On a typical day, the Oriental Store of Raleigh sees patrons milling between shelves to shop for bags of rice, snacks, canned fish, soy sauce, and other pan-Asian grocery items. Folks will also stop at its popular lunch counter, Filipino Express, to order lumpia, chicken adobo, pancit, and other Filipino dishes.
But on Thursday night, the small grocery became host to dozens of people who crammed into the dining space of Filipino Express to watch, of all things, a stand-up comedy show. Comedian Jenny Yang, wearing a large necktie adorned with pins and a flowing translucent yellow dress over a button-down shirt and shorts, made her entrance by throwing bags of chips into the crowd.
“An immigrant grocery store is the heart of our communities,” she said to the crowd. “Sadly, it is where a lot of our immigrant communities didn’t feel safe to come out to during any sort of ICE activity.”…