Speaking / Storytelling

My 9th Birthday

A personal story about the year a childhood loss changed how he marked his own birthday — and the strange, recurring way grief kept resurfacing across the decades that followed, in places he never expected it. About witnessing loss you didn’t choose to witness, and finding resilience on the other side of it — told with the same instinct for specificity and dark humor that runs through his supernatural work. This one’s just true.

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A childhood nighttime visitor, a phrase he didn’t understand until years later, and a piece of his family’s history he didn’t know he was carrying.

Personal storytelling in community organizing contexts, using Guide to Creating a Brave Space.

Everyone’s story has value — the smaller, gentler stories of our own lives, no less than the great stories of survival.

Related essaysthe written companion

Notes on a Play – fred chong rutherford

A year ago today, I had a spiritual transformation, mind, body and soul. It happened on a day filled with strange coincidences, that began with me seeing a bird playing, in a way that reminded me of being a teenager and seeing the same thing on the day I officially quit working for my Dad […]

I moved into my apartment in October 2023. I was sad, depressed, angry, and grieving. I weighed 358 pounds, and was bearded, as I looked for a long time. By December 2023 I weighed 361 pounds. I left my old apartment because of memories. I’d lived there for 14 years, and needed a symbolic representation […]

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