My Story Our Future: South Asian American Voices of Connecticut
One of Maum’s core offerings is Narrative, Arts, and Cultural Change. Our offering is based on Founding Director Dr. Terry K Park’s more than twenty-five years of training, expertise, and experience as a Shakespearean-trained actor, off-Broadway performance artist, community-engaged oral historian, peer reviewed-published Performance Studies scholar, and volunteer Executive Director of a national, award-winning magazine on Asian American arts, culture, and politics. In short, social change storytelling has pulsated through Dr. Park’s work as an actor, activist, and educator, and it now flows through Maum’s heart.
That’s why, as one of three activists-in-residence at UConn’s Asian and Asian American Studies Institute (AAASI), Dr. Park is thrilled to be the lead facilitator of a groundbreaking storytelling project—My Story Our Future: South Asian American Youth Voices of Connecticut. In partnership with the India Cultural Center in Greenwich, CT, the Greenwich Historical Society, and designed by AAASI’s director Dr. Jason Chang, My Story Our Future invites over twenty South Asian American middle school and high school students to explore their identities as South Asian American youth in the Nutmeg State. Through a series of virtual and in-person workshops comprised of presentations, assigned readings and videos, social-emotional learning (SEL) activities, family migration maps, discussions, guest talks, and lessons on community-engaged oral history best ethics and practices, the youth participants will conduct several oral history interviews of their South Asian family members about their histories, their challenges, and their triumphs. Through these interviews and the workshop materials, the participants will gain a deeper, more critical understanding of how their individual lives have been shaped by a larger constellation of families, ancestors, social histories, and contemporary forces. In short, they’ll be guided by the Ethnic Studies ethos of “K(no)w History, K(no)w Self.” These “stories of us” will inform the participant’s “story of I,'" which will be presented to the public on December 18th at the Greenwich Historical Society.
The youth participants will also have the opportunity to participate in a GHS-led curatorial workshop. They’ll learn how to install an exhibit of their own stories, which will be showcased at GHS.
Just as importantly, MSOF’s participant stories and family-based oral history interviews will help contribute to Connecticut’s mandated K-12 Asian American/Pacific Islander curriculum. The curriculum's goal is to teach the histories and contributions of AAPIs to the economic, cultural, social, and political development of Connecticut and the U.S. Stories of the lived experiences of all AA/PIs, including South Asians, will help Connecticut’s public school students have a richer, more intimate understanding of what it means to be Asian American and Pacific Islander. MSOF will play an important role in this significant project to make Connecticut a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive state for all.
There is also the possibility that some of the stories and oral histories will get archived at South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA). SAADA is a community-based culture change organization ensuring that South Asian Americans are included in the American story: past, present, and future.
MSOF started on August 28th with a kick-off event led by Dr. Chang and Dr. Park facilitated the following virtual meeting. In addition to facilitating all virtual meetings, Dr. Park will also travel to Greenwich to facilitate the in-person workshop on October 16th. For those in the Greenwich, CT area, we hope you’ll join Maum, its MSOF partners, and the youth participants and their families at the celebratory presentation on December 16th.
For those interested in receiving assistance for their own high-impact, community-engaged storytelling projects and other narrative change services, we invite you to schedule a free 30-minute consultation with Maum Consulting.
