This is an ode to 88rising and the Head in the Clouds Festival.
Younger me would have never imagined an entire music festival filled with Asian and Asian American artists as a true celebration of culture, identity, and music.
Music Educator, Activist, and Amplifier of Youth Voice
This is an ode to 88rising and the Head in the Clouds Festival.
Younger me would have never imagined an entire music festival filled with Asian and Asian American artists as a true celebration of culture, identity, and music.
BLACK AND ASIAN SOLIDARITY
IS A WARM, GLOWING EMBRACE,
A COMMUNAL SPACE, A RESTING PLACE, WHERE OUR COLLECTIVE STRENGTH IS IN UPPER CASE ALONG A YIN-YANG PENCIL TRACE, FILLED WITH HARMONY AND GRACE.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CZOCsU8sUPV/ As an Asian American, I learned at a young age to suppress my emotions. Whatever I felt did not matter in the bigger context of what my family was doing in order for us to survive in America. I internalized that crying was always weak, and outwardly showing any negative feelings should not happen.ContinueContinue reading “Unlearning emotional suppression”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CY5HjjlMjpq/ 我们是金的。我们是金的。 We are golden.We shine bright with our golden light. Our community shines bright with your light. You shine bright, Michelle Alyssa Go, as you rest in Golden Power. For my entire life I have taken the subway,Turning my head this way, then that wayWho will help if I call out hey, Who will help if someoneContinueContinue reading “As you rest in Golden Power, Michelle Alyssa Go.”
I am an amplifier. I amplify my students in our world, not by “saving my students” nor by “being a voice for the voiceless”, but rather by holding microphones and megaphones to what my students share with me and each other.
The notion of “a single truth” or “the universal truth” is white supremacy at work attempting to silence people of the global majority from sharing their identities, perspectives, and lived experiences for multiple truths to exist.
We each hold multiple truths.
Our lived experiences are truths.
Our identities are truths.
Our cultures are truths.
Decolonize the idea that the question “Where are you from?” must be answered with a geographical location.
We are from what we say we are from, who we say we are from, where we say we are from, and anything we say we are from that is authentic to who we are.
We each have a multiplicity of identities, and we define for our individual selves if and how we want to respond to this question when we inevitably continue to be asked this throughout our lives.
As an Asian American child, I never spoke of myself as someone important, a voice to be heard, or an identity to be seen and valued. I never spoke an affirmation about my identity. In fact, I never knew what an affirmation was until I started teaching affirmations to my students.
None of what I “am” is new.
Close your eyes. Take a moment to envision an American person.
Now open your eyes.
It isn’t me.
Is it you?