Irene Chan (Ch'An Press)
March 2023, preferred pronouns: she/her

The snow was falling as I arrived and I started knitting grains of rice, four minutes a grain, one by one. Later in the week, I embroidered words in spy code on a Civil War jacket about a 16-year-old Chinese-American enslaved person who ran away to join and serve in the Union Army: a good connecting coincidence since this site was once owned by a U.S. revolutionary war spy. I printed a version of my new graphic story ‘Fish Out of Water’ and lived with it. I felt an instant connection to this special place and this sustained as I worked on these three projects. My time was productive and restorative. And now I have received the gift of renewed energy. Thank you, Jacqueline Woodson and everyone at BFTA.