We live in a world that impresses fear upon humanity. Fear of the unknown. Fear of the future. Fear of facing it alone. Fear of not belonging.  Fear of not having enough. Fear of not being enough. Fear of others, even though we’ve seen the profound impact that we can make together. Fear of our own potential—perhaps because the potential is so great, that our hearts can barely handle the thought of what we could become. Fear of losing family. Fear of losing homeland. Fear of not surviving.

Even so, we continue thriving in a culture that strives to instill fear within us. How do we rebuke the lies with which fear tempts us? We remind ourselves of the truths that have been continually revealed to us in life’s unfoldment: That we are not going through this alone. That we have inherited the strength that will push us onward. That this hope will indeed sustain us. 

Physically erase fear in the Fear Not. workshop with artist Trinh Mai. Please RSVP, as there will be limited capacity.

Trinh Mai is a California-based visual artist who works with a breath of natural, traditional, and inherited media that hold histories of their own. Her current work confronts the fear, injustice, and devastation that has harrowed our refugee and immigrant families, then and now, and seeks hope within humanity’s consistent struggle in war and hardship. She received her BFA at San Jose State, where she met her husband, and since then, she has worked with numerous humanitarian organizations, including the Friends of Huế Foundation Children's Shelter in Việt Nam and Angkor Hospital for Children in Cambodia, also partnering with the International Rescue Committee to develop creative projects with refugee children. In 2019, she was named as Walker-Ames Scholar by the University of Washington, and in 2020, Professional Artist Fellow for the city of Long Beach. Trinh continues visiting academic and arts & culture institutions, and serves diverse communities by engaging communities in creative storytelling. Her work is driven by the desire to document memory, and to help usher us into communal healing and an enduring hope that might help ground us in a fractured world.

Please contact tmdinh@stanford.edu with any questions.

Co-sponsored by the Institute for Diversity in the Arts, Asian American Studies, and the Center for Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity.