Your Site URL
http://www.staceyannchin.com

What's your place of birth?
Montego Bay, Jamaica.

How old are you now?
30

What's your ethnicity?
Jamaican: Black and Chinese!!

What languages do you speak?
Conversational French. Conversational German. Jamaican Patois. English.

How old were you when you came to the U.S.?
24

Did you feel a culture shock?
Yes.

Weather:
Cold. Blackness more in the center of existence and experience.

Where do your parents live?
Father: Jamaica. Mother: Germany.

Do you have any siblings?
Two by my mother: Older brother and 13 year old sister- and a few others by my father.

Are you in a relationship?
Yes and No. I am seeing someone, but it's not exclusive and we are still trying to figure out if this relationship is what we want to do.

Political party?
Hmm- for the people, by the people?

Religion?
Recovering Catholic/Baptist- Trying to believe in the little things, until I am able to make room for the rest...

Job?
Full time Activist/Poet/performer/theater lover- etc

Which part of New York do you live in now?
Most of my life now happens in Brooklyn.

What's your educational background?
Twice through the tertiary system in Jamaica. Qualified Teacher of Bio, chemistry, physics and math. BA in Literature and Philosophy.

Who are your literary inspirations?
Too many to Name. Audre Lorde. Toni Morrison, TS Eliot. Zora Neale Hurston. Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, Lorna Goodison, Edward Baugh... And the list goes on.

What music do you like?
Women of rock- Ani difranco, Tori Amos, then there's Mos' Def and Bob Marley... Endless.

What foods do you like to eat?
Jamaican Food, ....

Tell us a bit about the documentary made about you.
I visited Denmark about 4 years ago and I performed there in a group of girls. They had brought in some spoken word artists from Jamaica. One of the guys, Ulrik Weevil, was commissioned to make a record of our trip. He was there to take pctures of the event, get footage, and he decided that a whole documentary about me would be interesting. He followed us to London. The following year, he said he wanted to come to my house to interview me. He came to my house 3-4 times, followed me to my gigs for 2 years and converted it all into a half-hour film. It was broadcasted on Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish television.

How old were you when you started writing poetry?
I've always written journalistic jottings. When I came to the United States, I studied English literature at home. I studied Literature at the University of West Indies in Jamaica. I didn't know racism existed in this country. In Jamaica, being light-skinned was as good as being white. As soon as I came to America, the polarity was shifted from being on the privileged end of the continuum to being with the oppressed. I was angry and confused and poetry gave me a ready way of expressing things.

Who would you cast to play yourself in the movie about your life?
I like Angela Bassett.

Who would play the love interest?
Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry, Julia Roberts, and Queen Latifah or some strong black woman with a lot of flaws. It's the flaws that make you beautiful.

Name a song in the soundtrack for this movie.
"I'm With You" by Avril Lavigne "Napoleon" by Annie Difranco

Do you consider yourself a realist or a dreamer?
I'm a realist who dreams.

What's the one beauty product you can't live without?
I like Lever 2000. I'm not hung up on beauty.

What's your biggest turnoff about women?
I don't like women who are unsure of themselves. I like women who wear sneakers.

Do you prefer women who wear make-up or no make-up?
No make-up.

Would you go out with a woman who had plastic surgery?
I have not yet had to make that decision. I'll work it into my daily prayer that I'll never have to.

What are your thoughts about being half-Chinese?
It's one of the weird parts of my world. I never had a relationship with my father. I wasn't raised by my father or mother. My interaction with my father has been financial. [My being half-Chinese] has come up in conversation among people I meet. It has to do with my last name and my small frame. I feel that my identity has been validated in the black community back in Jamaica. The Chinese American Community has embraced me here in America. I would get invited to places. When I go to colleges, I get to talk to students whose parents are both Asian. Their Asian-ness is not questioned at all. Some of these people's awareness of their Chinese background is as good as mine. When I sit with these people, I would feel that I'm connected to my Asian-ness. After conversing with them, I would feel that we're sailing in the same boat.

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This month's A-Profiler is brought to you by the very gracious volunteer, Cynthia Cheng.