Meet the creators

What do Maya Angelou, an Apple ad, and Jazz have in common? All three (together) were inspirations for the idea behind WAMA (We Are More Alike). I saw the Apple ad with Maya Angelou’s reading of her poem “Human Family” sometime in 2016. Then, the whole world seemed to take a sharp turn towards highlighting our differences rather than our alikeness and togetherness. My thoughts turned to what can I do to share my experiences of the power of togetherness and collaboration which has always ended up in creating better outcomes. That’s where the idea of WAMA was born, along with the children’s books that highlight the joy that togetherness brings, once we realize we are more alike than we are unalike. (With the pandemic, this reality of our alikeness as human beings has been even more greatly highlighted for me. As human beings, we all suffer from the impact of the pandemic.)

Hi! It’s Maia. My parents adopted me young from Guangxi, China and raised me in Colorado, USA. Consequently, multiculturalism is a large part of my life, both as an individual and as part of the greater community. I am a former student of Boulder High School and a current undergraduate at University Wisconsin-Madison. In the spring of 2018, when I was working on an art project investigating the dehumanization of Chinese-Americans through gastronomic derogatory language, Visda introduced her book concept: togetherness through our similarities and across our differences. How wonderful is it to joyfully engage with children, the makers of our future, in a way that supports inclusivity and curiosity in and for our world? I hope we come to accept the differences between us without isolation or bitterness; skin color and nationality seem to dominate conversations, so let’s begin there. I hope we appreciate our alikeness; let’s begin with the music that understands us all. And I hope our posterity will feel our growing empathy; let’s begin.