Among Worlds - TCKs & the Arts - December 2021

DECEMBER 2021

Vol. 21 | No. 4

TCKs & the Arts

Contents Curated TCK Creativity Hannah Mathews

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Project Roots Camille Deniau

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Another Land Raised Me Elizabeth Wood

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Papua New Guinea Scenes Kadynn Williamson

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Uprooted Malik Dieleman

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Conflicted Katie G.

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Silver Thread Ellen Michelle Beard

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Painting the In-Between Christine Rasmussen

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Art Has Served Me Well Kathleen Gamble

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Citizens of Limbo Kelly Pickering

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Photography in Black & White Michael Pollock

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The Audacity to Just Be Yoomee Ko

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Finding Beauty Marc Curless

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Finding Peace in Aloneness Chozi Ya Chui

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December 2021 • Vol. 21 • No. 4 Cover Art: “San Fernando Road” by Christine Rasmussen Editor: Rachel Hicks Copy Editor: Pat Adams Graphic Designer: Kelly Pickering Digital Publishing: Bret Taylor

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Editor’s Letter TCKs & the Arts

We decided to end 2021 with a bang—an explosion of color and beauty and depth and light!

These are heavy times we’re living in, and many of us feel that heaviness as a deep weariness. We’re tired of the COVID pandemic, some of us are grieving loved ones lost, many of us have experienced extra levels of loneliness or isolation, and conflict in many parts of the world has made us tense and perhaps pessimistic about it all.

For those reasons and more, we wanted to offer this artistic feast to you, our fellow TCKs, as an end-ofyear gift.

“But how can art help?

Or poetry?”

But how can art help? Or poetry? The arts can’t solve the world’s geo-political problems, stop a virus, or bring back a loved one. But perhaps as we slow down and take the time to look, to reflect, and to savor all the creative works included in this issue, they might remind us who we are, give us words for complicated emotions, teach us new ways to see, celebrate the good, or make us wonder, explore, and question.

In this issue, TCK artists, photographers, poets, and writers give us more than windows into their own thoughts and lives—they help us to see what they see. They reflect our world and our complicated identities back to us from new perspectives. They show us how to be okay with the tensions in our paradoxical lives. They remind us to look for beauty, sometimes in unexpected places.

Poet William Carlos Williams once wrote, “It is difficult / to get the news from poems / yet men die miserably every day / for lack / of what is found there” (from “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower”). If we expand his idea of “poems” to include the arts in general, I believe the sentiment still rings true.

Among Worlds is on Instagram!

Follow us at amongworlds.

The mission of Among Worlds is to encourage adult TCKs and other global nomads by addressing real needs through relevant issues, topics, and resources.

The creative arts help us—whether we are artists or consumers of art—to access life from the right side of our brains, from our creative center. In encountering visual art, poetry, music, or artistic photography, we access ways of knowing and understanding that bypass our reason and logic, but that still reveal truth about our humanity and our world.

Each submission in this issue was created by a unique individual and has particular meaning for that artist or writer. And yet good works invite the viewer or reader in as a participant in their meaning—we encounter the universal in the particular. Different images, sounds, and words will resonate with each of us, and we hope that each of you will find something in these pages to take with you, to remember, to contemplate.

As you celebrate this holiday season and the end of 2021, please enjoy the special gifts we’ve curated in this issue on TCKs and the Arts!

A TCK is an individual who, having spent a significant part of the developmental years in a culture other than the parents’ cultures, does not have full ownership of any culture.

Elements from each culture are incorporated into the life experience, but the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of similar experience.”

- David C. Pollock

Among Worlds magazine would love to hear from you!

Any comments, feedback, or reflections that you may have on this issue or previous issues are welcome and will be printed in the following issue. Write to us at: amongworlds@interactionintl.org

Wishing you all good things in 2022,

Rachel

AMONG WORLDS ©2021 (ISSN# 1538-75180) IS PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY INTERACTION INTERNATIONAL, P. O. BOX 863 WHEATON, IL 60187 USA. NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT THE PRIOR PERMISSION FROM THE PUBLISHER. WE LOVE WORKING WITH INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS AND NGOS AND WILL NEGOTIATE A RATE THAT WORKS WITHIN YOUR BUDGET. CONTACT US AT AMONGWORLDS@ INTERACTIONINTL.ORG OR CALL +1-630-653-8780. THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN AMONG WORLDS DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEW OF AMONG WORLDS OR INTERACTION INTERNATIONAL.

December 2021

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Curated TCK Creativity

By Hannah Mathews

Hannah Mathews is the founder of CultureMiKs, a website of curated TCK creative works—visual art, spoken word poetry, music, and more—by TCKs around the world. She shares with us some of her favorite pieces here. You can find more TCK creativity at https://culturemiks.com. Hannah grew up in Ghana and the US, and she has traveled widely as an adult.

“Gone” Song by Haddie Grace

“No Roots” Song by Alice Merton (video)

This is a song about going away to college and starting over, but it really could apply to any situation where one is starting over. I especially love the way the song points out that even though new beginnings are often thought of as exciting, for TCKs sometimes “old” relationships are more desired. To be known is a very powerful thing.

I love that this song is “mainstream,” because that’s how it should be! The world is moving in a global direction, and I believe TCKs are the citizens of the future. One thing I appreciate about this song is how it speaks to the common TCK theme of not having roots and yet does it from a positive standpoint.

“A Different Time” Spoken word poetry by Josh Gibson (video)

“Putting the K in MK” Video by Michele Phoenix

https://youtu.be/DFgmzqRKKxA

https://youtu.be/U8z2dQR98bA

This spoken word poem is a very powerful look at what it feels like to be an adult TCK. It speaks into the heartache of looking back, and also the hope of looking forward. The first time I heard it, I was very moved.

“Complicated and Confident” Spoken word poetry (video) https://youtu.be/pIIZTFQhPWs

This spoken word poem is about what it looks like to live as a “hidden immigrant.” It talks about blending in and standing out, about adapting to a new culture but not losing the old. It is a celebration of the internal complexity of being a TCK.

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https://youtu.be/PUdyuKaGQd4

https://youtu.be/cga6fBJwzWE In this video, young MKs are asked to recite answers given by older MKs to the question “You know you’re an MK when….” Some of them are pretty hilarious!

“Transitions” Video by TheGhanaKids with music from A Great Big World https://youtu.be/S3rfVuAEIXg

This is a video made by two young TCKs upon the occasion of their transition back to their passport culture. It’s very nostalgic, and I think it is relatable for any of us who have left a place that we love. It also speaks to the need for closure and goodbyes done well.

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“The Oak” design Commission / 50x70 cm

Camille Deniau 5

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Project Roots

By Camille Deniau

A London Plane Tree Bespoke Commission / 40x60 cm

Camille Deniau is an artist and the founder of Project Roots, an art and lifestyle brand that she has created to bring stability, strength, and roots to the lives of all those who, like her, feel rootless and in search of “home.” She does this through an artistic exploration of trees and sells her art online and through private commissions. Camille has spent the last twenty years following art classes at studios and at the University of the Arts London. She is based in London and previously worked as a partnerships manager at Google for over six years. Camille was born in France and soon after moved abroad with her family and lived in Singapore, Milan, and London.

You can discover Camille’s artwork at www.projectrootsart.com or on Instagram and find out more about Project Roots by watching this video.

“ To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.”

— Simone Weil, The Need for Roots

An Old Plane Tree in a family estate Bespoke Commission / 50x50 cm

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“Love B Edition o

A Singapore Rain Tree Bespoke Commission / 50x50 cm

Camille Deniau 7

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Bespoke Wedding

Birds” Paper Embossing from a tree bark / of 2 / Frame size 30x40 cm - For Sale

e Ginkgo design g Gift commission / 20x26 cm

A Special Loquat Tree in a family home Bespoke Commission / 40x60 cm

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Another La Raised M

Elizabeth Wood was born in Pennsylvania, USA, but grew up in Sigüenza, a small town tucked between hills in central Spain. Currently she is a PhD student in Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on vowels and prosody in K’iche’, a Mayan language of Guatemala.

Website: https://elizabethwoodlinguist.wordpress.com/

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Among AmongWorlds Worlds

and Me

By Elizabeth Wood This land birthed me It heard my first cry, it saw my first step It brought me into being It introduced me to a world It gave me a face, a name, a place It wrote them all down on a piece of paper And by those it tries to claim me What could be more official?

But this land did not raise me Another land raised me It took me in and made me its own It nurtured a child to mature and grow It watched me step into myself It adopted me Am I by that any less its child than those it birthed?

The rolling hills, the sun-dried grass, the open sky The cobbled streets, the tile roofs, the ancient stones They claim their land: We have always been here I have not But I claim them Does that make them any less mine? ¿Cómo explicar la conexión del alma con la tierra? ¿Cómo explicar que lo que un día fue mío me es ahora extraño, extranjero?

Que los robles, las aceras, las ardillas, las casas de ladrillo Son tan míos como los cráteres de la luna Que nuestra conexión se ha perdido Que no deseo encontrarla Y que lo que es ahora mío Son las colinas, la sequía, los castillos, las calles empedradas That the Stars and Stripes, the American dream Belong to me no more than to any alien Lo mío es sobremesa, humor negro, vergüenza ajena, la ley del mínimo esfuerzo De tal palo tal astilla But the mother that I am like Is not the land that birthed me But the one that raised me

December 2021

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“Papua New Guinea” Acrylic

Kadynn Williamson 11

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“The Iski Church” Acrylic

Papua New Guinea Scenes

By Kadynn Williamson

“The Iski Church” is set in Papua New Guinea, in the village where I grew up.

I used a picture of the teaching as a reference for my painting. One of our elders, named Jon, is featured teaching the crowd. Five days a week for two hours the Iski village would come together to hear God’s word spoken in their language. They were transfixed by the story of their savior. I remember seeing their faces as they heard the truth, so it was a key part of my childhood. I thought I would paint it looking a little more abstract because the moment seemed dreamy to me. On the middle post you can see the word “Goto” which means God in our language.

Kadynn Williamson is a TCK from Papua New Guinea.

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Uprooted

By Malik Dieleman

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ow does the past affect the future? How has my past led me to where I am today?

No matter which direction I go, there’s no way to abandon the experiences that have formed my identity. I look at roots as symbols of these life experiences: the foundations of human identity.

While they are underground and unseen, roots continue to nurture growth. However, not all roots are permanent. Through every time of transition, or uprooting, some will break off.

I grew up moving frequently, transplanted from one place to another. Like the cross-section of a tree trunk, the past becomes exposed during times of transition. I have the chance to selfreflect. Many of my roots are different from each other, accustomed to different soils. As they shape me, I reshape them, too, with my fractured and selective memory. But some roots can’t be broken. These ones are permanent, forever affecting my future.

Bronze casting allows for the fragile, organic shapes of roots to find permanence. The process allows for a high level of detail to be reproduced, with the patina emphasizing them. I chose to display the piece beside broken tree roots as a way to contrast the temporary and the permanent. I imagine these roots as a part of myself, as if in a moment of uprooting, exposed for everyone to see.

Nature can be a beautiful tool to help us understand humanity.

Malik Dieleman 13

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Malik Dieleman is a Toronto-based photographer and multidisciplinary artist. Having grown up internationally between France, Senegal, and Canada, he carries with him a complex multi-cultural identity. With an interest in the arts, he studied at Ontario College of Art & Design University (OCAD). Today, Malik manages a freelance business providing photography, videography, and graphic design services.

Instagram: @malikdieleman_artist Website: malikdieleman.com

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Conflicted Canvas and Acrylic Paint

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Katie G.

Conflicted

By Katie G.

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his piece is a visual representation of the TCK heart being torn between countries.

In my case it’s the United States and Peru. As a TCK I never really feel like I belong to a single place. When I visit the US I feel out of place and a little isolated from the people around me. People I grew up around in the States, friends and my church family, know who I am, but they don’t know me. They don’t know me because they can’t understand my experiences or my life. In Peru I feel more in my element, more at home. Even though Peru is more my home than the US I still feel out of place sometimes. My heart is torn; my heart is in conflict with itself.

Katie G. was ten years old when she and her family first moved to a new country. She lived in Costa Rica in 2013, and in 2014 she moved to Peru and has been living there ever since. She helps her parents with children’s programs, providing food and Bible lessons, and she participates in a Bible study for Venezuelan refugees which takes place in her home.

Instagram: katie.g_art

December 2021

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Silver Threa

By Ellen Michelle Beard

Ellen is a visual and verbal artist.

Born in California, she grew up in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, and Hanoi, Vietnam, and has spent the past decade living in Los Angeles, USA, and dreaming about her next international transition.

She spends her time exploring the arts, cuisine, and nature of local, international, and imaginary places.

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Among Worlds

ad

There is a silver thread that extends from my chest fluoresced glowing wispy ghost-possessed wafting in the windblown east by the wind in the west As soft as a breath caressed the silver thread stretches over the stormy sea distressed billowing and snapping through tide and tempest lapped by each wave’s crest Each tug reverberates back in my chest with tension compressed It does not brittle or crack under the bleaching beating sun But the heat of the thread is felt in my chest quietly sharp like lemon zest Every snag and billow echoes in my chest Unaddressed The silver thread shaken by the wind and waves still stretches on hard-pressed guided by the celeste toward the east where it is attached to another chest like a long tin-can telephone pulled taught whispering vague but constant thoughts suggest wandering like a letter misaddressed a secret sliver of silver static barely professed guessed Spider silk is stronger than a bulletproof vest The silver thread outmatches that silk compressed It will not break no matter how stressed But alas it is too thin for me to walk along like a tightrope across the ocean the impossible quest cruel jest So I stay in house arrest and feel every tug

December 2021

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Painting the In-Bet

By Christine Rasmussen

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s a painter I investigate the inbetween, depicting urban landscapes that hover between familiar and imagined. In observing these cityscapes devoid of people, I play with themes of belonging versus aloneness, memory versus daydream, and narrative versus abstraction.

These themes interest me as a global nomad who has often found myself hovering between multiple cultures, time zones, languages, and identities. Close observation of my surroundings in every city I encounter reveals recurring materials, shadows or shapes that I paint as symbols of our shared humanity across perceived differences. Through capturing these commonalities—the wondrous details of urban environments—in my paintings, I explore the many complexities and multiple identities of our rich inner lives.

Beyond Oil on canvas, 2017, 24 x 30 inches

December 2021

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Avenue 17 Oil on canvas, 2018, 20 x 24 inches

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Shining Fortress (Raymond Ave) Oil on canvas, 2019, 36 x 48 inches

My paintings capture spaces that most people pass daily but don’t notice. In documenting them—and often beautifying the banal through my bold color choices, dramatic skies, or shadow play—these everyday spaces become worthy of contemplation.

For example, a corrugated metal fence is a barrier, a boundary, a dividing space signifying the aloneness and disconnection common in today’s societies. But the fence is also a common building material used all over the world, often as shelter, and serves as a point of familiarity even in a foreign place, evoking a sense of connection.

Working from my own reference photos, I use light, shadow and perspective to create geometric abstractions of ubiquitous urban settings. The “story” continues off the canvas, letting the viewer’s imagination step in.

December 2021

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Radiant Facade Oil on canvas, 2020, 20 x 24 inches

Brilliant Passage Oil on canvas, 2020, 20 x 24 inches

Christine Rasmussen 23

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San Fernando Road Oil on canvas, 2018, 20 x 24 inches

Christine Rasmussen (b. 1987) is an American artist raised in Pakistan, Vietnam, and the United States. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley, in Art Practice and Peace & Conflict Studies.

Rasmussen is currently based in Los Angeles where she paints full time.

Website: www.christinerasmussenart.com Instagram: @christinerasmussenart

December 2021

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Art Has Served Me Well

By Kathleen Gamble

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here are a lot of successful, even famous TCKs in the arts. Many of them probably never knew they were TCKs or what it means to be a TCK. But they are good actors, musicians, artists. We are good at moving into other worlds, pretending we are other people, reinventing ourselves, creating new personas, and surrounding ourselves with imaginary scenarios. We incorporate all the different stories and fables we have heard from around the world. We hunt with the Masai in East Africa, we ride camels across the desert with the Bedouins, we drink in beer halls with the Germans, we dance Giselle at the Bolshoi in Moscow, we are glass blowers in Venice, and we wander through museum after museum. Our imaginations are constantly being poked.

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I went off to boarding school when I was thirteen and ended up in a painting class in order to get out of study hall. I had always been a ballet dancer as well as interested in acting. I had never thought about being a painter. I was exposed to a new world and I loved it. Our teacher taught us to build our own canvases, and we could work in oils or acrylic. I chose acrylic because I wanted things to happen more quickly. I wanted bright colors. My thing was landscapes and abstracts.

I loved the mountains and sunsets. I liked big canvases with lots of color.

My first painting at age thirteen:

Kathleen Gamble

Colored pencil on paper with stars inked with markers, 2021.

It now hangs over my niece’s bed. If you look closely you can see the marks where it has been rolled up and re-stretched several times for shipping. I continued to paint for several years, but I soon realized it was difficult to travel with large canvases. As long as I was living with my parents, I could ship things around the world, but once I was on my own it was no longer practical. Living in small apartments was also a problem. I quit painting.

About five years later, I was living in Arlington, Virginia, going a bit nuts, out of sorts, and I needed an outlet. Where was my creative outlet? So I enrolled in a colored pencil class at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria. It re-ignited my love of making art and it was portable! All I needed was some paper and my bag of pencils.

Kathleen Gamble has lived in Burma, Mexico, Colombia, Nigeria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Russia, and around the USA. She is the author of Expat Alien, a memoir about growing up on five continents. She has a vast postcard collection and blogs at PostcardBuzz. com. She draws and does needlepoint in St Paul, Minnesota.

Years later I picked up needlepoint. It reminded me of the tapestries of old. I found I could design my own, and although it was very time consuming, I found it satisfying and again, portable.

My teacher at the Torpedo Factory said working on a drawing was one of the best vacations possible. You got so deep into your right brain, you lost all track of the rest of the world. I couldn’t afford to travel at the time, but I could have my brain vacation and I still do. It especially came in handy during the pandemic.

Art has served me well.

December 2021

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Citizens of Limbo

By Kelly Pickering

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or my final year of my graphic design degree in Edinburgh, Scotland, we had to create a major project, where for a year we explored a topic in depth. So, naturally I decided to look into my upbringing being a third culture kid.

This led me to my project concept where I explored how this type of nomadic childhood affects TCKs once they are adults and are having to figure out who they are and where they belong. In my project I am questioning whether there is a way that we can widen our definition of belonging to accept those that have fragmented belonging. Globalisation is creating a whole new side to belonging. Being a global citizen means you belong in multiple places. This idea is not yet well understood by the public.

Find your place to come home to.

Apply to be a citizen of Limbo today.

Find your place to come home to.

Apply to be a citizen of Limbo today.

Kelly Pickering 27

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The world is a dazzling place with so much travel and opportunity, we often lose sense of who we are and where we belong. Where do we belong?

If we belong nowhere and yet everywhere, we belong to Limbo. Two hundred forty-four million people, or 3.2 percent of the world’s population, live outside of their countries of birth, and this number is constantly growing. Our belonging can no longer be defined as one place; our belonging is fragmented. We have left parts of our belonging all over the world. These fragments piece together to create our identity and our place in Limbo.

Kelly Pickering is the graphic designer of Among Worlds magazine. She was born in London, her parents are South African, and she has lived in Holland, Australia, New York, and Scotland, and now has gone full circle and is living in London.

Portfolio: https://kpickering.myportfolio.com/work

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Michael Pollock

Photography in black & white

By Michael Pollock

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s a TCK, I am often reminded when I go out with my camera that images can be visceral, connecting to a feeling that is hard to name, a sense without a corresponding thought, or a memory that can’t quite be grasped. These four images are like that for me and are part of a collection that I think of as Third Culture Thematic— Identity, Belonging, Loss, and Purpose. Which picture corresponds to which theme, or to something else completely, is best left up to you, the viewer.

If you are interested in sharing your impressions or purchasing any of these images for yourself, please contact Michael at MVPhoto2022@gmail.com.

Note: The image of the Chinese grandma and child is not for sale.

December 2021

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Michael Pollock

Michael Pollock is an ATCK (adult third culture kid), having grown up between the US and Kenya. An educator by training, he taught and administered in the US and China where he and his wife Kristen (born in Sierra Leone) raised three TCKs. After leading Interaction International for two and a half years, he returned to leading Daraja, the organization he founded in 2012, where he continues to care for TCKs in the global community. He can’t draw, so he chases light.

December 2021

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The Audacity to J

By Yoomee Ko

2020 Night Sky 1 Oil on panel

Yoomee Ko 33

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2020 Night Sky 2 Oil on panel

Just Be

M

y art is as varied and lost as my definition of “home,” and perhaps there is a link between the two.

I began my personal journey in art by painting tall portraits of my siblings in high school and writing a few lines of poetry while grappling with big questions about identity and home in my early twenties.

Born into a Korean family living at the time in Indonesia, I grew up in Korea, Poland, and Vietnam before moving to New York City sixteen years ago for college.

As I was searching for my place in the world, I found myself gravitating back towards what I had loved as a kid—creating art. Through drawing, painting, and writing poetry, I can create a space to pause and appreciate the beauty of what is right in front of me, to see the mundane that often gets missed and tossed to the side. I am drawn to moments of stillness that capture lingering feelings of human presence and warmth, and the awe of being in nature, of being alive.

While home is still a word I can’t define, I know it as a feeling of genuine ease and happiness when I am with old and new friends who can see me as an individual, and not as an interpretation of a country, a region, or a stereotype. I want to create art that honors the human experience and celebrates the audacity to just be, refusing to fit into someone else’s preconceived notions. I hope to grow into a person who can cultivate and promote a sense of love and belonging we all aspire to feel as human beings, especially for those who are marginalized and in positions of weakness.

December 2021

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An Afternoon in Italy Oil on panel

Yoomee Ko 35

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Skipping in NYC Mixed media (silverpoint on paper)

Respite, Sydney 2018 photo (exhibited online at Black Box Gallery https://blackboxgallery.com/Info.html) Yoomee Ko is a multidisciplinary artist based in New York City who uses visual art and written word to explore memories and depths of feelings.

Since 2017, she has been practicing traditional oil painting techniques while continuing to experiment with other mediums. She holds a Certificate in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design.

Her works focus on capturing moments in time that exist as pockets of real and imagined memories that live on in their own right. She is inspired by both nature and man-made structures and the inseparable relationship between the two.

Her latest work is available for viewing at Black Box Gallery’s On-Line Annex Exhibition Focus: Trees and Water.

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Quiet street in Sighisoara, Romania, 2014

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Marc Curless

Finding Beauty Photography by Marc Curless

Though Marc Curless spent most of his childhood in small town Indiana, USA, he and his family lived as missionaries in Ramallah, Palestine, for four years during his elementary school years. It took him a long time to believe he was a real TCK but he manifested all the symptoms early on.

He has lived and worked in Pakistan (where he met his wife), Korea, Thailand, Cambodia, Egypt, China, Malaysia, and the United States. Although he has filled various positions in schools, he has made his home as a high school counselor for over fourteen years. He and Melanie currently live in Baltimore, Maryland.

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Drying saris in Varanasi, India, 2012

Reflection of a derelict madrasa in Bokhara, Uzbekistan, 2019

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Marc Curless

Waving prayers in Shuhe, China, 2017

Hospitable branch in Mulu National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia, 2019

December 2021

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Finding Peace in Aloneness

Raised in Kenya, East Africa, and serving now as a ranger in North Florida, this author shares his soul songs as Chozi Ya Chui—the tears of a leopard. “For the leopard truly walks in darkness, and these are my hidden tears.”

I still tear up when this old song plays on the radio; the smell of rain on the dusty roads of my homeland, memories of a time and place forever slipped away, a reminder of why I am alone—and why my soul is a beautiful place: ...https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=QAo_ Ycocl1E&list=RDAMVMQAo_Ycocl1EToto – “Africa”

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By Chozi Ya Chui

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ach of us is unique in our TCK journey, yet I believe most have found themselves dealing with feeling alone somewhere along the path. Facing life in a foreign land, not speaking the language, not looking the same, not understanding the culture—all these things can build a sense of aloneness. Combine this with drifting from land to land, often with no control of the destination, and this sensation can begin to dominate our lives. So often we are taught that being alone is a weakness—society is built on inclusion, so to be alone is to have somehow failed.

a vision of gators gives me pause—or is it simply some forgotten log, long since sunk to a watery grave. A turtle glides silently beside me, untroubled by the dark, whiskers of moss waving like long-drowned hair from her shell.

A silvery catfish regards me dolefully as I glide through his universe, an unwelcome intruder from the world of light and air.

Up again to breathe deep...

The night above is filled with the insect sounds of summer; the air is alive with the flutter of tiny bats intent, it seems, on devouring the music Allow me to share my own experience of makers. Life is all around me tonight: teeming in embracing that feeling of aloneness, seeking the the waters I drift through, swirling through the air quiet moments, and renewing my soul in a world above, coursing through my body with every slow that cannot understand. Touch the night with beat of my heart. I find myself grasping for words me, find yourself, and know that being alone can as my memories swirl round me like the nowtruly be a beautiful thing.... Perhaps it may shine distant current. To skin-dive the night waters of a light into the darkness of your lonely heart. the river alone is to know one is truly alive.”

What follows is my memory of skin-diving alone at night in the Santa Fe River.

As I think of you, my TCK friends, I ask you to live well and listen for a moment to the silent “I am home again, returned from a magical night music of the night. Embrace the moments you immersed in the heart of the river, drifting with feel alone, and realize that you are enough, so the ever-changing currents of crystal, bathed in long as you are there. the light of a thousand distant stars, washed by the cold clear liquid of life.

The glow of my dive light plays across the rippling colors of tiny shells, waving river grass, and a carpet of water worn stones. Sleeping fish hide in every crevice of rock and sunken tree, moving only grudgingly at the touch of my ghostly hand. An iridescent cloud of minnows drifts by, colors varied as an arching rainbow.

Below me a shadow moves wetly in the depths, just beyond the reach of my wavering light;

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Journey with us!

Among Worlds magazine is accepting submissions for upcoming issues. We are looking for original, high-quality writing, poetry, photography, and visual pieces. We invite you to share your stories and talents with us! Click here for submission details.

March 2022

Hospitality Submission deadline: January 30, 2022

June 2022

Politics Submission deadline: April 30, 2022 If you or your organization would like to purchase bulk subscriptions or advertise your services in Among Worlds, please contact amongworlds@interactionintl.org.

“I remember when I was growing up.

my great wish was to understand who I was and how I fit in the world.”

— Yo-Yo Ma