Tag Archives: Somewhere Between

A Conversation Between Jenni Fang Lee and Aselefech Evans

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Update: Here’s the YouTube link for the conversation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDC3NlSI60I&feature=share

Save the Date–December 9, 9pm edt

Google+ Hangout

An Adoptee Conversation

Join Cindy Rasicot, MFT,  of the wonderful blog Talking Heart to Heart, and me on Monday, December 9, at 9pm eastern (6pm pacific) for a conversation between Jenni Fang Lee and Aselefech Evans.

Aselefech Evans and Jenni Fang Lee

Aselefech Evans and Jenni Fang Lee

Jenni Fang Lee was adopted from China when she was 5 years old, and raised in Berkeley, California. She is one of the young women featured in the acclaimed documentary Somewhere Between, and is now studying sociology and economics at Mt. Holyoke College in Massachusetts. She returns to China each summer to volunteer at an orphanage, and has created a start-up designed to teach Mandarin and Chinese culture to Chinese adoptees and their families. According to her blog fangtopia.wordpress.com, Jenni’s passions lie in both entrepreneurship and non-profit work, specifically directed towards women and children.

Aselefech Evans was adopted from Ethiopia, along with her twin sister Adanech, when she was 6 years old. Like Jenni, she is a columnist for Gazillion Voices. Aselefech has presented numerous workshops and webinars about transracial adoption, racial identity,  hair care for adopted African-American children, her search for and reunion with her Ethiopian family, and more. She is a candidate for a BSW at Bowie State University in Maryland, and plans to go on for her master’s in social work, potentially working in post-adoption services.

Aselefech and Jenni met recently in person at the adoptee-led, adoptee-centric conference “Reframing the Adoption Discourse” held in Minnesota. Both young women share much in common, and also have had distinct differences growing up as transracial adoptees in the US. This will be a fascinating discussion.

Cindy and I are looking forward very much to hosting this conversation. Please plan to join us.

I’ll be posting more details soon as to how to join the Hangout. In the meantime, please save the date.

We will be recording the conversation and posting it on YouTube as well!

Adoptee-Focused: Minnesota Transracial Film Festival Tonight!

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It’s a sunny. brisk day here in St. Paul, Minnesota. And while Aselefech and I will indeed visit the Mall of America, we are here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes primarily to attend the Minnesota Transracial Film Festival tonight, and then tomorrow, the first adoptee-led, adoptee-focused conference ever: Reframing the Adoption Discourse.

Info about the Film Festival program (including clips) is here.

Here’s the lineup for tonight. Click on the film title for more information about each film.

Memory of Forgotten War 
Directed and Produced by Ramsay Liem and Deann Borshay Liem
Short, 37 minutes
2013

Where Are You Going, Thomas?
Film by Jaikyoung Choi
Short, 30 minutes
2012

Searching for Go-Hyang 
Directed and Produced by Tammy Chu (Tolle)
Co-Producer: Una Kim
Short, 31 minutes
1998

PANEL DISCUSSION featuring Deann Borshay Liem and Ramsay Liem, Angela and Bryan Tucker, Thomas Park Clement, Dawn Tomlinson, Jenni Fang Lee

CLOSURE
Directed and Produced by Bryan Tucker
Feature, 73 minutes
2012

The first 3 are related to Korean adoption, and the last is about US adoption. All are examinations of the impact of transracial adoptions. (Note: I’ve written about Closure here. I’m a big fan of this amazing, beautifully done documentary.)

I’m looking forward to watching all these films, and I’m especially interested in the panel which includes the filmmakers and subjects of the films. Jenni Fang Lee is a panelist; she was in the acclaimed documentary Somewhere Between.

Follow the Film Festival on Twitter at #MNTRFF and tomorrow’s conference at #APRC2013.

Listening, Learning, Honoring, Understanding: Many Voices

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Public Radio International did a great interview with three writer/activists from Gazillion Voices, the new on-line adoptee-led magazine that debuted in August.

In the PRI interview, Kevin Haeboom Vollmers, Laura Klunder, and Shannon Gibney speak about being adopted, as well as about race, identity, and responsibility. Read about and listen to the PRI interview here.

Volume 3 of Gazillion Voices, the first adoptee-centric, adoptee-led, on-line magazine came out today, Wednesday, October 2, in honor of my granddaughter’s birthday.

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Well, no. I’m just exercising my grandmother prerogative here by posting that excellent photo. Z is not adopted, by the way; her mother, her aunt, and her uncles are. She has grandparents here in the US and in Ethiopia; she has an Ethiopian uncle in Seattle. She is surrounded by family who maybe don’t fit in neat boxes but who treasure her.

Gazillion Voices came out today in honor of Gandhi’s birthday, also October 2 (1869).

Well, no. Just a delightful coincidence, all of it.

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Still, it’s all pretty great, and a sign from the universe of an intriguing convergence. This month’s Gazillion Voices includes a powerful guest post by Lee Herrick titled “A Certain Shape of Home: Notes on How I Became a Poet,” “Imaginations of My Mother” by Jenni Fang Lee (LGA columnist; if you saw the documentary “Somewhere Between,” you saw Jenn/Fang’s story), a podcast with Dr. Jane Aronson (The Orphan Doctor), and many other fascinating articles and features.

Go read, comment, enjoy, be challenged, spark a conversation.

In the adoption community, we need to keep talking, listening, honoring, and learning.