Tag: Pichchenda Bao

Look! “Here & Gone” Program (In-Person and Virtual)

May 18 2023 @ 7:00PM

Our Greater Astoria Historical Society team-up show hosted by Ellie Dvorkin Dunn is tonight! In-person at Grove 34 ($10 tickets here!)

  • 7:00 – 7:30: *Reception featuring Queens “Here & Gone” artwork by Yelena Tylkina
  • 7:30 – 9:00: Switched-up Storytelling!

*Drinks and snacks available for purchase.

We’ll also be streaming the show LIVE from our Facebook page at 7:30 if you want to join virtually.

Plus, a chance to win story trivia prizes featuring Queens “Here & Gone” artwork! If you aren’t a winner, click here to purchase “Here & Gone” artwork and more on Yelena’s Fine Art America page.

For this special show, storytellers worked with producer Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons and story coaches Tim Lindner and Pichchenda Bao to engage with Queens “Here & Gone” Highlights featuring the history of the Westinghouse Time CapsuleNorth BeachAstoria Pool Sentinels, and The First Photocopy to inspire their personal stories on the page.

Take a look as they swap stories to embody their partner’s culture, identity, and life experience on stage!

TONIGHT’S STORIES!

Two Continents and a Whole New Ballgame by Lakshmi Gandhi, performed by Dan Jessup, directed by Ellie Dvorkin Dunn

The Certainty of Here by Dan Jessup, performed by Lakshmi Gandhi, directed by Ellie Dvorkin Dunn

My Book About Water by Olena Jennings, performed by Rosalie Chandler, directed by Erika Iverson

Peace Through Understanding by Rosalie Chandler, performed by Olena Jennings, directed by Erika Iverson

Thank you, thank you to everyone who made this night possible!

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Special thanks to Rosalie Chandler, Bob Singleton, and Ava Vitali for helping us create these Queens “Here & Gone” highlights. The Greater Astoria Historical Society is the place to learn and celebrate Long Island City and its neighborhoods. Learn more at astorialic.org.

This project is supported by funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, Statewide Community Regrants Program (formerly the Decentralization program) with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and administered by Flushing Town Hall.

This project is made possible (in part) with public funds from the Queens Arts Fund, a re-grant program supported by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by New York Foundation for the Arts.

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THREE great ways to support No, YOU Tell It!
  1. SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter for updates.
  2. Follow us @noyoutellit and tell a friend!
  3. DONATE through our fiscal sponsor, The Field. Plus, it’s tax-deductible.

Event Information

May 18 2023 @ 7:00PM

Grove 34 (3183 34th St., Astoria)

Watch “Punch Up” to Win!

Have you watched our “Punch Up” show yet? Don’t miss out on these stellar story swaps! There is also still a chance to win the No, YOU Tell It! Ten-Year Anthology 2022.

Watch the show on YouTube, play along with the story trivia at the end, follow @noyoutellit on IG, and DM us three correct responses to win a free copy!!

Left to right: Ellie Dvorkin Dunn, Tim Lindner, Maria Rubio, Matt Storrs, Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons, Aida Zilelian, Jenn Wehrung, Pichchenda Bao

THANK YOU for another amazing show!

Thank you to:

The storytellers for sharing and performing your work.
The creative team and story coaches for making this event possible.
Ellie Dvorkin Dunn for hosting!
Culture Lab LIC for the venue and all your help.
Brooklyn Book Festival Bookends Committee and Coordinator Stephan Herrera for having us for another #BKBF Bookend Event.
Queens Council on the Arts for helping make this possible.
Palm Circle Press for taking on the challenge of getting the anthology out into the world.

And everyone that came or live streamed the show! We couldn’t have made it 10 years without this community!

Look! “Punch Up” Program (In-Person and Virtual Show)

Sep 26 2022 @ 7:00PM

Our Brooklyn Book Festival Bookend Event hosted by Ellie Dvorkin Dunn is tonight! In-person at Culture Lab, LIC or WATCH HERE virtually via YouTube.

Doors 6:30 / Show starts at 7 pm!

FREE but we’ll be collecting donations for Friends with Four Paws with a match for the first $50. Want to donate directly? Venmo @friendswith-fourpaws or via their website.

Plus, a chance to win the No, YOU Tell It! Ten-Year Anthology 2022, now available to order in paperback and eBook (with links to listen to all the stories via our podcast).

Take a look at these four storytellers who have been developing their “Punch Up” tales on the page with guest story coach and NYTI alum Pichchenda Bao. Tonight, they’ll step into their partners’ shoes and perform each other stories on stage.

TONIGHT’S STORIES!

Confection Resolution written by Matt Storrs, performed by Maria Rubio, and directed by KJ Fitzsimmons

The Great Unknowns written by Maria Rubio, performed by Matt Storrs, and directed by KJ Fitzsimmons

Shaman Says written by Jenn Wehrung, performed by Aida Zilelian, and directed by Ellie Dvorkin Dunn

One Final Lesson written by Aida Zilelian, performed by Jenn Wehrung, and directed by Ellie Dvorkin Dunn

Thank you, thank you to everyone who made this night possible!

THIS IS AN OFFICIAL 2022 BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL BOOKEND EVENT

This show is made possible (in part) by the Queens Council on the Arts with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
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Want to support 10 more years of No, YOU Tell It! Here are 3 great ways:

  1. SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter for updates.
  2. SHARE the No, YOU Tell It! Podcast far and wide. Available on our website and your fav podcasting platforms.
  3. DONATE through our fiscal sponsor The Field. Plus, it’s tax-deductible.

Event Information

Sep 26 2022 @ 7:00PM

Culture Lab LIC, (5-25 46th Avenue, Long Island City, New York, NY 11101)

Meet “Punch Up” Story Coach Pichchenda Bao

Sep 26 2022 @ 7:00PM

In celebration of our 10th year, we’re continuing to build community by inviting No, YOU Tell It! alums back as guest story coaches and directors. We want our diverse alumni to step into the mentorship roles they benefited from to help guide new storytellers.

Meet Pichchenda Bao, who participated in our first evening of poets swapping with stand-ups #BKBF Bookend Event at The Astoria Bookshop in 2019. Give a listen to her story swap with comedian Carolyn Castiglia. 

We’re honored to have Pichchenda return as a “Punch Up” story coach at our first story meeting this week to provide her insights as a poet who left her comfort zone to write and perform prose with No, YOU Tell It! 

Photo credit: Mengwen Cao

Pichchenda Bao is a Cambodian American writer and poet, infant survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime, daughter of refugees, and feminist stay-at-home mother in New York City. Her work has been featured in numerous publications, exhibitions and events. She has received support from the Queens Council on the Arts and Bethany Arts Community. She is a 2022 Kundiman poetry fellow and a 2019 Aspen Words emerging writer fellow. Read her work at pichchendabao.com.

See you at Culture Lab, LIC on 9/26 for the show! RSVP via Facebook or email us at noyoutellit@gmail.com.

Event Information

Sep 26 2022 @ 7:00PM

Culture Lab LIC, (5-25 46th Avenue, Long Island City, New York, NY 11101)

Considering “Why?” This Giving Tuesday

A note from creator/producer Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons this #GivingTuesday. Click here to donate.

In the spirit of Giving Tuesday and considering the question of “Why?” … Why donate to No, YOU Tell It! Why do I, personally, put so much work in? The answer resides in these words of trepidation that I often hear from participants about the value of their personal story:

“Why had I agreed to do this? Who was I to even attempt a prose form? A performance piece? Why did I think I deserved to have any kind of attention?” – poet Pichchenda Bao, NYTI “aMuse”

The NYTI creative team gives each show our all because we believe: YOUR SLICE OF LIFE IS AS VALUABLE AS ANYONE ELSE’S IN THE WORLD!

Everything we do is worth witnessing storytellers speak each other’s words aloud to empower their voices on the page and stage. In 2019, we:

  • Worked with 17 storytellers
  • Curated 3 live shows
  • Plus 1 special student story swap event!
  • Produced 6 new podcast episodes

All to give life and attention to the value of each other’s stories.

As of today, we need 23 people to donate $25 to REACH our 2019 goal of $5000 raised! Can you be one of them?

Click here to make your tax-deductible donation through our fiscal sponsor The Field. 

Great Year of Switched-Up Storytelling!

Proud with a capital “P” of all that we have accomplished in 2019. Give a listen to live story swaps from our “Crafty,” “Snapped!” and “aMuse”  shows on the NYTI podcast. Also, available on iTunes, Apple podcasts, etc.

A ton of work goes into each installment of No, YOU Tell It! From curating a group of storytellers, story meetings to develop drafts on the page, rehearsals sessions to help story partners step into each other’s shoes on stage, all the way through to producing the podcast.

Every moment is worth this testimonial (which totally made us tear up) from Queens poet Pichchenda Bao!

Give a LISTEN to Chenda and Carolyn swap stories as part of our special 2019 Brooklyn Book Festival Event at The Astoria Bookshop in Ep 51.

As we prepare for NYTI 2020, we need your help to keep the switched-up storytelling going!!

CLICK HERE TO DONATE through our sponsored artist page on The Field.

No, YOU Tell It! is a sponsored artist with Performance Zone Inc (dba The Field), a not-for-profit, tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization serving the performing arts community. Contributions to The Field earmarked for No, YOU Tell It! are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Episode 51 – a Muse (Part 1)

First up, Pichchenda Bao’s “Speak, Muse” contemplates the roles we are assigned in life and the roles we adopt: refugee, American, daughter, mother, artist, citizen; the compromises we make for survival and the ways we interpret silence, and ultimately how we can expand, not contract, our relationship to each other and the world.

Read for us here by Carolyn Castiglia.

Story partners: Pichchenda Bao and Carolyn Castiglia

Switching it up, in Carolyn Castiglia’ s story “A Friend Request,” the author looks back at a time in her early twenties when she chose comfort over vulnerability and suffering over fulfillment. A small gesture reminds her how people who pass through our lives can show back up on our radar years later to remind us how we’ve weathered life’s storms.

For this 2019 Brooklyn Book Festival event, we partnered with The Astoria Bookshop for a special evening of poets and comedians trading true tales inspired by the theme “aMuse.” Stories performed live on September 17th, 2019.

“Speak, Muse” was directed by Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons.

“A Friend Request” was directed by Erika Iverson.

Podcast narrated by Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons.

Meet “A Muse” Storyteller Pichchenda Bao

Sep 17 2019 @ 7:00PM

Tuesday! Arrive at The Astoria Bookshop early to grab a seat (and wine!) and stories start at 7 pm SHARP. Rehearsals begin tomorrow but first, meet “aMuse” storyteller Pichchenda Bao.

Pichchenda Bao is a writer and poet. Born at the end of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, she was an infant when her mother carried her across the Thai border. She and her parents arrived in the United States as refugees. Now she lives, writes, and raises her two young children in New York City. Her work has been published by Newtown Literary, the Stilt House zine, and great weather for MEDIA, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is a 2019 Aspen Words emerging writer fellow.

Event Information

Sep 17 2019 @ 7:00PM

The Astoria Bookshop (31-29 31st St Astoria NY 11106)