mic’d tables and poems interwoven from Yu Xiuhua and Qu Yuan. Bowls of 热干面, 蛋酒, and 豆皮 will be served, alongside the clatter of chopsticks transformed into sonic landscapes. The kitchen becomes an orchestra. Breakfast after dusk becomes resistance.

You’ll eat, speak, and listen. Fugitivity lives in the voice that breaks (Fred Moten).

So let it break. Let it boil over. Let it become a song only ghosts can hum.

Accent Dialect Corner is an ongoing program inviting participants to speak in their own dialects and explore subcultures and local restaurants.

Free & open to all. Come hungry. Come noisy.