Mengwen Cao is a photographer, multimedia artist, and cultural organizer. In this conversation recorded during the first week of lockdown in New York City, Mengwen and NüVoices board member Cindy Gao talk about their process of co-creation with their subjects, recent works that investigate the in-between space of race, gender, and cultural identity, the emotional work we all have to do in our own homes and minds while in isolation, and taking abundant delight in greater representation, expression, and the myriad small things in nature and the everyday that bring us joy.

Recommendations:

Mengwen: Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds and Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, by Adrienne Maree Brown; How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, by Jenny Odell; and the film Rouge, by Stanley Kwan. 

Cindy: A poem by Charles Bukowski, titled “The Laughing Heart.” 

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This podcast was edited and produced by Jason MacRonald.

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