The Vietnamese Community Resource Centre invites you to a day of reflection, dialogue, and creation centered on the lived realities of Asian communities in Quebec.
Through storytelling, exchanges, and participatory practices, this event offers an opportunity to explore what flows between memory and becoming.
How do our stories—personal or collective—shape us, connect us, and sometimes transform us?
And how can these legacies, visible or invisible, become points of support for reimagining our shared future?
Opening Panel (1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.)
The day will begin with a panel featuring five guests with complementary backgrounds: Estelle Mi, Dr. Philip S. S. Howard, Dr. Maya Yampolsky, Dr. Maïly Daigle, and Dr. Carminda Mac Lorin.
Drawing from their experiences and perspectives, the speakers will highlight the tensions, continuities, and transformations shaping contemporary identities.
Between inheritances, ruptures, and recompositions, they will address the realities of systemic racism, multiple identities, and the dialogues that need to be built, seeking to understand what, despite differences, connects us and sets us in motion.
Participatory Workshops (3:15 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.)
Two workshops will take place simultaneously. Participants are invited to choose the one that resonates most with them:
- What I Wish I Could Tell You, led by Marie-Christine Lê-Huu
A writing workshop to express what has not always found its place in spoken words. Through a letter addressed to an elder or to someone from the next generation—real or imagined—participants will explore the connections that run through them: what has been passed on, held back, or transformed. A sensitive space where words become a bridge between generations. - Body Mapping, led by Sheida Shamloo
A creative workshop that explores the body as a site of memory, identity, and experience. Through an artistic approach, participants are invited to reflect on the traces left by their personal and identity journeys.
Registration required – limited spaces available
Artistic Plenary (5:00 p.m. to 5:50 p.m.)
The day will conclude with a conversation with Tamara Nguyen and Claudia Chan Tak about their artistic practice and creative encounter.
Through a dialogue between words and movement, punctuated by excerpts from their works, they will address themes such as intergenerational memory, representations of Asian women, and the construction of an artistic voice in a predominantly white context.
The discussion will be moderated by Vincent Kim.
A Collective Artwork
Throughout the day, a participatory creation will be developed with illustrator Simon Ip. Everyone will be able to contribute a word, reflection, or image, helping to build a collective mural—a living trace of shared exchanges and experiences.
This event is bilingual (FR/EN), and live interpretation will be provided for the panel.
Snacks and beverages will be offered.
The event is supported by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and is part of the International Day of Living Together in Peace.
