(flier designed by Jennifer Huei-Fen Lin)

Alisa Le

Alisa loves photography and art.

Sheila Nguyen

Sheila spends her time doing what is dear to her, which is writing.  She uses this method to express her individuality and way of thinking.  “I feel great when I am able to present my work, because I feel like I can give a piece of myself to others.”

Dan Chu

Dan Chu grew up in Vault 101.  At the age of 18, he left this nuclear fallout shelter to become an MIT graduate with a Ph.D.  When aliens invaded, he became a hero among the human ranks.  Later, after finishing a tour as a space marine, he became a writer.

Just kidding, Dan Chu is an ordinary 15 year old and a writer.

Evy Tran

Evy is sixteen years old and a senior at Everett High School.  “I love to play videogames.  My current addiction is Starcraft II.  If I could have any job in the world, I’d like to be a food critic.  Food is the love of my life.  It makes me happy.  My goal in life is to motivate others.  I want to help anyone who needs help.  I hope that someday there should be no more violence in this world but I know that would be difficult to achieve.  But at the very least I try to spread awareness and help those who seek help.” 

“There’s more than meets the eye.”

John Pham

John Pham was born in Dorchester, MA.  He attends Boston Latin School and wishes to become more involved in anti-violence.  He likes raps and poems and is inspired to write more of both.  But the thing he wants to do the most is open people’s eyes to the racism, sexism, inequality and injustice in the world.

John Truong

John Truong is a martial artist who kicks, punches, and flips from the art of Vovinam Việt Võ Đạo.  “Blue Eyes,” no not the Yu Gi Oh card Blue Eyes White Dragon, but rather the Vovinam Việt Võ Đạo’s lion dance of Massachusetts, is what he trains day by day.

Sozi Nguyen

Sozi is currently a senior at Boston Arts Academy.  She loves music and photography.  She’s funny and always makes everyone laugh.

A California native, VyVy Trinh dreams of changing the world through both art and science, harboring ambitions to become a writer and a pediatrician in global health. She wants to touch human life with her hands and to write down every story she finds along the way.

As an artist, VyVy focuses mainly on fiction and creative nonfiction. A profound lover of history, she believes one of the most powerful ways to narrate political events is through the telling of individual stories. As the daughter of Vietnamese refugees, she sets many of her stories within this diaspora but hopes to tell something universally human.

A current student at Brown University, VyVy is an activist at heart and commits as much of her spare time as possible to creating social change. She recently served as a head organizer for Home for the Holla Days, a benefit concert for Vietnamese girls at risk of human trafficking, featuring the Boston Progress house band.

 (flier designed by erin collins) 

Payal Sharma is a youth worker dancing crazy moves through the world, in truth love and light: REBEL WITH A CAUSE! She has been doing high school youth work, programming, and leadership development for over 7 years and has loved every minute of it.

Aside from her work, Payal is a 1st-generation South Asian-American, proud of her Indian/Desi roots. She thrives on dance and anything else the world offers her – give her a beat, and she’ll be moving. This is her first feature, but she’s been in a committed relationship with pen and paper for years.

Payal truly loves life, and her community is insanely important to her. She surrounds herself with people who look to change this world for the better and won’t settle for less. If you meet her, you’ll know that Payal moves through this world with love-dipped, love-tipped, love-stained fingers, touching everything in her path and leaving lasting marks. 

Asian American Studies 420 is a class at UMass Boston that focuses on storytelling production and performance, taught by the poet and community organizer Giles Li. Many of the students are local artists and community workers, and these experiences influence many of their pieces. They developed their pieces over the course of the fall semester, and are now presenting their finest work to the community.

Featured performers will include: Abel Cano, Molly Higgins, Chu Huang, Sonca Lam, Laurence Louie, Rich Sann, and Matt Seto