Bright & Beautiful Newsletter
Happy New Beginnings From Mia Park
Happy New Year! I hope your 2018 began powerfully with grace. I'm riding the waves between feeling crushed from being racially harassed again and feeling elevated by the Asian American play reading series I'm curating and producing at Goodman Theatre on February 12. Through it all, I'm working at having the faith to let go of my ever-so-stubborn ego. I love Byron Katie's prayer, “God, spare me from the desire for love, approval, or appreciation. Amen.”
I was racially harassed by my neighbor's friend two months ago, in our building. He called me "Wow bao" and made racial gestures with his hands at me. Wow Bao is a Chicago chain of Asian restaurants. The fall out has been exhausting, invalidating, and painful. Honestly, it shrivels my heart to share the nitty gritty, but the highlights are that I feel unsupported and unprotected but the board in our condo building and that there's been little accountability. Board members refuse to attend mediation with me or to even have a cup of coffee to try to create understanding. At our meeting last weekend, I was called racist, yelled at, spoken over, and totally invalidated. I'm glad the meeting was recorded so I don't feel like a crazy person.
At one end, my blood boils over this and I loose sleep. At the other end, this painful and frightening experience of defending myself against bullsh*t authority is a microcosm of living in America. What authentic actions can I take in the name of justice that are done in a kind way? I'm trying to find out.
Being racially harassed four times in 2017 fuels my fire to advocate for Asian American representation in acting. As Guest Curator at AIRMW, I'm producing and curating a staged play reading series at Goodman Theatre and Steppenwolf Theatre called, "Our Perspective: Asian American Play Readings". These plays are written and directed by Asian Pacific American theatre artists and feature Chicago actors. I'm working hard at making this event successful and am grateful for an amazing team of volunteers. I hope to see you there.
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