Tearoom Chika is hard to find. Hidden beneath the thud and wail of a jazz club; tucked inside a dilapidated former opium lounge; cats gather amid bunky crates and reed blinds for Cha-No-Yu.
The year is 1930, and between the “Gentleman’s Agreement,” the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Immigration Act of 1924, and the so called “Mexican Repatriation,” raids round up people based on color or otherwise affiliation. Businesses are closed, families are sent south on locked rail cars. Feels like the world is slipping into the insanity of revolution or police state... save in spots like Tearoom Chika. Breathe easily, you’re in the floating world. In this low place, you can be blue or whatever color. Don’t sink in your sorrows, “float, like a dry gourd” on a river of booze. Crawl into the hut and sip matcha, that most differentiating green elixir of fresh leaves, and jive to a deeper beat.
As the famous Japanese homeless man Ryokan once said:
Ura o mise. The hidden is shown.
Omote o misete. The front, show me.
Chiru momiji. Falling maple leaf.
Underland is beyond thrilled to be hosting this new riff on a Japanese tea ceremony. This interactive, sensory experience will delight you, immersive you in culture, and engage your senses of taste and touch. It's also the opening salvo in a new collaboration...
Underland is a new immersive club and incubator by Epic Immersive: a new home for experimental, experiential creations in the San Francisco Bay with a focus on elevating artists from underrepresented backgrounds and changing the face of the industry.
Underland immersive space grants to women, queer artists, and artists color -- giving artists without adequate representation the space to explore, develop new work, and tell stories that are too often unheard.
Club members pay $25/month and get exclusive access to new experiences and experiments at below market rates ($15-$55).
Tearoom Chika (地下): An Immersive Experience is available exclusively to Underland members. To join, enter your name here and our Membership Concierge will be in touch to get you started!
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