We draw our inspiration for this project from issues we have witnessed in our day-to-day lives.
We see many youth within the Vietnamese community who are unable to connect with their heritage. Through this project we aspire to create a body of knowledge for our peers and the future children of Versai so they may understand their roots and their history.
We see many elders within the Vietnamese community who are unable to understand or appreciate the experiences of the youth. Through this project we hope to celebrate the lives of the younger generation and to facilitate our community’s inter-generational healing.
We see within our neighborhood and city a lack of respect between different communities. We experienced the consequences of these divisions in the wake of Hurricane Katrina when the city opening a toxic landfill one mile from our neighborhood. Through this project we aspire to build bridges of understanding across different communities so that we may treat one another with dignity.
We see that youth from different communities across Versai have a hard time working together. We believe story telling and listening can dispel stereotypes based on race, class, and ethnicity, allowing us to work against the institutional forms of oppression that confront us all. Through this project we aspire to create a forum that will enable all youth to mobilize around educational and environmental issues that are unjust.
Sharing of our histories is a powerful way to cultivate compassion, healing, solidarity, and social change. This project is a beginning.