“There was no Korean Disney princess so I decided to make my own,” says 22-year-old Korean American Harvard University student Julia Riew. She wrote “Shimcheong: A Folktale” — a full-length musical inspired by the Korean folktale, “The Blind Man’s Daughter” — as her senior thesis! Since releasing excerpts on TikTok in January 2022, she has …Read More
Category: Video
Zen Koan ~ Dealing with Uncertainty
“What is the sound of one hand clapping?” ~ Zen Koan When I hear a question, I look for an answer. In fact, I look for the one correct, rational, and logical answer. My brain goes into spasms when there is more than one correct answer. My brain goes into mush if there is no …Read More
Psych Ward
“Clunk.” The second set of double doors automatically locked behind me with an audible delayed electric thud. I looked up at the clerk at the nursing station. A sudden irrational fear went through my mind, “What if she doesn’t recognize me on the way out?” I’m a medical student, and this is a psyche ward. …Read More
Thick and Thin Stories
What are the stories that you are telling yourself? Does your inner voice tell you that you can or that you can’t? Lani Peterson is a story coach and workshop leader. She refers to limiting stories as “thin stories.” These stories are too thin to hold all of who you are. How can you create …Read More
Story Factor ~ Annette Simmons
“People don’t want more information. They are up to their eyeballs in information. They want faith—faith in you, your goals, your success, in the story you tell.” ~ Annette Simmons, The Story Factor: Inspiration, Influence, and Persuasion through the Art of Storytelling The objective thinkers are looking for cold hard facts, bullet points, and numbers. …Read More
Finding Ourselves in America: Asian American Voices
“Go back to where you came from!” Imagine how it feels for someone to tell you that you do not belong to the place that you call home. When I was in school, the social studies teacher taught that America was a melting pot of cultures. What did we have in common? Perhaps, the ideals …Read More
Belonging – Asian American Voices
A friend once asked my dad, “Where do you consider home?” I was having a birthday party at my house. There were people gathered in small groups scattered around the house–eating, laughing and chatting. I was just in earshot to hear my dad. I leaned in, anxious to hear what he would say. We are …Read More
Asian American Storytopia
A Message from Asian American Storytellers in Unity (AASIU): Last year, when the world shut down and anti-Asian violence increased, a group of Asian American storytellers began meeting weekly to provide support and friendship to its members. From this beginning, Asian American Storytellers in Unity grew into a collective whose mission is to promote and …Read More
The Lost Words Blessing
Enter the wild with care, my loveAnd speak the things you seeLet new names take and root and thrive and growAnd even as you travel far from heather, crag and riverMay you like the little fisher, set the stream alight with glitterMay you enter now as otter without falter into water Look to the sky …Read More
Coat of Many Colors ~ Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton grew up in a two-room house with her “momma and daddy” and 11 other siblings. In the backcountry of Tennessee, she will tell you that they had running water… they had to “run and get it.” From the poverty of her early life, you will find the riches of her songs that tell …Read More