Here is part two of my conversation with Asa Benally! Asa comes from Black Mesa, Arizona. He is a freelance fashion and costume designer in New York City. Asa has pursued fashion, costume designing, and theater since high school when he made the decision to attend Idyllwild Arts Academy in California, graduating and then moving on to Purchase College then after one year transferring to Parsons School of Design in NYC. His post-graduation journey includes pursuing various fashion projects and costume designing for many theatre productions. He has lived on the East Coast since he left for college, in NYC and then in New Haven, Connecticut when he completed a Master’s program at the Yale School of Drama. Asa’s story tells us that while his work may someday return to the rez, he can’t quite make that journey because the problems with the coal mine in black mesa displaces him and his family from being in the land but also his profession hasn’t quite developed on the rez yet. His journey troubles the assumption and expectation for Navajo college graduates to ‘give back’. /// IG: @asa_benally_design /// Additional Readings: (1) Simpson, Leanne. Dancing on our turtle's back: Stories of Nishnaabeg re-creation, resurgence and a new emergence. Arbeiter Ring Pub., 2011. (2) TallBear, Kim. "Standing with and speaking as faith: A feminist-indigenous approach to inquiry." Journal of Research Practice 10, no. 2 (2014) (3) Werito, Vincent. "Understanding Hózhó to Achieve Critical Consciousness." Diné perspectives: Revitalizing and reclaiming Navajo thought (2014).