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Greetings Also-Known-As community!
Happy April! I’ve been reflecting tremendously on the changes that have happened in 2024 thus far and how we as individuals and an organization will continue to charter forward.
As a community, it has been a distinct pleasure to see new and familiar faces alike show up to events. I’ve been in conversation with...
Greetings Also-Known-As community!
We have kicked off 2024 with some wonderful events to date and have enjoyed getting to see so many of you tuning in whether locally in NYC or all across the globe.
Coming off of our Mental Health 101 event in late January, I have been sitting with some of the nuggets of wisdom and adoptee community resources shared by the 3 mental health professional panelists: Jessica Kim Gruber, Tate Benson and Cam Lee Small. If you weren’t able to attend, feel free to look through below:
The Also-Known-As Board of Directors would like to wish you a very Happy New Year!
We closed 2023 with rest and reflection of all the community growth, support and collective achievement. As we look forward to 2024, we are ecstatic to build upon momentum to curate impactful programming and opportunities for more togetherness.
We can’t wait to see you soon!
~ The 2023-2024 Board of Directors
Hi Also-Known-As family,
As I look back on November and International Adoptee Awareness Month, I continue to be amazed at the strength that lies within this community. Listening and learning from adoptees across the diaspora this month and all year round, has been a gift. Also-Known-As put together some NAAM content on our Instagram, and we welcome you to check it out here.
Last month I also had the privilege to attend the inaugural Adoptee Healing Arts Retreat co-hosted by 3 Also-Known-As community members, Anna Grunström, Lynne Connor and Heather Gittens (who also serves on our Advisory Committee). During this retreat 13 international and domestic transracial adoptees with roots across 8+ countries came together from across the U.S. for 2 full days. As I reflect on my intentions and overall experience, I feel so much gratitude that in this shared sacred space with fellow adoptees, I was able to equally give and receive powerful energy towards more healing and openness. Through different healing modalities such as, body-mind-movement, Reiki, creative writing, drumming and singing there was a lot of reflection on our unique journeys and connection to ancestors. It reminded me of ways that our ancestral spirits may show up within and around each of us; and how those who have come before us many generations prior may continue to help guide us and support us as we navigate the world.
As we kick off December, ‘tis also the season for a vast array of emotions. I hope that this holiday season you’re able to find moments of reprieve, restoration and comfort amongst loved ones whether near or far as we transition to a new calendar year soon. If you haven’t been to an event yet in 2023, it’s not too late! We hope to rejoice with you at the annual holiday party. Alternatively, we look forward to being in collective community in 2024!
Warmest,
Lindsay Geier AKA 涂婷
Hi Also-Known-As family,
I hope you all are staying safe and managing as best as expected amongst the events happening around the world. The Board and I have loved seeing both new and familiar faces alike as we kicked off our 2023-2024 programming in September. If you haven’t been to an event yet, we hope to see you soon!
Earlier this week on October 30th was Adoptee Remembrance Day, and today marks the beginning of National Adoptee Awareness Month. Adoptee community, support and awareness stretches far beyond a month’s duration, and I would like to take a moment to recognize how a month like this can be a catalyst to conjure up a multitude of feelings. However you choose to observe this month, I hope you can be gentle and kind with yourselves.
For me personally, seeing those who are doing the emotional work to center and amplify adoptee voices whether this month and all year round, I see you and thank you. As experts in our own lived experiences, I believe there should always be enough seats at the table and the platform for each of us if we so choose to engage. We’re stronger together.
We have heard feedback requests for community support resources, and we would greatly appreciate your willingness to share any resources that have resonated with you by utilizing this ongoing form.
Warmly,
Lindsay Geier AKA 涂婷
Hello Also-Known-As Community!
I hope that you all are enjoying the welcome of a new season. I have been thinking extensively about community celebrations and ways that moments in time can bring people together. As adoptees, learning more about our cultural backgrounds and celebrations our ancestors may have observed dating back thousands of years can sometimes bring up complex feelings. I hope that we each can honor the duality of these weighted emotions if they come up for you, while also celebrating our progress as we journey through life.
As I write this, it is Hispanic Heritage Month, the start of Mid-Autumn Festival, Chuseok, and Tết Trung Thu, and by the time this is delivered to your inbox, Indigenous Peoples’ Day will have just passed. The strength of this community comes from within each and every one of you. While our international adoption country of origin and racial identity may differ, our vulnerability in sharing, the diversity in our experiences, and being collectively together is what will continue to propel us and unite us.
In many of these holidays and moments, if you so choose, I hope you are able to take a moment to reflect, inquire, admire those you care about, and gather them around you, whether it be your chosen family, adoptive family, or biological family.
We hope to see you at some of our programming in the near future!
In partnership,
Lindsay Geier AKA 涂婷
Hello Also-Known-As Community!
To those who I have met before and those who I look forward to meeting soon, my name is Lindsay Geier (aka 涂婷) (she/her). I am honored to step into this upcoming year as President and carry on the legacy of those who have been in this position and on the Board before me.
This beloved organization has a rich history of 26+ years and I can speak for the Board as I share our excitement and commitment to continue to build, empower and transform with each of you! Following our annual Board of Directors retreat we honed in on members' feedback to identify key priorities for the upcoming year to ensure we're maximizing ways to partner and deliver impactful programming for the community. Our community's strength comes from being with one another. Community success would not be possible without those who built the foundation before us, those showing up and building with us, and those who will come after us.
We look forward to all that is to come in this upcoming season’s journey!
Dear Also-Known-As Community,
Thank you for your continued partnership and participation. We are extremely appreciative of our evolving community and we cannot wait for all that we will continue to build together. This survey will help us best understand your needs to identify ways that we can continue to curate impactful programming. Please complete this survey by Sunday, August 13, 2023.
To find this survey, please click here. Thank you for your time and insights in advance.
Also-Known-As is thrilled to announce the recipient of our 2023 Adoptee Excellence Scholarship. Please join us in congratulating Mya Bogers!
Learn more: https://www.alsoknownas.org/scholarships
Hello Also-Known-As family,
For those who I have not had the privilege of meeting yet, my name is Lindsay Geier, Also-Known-As 涂婷 & 萧颖妍. It is a distinct honor to be named as the 12th individual to hold the title of President, and first Chinese President of an organization that I wholeheartedly believe in.
Over the past 27+ years since the formation of Also-Known-As, each of you have played integral roles in shaping our community as a space where adoptees can empower, build and transform together. My goal for this upcoming term is to identify ways to protect the legacy that was set before me while continuing to support the expansion and ever-evolving growth of community topics and priorities.
This work would not be possible without the dedicated commitment, hard-work and passion from those who serve on the Board of Directors, Advisory Committee, and of course our active community. I look forward to all that we will continue to achieve together!
While we will formally resume programming this fall, please do not hesitate to reach out for support, partnership and community building opportunities in the interim.
The 2023 Also-Known-As Adoptee Excellence Scholarship is now live!
Applications are due APRIL 28 by 11:59PM EST
Dear adoptee community,
Recently I’ve had a few conversations where the term ‘ambiguous loss’ came up. The term, as I understand it, was coined by Dr. Pauline Boss and exposited in her book by the same name. Ambiguous loss was a term for this experience she kept coming across in her research among families who had lost someone who had fought in the Vietnam war due to ambiguous circumstances (e.g. their plane went down at sea, they were captured and never found, etc.). The lack of closure and sense of lingering possibility, she found, had as great, if not greater, impact on those experiencing this ambiguous loss.
Dear friends,
I came upon what is generally held as the first “modern” adoption law, at least within the United States, referenced as the Massachusetts Adoption of Children Act of 1851. It is quite barebones, but one thing that caught my attention was a section that stated,
“…if the child be of the age of fourteen years or upwards, the adoption shall not be made without his or her consent.”
I am curious as to how that (seemingly) arbitrary age of fourteen was decided upon. Furthermore, I am even more curious as to how the impact of the decision to bring each one of us up and out and over to where we grew up—apart from our own volition—has shaped each of us differently, some more than others for sure. From the start of our stories, there is an heightened struggle somewhere between what some call a spectrum of being a victim of fate, or an agent of free choice—mind you, which are obviously not the only two ways to consider one’s position amidst the course of life!
We are pleased to announce the IKAA 2023 Conference Grant Application is officially open. Grant recipients will receive financial aid to attend the 2023 IKAA Gathering in Seoul, South Korea. In order to be considered, applicants must be a transnational adoptee, residing in the tristate area and currently hold an active Also-Known-As membership. Five individuals will be awarded a $1,000 grant to support their expenses in attending the IKAA Korea Gathering .
Grant Application can be found here.
Grant Application deadline: February 28, 2023
A Letter From Our President
Dear friends,
As we draw closer to the end of another year, it’s natural that we consider where we’ve been and where we’d like to go. For many of us, parts of our adoptee identities have shaped the paths we’ve intentionally taken this past year, and perhaps invite our attention to assess ourselves through a question I’ve found quite helpful, and have put to words in this simple way:
What is the kindest / truest / most loving thing I can do?
Imagine where the next year could take us, if we acted upon that, to the best of our abilities. Actually, it might be unimaginable. I’ve found it to be this kind of rule of life, that whenever we set ourselves to be the best that we can for ourselves, it always, always, leaves me pleasantly surprised.
We hope you’ll continue to share the gift of you being you in many more ways in the coming year. May all the closings of this year and the openings of the next, find you present, intentional, and flourishing.
Also-Known-As President,
Robert Lee (Calabretta)
Also-Known-As Upcoming Events
Happy Hour 11/10
Join us Thursday November 10th at 6:00pm at Izakaya Juraku for this month’s Happy Hour. Izakaya Juraku has an incredible selection of Japanese Craft Beers, Sake, Cocktails and tons of delicious food. All are welcome. We hope to see you there!
A Letter From Our President
Friends,
If I may ask: who is truly a part of your community? And how do we sustain long term belonging in our circles, throughout the seasons of life? I’ve recently had to rethink which aspects of my community were serving me in my journey and present moment in life—which has led to some truly life-giving adjustments to where I’m investing my time and presence.
I recently heard a story—really a parable—from a mentor that I admire. It went like this:
A Letter From Our President
Friends,
I briefly wanted to drop a note to welcome veterans and newcomers and to briefly introduce myself in my first month as president.
My American name is Robert Calabretta (aka, Hanil Lee,) and to be quite honest, as I consider the line of presidents that have preceded me, I am both honored and extremely humbled. The history of what Also-Known-As has accomplished throughout the past 25+ years of building community among transnational adoptees is staggering. It’s easy to become overwhelmed. However, the fact that none of these presidents stood alone comforts me. Around them—always present—were the amazing people composing their board of directors, and beyond them were the volunteers, helpers, and those simply present, bringing their stories and themselves.
We have thrived as an organization because each and every one of us has believed that–to be understood, and welcomed, and included was not an option. It was a necessity.
Deported, Not Forgotten: Mike Davis
The final in our interview series with Mike Davis is now available.Mike Davis was deported to Ethiopia in 2005, leaving behind friends, a family business, and most painful of all, his wife and children. In this interview, he is able to see his wife and one of his sons for the first time in many years. They discuss the emotional, financial and personal impact that years of separation have caused.
Watch the full interview:https://youtu.be/E30-hlvwINc
A Letter From Our President
This will be my last president's letter, as I will be stepping down from the Also-Known-As Board of Directors at the end of this term.
Being on the Board has been an incredible privilege, an opportunity unlike any other: to have a hand in building the adoptee community that I would like to be part of. After attending my first amazing event connecting with adoptees, I knew I wanted to be part of a strong community and recognized that meant putting in my own effort.
Selfishly, the first event I ever organized was to show a documentary that I wanted to see and to hear the filmmaker's insights: In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee. As an Also-Known-As representative, I was able to reach out to director Deann Borshay Liem and get her to agree to join us by Skype (before Zoom days!) at the event. So it was, over the years since, that Also-Known-As allowed us on the Board to open doors and pull together discussions to create spaces for adoptees to have their voices heard. Fittingly, one of our last events this year is co-sponsoring the showing of Deann's latest film, Geographies of Kinship, on PBS on May 19.