Storytelling Used as a Public Health Tool
I was 15 when I was first introduced to best practices in storytelling through Voice of Witness (VOW), an organization that illuminates contemporary human rights crises in an oral history book series. Through my seven years of working with VOW, I have learned to use storytelling in my public health work.
Most recently, I completed my year-long Honors Thesis project titled “Storytelling Used as a Public Health Tool” using the Healthy Neighborhood Discovery Tool (DT) and Our Voice Citizen Science for Health Equity (Our Voice) initiative developed by the Healthy Aging Research and Technology Solutions (HARTS) Lab directed by Dr. Abby C. King. The goal of my project was to understand built environment features that help or hinder perceived access to food and healthy living in Orleans Parish, Louisiana using a range of methods that align with my commitment to employing storytelling in health research, including: visual and narrative data, participatory technology, and a geospatial approach.
Read more here.
Most recently, I completed my year-long Honors Thesis project titled “Storytelling Used as a Public Health Tool” using the Healthy Neighborhood Discovery Tool (DT) and Our Voice Citizen Science for Health Equity (Our Voice) initiative developed by the Healthy Aging Research and Technology Solutions (HARTS) Lab directed by Dr. Abby C. King. The goal of my project was to understand built environment features that help or hinder perceived access to food and healthy living in Orleans Parish, Louisiana using a range of methods that align with my commitment to employing storytelling in health research, including: visual and narrative data, participatory technology, and a geospatial approach.
Read more here.
Lessons from Thailand
To strengthen my understanding of sustainability and development, I studied under human rights activists and public health professionals in Northeast Thailand in 2017. While learning about indigenous injustices and anti-mining grassroots organizations in Thailand, I lived with villagers who have faced gross environmental and social injustices perpetrated by oppressive industries.
Dying From Distance
In Spring 2017, a team of two students, myself, and a journalist set out with the loose goal of learning more about the true nature of Northeast Thailand's Healthcare system. We visited patients, oversaw daily hospital duties, and observed the horrors that transpire in a packed ER.
While following team of doctors making afternoon rounds to visit three patients in palliative care, we met Dieow. His humble testimony and strength moved everyone in the room. Dieow's credo of acceptance of his imminent death left me incredulous and filled with emotion. We asked Dieow if we could center our article around his narrative.
My co-writer, Abbey, and I published a two-part feature story as guest contributors for a local news source, Isaan Record.
Read Part I here and Part II here.
While following team of doctors making afternoon rounds to visit three patients in palliative care, we met Dieow. His humble testimony and strength moved everyone in the room. Dieow's credo of acceptance of his imminent death left me incredulous and filled with emotion. We asked Dieow if we could center our article around his narrative.
My co-writer, Abbey, and I published a two-part feature story as guest contributors for a local news source, Isaan Record.
Read Part I here and Part II here.
Rad Gram Weaving Center
I fiddle with my small left earring and reflect on how irresponsibly sourced jewelry bought in Brooklyn can cripple a community in Northeast Thailand. Here in Na Nong Bong, villagers have faced awful environmental and social injustices perpetrated by an oppressive mining industry.
We hike through rows of rubber trees to arrive at an abandoned mine site filled with contaminated water. I stare at this vessel of devastation and picture the cyanide seeping through the ground water, at the same protracted speed with which chronic disease plague the people. Cloaked in promises of progress and industrialization, previously lush farm fields perish accompanied by the livelihoods of local farmers.
Though it is disturbing to learn about years of man made trauma, it’s been so powerful to meet resilient female leaders.The Radical Grandma Collective has been leading an anti-mining movement due to detrimental health and environmental effects on their community from a nearby gold mine. They have been raising money and protesting for over a decade. Despite mining corporations’ continued efforts to silence their voices, they resist. The lionhearted women in this video have shared so much love with me already. I feel so grateful.
We decided to kick start a social fundraiser to materialize their vision of a community weaving center. This center would not only generate extra income for local lady-weavers, but it would also greatly benefit their social movement against neglectful corporate mining initiatives. This campaign will bring attention to the mining crisis and spread the Rad Gram Initiative, provide a workplace for weaving, and serve as a communal meeting place for villagers to coordinate protests.
Update: We did it! The project has been fully funded in just two weeks! We have reached $7,250 with 117 contributors. From $10.00 donations from broke college students to the incredible generosity from extended family members, we have seen a range in contributors for the Rad Gram weaving center! We are thrilled by this diversity because this is a social fundraiser after all! Even those who cannot donate are spreading the story of the radical grandmas passionately.
We are making moves to build the center- read here for an update from August 2018.
There are endless opportunities for growth in RadGram that can still benefit from having additional funding. For those of you who still feel compelled to continue contributing, you can donate here.
We hike through rows of rubber trees to arrive at an abandoned mine site filled with contaminated water. I stare at this vessel of devastation and picture the cyanide seeping through the ground water, at the same protracted speed with which chronic disease plague the people. Cloaked in promises of progress and industrialization, previously lush farm fields perish accompanied by the livelihoods of local farmers.
Though it is disturbing to learn about years of man made trauma, it’s been so powerful to meet resilient female leaders.The Radical Grandma Collective has been leading an anti-mining movement due to detrimental health and environmental effects on their community from a nearby gold mine. They have been raising money and protesting for over a decade. Despite mining corporations’ continued efforts to silence their voices, they resist. The lionhearted women in this video have shared so much love with me already. I feel so grateful.
We decided to kick start a social fundraiser to materialize their vision of a community weaving center. This center would not only generate extra income for local lady-weavers, but it would also greatly benefit their social movement against neglectful corporate mining initiatives. This campaign will bring attention to the mining crisis and spread the Rad Gram Initiative, provide a workplace for weaving, and serve as a communal meeting place for villagers to coordinate protests.
Update: We did it! The project has been fully funded in just two weeks! We have reached $7,250 with 117 contributors. From $10.00 donations from broke college students to the incredible generosity from extended family members, we have seen a range in contributors for the Rad Gram weaving center! We are thrilled by this diversity because this is a social fundraiser after all! Even those who cannot donate are spreading the story of the radical grandmas passionately.
We are making moves to build the center- read here for an update from August 2018.
There are endless opportunities for growth in RadGram that can still benefit from having additional funding. For those of you who still feel compelled to continue contributing, you can donate here.
Pretty in Pink
In 2016, I worked as a publicist and photographer for Cherice Harrison-Nelson, the Big Queen of Guardians of the Flame Mardi Gras Indians Tribe. Partnering with culture bearers and oral historians has taught me that their tradition of celebration is also one of resistance, intricate beadwork, and spirituality.