Contact:
Margaret Anne Tockarshewsky, Executive Director, New Haven Museum
203-562-4183, ext. 120, matockarshewsky@newhavenmuseum.org
Julie Winkel, Media Specialist,
203-815-0800, jwinkel@live.com
PMH Summer Season Opens June 4
With Stress-Bending Tai Chi
New Haven, Conn. (May 8, 2023)—A harbinger of summer on the Connecticut coastline, the annual opening of the historic Pardee-Morris House (PMH) will take place on Sunday, June 4, 2023, at noon. The season opens with a welcoming Tai Chi class on the lawn with Shifu Shirley Chock, known on social media as @theStressbender, at 2 p.m. The historic house will be open for free tours from noon to 4 p.m.
The free class will touch on Tai Chi philosophy (such as why being soft and fluid is more powerful than being hard and rigid), and Chock will guide participants through Tai Chi movements to help improve focus, strength, and balance. Participants are asked to wear comfortable clothes and shoes.
Shifu Shirley Chock is the owner and executive director of Aiping Tai Chi. She trained under the guidance of Grandmaster Aiping Cheng since 2001 and was appointed as the school’s assistant director before taking over ownership in 2017. She has led the Aiping Tai Chi competition team to multiple grand championships in national and international competitions, including winning the 2006 U.S. Wushu Union Women’s National Champion title.
She is a certified health qigong instructor under the Chinese Health Qigong Association and International Health Qigong Federation and studied wushu kung fu and mixed martial arts before transitioning to internal martial arts.
She earned an economics degree from the University of Chicago and held a successful career in finance and administration leadership roles prior to taking over Aiping Tai Chi. She was the founding co-chair of Asian Network at Yale, an affinity group for Yale’s Asian heritage employees, and named Working Mother of the Year by Working Mother Magazine and Yale University. She is also a certified corporate wellness specialist.
The New Haven Museum thanks its community partners: WSHU 91.1 FM, Avangrid: Lighting Up the Arts, The Howard Gilman Foundation, CT Humanities, and Alder Salvatore E. DeCola for supporting the 2023 summer season.
About the Pardee-Morris House
Located at 325 Lighthouse Road, in New Haven, the Pardee-Morris House dates from about 1780, and is listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places. Built by Amos Morris around 1750, the house was burned by the British during their raid on New Haven in 1779 and rebuilt and expanded by the Morris family. In 1918, William S. Pardee, a descendant of the Morris family, willed the property to the New Haven Colony Historical Society, today the New Haven Museum. For a complete list of summer events at the Pardee-Morris House, visit: http://newhavenmuseum.org/visit/pardee-morris-house/ For New Haven Museum’s event calendar: http://newhavenmuseum.org/visit/events-calendar/ Sign up for e-blasts at info@newhavenmuseum.org.
About the New Haven Museum
The New Haven Museum, founded in 1862 as the New Haven Colony Historical Society, is located in downtown New Haven at 114 Whitney Avenue. The Museum collects, preserves and interprets the history and heritage of Greater New Haven and through its collections, exhibitions, programs, and outreach brings more than 375 years of the Elm City’s history to life. For more information visit www.newhavenmuseum.org or facebook.com/NewHavenMuseum or call 203-562-4183.
