Meet Mindy Tsonas Choi

Mindy is a maker, manyeo, cultural organizer, and somatic practitioner who facilitates circles of creativity, collective belonging and care. She believes in using art and alchemy as conduits for generative connection, embodied healing and radical change. As a transracial, transnational adopted person from South Korea, this deeply informs her embodied perspective of location and belonging.

She loving refers to all of her work as, witchcraftivism, an homage to the enduring, political identity of witch and our cross-cultural practices which are rooted in nature, spirit, animism, feminism, somatic healing and community care practices from diasporic lineages across many lands. Craft, is everything we create physically, energetically, relationally, medicinally, and culturally that conjures greater connection to the earth and one another while also transforming and building new worlds.

Q+A

What do you geek out about?

I have gone down the belonging rabbit hole, slowly unearthing how dominant culture and oppressive systems have co-opted the ways in which we belong. In our current individualized and divisive culture, we understand mostly belonging through an external, individual, commodified lens. Using creative and somatic practices, I aim to bring people’s awareness beyond “I” towards “We”, to experience and remember how we are always interconnected and already belong.

What’s the best advice you have ever been given?

Definitely, one of the soundest pieces of advice I’ve learned is to ‘lead from your scars, not your wounds’. With so much ongoing, complex, personal and collective trauma in the world, I see so much of that trauma running the show. I truly believe that all the violence and unrest we witness in the world is an expression of unresolved trauma. This has led me to understand more deeply how my own body’s sensations and patterns show up as reactive behaviors, and how to practice regulating my system as ongoing care. It also helps me see other people’s systems and better work with them individually and relationally.

Tell us about an epic first.

In 2020, I officially initiated the search for my first family and began looking more critically and truthfully at the systems of adoption. To say the least, it has been a complex and eye-opening experience on both a personal and macro level. It also has been a beautiful invitation to more wholeness, integration and interconnection. Adoptees often refer to this process as “coming out of the fog” and I’m sure my search, wherever it leads, will continue to be a lifetime of unexpected self and collective discovery.

What is your favorite song?

I am a diehard lover of musicals because of the way they always beautifully express and connect us with collective themes of the prevailing human spirit – music you can feel in your bones, especially live! So, give me all of the musical soundtracks to sing along to unapologetically. Forever faves, “Seasons of Love” from RENT, “One Day More” from Les Miserables (also the song I dedicated to my Dad on a memorial plaque at the Wang Theater here in Boston – seat M104), “Maybe” from Annie (even though I see this story so differently now), and so many more!

Favorite word.

F*ck. One of the quickest and most useful embodied remedies IMHO.

Want more? Visit Mindy’s website and shop witchcraftivism.com. Follow her on Instagram @mindytsonaschoi

Learn more about Collective Belonging:  @collectivebelonging  collectivebelonging.com.

Support her work on Patreon for personal stories and community practice: https://www.patreon.com/mindytsonaschoi

Subscribe to her Substack for embodied writing and free multimedia zine: https://mindytsonaschoi.substack.com/

Support the Be Seen Project, BIPOC artist and makers creating change one project at a time: @beseenproject