This summer, Shift has taken us all over. Read the rest of this entry »
The Jane Park Files
It all started with a film. And a Facebook search. The quest to find the people who share my name.
In 2005, I screened The Grace Lee Project at the Los Angeles Korean International Film Festival. It’s a quirky documentary through which the filmmaker – her name is Grace Lee – enters the lives of several other Grace Lees. In so doing, she tries to debunk the myths that surround the name and its bearer as the stereotypical Asian-American model minority. Read the rest of this entry »
The Ultimate List: All 30 Things You Should Do Before You Turn 30
You may have skimmed our lists of 30 things to do before you turn 30. See the complete list all at once and learn more about each item, with additional resources, links and photos. Read the rest of this entry »
Why we serve
The U.S. military is zeroing in on young adults. But the double-front war in Iraq and Afghanistan is forcing many to think twice before signing up. Now eight years after its inception, the War on Terror has produced a new generation of recruits – and veterans.
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In the name of Dios: Mormon missionaries bring urban Hispanics, Catholics into the church
Traditional greetings—“buenos dias” and smacking kisses, one on each cheek—sound out over the organ music 22-year-old missionary Charisse Horn plays at a Sunday morning service in Logan Square.
A year ago, she’d never spoken a word of Spanish. Now, as one of about 35 Spanish-speaking missionaries in Chicago, she worships, gives testimony and reads El Libro de Mormon, or the Book of Mormon, all in Spanish. Read the rest of this entry »
An alternate path: Community living experiments in the city
Cooperatives. Communes. Intentional communities. Utopian experiments.
Whenever the idea of “living in community” gets thrown out, at least one and (more likely) all of these terms will inevitably appear in the conversation. “Utopian” risks sounding naïve in the cynical, postmodern era, and “commune” is often flat-out wrong (properly, it’s only used to describe communities that pool all their finances, which most do not). Read the rest of this entry »
This Muslim-American life: young adults’ activist, artistic voices
Follow through this six-story series on the lives of second-generation American Muslims. Read the rest of this entry »
New takes on old media
I previously discussed the burgeoning market of ethnic media, which got me thinking about different storytelling methods. Lo and behold, what I found were unique ways in which ethnic media and/or their audiences were taking steps to change news.
Take a look at the models I found: Read the rest of this entry »
The Moving Diaries
Meet Chris and Lisa. They are among the many college graduates in the U.S. each year who are uprooting their lives to move to a new city and advance their careers. In the process they must come to terms with departing familiar surroundings and the nitty-gritty of physically relocating across the country. Get a look inside their (messy) homes as they pack up boxes and consider life at their future addresses.
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Good old fashioned fun in a digital age
As summer draws to a close, we look back at what we accomplished. How many of us can say that somewhere between our other feats of work, relaxation, and family and friends over these brief few months, we cracked open a good book? Managed to finish the whole thing, from cover to cover?
Rick Puig, Cuban-American
On January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro took control over the lush island of Cuba, just 90 miles off the coast of Florida. He imposed a communist regime that is still in power today. Since then, millions have fled the country in hopes of escaping the now-ailing leader and his oppressive government.
Elisao Puig was among them, able to find safety in the United States. Now 58, his father put him on a plane with his sister when he was just 12. He landed in Miami. And once there, Puig was able to prosper, eventually becoming a family physician and raising his own family.
He had a son, Rick, whose family’s history weighs heavily on him and who doesn’t take his freedoms here lightly. With age, this 21-year-old second-generation American has become heavily involved in the political scene in Missouri. This is his story.
Urban Desi Radio
Get ready to jive to the beat of tablas while rocking out to hard metal. That is, only if you live in the Bay Area.
Since Aug. 12, South Asians in the Silicon Valley have been able to tune into KLOK 1170 AM every Wednesday from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. for Urban Desi Radio. The show features music from around the world, with a South Asian focus, and plans for guest speakers and discussion topics on entertainment and lifestyle are in the works. Read the rest of this entry »
The Gay Generation Gap
How have attitudes towards gays and lesbians changed in the 40 years since the Stonewall Riots? Bill Rydwels, 76, who has been living with HIV for 25 years, explains. Read the rest of this entry »
Like Mother, Like Daughter: Family
Three cultures. Two generations. One bond. This Shift series delves into the lives of mothers who came to the United States from other countries and the daughters they have raised here.
When we arrived at Christine Stef’s house in Arlington Heights, cars jammed the driveway. But there was no party. Christine, a 22-year-old nursing student, was simply home where she lives with her parents and two siblings. They each have a car. Read the rest of this entry »
Like Mother, Like Daughter: Pride
Three cultures. Two generations. One bond. This Shift series delves into the lives of mothers who came to the United States from other countries and the daughters they have raised here.
For the last part of the series we chose to stick to one question: Why, beyond the obvious, are these three immigrant mothers so proud of their second-generation daughters? This theme encapsulates the purpose of the project – to capture the unique bond that these pairs of mothers and daughters share. Read the rest of this entry »
