Workshops I am currently offering:

If you are interested in any of these workshops please fill contact me or fill out a booking form

Writing Ourselves Into Existence

Because we’ve been told to go back home. Because we know its more than about folkdances and food. Because being Asian American is not solely kung fu, Chinese take out, and dry cleaners. Because we’ve been called a dothead, chink, jap, mut and terrorist. Because we are not stereotypes! How does our perception of who we are conflict with images and stereotypes of who we are not? This workshop will explore the complicated truths of what it means to be Asian American. Stereotypes of Asian Americans are no longer simply the seductive images of the Orient made for consumption by white audiences. Instead, they have become internalized into complex ideals we have about identity, community, and gender. Through popular theater games, exercises, and writing prompts, participants will learn to write about their lives. We will address issues related to our names, home, neighborhood, family life, childhood memories and more. This workshop is meant to provoke, inspire, and extract stories from our personal experiences so that we may better understand our identity politics.

Workshop Length: 1-3 hrs

Workshop Space: Classroom or Studio

Number of Participants: 5-30

Materials: Facilitator requires index cards (1 pack white, 1 pack color) and participants will need writing paper/journals and pens

Performing Legacy: A Passport to Home Grown Stories

This is a performance and writing intensive workshop series. These workshops aim to give voice to issues performed and written by youth ages 13-19 from refugee communities. This workshop is intended to give recent immigrant youth access to re-imagining a world that values their dreams, their legacies, and their voices. We will explore stories left in the open ache for Home and Belonging. Through performance games, exercises, and writing prompts, participants will learn to unravel and capture the unique details of their lives in order to better appreciate the extraordinary power in their everydayness. Through the process of sharing stories with one another, participants will create work as individuals and in small/large groups. In this collaborative process, participants will create work that’s meant to be shared, discussed and analyzed in a challenging but safe space. This workshop will culminate in an informal performance by all participants. Participants should be prepared to work hard and play even harder!

Participants can expect to be engaged in the following workshop activities: Warm up exercises to stretch the body/voice/mind, Learning to introduce themselves through their Matrilineage, Various methodologies of storytelling, Engaging in improvisation exercises and basic theater games, Freewriting and performing based on provided prompts which elicit instinctual responses about their names/ home/ neighborhood/ family life/ childhood memories, Engaging in visualization exercises about body memory, Learning movement exercises that involve collaborative motion and rhythm, Sculpting and creating collaborative scenes, The closing ritual of a yawp and plenty of time for personal conversations and connections with the facilitating artist and other participants.

Please Note:

The original curriculum for this workshop series was developed specifically for the members of Khmer Girls in Action (KGA) from the Long Beach/California community. The course was given over 2-days during a KGA retreat. I am also using the same curriculum weekly with Khmer youth in Chicago.

Workshop Length: 4 sessions, 2-3 hrs each session

Workshop Space: Studio space – open area for movement is required

Number of Participants: 5-25

Materials: Facilitator requires a CD player and a large writing board or pad; participants will need to dress comfortably and come with writing paper/journals, & pens.

Spilling Ink for Blood

(my preference is to give this workshop for women only spaces)

Everyone has a story to tell and everyone’s story is worth telling. What are the stories we choose to speak and what are the stories that still remain silent and hidden? There is power in our personal stories. “This is what I’ve seen. This is what happened to me. This is how I feel.” Personal stories have the power to pierce walls of misunderstandings and humanize our struggles. This workshop (re)defines power as the ability to personally move and connect with people through the energy of creation. The focus will be on ensemble and collaborative performance as a way to expand our creativity and exchange ideas. We will reconnect with our matrilineage, reclaim our bodies, and explore our personal truths & contradictions. Participants will be asked to risk with each other and dig deeper into our personal lives. Fusing popular theater exercises with writing prompts, this workshop will provide participants with the tools to tell their own stories through their own creative ways – whether through monologues, movement, song or poetry. Dress comfortably, bring your journals and an open heart.

Workshop Length: 1- 3 hrs

Workshop Space: Classroom or Studio (moveable chairs)

Number of Participants: 5-15

Materials: participants will need writing paper/journals and pens

Imagine This!

GIVEN: We are bombarded by 10,000 images a day. More and more children are being diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). By the time students have graduated from high school, most have spent 15,000 hours in front of the television and only 11,000 in the classroom. Each day we are exposed to hundreds, even thousands of messages from billboards, ads, TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet.

PROVE: No matter where we go or what we do, the media surrounds us. The media often uses stereotypical or negative images to influence our values and beliefs about violence, gender roles and body image. As media users we can be in charge! We have the freedom to make decisions about what we want to experience through the media!

This workshop examines how media informs our artistry and sense of self. Recognizing that media constructs reality in a biased manner, we will challenge its validity and diminish the impact of its negative messages. Participants will develop work using interdisciplinary ways of responding to the world around us. This workshop is about responding to our world and reclaiming our place in it. Participants will have the choice to create collage poetry, installation with found objects, puppetry and/or use other creative visual ways of re-imagining our world.

Workshop Length: 1-3 hrs

Workshop Space: Preferably Studio space, classroom okay

Number of Participants: 5-30

Materials: Facilitator requires CD player and TV with VCR/DVD player;

(Re)defining Power, (Re)claiming Voice: An Exercise in Risk

*Facilitated by both Anida Yoeu Esguerra & Marlon Esguerra

What are the stories we choose to speak and what are the stories that still remain silent and hidden? How do we confront homophobia, racism, classism, sexism, and other "ism's?" As Asian Pacific Islander Americans ( APIA's), how do we contribute to these "ism's" within our own community and perpetuate a cycle of oppression? This workshop (re)defines power as the ability to personally move and connect with people through the energy of creation. Through writing and performance exercises, we will examine how our own concepts of self, our cultural values, and the commercial media consciously and unconsciously impact our politics. Participants will be asked to dig deeper into their personal stories and family histories so we can collectively and critically analyze our own power and privilege as APIA's.

Workshop Length: 3 hrs

Workshop Space: Classroom or Studio (moveable chairs)

Number of Participants: 5-15

Materials: participants will need writing paper/journals and pens