GREENSBORO, N.C. — A Triad duo is making sure Asian American and Pacific Islanders to have a space to share their stories. 

What You Need To Know

  • Christie Soper and Tina Firesheets created Pan-Asian Voices and Experiences of North Carolina in March 2021.

  • Each week in May, PAVE NC highlights Asian American and Pacific Islanders in different North Carolina communities.

  • Soper and Firesheets want to create inclusion and representation.

  • Soper says 25% of the Asian American lives in the southern U.S., but are left out of the conversation on race and identity.

Anti-Asian hate crimes increased by nearly 150% in 2020, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.

This finding inspired Christie Soper and Tina Firesheets, both Korean American women, to build a place to amplify the stories of other AAPI community members across the state of North Carolina. Soper had spent the past five months in Hawaii studying the Pacific Islander community. Only a few days after their initial phone call in March 2021, eight people, six of them being women of Asian descent, were attacked in Atlanta area spas.

“We had a conversation about what we could do to counterbalance the weight of all the violence, and negativity and everything that was being portrayed in the media,” Soper said.

Soper and Firesheets continued building the online community of Pan-Asian Voices and Experiences of North Carolina, or PAVE NC.

Soper says nearly 25% of Asian Americans live in the southern United States but are largely left out of the broad conversation on race and identity. The pair wanted to create inclusion by featuring AAPI community members and giving them a chance to share their stories.

“You don’t often see Asian Americans represented in those publications. We’re here, and that’s important for people to know and to see,” Firesheets said.

Soper and Firesheets profiled Greensboro muralist Raman Bhardwaj, who moved to North Carolina from India in 2017 after his mother died. His brother had already been living in North Carolina for some time.

Bhardwaj quickly found success in the Triad art scene, commissioned by developer Marty Kotis to create murals. Bhardwaj has since completed artwork on buildings across Greensboro. His latest work was illustrating a children’s book and he’s currently working on a mural of “Where the Wild Things Are”.

“This medium is so direct. People come here, they already started coming to take pictures, and kids get so excited,” Bhardwaj said.

Firesheets and Soper are creating the representation they don’t typically see in media and publications. To read more on co-producers Firesheets and Soper, and Bhardwaj, click here.