Shunyu Huang and The Memory Quilt Project:
Thursday, July 13 | Scent & Taste
Thursday, July 20 | Sound
Thursday, July 27 | Sight & Touch
TONIGHT’S EVENT IS SOLD OUT!
Doors at 6:30pm
Stories at 7:00pm
Community Quilt Making at 8:00
Please consider joining us for the final evening of the Story/Arts Residency next Thursday, July 27 celebrating Sight & Touch!
Join Story Parlor for the second iteration of its summer Story/Arts Residency, welcoming local artist Shunyu Huang for a month-long celebration of sense memory.
For this second event, we’ll bear witness to locals in the community as they share memories inspired by sound through the transformative power of art and stories. Featured artists include Kimberly Dunn, Paul Helou, and Pramela Thiagesan, alongside Shunyu Huang.
Then, Shunyu will lead the audience in a community circle where guests are encouraged to contribute their own sound-inspired stories and memories to further enrich the fabric of this community quilt-making project.
Along with your stories, please consider bringing sounds, music, songs, and other sensory items related to this week’s memory theme!
As different people, we sometimes forget how much more common we have than we are different. The Chinese Proverb 求同存異 (Qiu Tong Cun Yi) sums it up: "Seek similarities while preserving differences". This Story/Arts residency presents the inspired vision of Shunyu Huang in an effort to bring the community together through the connective tissue that exists between storytelling and memory.
Quilt-making, to Shunyu, is a fascinating Appalachian tradition that serves as a powerful storytelling art form, weaving together narratives, memories, and cultural heritage through intricate patterns and carefully chosen fabrics, preserving history and fostering intergenerational connections. Each stitch carries the essence of the maker, telling stories that transcend time and inspiring a deeper understanding of our shared human experiences.
What if we come together and share these memories that affect us deeply and shape us into who we are?
What if we pull out those old photos, tapes; that song that your grandma hummed in the kitchen; that smell from your neighbor's favorite tea; and talk about why, somehow, that lives in you?
“Let’s make this Memory-Quilt together. One memory and stitch at a time.”
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Shunyu Huang was born in 1989 in a Southern China city Zhuhai in Guangdong Province.
Before getting her Bachelor’s degree in Ecology, She travelled to Tibet, southwest China and southeast Asia with her film cameras in search of a connection of different peoples and their homeland.
She had found that, as different peoples, we sometimes forget how much more common we have than we are different. The Chinese Proverb 求同存異 (Qiu Tong Cun Yi) sums it up: Seek Common, Exist Difference; While she mingles in the local communities in Asheville, she finds herself marveled by how close our hearts can get by sharing our memories.
It could be playing in the creek with childhood best friends and forgetting to go home;
It could be sitting by the kitchen table listen to mom’s mumbling about a rough day;
It could be watching an unforgetable sunset with a lover on a strange city;
In this community that we long for and are building together, Shunyu desires to use storytelling, here as memory-sharing to unify us.
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Kimberly Dunn 江慧颖
Kimberly grew up in a multicultural family and has always dearly loved language and culture from around the world. After living many years overseas, she now calls the Appalachian mountains her home. Dedicated to the education and exchange of multicultural traditions, she continues to travel by sharing music, cuisine, and astrology.
Kimberly will be sharing the journey of discovering home through the sound of her voice.
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Paul Helou
Paul Helou is a musician/guitarist, actor and writer who performs and composes songs in various styles. One of his most favorite things to do is to improvise a song on the spot, encouraging others (both children and adults) to come along for the ride. His CD for children, Bears, Bees & Butterflies won a Parents' Choice Award, among others. His music video about the pandemic, There Are Heroes (Stay Put Blues), won numerous film festival awards. He is working on various recordings for both children's and general audiences (jazz, bluegrass, Americana/roots).
More on www.paulhelou.com
Paul will be sharing memories of dicovering vinyl records in his childhood.
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Pramela Thiagesan
Born in Singapore and of South Indian descent, Pramela Thiagesan is deeply rooted in the multi-cultural influence of the rich melting pot of South East Asia. She remembers her childhood fondly and still embraces many of the defining cultural and social traditions and signature of the she was exposed to through music, food, stories, rituals, tradition and aesthetics. While her mother tongue is Tamil ( a South Indian dialect), Pramela also speaks Mandrain, Malay, and English- she taught conversational Mandarin (continuing Education) at the University of Wisconsin and is a storyteller of the cultural myths and legends of South East Asia.
Pramela’s offering for the Song Memory Quilt ——Monsoon sounds, comfort, and the scent of her grandmother.
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Story Parlor’s residencies exist to champion the creative work of locally-based artists and art groups hailing from BIPOC, LGTBQIA+, and other historically marginalized communities in the quest to amplify and bridge together the diverse fabric of voices in Asheville.
Specifically, the Story/Arts residency aims to provide a platform that showcases the transformative and healing powers of storytelling through all art mediums, while tending to the core values of Story Parlor’s mission, which include:
• Connecting audiences and artists from varying creative backgrounds and interests
• Informing, inspiring, and invigorating through the arts
• Promoting and fostering self-inquiry and mindfulness
• Cultivating creative exchange and cultural insight
• Fostering authenticity and inclusiveness
In addition to public performances and/or workshops, artists-in-residence receive dedicated rehearsal time in the space; an artist stipend; creativity coaching sessions; marketing and promotion; and more.
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, with preference given to applicants who cross disciplines, embrace collaboration, and present a residency proposal that embodies the core elements of storytelling through all art forms. More info can be found here.
Story Parlor would like to thank ArtsAVL and Buncombe County for providing funding support for the Story/Arts Residency program.