Sankar Raman

A Return to Her Roots

For as long as she could remember, Shirley Yee was enchanted with Cantonese opera. The emotion of its music, the grace of its performers, and the complexity of their  

Jim Lommasson

Prayer Book, Rachu, Tibet

Tsering Dolma: This prayer book was one of my father’s oldest daily prayer book that I received from my late eldest brother. I brought it from Nepal when I went

Karen Weliky

History Keeps People Thinking

Jack Boas counts his career as historian as beginning at conception. “Or maybe even before,” he suggests. “I could not avoid it, as a child of

Sankar Raman

A Rebellion Against Silence

Sindy Avila-Gutierrez looks back undaunted on her life as an undocumented immigrant.  “I’ve always been a rebel in that way,” she says. “You tell me

Hit the Strings – Live on Stage

Hit the Strings is based on a Middle Eastern musical scale and features the Japanese koto played by Masumi Timson. Many cultural influences flow between  

Harmony of Rhythms – Live

Harmony of Rhythms features young musicians from Portland Kalai Kuzhu playing parai drums, one of the oldest instruments in India but one that,

Zhou Fang

Struggling to Stay in the U.S. of A.

Sometimes persistence pays off–especially when wending one’s way through the morass of the U.S. immigration system.  Zhou Fang learned this lesson first-hand

Sankar Raman

War Doesn’t Stop in Iraq

Ghaith Shahib fled Iraq as the United States prepared to invade his country. Instead of finishing high school, he left home on a harrowing journey across the globe  

Karen Weliky

East-West Encounters

The first time Susan Chan saw snow was also the first time she spent a winter in the United States, away from her childhood home in Hong Kong.  

Sankar Raman

It Is a Genuine Reconciliation

Emmanuel Turaturanye was born and raised in a small town in Rwanda called Ngoma. His whole life he was taught by his parents to love and respect everyone,  

Sankar Raman

Choosing the Road Less Traveled

From the start, Barbie Wu was determined to forge her own path.  Born in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1986, she comes from a family of scientists.  

Sankar Raman

Art and Life: Trusting the Process

Mauricio Villarreal, co-founder of the design firm PLACE, takes a pragmatic approach to daily existence. “Life just happens,” he reasons

Sankar Raman

A Lifetime of Listening

One of Margaret Stewart Clark’s earliest memories is of sitting, at age two or three,  with her sister, who was blind, as the older girl taught Clark how to

To Bear Witness: Even in Chaos

Teenagers when they met and fell in love, Abdullah and Hatidza did not let war stop them. After Abdullah joined the Bosnian army to fight for his country,