The Ciba Punch 女拳手打糍粑

Time: 7:30pm - 9pm, Thursday, December 11, 2025

Location: Speyer Hall, Performance Project at University Settlement, 184 Eldridge St

The Ciba Punch 女拳手打糍粑 is a public performance series that invites community members to punch steamed sticky rice into rice cakes. Ciba is a kind of Chinese rice cake that is eaten with brown sugar and other dips. In bringing this food-making process to the public, we hope to reclaim the feminized labor of cooking in domestic spaces and foster cross-cultural connections and movement building. Spiritual Figures, led by Julia Santoli, symbolize queer feminist ancestors and our future selves. They will roam around the punchers to provide sonic, somatic, and spiritual guidance.

In the spirit of queer/feminist ethics of care, we invite you to bring your grief, rage, love, and hope -- and transform them into food that nourishes our community. Let's punch!

Notes:

1) We will send any updates to your email address, so please make sure to fill out your regular email account. You can DM us on Instagram @caocollective or email caocollective@gmail.com if you have any questions.

2) Please note that although we try to follow sanitary procedures, we are not qualified to serve the ciba as food, and please consume at your own risk.

3) RSVP is not required but highly encouraged so we can prepare proper amount of sticky rice. You are also welcome to bring steamed/cooked sticky rice as an offering.

4) To ensure the health and safety of our community, we require that participants wear a face mask (KN94/95 and higher quality preferred) and use sanitation gloves when punching. We will provide masks and gloves.

5) Please note that this public program will be photographed and video recorded.

Acknowledgement: This program is funded by the 2025 Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) Creative Engagement Grant and received partial support from The Performance Project @University Settlement.

About the artists/organizers

CAO Collective 离离草

CAO Collective creates art to empower relational community healing. Their works investigate systems of discipline, control, censorship, and capitalist extraction and reimagine memory/memorials, rituals, intimacy, and queer/feminist kinship to (re)build sustainable community infrastructures.

@caocollective / caocollective.com

Julia Santoli

Julia Santoli is a Vietnamese-American multi-disciplinary artist, musician, composer, and music organizer. Santoli creates immersive and precarious environments with voice, feedback, electronics, and installation.

@ilotnasailuj / https://www.juliasantoli.net/

Clothing Design by Qile Sun.