Today we’d like to introduce you to Annie Zean Dunbar.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Annie Zean. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’ve always been fascinated by people, and how people connect. When I was 15, I told a close friend that I wanted to know everyone in the world (a major feat for one person- but I’ve always had lofty goals). Since that day, I’ve actively tried to explore not only what it means to be a person, but how do we all, as different people move around the world.
Moving to Chicago in 2013 jumpstarted my exploration of many of my research interests as well as artistic projects. I’m an immigrant, 1.5 generation American, whose family is from Liberia. Living in diaspora has always impacted the ways I think about myself in relationship to others.
I got started writing in childhood, and have always had a propensity for artistic endeavors that bring people together. Whether it was working on DIY zines (OUTlet), running open-mics in college, organizing fundraisers for causes I believe in, or having people over for dinner, the desire to learn about and from others has been a thread. As an artist and organizer, I’ve had the distinct pleasure of supporting a number of endeavors that challenge others to explore what it means to be human.
As a researcher, I’m working on methods that bridge my academic interests, my artistic propensities, and ethnographic explorations on trauma, healing, and the forced migration experience. Now more than ever, I’m looking at and considering how to translate things to other people who might not agree with me, or who simply might not understand, and that desire has brought me immense joy.
Has it been a smooth road?
I like to think of myself in many ways as a dumbo octopus- cute, tiny, and able to withstand a lot of pressure. My journey into this iteration of my life has been anything but smooth. My family moved to the United States during the Liberian Civil war.
At six, I basically was thrust into a whole new world filled with different people, expectation, and cultural cues. Growing up in a number of different places- North Carolina, New York City, and later Lowell, Massachusetts, I learned how to adapt not only to the surroundings but the expectations of the place itself.
In high school and later college, I met other immigrant and first-generation kids who normalized some of my dissonance about being bi-cultural- for example, having to explain to my mom what a potluck is and why we had to bring food to it, or explaining to my friends why they couldn’t come to my house when my mother was frying bushels of peppers.
Getting citizenship was the most complicated experience of my conscious life, and to add that status with understanding my place in the world, as a black person, a black woman, a queer person, was and is fraught with struggles and a lot of mishaps. But I’ve tried to take each experience as a way to grow and learn about myself and act as a resource for others.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Over the last three years, I’ve gotten the distinct pleasure of organizing with some amazing humans- Gillian Hastings, Tonika Todorova, Neta Levinson, Krzys Piotrowski, Rae Bees, Ciera Mckissick, and Blaise Bullion with Connect-the-Dots. Connect-the-Dots began as the brainchild of Gillian Hastings, which developed into a conversation between the group of us and has become a conduit to explore and recognize, deconstruct, and re-imagine popular constructs within American culture.
We’ve organized a number of thematic events including gRace- a graceful dialogue on race in 2015. In 2016, we presented DEMOCRITIQUE, a two-day event that explored government and politics through a multitude of interactive experiences. Currently, we are hosting conversations at the Comfort Station in Logan Square. The series titled De-conditioning! is an exploration the language of our current world- what we know, and how we know it.
When I’m not doing CTD, I’m supporting the efforts of Emerging Scholars and Practitioners on Migration Issues (ESPMI) Network. As a General Executive at ESPMI Network, I get to learn with and engage stakeholders who are in the fields of forced migration and refugee studies. In many ways, ESPMI works transnationally to provide a space for young people in the field to publish work, develop professional connections, supports the production new research and new interest. A lot of my work centers knowledge dissemination and access.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Chicago is an international city with so many different types of people, perspectives, world-views. I feel as though things like Connect-the-Dots and digital networks such as Emerging Scholars and Practitioners on Migration Issues (ESPMI) are perfectly situated in this city.
I also believe that Chicago is a much warmer city in terms of people being willing and able to contribute. People go out, they want to go to lectures, art shows, experimental pop-ups. There is also a willingness to step outside (even in the frigid cold) to support your friends, it’s inspiring.
Idea’s turn into action in Chicago, I’m very fortunate to be in the midst of so many exciting projects.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.connectthedots.community/
- Twitter: instagram.com/anniezeanbean/
- Other: https://espminetwork.com/
Image Credit:
Nicci Briann, Rae Bees
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