Monday, May 09, 2022 – 7 PM
Brookline Village Library – Hunneman Hall
361 Washington Street
Brookline author Mai Kim Le discusses her debut memoir Worlds Apart: My Personal Life Journey through Transcultural Poverty, Privilege & Passion, in conversation with Library Trustee Chris Chanyasulkit. Mai will speak about the process of writing her memoir, how she came to writing, and the importance of creativity and self-expression.
Copies of Worlds Apart will be available for purchase courtesy of Brookline Booksmith, and a book signing will follow the talk.
This will be a hybrid event, so you can attend in person at the Brookline Village Library or online via Zoom. No registration is required for the in-person program. To register for the Zoom webinar, click here.
Mai Kim Le is a Vietnamese American who plunged into a new culture at the age of three after starting her journey traveling by boat from war-torn Vietnam to the U.S. She grew up in Seattle, WA in the ’80s at the height of the grunge culture and moved to sunny Anaheim, CA before Phước Lộc Thọ was erected in Westminster. Mai’s family finally settled in Lawrence, MA which became her beloved childhood hometown, where she graduated from Lawrence High School.
Mai’s career path has zigzagged since she graduated from Bowdoin College and Princeton University. She spent most of her 20s saving the world in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. But she then gave all of that up for love to be with her college best friend and moved back to Boston to raise her three beautiful kids and two furry friends. The rest of Mai’s trajectory has been mapped out by stumbling onto new passions and interests that she never knew she had. Mai hopes that her story will allow others to open up, navigate their own struggles, and find fulfillment from their own past as they discover their future.
Chris Chanyasulkit, PhD, MPH, is grounded in a strong belief in eliminating the structural barriers to equity for marginalized populations. Chris holds leadership positions with local, state, regional, and national governance and civic engagement organizations, working to promote racial, gender, and health equity. She served as a gubernatorial appointee to the Massachusetts Asian American Commission and the Commission on the Status of Women where she advocated for the needs of Asian Americans and women throughout the Commonwealth.
In addition to her advocacy and scholarly pursuits, Dr. Chanyasulkit is President-Elect and Past Chair of the Executive Board of the American Public Health Association (APHA), an elected Library Trustee of the Public Libraries of Brookline, a Brookline Town Meeting Member, a Brookline Community Emergency Response Team member, a Brookline Medical Reserve Corps member, and a Brookline Community Foundation Board Member.
This event is in partnership with Brookline Booksmith.
