Mindy Tsonas Choi

What if our businesses were tools for liberation & social change? In the world of mainstream business & marketing, profits and growth come first, people are "followers" and commodities, and speed is the name of the game. We are sold programs and tactics designed to exploit, manipulate, and coerce people into buying our offerings. We're encouraged to "charge what we're worth", as if human beings have a price tag. The language of empire building is normalized and even celebrated (though as Pam Slim explores in her new book, "The Widest Net," empires are only ever good for the people at the very top). The "experts" - usually rich, white, cis, thin, able-bodied folks with huge podcasts - assure us that wealth and success are on the other side of their dazzling, testimonial-laden program and rarely do we hear anything about addressing inequity, power, or tending to the state of the world. Deep down, we know this way of doing business i

Our next make-your-own card adventure is finally here! Inner Alchemy Collage: Build A New World Deck (online) is an artful exploration of language, learning, inspiration, and collaboration, that delves into important ideas around activism and systems of oppression. This is a way for us to examine and disrupt harmful dominant narratives, tell new stories, and inspire one another to use our creativity and personal power to help build the collective world we all want to live in! In the end you will have a beautiful and meaningful handmade deck of 35 oracle cards to use as unique a tool for guidance and reflection whenever you need it.  I'm your host,  Mindy Tsonas Choi , an artist, organizer, radical belonging activist, and the founder of the Be Seen Project - a grassroots initiative resourcing BIPOC artist and makers working in activism. Join me along with other stellar artists, makers and co-creators who have also been exploring social justice and activism as part of their creativ

  Because your worthiness is not a commodity that can be bought or sold. As long as we attach any of our human value to what we produce and create, we will always be selling ourselves short. This is the extraction of capitalism deeply embedded in our culture. This is also the doorway in to disrupt the harm it causes. The shift is relational, and de-centering profit. It is founded in our commitment to invest in ourselves, our happiness, our well-being, our wild ideas, our creative process, our unique perspectives, our wholeness and healing, and owning our value from the ground up. Grassroots nurturing and care. When we put the relationship with ourselves first, we can then invite others to invest in our potential as well, and not just buy our stuff. Can you feel the subtle difference? When we truly see the inherent value in ourselves, it also allows us to see the same innate value in others. This is core to dismantling systems.  The things we make are the fruits of our labor, but they a

a Poem by Jena Schwartz

You, my community, are really so amazing. Which is why I want to create things that are connective, intimate, inspiring, thought provoking, mold breaking, useful, impactful, reciprocal, and especially joy-giving. If this last year has taught me anything, it’s that we absolutely need each other. So... this is me opting out of what no longer serves. I’m doing things differently and turning capitalism on its head. And it’s an experiment we will co-create together! I want to talk about hard things and nurture trust. I want to create experiences from a place of passion and care, not from a place of production, exclusion or exhaustion. Most of all, I want everyone who wants to come along to be a part of the work. Welcome to my new Patreon Portal - it’s free and always will be - and it’s probably not what you’re used to seeing on that platform. I’m breaking the mold to use it to open source my work all in one place. To join, all you have to do is be present. If you throw a few dollars into

As someone who use to sell belonging and believed I was creating something universally magical , I now have fresh eyes on the harm that I once caused. I understand what can (and was) incredibly healing and impactful for some, was at the same time excluding, marginalizing and undervaluing others. First, to anyone who ever felt like they did not belong to anything I created because they were unable to afford it or felt like they did not have the social capitol to join -  I am sincerely sorry for not seeing you sooner .   To our entire creative community as a whole, I urge us all to think about belonging in new and equitable ways, and to do the work of dismantling these hierarchical structures that leave so many people out of the circle. We all deserve to have access to creativity and belonging, and I'd go so far as to say both are fundamental basic human needs and rights. Selling belonging can look like... Creating spaces and experiences that can only be accessed by buying in at one,

Disrupting Craftivism: Reducing Harm and Creating Greater Impact The recording is now available here! Thursday March 11, 2021 at 8pm EST/ 7pm CST/ 5pm PST Hosted by Fuller Craft Museum REGISTER HERE for the Zoom convo! This is the result of hours of, how shall I say, *passionate* convos between Shannon Downey a.k.a. Badass Cross Stitch  and I. We are thrilled to finally be taking this first step in expanding the dialogue around craftivism, think critically about how it’s functioning, who it’s benefiting, and most importantly discussing best practices for making real systemic change and cultural impact. Join stellar panelists and activists Omkari Williams , Sarah Trail of Social Justice Sewing Academy , Eric Reyes of You Media Chicago , Diane Ivey of Lady Dye Yarns , and Shannon and I for a dialogue on the current state of affairs within the craftivist movement.  Big thanks to the Fuller Craft Museum for hosting this much needed conversation.  See y’all there!

You will need: your new journal or planner magazines you don't mind cutting up scissors glue sticks 1 sheet of blank sticker paper   (trimmed to 1/2" smaller than your cover) optional: brayer, washi tape, photos + other ephemera   Set up your space, put on your favorite music, and tune into your intuition! Start by cutting out and collecting images and words that resonate with you. Inner Alchemy Collage is an embodied practice, so feel it more than think about it. Try to quiet the voice that wants to direct things and make them look or be "right". Simply go with what is calling to you. Follow your muse like a breadcrumb trail. Try not to overanalyze your choices. Once you have a nice pile of things, begin to loosely lay them out on your sticker paper. I do not glue until my entire layout feels complete, this way if I want to move elements around I can. Once you are happy with the arrangement, begin to glue everything down. Be sure you are gluing on the front side of

It’s May 14, 2020 and I’m on a transnational call with a social worker and translator of the SOS Children’s Village offices in South Korea. It’s 7pm my time and 9am the next day in Korea, which adds to the surreal quality of the moment. It is my first long distance call following my inquiry with the organization documented to be my first place of entry into the system, found in my Korean records (the acquisition of which is an incredible story in and of itself). It was July 21, 1972 and I was 5 months old. It’s a small miracle the organization still exists, and an even bigger blessing that they took such time and care in searching for information and to talk it all through with me in person. I try not to cry as the call connects. What I learn is a lot of small details about that fateful evening which amount to nothing traceable, but still feel like huge missing pieces of my life. I was left near the entrance around 7pm under a small tree, wrapped in a blanket with only a name scribble

  2004 | Under A Pink Sky  As a new stay-at-home-mom struggling not to lose herself in motherhood, I stumbled upon  Kerry Smith's, The Wish Jar Journals  and fell heart-first into the shiny new world world of creative blogging. It felt like being like Alice, stumbling down the most wondrous and exciting rabbit hole! I met so many wonderful creative friends from all over the world. It was here I began to tentatively share tiny bits of my life as a mom and creative person, reawakening deeply buried artful longings, and eventually myself.  2005 | A Mother's Wish Nonprofit Organization While working as a full time as a children's clothing designer, I was also building a passion project, a program to help provide free clothing and other baby and childcare goods, to families in need. As a new mom, I could feel the gap between how hard motherhood felt as a person of privilege, and wondered what it must be like for those who had even more challenges and less support than I did. I d

When you purchase this calendar you are helping me to thrive as an artist and activist, giving support to the ongoing growth of the  Be Seen Project , and sparking instant joy and happy dancing in my studio. SOLD OUT From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!!! January February March April May June July August September October November December (note: thumbnail photos are low resolution not reflective of print quality) $36 includes free US shipping 2021 Global and National (US) Days of Social Justice,  Art & Environmental Awareness Veganuary National Human Trafficking Awareness Day STIQ Day World Religion Day National Hug Day International Holocaust Remembrance Day National Storytelling Week World Wetlands Day Safer Internet Day International Day of Women and Girls in Science National Freedom to Marry in the USA Day Chinese New Year 1 Billion Rising Random Acts of Kindness Day World Thinking Day World Book Day International Women's Day International School Meals Day Global Recycl