Register here!
In the last couple of years (and really, maybe, always), being part of the Asian Diaspora has been a complicated experience for so many of us.
There has been loss, resistance, celebration, and so much more.
We welcome all of it.
We invite you to our fall mini-Jam, a place for those of us who identify as being part of an Asian diaspora to come together to laugh, to cry, to grieve, to heal and to find belonging in these complex times.
For those who are new to the Jam community, this is also an opportunity to receive a small taste of what a Jam is as we move toward a full Asian Diaspora Jam in the coming year.
In the past 20+ years, over 180+ Jams have been organized all over the world, on six continents. Modeled after the spirit of a musicians’ jam, they are co-created spaces of visionaries and change-makers, bringing together many voices, stories, energies, purposes, skills and inspirations to become something more than the sum of our parts.
Come join other change-makers from the Asian diaspora, as we make space to share challenging things and celebratory things and everything in between (unthinkable thoughts are welcome).
It’s a mini-Jam! (get it?)
Register here!
Hosted by a wonderful team of Asian Diaspora Jammers:
Amadeo Cruz Guiao is a transformational consultant and visionary healer who works with organizations and foundations to facilitate change within their organizational culture, operations, and relationships to align with their deepest values. They also help passionate, soul-based changemakers heal and transform their deepest wounds in order to be the magnificent beings they were created to be. With over 20 years of experience supporting progressive organizations and leaders to effect transformative social change, Amadeo has been described by previous clients as a “healer of organizations,” and “a spiritual leader with an MBA.” Their intersectional, intercultural, and equity-based approach is informed by their lived experience as a queer, gender-nonbinary, decolonizing Filipinx-American and child of immigrants.
Anwen Baumeister is a regenerative farmer and is currently creating an urban permaculture farm in San Rafael, CA. She is passionate about food sovereignty and community resilience. She recently graduated from American University, studying International Studies with a focus on food systems. She has spent the past four years working for Rising Sun Energy Center, a green energy youth development non-profit in Berkeley, CA. She recently co-created a tea house in Marin County, fostering a place where community members can connect to each other and to local plants. She is currently studying to be a professional herbalist with the East West School of Planetary Herbology. She spends her time in modern dance classes, leading high schoolers on educational backpacking trips, cooking, yoga, and gathering with her community.
Hyoyoung Minna Kim has found herself back in her home-state of Maryland, after teaching in elementary public schools for six years, in New York City. She has also worked with youth and young adults in other capacities, such as facilitating yoga and mindfulness experiences for teenagers and inquiries of social justice in an undergraduate business course. During her last year in a social work graduate program, she has explored avenues to bridge partnerships with immigrant merchants and residents of disinvested, predominantly Black communities of Baltimore City. Recently, she has initiated an exploration of collective care. She is big believer of radical honesty, body-wisdom, community-driven initiatives, and children’s literature. Last but not least, Minna started getting her Jam on at the 2017 Education Transformation Jam and has since been a part of the planning team for the Wellness and Healing Justice Jam and the Asian Jam – she can’t stop, won’t stop!
Karen B.K. Chan (she/they) is a sex and emotional literacy educator in Toronto, Canada. She is an immigrant from Hong Kong, an only child, and a recovering overworker. She came out as queer at 15, as an aspiring radical at 23, and as pretty happily basic at 42. In the last few years, BK shifted personal priorities from being “good” to being warm, from being right to being more forgiving, and the Jam has played a big part in both. BK works full-time speaking, training, and consulting, and all the time on taking better care of herself. She is also bringing up a magical little jammy toddler with her jam love.
Kazu Haga is the founder and core member of the East Point Peace Academy, is a trainer in Kingian Nonviolence and teaches various aspects of nonviolence, restorative justice and mindfulness. Born in Tokyo, Japan, he has been engaged in social change work since the age of 17, and has played leading roles in various social movements. He works to empower incarcerated communities, young people and activists around the country, is a core member of the Ahimsa Collective and the author of the book, Healing Resistance. He currently resides in Oakland, CA.
LiZhen Wang is an astrologer, facilitator, and food-grower based in Huchiun (Oakland) and Taipei. They have been a counseling astrologer since 2014, and they recently started the Astrology for Social Movements project to bring astrology into conversation with abolition. In addition to research and 1-1 counseling, LiZhen also teaches a 3-month program called ON PURPOSE: An Astrological Discovery of What You’re Here For. It is their life’s delight to listen to the planets — Earth, Moon, and beyond — and to help others tune in as well.
Shilpa Jain is currently rooting herself in Oakland/Berkeley, CA, where she serves as the Executive Director of YES!. YES! works with social changemakers at the meeting point of internal, interpersonal and systemic change, and aims to co-create thriving, just and balanced ways of life for all. Prior to taking on this role, Shilpa spent two years as the Education and Outreach Coordinator of Other Worlds and ten years as a learning activist with Shikshantar: The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking Education and Development, based in Udaipur, India. Shilpa has researched and written numerous books and articles, and facilitated hundreds of workshops, jams and other gatherings in over a dozen countries and on topics including creative expressions, ecology, new economies, and innovative learning and unlearning. She is also co-author of “Connect. Inspire. Collaborate”, a highly sought-after facilitation manual. Shilpa has been using tools like self-awareness, listening, appreciative inquiry, speaking from the heart, eye contact, breathing, and more, to support individuals and communities in reclaiming their own healing powers. She draws a lot of inspiration from her Rajasthani Indian and Jain faith heritage, as well as numerous other sources.