Back to the Exhibit Page
The Storytellers
Double click on a name to go directly to a story. Once you click you’ll be directed to a “request access” page.
Amy Pollard, Maria Fong, Michael Mooke Manalili, Kathy Wu, Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro, Tamiko Beyer, Christine Hiu-Tung Chen, Michael A. Rosegrant, JennyMae Kho, Nikki Abeleda & Michael Mookie Manalili, Mei-Mei Ellerman
Amy Pollard
Storyteller Artist Biography
Amy Pollard is a poet based in Boston and originally from Seattle. Her poetry explores themes such as belonging and loss. She currently works in communications. Before that, she completed a MA in International Relations and Communications at Boston University and interned in newsrooms ranging from Slate to WBUR 90.9 FM. Follow her poetry on Instagram @aaxprn or her random Twitter musings @amyannexu.
Storyteller Artist Statement
As a poet, I don’t typically describe my work because I prefer to leave it to the reader’s imagination. But this one is deeply personal, stemming from my experience as a transracial adoptee. I count traditional food among the many losses I’ve experienced—these losses include my birthday, family health history and generational stories, not to mention my biological family. I often feel I have no elders or ancestors to call upon to help me through life or to teach me the simplest of tasks, such as making dumplings.
For me, adoption is about never truly belonging—feeling marginalized in both white and Asian American spaces. We experience racism in white spaces. Then we are told that we’re not Asian enough in Asian spaces. I don’t mean to equate these two things, as white supremacy is responsible for internalized racism. But it nonetheless leaves many of us feeling lost, through no fault of our own. To make matters worse, we are expected to be grateful—an expectation underscored by white saviorism.
Reclaiming my identity means rejecting the “grateful adoptee” narrative. It means accepting that my adoption is a product of trauma, abandonment and family separation that can have lifelong effects. And it means challenging the boundaries of identity—Asian America is not a monolith and cultural gatekeeping must end.
As Asian Americans, we must dismantle the internalized racism—configured by white supremacy and anti-Blackness—within ourselves. We must learn to radically love ourselves and each other. If you’re an adoptee reading this, know that you are not alone—there is a growing community of adult adoptees and we are here for you.
Maria Fong
Storyteller Artist Biography
Maria Fong is an artist from Berkeley, California. This fall, she will enter her fourth year in the BFA program at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. Maria works in hand drawn and stop motion animation, drawing, performance art, and bookmaking. She is dedicated to making work that tells silenced stories and fosters interaction between people. Her collaborative artworks explore racialized and politicized spaces, community building, and expansive Asian American identities.
Storyteller Artist Statement
I make art that requires or precipitates some kind of interaction between people. Through zines, mail art drawings, animations, installations, and performances, I connect people by sharing stories, lived realities. Creating and communicating in the face of silencing and homogenizing is an act of resistance. By combining text and image I am able to communicate in multifaceted ways.
I want to bring joy and playfulness to create an exchange between viewers or between artist and participant. I’m inspired by public artists who upend gallery norms to create interventions that involve people outside of a museum context. I make work that is welcoming enough to be touched and played with. Relying on the language of childhood and toys, I’ve experimented with puzzles, mail art, doll clothes, and books/zines. I use reclaimed or everyday materials like cardboard, magazines, and ubiquitous computer paper to make my art accessible and not too precious to manipulate.
I frequently collect images by people who may or may not identify as artists, but who have some relationship with each other. I compile them through animation morphs or replacement animation, artist books, community magazines, and photo series. Following a history of ambiguous authorship in public art, I hope this practice empowers people to join in the making.
Michael Mooke Manalili
Storyteller Artist Biography
Like the trees during different seasons in time, I guess I wear a lot of titles right now.
Currently, I’m a psychotherapist in a private practice, certified personal trainer, research assistant in a social neuroscience lab, and co-chair of a psychological humanities group.
However, I’m just a Filipino-immigrant kid from LA, trying to leave the world better than it was handed to me, with whatever days I am gifted still.
Storyteller Artist Statement
A storyteller w/ the curiosity of a therapist, reasoning of a researcher, belief of a theologian, and hustle of a Filipino-immigrant kid from LA.
At the end of the day, I hope to echo forth Truths more ancient than me – and pass down this earth better to the next generations – through my narratives, embedded in my deeds, words, and very life.
Kathy Wu
Storyteller Artist Biography
Kathy Wu is a Massachusetts raised, 2nd generation Chinese-American person. Her parents immigrated from China in the ’80s in order to design the circuit schematics that are probably in your phone, and to give birth to American children. She grew up under the tightly bound regimens of Bach, Beethoven, math, drawing, and did not go to Harvard. She instead got her BFA in Graphic Design from Rhode Island School of Design and now is a tech worker like her parents. She currently works at an educational nonprofit in Chinatown.
Storyteller Artist Statement
In my work, I’m interested in exploring dialogues across migration stories and labor spaces. I often reflect on my position as a class-privileged Chinese American art-maker, caught between romanticized narratives of Chinatowns and—by contrast—my own lived experience within tech work, economic mobility, and SAT-obsessed high schools.
What it means for my parents to transcend labor into what American capitalism brands as “career”? Whose working immigrant bodies do we value through our language?
Fabric, softness, anonymity, and invisibility of domestic work are key interests in my work. My grandparents, who co-raised me, spent a lot of time living through fabric. Throughout their lives, they were only ever considered workers, never artists. In China, they sewed clothing for a living, or stripped and re-sewed hotel duvets, again and again. I’m interested in exploring these questions: How does some work become rendered invisible? Why are some people considered artists, and others workers?
Sometimes I find myself a tourist within my extended family’s own cultural or class experience. In the broader Chinese diaspora, I feel sensitive to moments when way race unifies across class, and create moments of the familiar.
Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro
Storyteller Artist Biography
I earlier submitted my theatrical narrative, “Asian/American in Harvard Square: Three Snapshots.” I have since added a fourth mini-play/narrative so my submission is now “Asian/American in Harvard Square: Four Snapshots.” I know several Asian and white actors in the Boston area who would be willing to play the roles.
My plays have been produced by many theaters, including the Huntington, Pan Asian Rep, East West Players, the Magic Theater, and the Underground Railway. My short stories have been published in the Harvard Advocate, the Boston Globe, the Antigonish Review, the Capilano Review, and Descant.
Storyteller Artist Statement
I have written all my adult life, moving from short stories to plays. As a Japanese American in my 80’s I am increasingly interested in Asian American issues and the onslaught of old age.
Tamiko Beyer
Storyteller Artist Biography
Tamiko Beyer is a poet and social-justice-communications writer and strategist. She is the author of two collections of poetry, Last Days (Alice James Books, 2021), We Come Elemental (Alice James Books, 2013). She publishes Starlight & Strategy, a monthly newsletter for living life wide awake and shaping change. She has received awards, fellowships, and residencies from PEN America, Kundiman, Hedgebrook, VONA, and the Astraea Lesbian Writers Fund, among others. Photo credit: Jenny Bergman
Storyteller Artist Statement
My racial identity is complex and ever evolving. My mother is a third-generation Japanese American, and my father is a white American. I was born in the U.S., but spent my childhood in Japan. We moved back to the U.S. when I was almost 12. For my parents, this was returning home. For me, it was a move to a foriegn country, but one which I “belonged” to. This poem explores the complexity of understanding myself as a queer, mixed race, cisgender woman in a country that is, but will never quite be, “home” to me.
Christine Hiu-Tung Chen
Storyteller Artist Biography
Christine Hiu-Tung Chen was born in Hong Kong and raised in Madagascar before moving to the United States where she currently resides in the Greater Boston Area. Prior to embracing her creative life, she worked as a research chemist in oncology for a pharmaceutical company. She is fluent in French, can speak Cantonese, and writes fiction only in English. She is a 2020 winner in the Boston in 100 Words writing contest.
Storyteller Artist Statement
In my writing, I attempt to capture the traumatic memories that are passed down from mother to daughter and the identity struggle of pluricultural immigrants.
Michael A. Rosegrant
Storyteller Artist Biography
Michael A. Rosegrant (they/them) is a poet/community organizer who descends from Philippine islands and “American” farmlands. They sing for their ancestors—blood and otherwise—who could not. They co-founded Asian American Theatre Artists of Boston and serve on the steering committee of Boston’s Asian Pacific Islander Arts Network. They also serve on StageSource’s Board Advisory Council, where they work to advance gender inclusion in New England Theatre. Performance credits include Akeelah and the Bee (Arena Stage) and shows at Boston University. Assistant Directing credits include Sara Porkalob’s Dragon Cycle at American Repertory Theater. As a writer, Rosegrant performs their spoken word in communities across the Boston area including BCYF Grove Hall Senior Center, Hibernian Hall, and UMass Boston; their poems are published/forthcoming in The Wave and Marías at Sampaguitas; their plays have been produced by MaArte Theatre Collective and developed by Boston University, where he is pursuing a BFA in Theatre Arts with a concentration in Sociology. twitter/ig: @michael_arose
Storyteller Artist Statement
Michael A. Rosegrant tells stories from the crossroads/intersections/spirals of space and time to manifest worlds through words. Urgently driven by communing with ancestors, they make art through excavation. As a descendent of transmuted/erased/colonized histories, Rosegrant stares at the blood and bones of memory; of their/our history; of how we have come to see ourselves and each other in order to imagine futures centered in vulnerability, community, and a radical tethering to time (where we have been and where we can be). Through theatre (ANG UNANG PINYA AT KAALAMANG-BAYAN), poetry (MY ISLAND OF MANY GODS), and teaching, they explore language as a site of reclamation and possibility. And in community organizing and education, Rosegrant works to invoke communities’ individual abilities to forge narrative autonomy through storytelling.
JennyMae Kho
Storyteller Artist Biography
JennyMae Kho (they/them/theirs) is a Boston-based writer, musician, multidisciplinary artist, and founder of The Dreamland Project, a multi-media vehicle that elevates the stories of the unheard and underrepresented. Their work explores the intersections of science, art, imagination, and identity. They have experimented across a range of mediums, and have brought together image, sound, and language in installations, projections, and compositions.
JennyMae is currently exploring decolonization, indigenization, and the reclamation of cultural identity in the face of internalized oppression. They are also interested in how shared experiences can contribute to the development of greater empathy. JennyMae attended Emerson College for an MFA in Creative Nonfiction.
Storyteller Artist Statement
I believe in connections between all things—even the most seemingly disparate notions have some thread that binds them together. In my work, I look for these connections and attempt to bring them into awareness. By doing so, I seek to challenge perceived boundaries and deconstruct the fixed definitions imposed upon us by others or even ourselves.
My physical work tends toward the immersive and interactive, utilizing color, light, and music to elicit an emotional response. Ideas that stir our hearts are the ones that remain with us, making good art the perfect vehicle for change. Good art erases the boundaries between the viewer and the work, showing us that we are one and the same.
Nikki Abeleda & Michael Mookie Manalili
Storyteller Artist Biographies
Nikki Abeleda: (She/They/Siya/Sila Pronouns) originates from Sacramento, CA and is a first-eneration queer Filipinx. She obtained her Masters degree from the Boston College School of Social Work with a concentration in Clinical Mental Health. Additionally, Nikki is a community organizer and advocate serving Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), especially Trans and Queer people.
Michael Mookie Manalili: Currently, I’m a psychotherapist in a private practice, certified personal trainer, research assistant in a social neuroscience lab, and co-chair of a psychological humanities group. However, I’m just a Filipino-immigrant kid from LA, trying to leave the world better than it was handed to me, with whatever days I am gifted still.
Storyteller Artist Statements
Nikki: Story telling, art, poetry, and music are ways that I find a path to healing. It is empowering to be able to utilize personal narratives to uplift Asian diasporas and identities. Keep creating and sharing with one another.
Mookie: A storyteller w/ the curiosity of a therapist, reasoning of a researcher, belief of a theologian, and hustle of a Filipino-immigrant kid from LA. At the end of the day, I hope to echo forth Truths more ancient than me – and pass down this earth better to the next generations – through my narratives, embedded in my deeds, words, and very life.
Mei-Mei Ellerman
Storyteller Artist Biography
Born and adopted in the United States, Mei-Mei Ellerman holds a PhD from Harvard. She studied at Boston University, the University of Geneva, and the Liceo Classico Michelangelo in Florence. Though born in NYC, she spent most of her formative years in Europe from age 9-22, attending all public schools in France, Italy and Switzerland. She considers herself a world citizen.
After teaching Italian literature and cinema for three decades at Boston area institutions, Mei-Mei now focuses on research, writing, social activism and reiki practice. She is a scholar at the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center where she pursues her combined interests.
A founding board director of the Polaris Project [leading anti-human trafficking organization in the US], as emerita, Mei-Mei remains deeply committed to combating modern-day slavery, nationally and internationally.
Co-founder of the AnYa Project, A Literary Lifting of Adoptee Voices, she has co-edited and contributed to four anthologies published to date.
Mei-Mei is also Co-founder of “Chinese Adoptee Links International and Global Generations” and of the “ChineseAdoptee.Blogspot.com.”
Recent participation in Adoption conferences has led to increased involvement in the fight against fraudulent adoption practices and for universal access to their personal records by all adopted individuals.
Mei-Mei is currently working on two memoirs that have involved worldwide research and travel. “Circles of Healing, Circles of Love: A Labyrinthine Journey in Search of Connection,” the daunting 27-year-long quest for her Chinese biological origins, has led her to China six times as she has painstakingly unraveled the mystery surrounding her birth. “In Pursuit of Images and Shadows: A Chinese Daughter Delves into Her (Adoptive) Mother’s Past,” is a cultural biography covering 160 years of her bi-racial adoptive family history and discoveries made in the course of years of global research.Travels to Denmark, France, China, Thailand, Korea, and Australia among other destinations, have allowed the author to solve long-held family secrets and reassess vital aspects of her Danish grandfather’s career (Commissioner for over 40 years of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, and Danish Ambassador to China). They have also yielded the keys to unlock the mystifying past of her Chinese grandmother.
Storyteller Artist Statement
A brief account of my decades-long search for identity and belonging.
Though I still consider myself a world citizen, having lived in many countries I consider “home,” it was only by attempting to weave together the endless threads of my families’ tapestry (adoptive and biological), that I developed a full sense of my identity.
According to my Maman, grandfather use to say, “Wherever you hang your hat is Home.” That is how she felt as she spent decades living on different continents until she gently slipped away at the age of 94. I followed in both their footsteps, and never felt out of place, no matter what the country, even if I didn’t speak the language. And yet, did I fully belong? Was I able to close my eyes and feel that I was surrounded by “my people?”