March 2009 Archives

This afternoon our honors class had the opportunity to listen to yet another wonderful speaker at the noon convocation. Anil Singh- Morales was the speaker, he is the visiting Woodrow Wilson Fellow. He had spoke in our class this past Monday night and I was anxious to get to hear more about him. He told us about his vast multicultural background: Spanish mother, Indian father, born in Holland, lived in London and Belgium, father was Hindu... the list is quite extensive. When speaking of his experience growing up in Belgium he said that he and his brothers, "did but didn't fit in." He also spoke of the many interesting life experiences he has had. He was a translator, went to school for the hard sciences, dropped out and went to Harvard, he was a journalist, he worked at Microsoft for a few years and pitched an idea to Bill Gates that started the Strategic Partner Program, but had to leave because he was "bored." He also served as a Monk apprentice, was a stay at home dad and had now founded is own company and non profit organizations. Because of his multicultural background he was able to use it to his advantage in furthering his career by traveling to France, Spain, Japan and understanding that in order to understand how they work we must try and understand and appreciate their culture. A favorite quote that he shared when discussing how he used all the money he made working for Microsoft was that, "you need to give back as much as you are taking or getting." And that is exactly what he has done.

At the end, Anil made a connection to the book of the year, The Middle of Everywhere, and spoke of how immigrants are welcomed/ unwelcomed into America. I really liked his analogy that it was a two-way street, we each have to do our share. It was so interesting to hear about all of the places he had been and how cultured he was, it's all very new to me still because as far as culture goes I am very basic. I'm a white American with almost 100% Norwegian background, who had had almost no interaction with other cultures until coming to Concordia. The way he spoke about traveling makes me want to travel abroad with such a great passion. I really hope I get to.

 I really enjoyed the convocation. By the end of today I felt like Anil and I were bff because I heard him speak about 4 times; twice on Monday and twice today (he came to my intercultural communications class). I am not complaining about it one bit though. He is a really great speaker and he has truly lived his life to the fullest, in my opinion. He was really full of great motivational and inspirational advice as well. He said that we all bring something special from our background, and that was really neat to hear because it is so true. Everyone has had different experiences with different people and different places that makes each one of us special and unique. He told us to do as many things as you can, as well as you can, and to not let your education limit you; you can do anything if you want to. In my communications class he stressed one point that I think everyone should try and follow... do what makes YOU happy. To him, that was most important and  I think it is a really great statement to live by.

Last night our Honor's class had the pleasure of listening to Hmong artist Seexeng Lee who came to speak to us. He began with an overview of art in general, and then went specifically into Hmong art and his personal story. He told us how Hmong art isn't meant to sit in a museum and have people simply look at it; it is meant to be used and to be functional. He told us about his journey to where he is now. His family wasn't accepting of his desire to be an artist, but he pursued it anyways with an immense amount of passion. A quote from his website says, "Many may say that living with the collision of two cultures is a burden but I find it a blessing in disguise." I think that this is a really neat view and it was interesting to see how he coped with his Hmong culture while adapting to life in America. I feel like his pieces are so beautiful in looks and in the passion that went into making them. He spoke about the evolution of Hmong art and how it has become more hybrid; mixing classic Hmong with American. One last quote that he left us with that I really liked was, "It is my job to make the invisible, visible."

We have had the privilege of getting to hear from so many wonderful speakers and last night was another great addition t our list. It was especially enjoyable to hear of Seexeng Lee's personal views and story since we have previously viewed his work in the convocation a few weeks ago as well as in the Center for Hmong Studies. It feels like a backstage pass when we get to learn the behind the scenes details. Having very little art experience myself, I really enjoy listening to artists speak. For me, it reopens my eyes to their work and helps me remember to widen my, usually narrow, perspective. I feel a little bad after learning about what the mural in the Buetow is, because though I haven't passed by it often, when I did I didn't pay that much attention to it. I think too often I take things like art for granted, because I am no artist myself, I sometimes forget all of the work and passion and thought that goes into a piece and Lee did a good job of helping remind of that.

Though I was very tired and mentally and physically drained last night, even though it was the first night back from break, to be honest I was not looking forward to another speaker at all. I am very happy to say, however, that I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Lee speak. I don't know if it was his intention but he gave some good life advice. This has actually been true of almost all speakers, the more I listen to them the more I learn about myself. It makes me really excited now to learn more about my Norwegian background through our research paper. He spoke a student  who said that he wished he was like him because his culture was "so cool!" and he said he told that student to dig a little deeper and they too would discover really great things about their culture. You should be proud and knowledgeable of where you came from and I can't wait to learn more about lovely Norway. Uff da!