From the Silk Road to Couture Designs
Chris GribbleFrom early childhood, says Oxana Ake, “I wanted to create things.” Her father, an engineer, taught her how to make boats from wooden sticks, twigs and boards, “and I liked…
A Uniquely Global Citizen
To call Sinait Sarfino a “global citizen” would be an understatement. Fluent in English, Arabic, and Mandarin, she is now learning Korean. She has lived in various countries including Ethiopia,…
What Color is Freedom
TK grew up an exile in his own home country of Rhodesia. Under white minority rule, Black people weren’t allowed in certain schools or movie theaters and it could even…
An Artist with Many Voices
For Dao Nguyen Strom, identity is no simple concept. Raised in the California countryside, Strom was originally born in Vietnam—a country she escaped as a baby and returned to as…
Beyond the Familiar Summit
Although Ang Pemba Sherpa was born in 1982 in Namche Bazar, Nepal, a small village nestled at 3,500 meters in the highest peaks of the world near Everest Base Camp,…
Creating Joy For Others
When Shi Choong, now a wedding planner helping other Portlanders celebrate their love, thinks about her childhood, she recalls the bright colors of her family’s two story shop house in…
Soaring High, Staying Rooted
“Volando alto sin olvidar de dónde vengo,” a popular Spanish saying that can be translated in English as “Flying high without forgetting where I came from,” describes Ernesto Fonseca’s philosophy…
The Courage to Begin Again
Mohsin Jamal is a quick learner. It was an essential survival skill for a young child from Afghanistan’s Hazara minority, a persecuted ethnic group for whom decades of military occupation,…
How Music Became Her Life
Wu Man was just 16 when she attended a master class led by the celebrated violinist Isaac Stern. The room at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing was packed,…
My First Pipa: Wu Man
This is the first pipa I ever owed owned. Crafted by the finest maker in China. It journeyed with me to the US in 1990, and since the it has…