ABOUT
Hi. Thank you for visiting my website.
I concurrently take two seemingly disconnected routes: one in the arts and the other in social impact creation. This puzzles some people, but to me, it feels natural. I reflect on feelings and I solve problems. I write, I dance, and I do what I can in the worlds of scholarships, college access, and environmental sustainability.
Writing
In 2019, I began my MFA in Creative Nonfiction at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. The program helped to kickstart my first book, an auto-fictive novel that is being reviewed by agents.
In the same year, my novel was workshopped at Bread Loaf in Sicily under Jennine Capó Crucet, who believed in me enough to nominate me for the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers' Conference. I attended BLEWC this year as a recipient of a Katharine Bakeless Nason Scholarship to work on a second book.
Dance/Dance-Theater
I've just finished filming a dance-theater piece for Aude Gooly's exhibition at the Miaja Art Gallery. More dance-theater projects are in the pipeline.
The illustrious Emmanuelle Grizot teaches me ballet. Adelene Stanley helps me with Movement and Expression. The folks at JJ Dance Creative always get me excited for some form of Latin or social dance. Something I wish I could do more regularly is Hollow Body with T.H.E. Dance Company.
Social Impact
Currently, I am designing a climate-change-themed escape room with multimedia designer extraordinaire, Elizabeth Mak, through Lalang Creatives. I also serve as a volunteer mentor for Cameroon-based Misongi College Access Program and an angel investor for Singapore-based Angels of Impact.
Between 2015 to 2017, I was a researcher and grant-maker at a private foundation in Singapore, as well as an active member of the World Economic Forum's Global Shapers Community. My work included starting up a grants program that awarded money to practitioners tackling education issues across Southeast Asia. I, myself,
have been on the ground with Raks Thai Foundation, Angels of Impact, and Doctors Without Borders in various capacities: as a program designer, a writer, and a translator.
The spirit of activism lingers in my writing and contours its questions and jabs. My first book is colored by the anger I feel towards the injustices that women face as spouses and mothers.
What Else
My mind is indebted to the Penn Social Impact House, where I was a fellow, Williams College, where I graduated with Highest Honors in French Literature, the University of Pennsylvania, where I was a scholarship recipient at the Graduate School of Education, and the University of Texas at Austin, where I was a Graduate Fellow in Comparative Literature. My studies of the arts have been supported by grants, including from the Smithsonian Freer|Sackler Galleries.
I hold the French DALF C2 certificate and am now working towards the Japanese N1 exam. Knowing more languages expands what I know and how I know it.
My views, which I still stand by, are discussed in this interview by Baroque Lifestyle. For a sense of my writing, you can have a look at my publication on World Literature Today. Please feel free to browse the Dance/Movement and Writing sections of my website to learn more.
I don't use Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and many social media platforms. I find them mentally draining. :) Perhaps relatedly: I am also a Leo, sufficiently complying with the stereotypes, but ultimately, I also welcome quiet spaces, which may explain some of my solo trips to “nowhere,” including Luxembourg, Sanbonmatsu (not the one that automatically appears on Google Maps), and Helsinki-on-a-February-day. That said, I am happiest when I am with friends, of which I am blessed to have the best.
Thank you again for visiting.