September 04, 2025

Cha with Rohan Zhou-Lee

58 minutes

Blasian March Founder Rohan Zhou-Lee is an award-winning dancer, writer, speaker, curator, and community organizer. In 2024, they co-curated the Critical Connections exhibit with the Pace University Art Gallery and the George Stephanopoulos photo collection of the Civil Rights Era. In 2023, they became the first mixed race Black Asian admitted to the Open City Fellowship for Journalism at the Asian American Writers' Workshop. They are also a recipient of the 2024 PEN American US Writers’ Aid Initiative, 2023 FIYAH Rest Grant, 2023 New Yorkers for Culture and The Arts, 2022 Bandung Resident, they have written for Newsweek, Hyperallergic, Truthout, and more. They have performed poetry and dance as a reflection of their activism in the United States and the 2022 Unite Festival in Zürich, Switzerland. Spotlight features include CNN, NBC Chicago, USA Today, WNYC, AJ+, and more. Zhou-Lee has spoken at Harvard University, New York University, Yale University, Oberlin College, The University of Tokyo, the 2022 Unite and Enough Festivals in Zürich, Switzerland, and more.

As a performing artist, major credits include: Julius Eastman’s Joy Boy on trumpet (ChamberQUEER, 2021,) and for dance: Lovecraft Country (HBO, 2018) François & The Rebels (Public Theatre, 2023,) Over Here! (Triad Theatre, Off-Broadway debut, 2019) West Side Story (New Bedford Theatre Festival, 2018) and Bluebird from Sleeping Beauty (Victoria Ballet Theatre, 2019.)

Zhou-Lee holds a Bachelor of the Arts in Ethnomusicology from Northwestern University. Pronouns: They | Siya | 祂 | Elle, gender identity: Firebird.

Welcome to 차 with Laura and Leah! Cha is a podcast and video series featuring conversations with our friends over tea. We are two diasporic Korean women who were inspired by Nina Simone's quote, “An artist’s duty is to reflect the times.” Cha is our offering to the collective and we hope our conversations inspire you to start having meaningful dialogues and reflections with your own communities. So make sure to brew a pot of cha and join our conversations about art, spirituality, culture, and liberation.

Links

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