Storywallahs: Coming Home Isn’t Always Easy
The 24-year-old man didn’t have a home.
So he came up with a bold plan: Go to the nicest neighborhood in Grand Rapids, Michigan, knock on the doors of 10 mansions and ask if he could move in.
“I was really scared to do it; but in my heart I knew getting 10 nos from 10 strangers didn’t mean anything,” he said. “Getting one yes would change my life forever.”
He was an Indian-American from Buffalo, New York, and an aspiring entrepreneur. He decided to take a risk.
One person said yes. In fact, the FIRST person said yes.
The young man was among 13 South Asian-Americans who told their stories on November 22 at KUOW’s second Storywallahs, an event inspired by The Moth and our Two Indias series. The theme this time was “Coming Home.”
Hopeful storytellers and their families packed Seattle Asian Art Museum’s underground auditorium as emcee Agastya Kohli randomly chose a dozen speakers from a hat.
Produced in partnership with Pratidhwani, Tasveer and the Seattle South Asian Film Festival, Storywallahs is an original event series from KUOW. Jennie Cecil Moore recorded the event.
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John O'Brien
Producer
John O’Brien is a KUOW newsroom producer. He works with the Morning Edition and All Things Considered teams to schedule, record, and edit interviews and stories on a variety of topics, from politics and public health to arts and culture. He learned to make radio in 2006 as an intern on KUOW’s The Conversation and is a former host of KUOW's Speakers Forum.
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