Normally, at the end of each year, I write an entry on this long neglected blog where I assess my personal successes of the year. And despite the whole “rapture plague thing,” I had many successes. However, it feels terrible to toot my horn when there’s so much grief right now and basically, this dumpster fire keeps burning. Honestly, I would have traded in all the wins if it meant that 300k people weren’t dead from a virus that could be prevented if everyone just wore a mask, washed their hands and avoided large gatherings. But maybe we’re too obsessed with winning short term to think long term.
Here’s a narrative version of my year as a listicle:
In January, We premiered Season 2 of Radical Cram School!
And unlike last season, this time I wasn’t the target of a massive trolling campaign. Made me wonder if I had lost my edge.
2. In February, I premiered “Kristina Wong for Public Office” at the Skirball Center and it was the greatest fucking show of my life.
I’m talking a crowd on their feet at the end of the show before I finished the show. People laughing so hard I could feel the floor shake. I was in my own HBO special. I had really made the most timely show of my career about what it was like to run and win a local office, and I was ready to tour it alongside all the events leading up to the election.
3. In mid-March, my whole national tour of the greatest fucking show of my life was cancelled because of the whole global pandemic thing that we’re still in. And I was out an entire year of income with no clue what to do with myself. And my savings was quickly running out from under me.
4. So I succumbed to my martyr complex which often kicks in during times of panic and scarcity. I harangued my City Council Office for port-a-potties for my un-housed neighbors. Then I worked on getting them laundry money because a couple of them were saying that being able to stay clean was the hardest part.
5. But because that somehow wasn’t enough, I started sewing masks for front line workers on my Hello Kitty Sewing Machine. Then I offered to make them for those who needed them, not realizing how many humans there are in this country. I ended up on this story on Spectrum which further exploded the demand for masks… sewn from me specifically.
My friends were like, “If the sewing is too much, just walk away.” But if I showed up at a hospital sick, I wouldn’t want the nurse to walk away from me to go watch Tiger King. So I kept saying “Yes” when people were asking for help.
6. Then I started a Facebook group called “Auntie Sewing Squad” because going around offering to help people by sewing them masks is actually one of those never ending endeavors that I clearly was not going to tackle on my own.
Auntie Sewing Squad was supposed to be a 3 week stopgap until factory made masks got to the US, but ended up growing in a matter of weeks into a powerful Mutual Aid network of hundreds of volunteers nationally. We were darlings of the media, and basically… a shadow FEMA.
7. Because my entire life had become about running a remote factory of volunteers in the face of the greatest existential threat of our lifetimes, I started to create a new show about how close I had come to this pandemic via running this group. I started writing and touring from my home called “Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord.”
The show is playing all of 2021. All streaming from my house.
8. As it turns out, screaming aloud to the internet 24/7 about your “factory of Aunties” and how hard they are working to get masks to vulnerable communities is an excellent calling card. And without any measurable evidence, I can affirm I was on like every single panel imaginable that had to do with “artists as first responders” and “art as political action.”
While I was able to recover a great deal of my lost income by end of year, I don’t know if I’d recommend to anyone to “stress yourself out to no end organizing a national sewing group trying make masks that have suddenly become a partisan thing (!?!) as a calling card” for invites to be a guest on on a panel. But hey, I guess it worked out for me?
9. I was in a few Zoom shows by other artists. Some were one-on-one experiences with an audience member.
The Zoom shows I was part of included a reading of Heather Woodbury’s “As the Globe Warms”, “Binge” at La Jolla Playhouse by Brian Lobel, a reading of Amy Tofte’s play, and a reading in “400 Years and Voices: Reproductive Justice Project”.
10. In a matter of months, Auntie Sewing Squad got a book deal, was doing relief drives to the Navajo Nation, had a kids sewing summer camp, and was being courted by major news outlets every single day. Every time a story ran, we’d get a ton of new requests for masks and from Aunties wanting to join our group.I went from cutting up my old t-shirts for mask to using our donations to purchase THOUSANDS of yards of fabric at a time to stock our hubs. It was so intense.
Here is a picture of a van load of sewing and relief supplies dropped off to our partner on the Navajo Nation who will distribute it to her team of sewing ladies.
11. A bunch of events that I was part of were cancelled because of the second pandemic– the racial pandemic and the uprisings in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. This was a big reckoning for everyone as we had to pause and consider what actions we were truly taking to be anti-racist.
12. Auntie Sewing Squad began to sew for black communities as part of BLM solidarity mask requests. I also sewed a few fabric banners that friends who were braver than I was about braving the crowds during a pandemic took to BLM rallies.
It wasn’t hard to realize that what consistent in all the communities we were supporting with masks– they were all mostly indigenous or communities of color that had long since born the brunt of systemic racism and structural violence. They were vulnerable before the pandemic and especially now.
13. Because the pandemic could not postpone the election, and because I created an election themed show, and because that show could not play for a live audience in the Fall, I worked with my director Diana Wyenn to adapt it for Zoom. From my home.
Goddamn those were painful rehearsals and a hard learning curve. But I think for a show performed on Zoom, we really translated it well.
14. I played like ten cities in a month, all while wearing my house slippers.
15.I also made a bunch of Get Out the Vote videos with kids in different parts of the country with a grant from Houston in Action.
October and November were truly the most exhausting months of my life. I had never worked so much before. Not having to travel to shows, and doing a show in my house made for a maximum efficiency situation that was totally exhausting.
16. I then filmed the show for Center Theater Group at the Kirk Douglas Theater and it streamed to audiences for a month.
This was a big freaking deal! Unfortunately I don’t own the rights to the recording so it’s an endeavor if anyone wishes to see it again. But it was gorgeous!
18. Then there was the election. What felt like the Season Finale of a show we live in called “Civilization”. It was so agonizing. All of it HAS BEEN AGONIZING. It is STILL AGONIZING.
19. I stuck to at least TWO of three of my weirdo pledges from last year. One was to be Vegan in January.
With the exception of some accidental egg bits, I did it! I was a great challenge. It was tough because there is a lot of dairy hidden everywhere. But I recommend every try a vegan diet if anything to get you thinking about what is in your food. I’ve fallen off the 100% Vegan wagon, but still maintain a largely vegetarian diet. Did you know that we probably would not have these pandemics and strange flus if not for factory farming? It’s true!
20. My second challenge was to spend $50/ month on groceries or $600/ year or about $1.65/ day. I did it!
It made for an obsessive new personality trait I now have where I have a more attentive mental inventory of what I have in the fridge as I track for myself when to eat it. I also got really good about accepting offers of backyard fruit and food gifts. I don’t know if I’m just lucky to be in LA, but I’ve definitely been able to figure out where a gal can eat for free or cheap around here.
One of the many “Food Haul” videos I did this year from World Harvest!
I’m so grateful for World Harvest Food Bank for making it possible for Los Angeles Families to have access to good quality food. I love this place so much I found myself making fan videos for them every month. A cart of food is $40 or 4 hours of volunteer work. I would go in with friends on the cart. We literally could feed 10 households with one trip of food. While I spent under $600 for the year on groceries, I did make them a very generous year-end donation so they can continue their work feeding families in Los Angeles. Especially now.
21. I can say I failed my “Buy Almost Nothing” year challenge. I still managed to buy a ton of shit. However, the pandemic didn’t have me in a rush to buy any new clothes or shoes. I also think I ate out less this year than even the brokest years of my 20s. Because I don’t own a car and haven’t been on a bus since the start of the pandemic, I have a small fraction of the Uber expenses that I used to have. But my world has truly been just the parts of my neighborhood that I can walk to. When I do ride through other neighborhoods, I feel like I’m in a different country for the first time.
22. I actually did ok working at home.
For someone who often passes out at home on weekdays and wakes up not sure what day it is, I was surprised how well I was able to work from home during the lock down. Both my co-working spaces shuttered permanently. I obviously couldn’t work in a cafe in the last few months. But somehow I managed to stay awake more at home than before the pandemic when I was constantly falling asleep in my house. I think it came from the adrenaline of running a sewing group.
What’s next in 2021? I teach a course on Art and Activism next Spring at Chapman University. I have a lot of speaking and tour engagements from my home. I’m running for office again! I’m looking forward to the Auntie Sewing Squad retiring. To all the Aunties meeting in person at our book launch events and us using this experience to make better for the world.
Thanks for your support. See you in 2021. When it’s safe to go to the Korean spa again, I’m probably going to just move on in.
It’s that time of year where I do a circle jerk of one and count up all the things I’ve done this year so I feel like a somebody.
** No photos or videos this year because I can’t figure out how to embed either from the web in this new WordPress update.If you know how to do this, let me know.
Then I ran for office and won. I then ran to be an elected representative of Koreatown Los Angeles. This time my strategy was to wave down as many votes as possible in the street on election day. Having a Korean-passing face helped a lot. With a fraction of the effort from the last election, I won and am now the Elected Representative of Subdistrict 5 Wilshire Center Koreatown Neighborhood Council. My term is two years.
I won the 2019 Center Theater Group Sherwood Award! I’ve applied for this coveted honor that celebrates an innovative theater maker in Los Angeles for the last ten years. I finally got it! It was hugely validating and a great boost for me in this new “Kristina Wong for Public Office” project. Here was my acceptance speech at the Ovation Awards.
We shot a second season of Radical Cram School! Trolls be damned! We shot another season of my comedic progressive web series for kids! We will have our premiere party in January. I can’t wait to roll it out on the web. Season 1 is still here.
We voted to abolished ICE (a largely SYMBOLIC vote because as it turns out neighborhood councils can’t dismantle federal agencies). Yes, as an elected representative (who is simultaneously a performance artist) I do go to monthly Neighborhood Council Meetings and do actual work which includes sitting on the Planning Housing Land Use and Transportation Committee. My fellow board member Angie Brown and I co-wrote a Community Impact Statement to support the Abolition of ICE. We gathered stakeholders to speak at the meeting and our board voted to support it.
Wrote and shot videos to support Garment Workers and #LivingWageNow. Director Jenessa Joffe and I were commissioned to write and create viral videos which will come out in the next few months to support garment worker rights worldwide. We wrote three episodes and shot them a couple weeks ago! Look for these to roll out in a few months!
I was honored by OCA-GLA with an “Image Award”! I finally got one of those plexiglass awards for my work in “Achievement in Arts and Advocacy!” Thanks OCA!
I was hired to write an immersive play! I switched gears in my head for a couple months as I wrote the script for “Mad Hatter’s Gin and Tea Party”– the most famous chapter from Alice in Wonderland as a live immersive cocktails experience. I also did some consulting on the project and helped create a structure where Los Angeles actors would get paid a living wage on the project. Most shows sold out even before we opened and show grossed over $400k in sales over the run!
I did a 12 week theater workshop and created a performance with Undocumented Immigrants. Thanks to an Artist-in-Residence grant from the Deparment of Cultural Affairs Los Angeles, I did my second Artist-in-Residence project with the Dream Resource Center.
So many shows and tours! Austin, TX! Columbus, OH! Rutgers University in New Jersey! Skidmore College in NY!
I finally got an acting reel together and a new theatrical agent! My friend Wayne helped me edit together this acting reel and I signed with Beverly Hecht Agency!
Radical Cram School had screenings all over the country and WON AN AWARD! San Francisco! Austin! and NYC! We won the “Audience Award” at the Austin Asian American International Film Festival! And we were nominated for “Best Episodic Series” by the NY Asian American International Film Festival. We lost to a series about a dominatrix, so I’m not sure how else we could have beat them short of breaking the law.
I found two new communities I love. I started attending API Rise meetings. They are a support group for formerly incarcerated Asian Pacific Islanders . Now I want to help them produce a podcast. If anyone wants to help do this with me, PLEASE STEP UP.
I also discovered a Food Bank supermarket called World Harvest Food Bank adjacent to my neighborhood which diverts a ton of fresh healthy food waste from the landfill and you can get a giant grocery cart of groceries for $40 (or 4 hours of volunteer work). I love innovative economic models like this and now I want all of LA to know it’s possible to have good food and not go broke! I will be only spending $50/month or less next year for groceries in the #50buckgrocerychallenge. You can follow my Instagram to see how that all goes…. Hopefully I won’t be dead by March.
I was on some fancy panels. I was on a panel called “Asian American Women who are Changing the Face of Media” that the UCLA Luskin Center and UCLA Asian American Studies put on. Here’s an article on it.
Went to Artist Campaign School! I made life long friends at this special intensive training that teaches artists how to run and win for local office. This was in Chicago!
Spent more time in LA this year and got way more into cooking! “Kristina Wong for Public Office” is a rare show that I’ve developed mostly in Los Angeles… that means I was on the road a lot less this year. Which means that it took months for me to ease into my kitchen and realize “I’ve been afraid of big commitment cooking.” In January I will be doing VEGANUARY where I do an all plant based diet. I am also now the owner of several Instant Pots and all sorts of weird cooking things that will make delicious meals!
Had major dental surgery… paid it off with POSHMARK. Yes, I’m still running a flea market out of my bedroom (ie I have a very active Poshmark hustle). Last year when I was getting heavily trolled, I worried that I actually might get chased into economic armagedon out of my already teetering art career. So I started to look at ways I could earn income in the event I got blacklisted off the planet. Resale was one thing that came up up as an option. But luckily, the trolls didn’t win but did pay off my wisdom teeth removal with the Poshmark funds.
Now my resale obsession is slowly getting replaced by my interest in food and cooking. I’m ok with that. I need my space back! I sold close to 490 items this year and net almost $6000 in sales! And bonus, the trolls haven’t stopped my performance art career!
I was a funny person. I laughed a lot. I was just unhappy a lot of the time. KRISTINA WONG· MAY 15, 2014
When I told my white friend about how my grandmother’s TV remote control is mummified in plastic wrap and how she’s superstitious about food passing through certain doors in the house, he asked, “Does she have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?”
I laughed, “Haha! No way! She’s just Chinese!”
I’m a third generation Chinese American. In my 20s, I was tested for Attention Deficit Disorder. Some of the criteria indicating that I was a candidate for ADD made me immediately suspicious of how any mental illness is gauged and how culturally competent the test makers are.
Does crying for weeks on end that I didn’t get into UC Berkeley make me prone to depression or was I just a high school drama queen? Does being a disorganized overachiever constitute Attention Deficit Disorder or was I just somebody with a lot of goals? Does screaming at my guests to take their shoes off in my house mean I have OCD or that I’m just Chinese?
I believed for many years, and even now, that the misery of my life was not a diagnosable medical disorder, but was just about being a Chinese American navigating life in the Western World whilst being held to unrealistically high expectations (bilingual concert pianist brain surgeon anyone?).
I was never raised to be happy as much as I was raised to be successful. And that success usually came in specific quantifiable terms like having a well-paying job, a medical degree from a reputable school, or marrying a Chinese bilingual doctor husband. It was inferred that once I had all those successes, I’d be secure in life, and that security was going to make me happy.
I won’t lie. Getting good grades, winning trophies, and stacking a long list of accomplishments on my college application made me feel good because it meant I had avoided my parents’ idea of a failure. But most of the time, the road to the seemingly unattainable, chasing a dream that wasn’t really mine, felt so totally miserable and pointless.
I also believed life was supposed to be miserable — because hard work is miserable. Had my parents and immigrant grandparents not worked through their misery, I wouldn’t have the opportunities that I do today. Passing that legacy of misery onto your kids — that guilt we carry is what makes us work harder. Bucking up and moving forward through that misery without complaining — this is the Chinese way.
But I always knew something was off. The misery was often beyond bearable. By the time I finished college, I witnessed and experienced violence that I didn’t think I could speak against (bear through the misery, remember?). I could go into detail about the specifics of these violent moments, but as much of an oversharer as I am, still can’t bring myself to describe them in detail on the Internet. Every “failure” carried with it the fate of my life. Every time I detracted from the path towards “success,” I felt so incredibly alone.
I did confide in some friends about the agony of living, because I didn’t want it to be agonizing any longer. My non-Asian friends would tell me: “F**k how you were raised. Do your own thing.” To me, choosing a different path meant flunking out of school and disowning my parents. My Asian friends listened but gave no tangible answers. Perhaps they were quietly navigating their own misery.
I didn’t identify with pop culture images of “depressed people.” Rock stars with public platforms to lash out publicly, and a stable of emo fans wanting to emulate them. Celebrities addicted to painkillers enabled by paparazzi cameras, or psychology brochures featuring stock images of white women looking forlorn against rain-specked windows. None of those images were me — I was a silly, smiley, jokey person. I was a funny person. I laughed a lot. I was just unhappy a lot of the time.
Chinese people didn’t see therapists. Spend $100 to tell a stranger your problems? Are you crazy? Why, yes, maybe I am. But I don’t know because my mom won’t give me the money to see a shrink. Western psychology and “seeing a therapist” (especially one that you have to pay megabucks by the hour to tell your secrets to) is still a completely foreign concept to people of my parents’ generation who believed seeing a therapist would prevent you from getting a job. And mind you, my parents were born in America.
I ran across a statistic in 2004 that reported Asian American women as having some of the highest rates of suicide in this country. I decided I would make a theater show about it and call it “Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” When I received major arts grant funding to make it, my mother said, “I’m so proud of you. Just don’t talk about me or the family in your show.”
Doing a show about Asian American depression without mentioning your mother is like making a porno movie without sex. A curious thing happened when I announced in 2005 that I was “working on a show about depression and suicide.” A lot of women came out of nowhere to tell me that they had been depressed and contemplated suicide. These were total strangers who found me by email — college professors and women I had known as professionals, all telling me things I had not imagined could be shared.
Every time a woman shares her story with me, I think the same: Where were you when I was younger? How would have things been different if we were there for each other?
I’ve toured “Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” for seven years now. That’s way too long to tour a funny show about something so depressing. It’s been an amazing ride, but I would never wish for anybody to take on what I did. I was not ready for it and what I had to face to make it. For many years I was known as “Kristina Wong who does that depression show.”
My parents have still convinced themselves the show is an elaborate work of fiction drawn completely from my imagination and created out of the pure selfless desire to help others. That’s how deep the denial around the issue of depression runs in my family. But I have also learned that denial is an amazing coping mechanism, until it doesn’t work anymore.
Very few people will tell you the step-by-step ways to be brave in your own body.
Note: This was an essay that was originally published May 14, 2014 by xoJane which is no longer in existence. Because this essay was meaningful to a lot of folks when it was first published, I’ve republished it here in its entirety as it appeared then.
2018 like 2017 was a rough freaking year. My eyebrows are inexplicably missing of late (likely from stress). I couldn’t stop looking at pictures of buffets today (Google says that maybe food fixation is about an eating disorder or anxiety). And a bunch of beloved people in my community passed this year. And in the last few months I had an unimaginable number of stressful situations charge at me.
I look at pics of me from January and now and I have aged… Oh god, how much I’ve aged.
But I have some great memories from this year and despite the exhaustion, that’s what I’m taking with me.
Here’s a look at 17 Highlights of 2018:
1. I was a presented by the US Consulate in Nigeria!
By a chance recommendation, I was invited to perform The Wong Street Journal at the Lagos Theater Festival in Nigeria in February, presented by the US Consulate. Nigeria is a five hour flight from Uganda, where the show was researched. Lagos is so incredibly vibrant, filled with fantastic people. Because I was presented by the US Consulate, I was treated like a CELEBRITY. I met the most famous comedians, actors and change makers in Lagos. In the picture above from left to right is Abisoye A. Akinfolarin (CNN Heroes Nominee), Chigul (comedian and actress who was on a billboard outside my hotel!), Mandy Uzonitsha (Nigeria’s grandmother of stand-up comedy), Basketmouth (Hella famous comedian) and Ali Baba (godfather of Nigeria’s stand-up comedy scene).
2. I was on late night television in Nigeria!
I had such a good time in Nigeria. Every hour was packed. We were shuttled around in an armored car, sometimes with an armed guard! I was on a lot of radio including this podcast with My Africa Podcast.
And I went to fancy parties at the Consulate General’s home where I used cocktail napkins that had the United States Government seal on them!
[youtube]https://youtu.be/UOYmeiZI4JY[/youtube]
I was on Nigeria’s version of the Daily Show hosted by Okey Bakassi. You can read about this first show in the New Yorker.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/RnnU8_NRjvo[/youtube]
And literally, hours before I left town, I squeezed in one late night appearance on Ali Baba’s “Seriously Speaking”. We had come from watching Femi Kuti perform at the New Africa Shrine where he touched my finger!
3. I returned to Uganda where I made music videos!
[youtube]https://youtu.be/EPHHAofU2jc[/youtube]
After five years of making and touring The Wong Street Journal, I returned back to Gulu, Uganda– where the stories first began. I reunited with the folks I had met there– Nerio Badman and the other rappers on my Mzungu Price Album. I went to Nerio’s home village. We shot THREE music videos. (We shot four actually, but I will never let the fourth video see the light of day). And it felt like a full circle way to come back to a story I’ve lived aloud in front of audiences over the last three years. We also recorded a rap song called “Nigerian Prince” that we wrote and recorded in an hour and a half.
4. I was a Dandy Minion in Taylor Mac’s 24 Hour History of American Music.
Because this was a year of extremes, I had the pleasure of being both in an African village and in “Taylor Mac’s 24 Hour History of American Music” in the same week. If you don’t know MacArthur Genius Taylor Mac or of this 24 hour drag-stravaganza performance, you aren’t living. As someone who makes work that can tour, it was amazing to be part of something so long and extravagant.
5. I helped Asian American women talk about sex and it was like for the greater good of social science!
I’m beginning to see how being a performance artist can actually be useful for more than just exposing my worst. I worked with social science professors to talk about Sexual Health experience with what will hopefully be future focus groups for studies.
6. I launched my newest performance work… “Kristina Wong for Public Office”!
I debated dogs. Opened a campaign headquarters in Chinatown. And gave the most insane campaign speech ever.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/jjpkXyCeIi8[/youtube]
I received the COLA Career Artist Fellowship grant from the City of Los Angeles to create a new work and I decided
7. I launched my web series Radical Cram School!
[youtube]https://youtu.be/aI3voZCASp0[/youtube]
8. I got hate from Nazis and then made this response video!
[youtube]https://youtu.be/ofVNDWvJc28[/youtube]
Turns out Nazis didn’t take to my series very well. But I didn’t let them have the last word.
9. I did this amazing theater project with undocumented immigrants!
Thanks to the Artist-in-Residence Award from the Department of Cultural Affairs Los Angeles, I was able to make this original theater piece with the undocumented community.
10. I am a finalist for the Sherwood Award!
The winner is announced at the end of January. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
11. I was the Performing Artist in Residence at the San Diego Airport!
12. Engagements all over the freaking country!
Arizona! Wyoming! Boston! Knoxville! Portland! Santa Barbara! St. Louis! Miami!
14. I filed to run for an actual elected political office!
15. I’m simultaneously attempting to crowd fund for Season 2 of Radical Cram School.
In the spirit of a year where I’m literally on top of myself, I simultaneously running for Public Office while raising money for my unrelated web series. It’s a lot like how many friend many years ago was hella pregnant while trying to open her cafe in the Castro– I don’t recommend this.
But right now, I’m pretty desperately asking the world to help me meet the bare minimum of $16K in fundraising so I can get the greenlight. We’re going to have more music, more puppets and guest Aunties, Uncles and non-genderconforming mentors join us. Get in on a revolutionary series that will piss off the Nazis!
16. I NET $5000 in sales on Poshmark!
I went a wee bit too far into my resale obsession this year. I sold hundreds of items out of my bedroom. Which yes, also meant that I acquired hundreds of items in my bedroom. It wasn’t so much as profitable as it was as soothing as picking away at a scab, letting it rebleed and then picking at it again. There was this great joy when I could pack something up and send it out of my home forever.
17. I was in a few films and things!
It turns out that there weren’t too many “Get Out the Vote” PSAs for the Asian American community.
WE FREAKING DID IT! We launched a 6 episode web series for kids!
“Radical Cram School” Web Series
is Sesame Street for the Resistance
How do we keep girls of color from internalizing the racist and misogynistic rhetoric amplified by
the election of a presidential bully? How do we empower them to embrace their identities and
become allies to other social movements? “Radical Cram School” is a new web series on
YouTube that seeks answers to these questions through humor and fun. The series title,
“Radical Cram School,” is a social justice twist on the phenomenon of “cram schools” — high
intensity academic tutoring centers frequented by Asian communities.
Hosted by comedian Kristina Wong, the series features nine kids of Asian American heritage,
ages 7 to 11, eight of whom identify as girls and one who identifies as gender fluid. Over 6
unscripted episodes, Kristina and the kids play games, put on a puppet show, and sing the
blues to explore topics such as structural racism, misogyny, identity, and bullying. While the
subject matter skews mature, the kids’ unscripted reactions are hilarious and heartwarming.
Puppeteer Anna Michelle Wang is featured in two episodes with her popular Asian American
puppet character, Hanna Rochelle.
“Radical Cram School” is directed by Jenessa Joffe and produced by Kristina Wong, Jenessa Joffe, Theodore Chao, and Anna Michelle Wang. This series is geared towards kids of color (and grown kids of color), parents and educators who want to engage kids in conversations about identity and social justice, fans of comedy, and activist communities.
