AVYM stuff and Merlinda Bobis

Somehow I became the president of Australian Vietnamese Youth Media the other day. We had our first board meeting at the Dancing Dog Cafe and I was elected! Tony Le Nguyen has all these ideas for AVYM- to have our own space and to become as big as some of the community theatre groups overseas. It's a great dream and I'm thrilled to be part of it- but also wary of taking on too many commitments. Huu Tran one of the "elders" of AVYM pops by my work office every so often to say hi. Today we had a conversation about why we do our art. Huu says it is to tell a story. He is concerned about breaking into the mainstream. Someone else said, I've forgotten whom, that we need to create our own art the way we want the mainstream to do it, and the mainstream can follow us. I think it was at the AVYM meeting actually. I write because I need to, to make sense of what is around me. When it comes to publication and public work I'd like to tell a story well, and I'd like to bring to light stories that aren't heard very much.
I saw Merlinda Bobis today and she was inspirational! She talked about how you have to hear and listen to stories of war and terror and do the research. That your very voice in your story will change after you've heard it. How can you remain unchanged I wonder? Her story the "Fish haired woman" has been transformed into a prose and music piece and into a novel. It took her ten years- which makes me feel better about not publishing anything for six years.