I have learned over and over one valuable lesson that is at the heart of my work: No one else can tell my story. Everyone has a story to tell and everyone’s story is worth telling.

– Anida Yoeu Esguerra

Artist Bio

Anida Yoeu Esguerra seeks an artistic, spiritual and political exploration of her identity as a non hyphenated Cambodian Muslim American woman. Esguerra uses an interdisciplinary approach to creating art which mixes the visual, spoken and written into performed explorations of hybrid identities. She is interested in using performance work as a means to transform loss into conversations about healing and understanding. She aches for home, a good pair of ass-kicking shoes, and poetry by Audre Lorde. She is proud to call Chicago home but knows the journey never really ends for the refugee.

A believer in the power of collective creations, she has founded Mango Tribe , an Asian American women's interdisciplinary performance ensemble; Asian American Artists Collective-Chicago; the APIA Spoken Word & Poetry Summit; and the MONSOON fine arts journal. She is also a founding member of the critically- acclaimed panAsian spoken word quartet I Was Born With Two Tongues. She is a participant of Dance Theater Workshop's Mekong Project Artist Residencyprogram in Thailand and Cambodia. Esguerra tours extensively in North America and internationally, with recent performances in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, New Delhi, Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh and Chiang Mai.

Esguerra is a co-editor of Screaming Monkeys: Critiques of Asian American Images , an anthology which won ForeWord Magazine's Gold Book of the Year Award. Esguerra has been recognized by PoliticalCircus.com as one of the 30 most influential Asian Pacific Americans 30 years of age or younger. She is a recipient of the Cambodian Association of Illinois’ award for community activism and Insight Arts’ Creative Movements Festival Award for her artistic contributions to the development of dialogue concerning social justice and human rights. She has learned over and over one valuable lesson that is at the heart of her work: Everyone has a story to tell and everyone’s story is worth telling!

Artist Short Bio

Anida Yoeu Esguerra uses an interdisciplinary approach to creating art that mixes the visual, spoken and written into performed explorations of hybrid identities. A believer in the power of collective creations, she has founded Mango Tribe, Asian American Artists Collective-Chicago, the APIA Spoken Word & Poetry Summit, I Was Born With Two Tongues and the MONSOON fine arts journal. Esguerra tours extensively. She aches for home, a good pair of ass-kicking shoes, and poetry by Audre Lorde. She is proud to call Chicago home but knows the journey never really ends for the refugee. Visit www.atomicshogun.com for more info.