Liuan Chen Huska

Contributor

Liuan Chen Huska digs up compelling stories of everyday revolutionaries from all corners of society, from protesters in Colombia to a neighborhood artist in Baltimore, Maryland. She does research on digital learning with the Connecting Youth Project at New York University. She lives in the Chicago area with her husband and baby boy, Oliver, gardens in her neighbor's backyard and blogs on embodiment and spirituality at bodyandbeing.wordpress.com. She hopes that her stories, including this debut contribution to Hyphen, will promote human flourishing, from the ground up.

Indian Magic

A magician reincarnate defying "Oriental" stereotypes

Palshikar doing sword trick

Onstage, a turbaned Indian fakir and an exotic woman in shimmering skirts approach a statue of Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu deity. They light and swirl a stick of incense. A bell chimes. The fakir utters a Sanskrit incantation, Vakratunda mahakaya suryakoti samaprabha, nirvighnam kuru me deva, sarvakaresha sarvada.

The pair exits the stage.