Creating space, finding home

What you look like doesn't reliably tell you - or anyone else - where you're from, what you've lived, or who you are. To launch The Quiet Mic, I am thrilled to share the first instalment of my conversation with Clare Courtney, a Manchester-based researcher, educator, and co-founder of the Heart and Parcel community project.I met Clare at a kitchen-themed creative writing workshop called ‘You meet me at a very Chinese time in my life’ at Manchester Museum two weeks prior to recording this conversation. You’ll hear us talk about the characters we cooked up: Nina the Blender and Colin the Colander. As we got talking further through our shared stories, we quickly discovered the commonalities and inverse experiences of our very different lives - acting as the catalyst for this podcast idea to come to fruition.In this episode, we reflect on the workshop as well as our respective childhoods where questions around identity first emerged.We learn of fascinating counterpoints in our lives: Clare spent her early years in Hong Kong, while I was born and raised in the UK to Hong Kong immigrant parents. My formative years were defined by the British Chinese takeaway experience, and Clare's by the British Handover of Hong Kong back to China. De/colonisation and movement playing out in our individual lives.Clare lands on a sense of home as something closer to movement than place, and the small, everyday things - a bowl of noodles eaten with chopsticks, and a kitchen object given a voice of its own - that end up carrying more of who we are than we realise.Part two is coming soon. Clare and I go into more challenging terrain - from questions around the TikTok trend of 'Chinamaxxing' and cultural appropriation, to difficult experiences of bias and systemic harms - but we still find lightness and laughter along the way.Thank you, Clare, for your trust, openness and candour.~~~The Quiet Mic with Ka Man Parkinson: Stories of Migration, Identity and Creativity is a cultural project which aims to amplify personal perspectives and lived experiences. The views and opinions expressed are those of the individuals only, independent of any organisational affiliations. To connect with Ka Man, visit kamanparkinson.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.