Expanding Our Roots: May Wen

"Expanding Our Roots: Global Conversations With 821" is an online interview series hosted by The 821 Project. The purpose of the series is to showcase the cultural diversity, global connections, and social consciousness of the people of southeast Louisiana as well as those who work to expand southeast Louisiana's roots to the world through works that promote social justice and global citizenship.

The series presents community organizers, community leaders, and residents living in southeast Louisiana who come from different parts of the world or who work to promote global citizenship, multiculturalism, and social justice in our regional community.

This interview is with May Wen. May Wen is a native New Orleanian who has spent much of her life exploring the themes of home, family, and identity. After investigating those questions in Boston then China after Hurricane Katrina, she came back to New Orleans to lay down her roots and strengthen her bonds to the only place that ever felt like home. In 2020, she created Asians for Justice in the aftermath of George Floyd and has been leading weekly meetings to assist other Asian-identified people in empowering and emboldening them to speak their truth and to tell their stories.