An educator-turned artist, storyteller, and creator, Dr. Ada Cheng has utilized storytelling to illustrate structural inequities, raise critical awareness, and build intimate communities. Committed to amplifying and uplifting marginalized voices, she has created numerous storytelling platforms for BIPOC and LGBTQIA community members to tell difficult and vulnerable stories.
In 2021, she delivered keynotes for Chicago Cultural Alliance’s Activating Heritage Conference, AAPI Heritage Month at Dominican University, AAPI Heritage Month at Environmental Protection Agency, and Immigrants in Our Midst Conference. In 2022, she delivered a keynote entitled What’s New about Violence against Asian Women? for (Re)Claiming Our Love: Social Justice & Domestic Violence conference.
Dr. Cheng has worked with numerous community organizations, including OCA Chicago, Asian Health Coalition, Chinese American Museum of Chicago, Chinese American Service League, National Cambodian Heritage Museum, Japanese American Service Committee, i2i: Invisible to Invincible Asian Pacific Islander Pride of Chicago, and Center on Halsted. She has worked with AAPI communities through her various storytelling platforms, particularly Talk Stories: An Asian American / Asian Diaspora Storytelling and Dare to Tell: Queer Asian Storytelling. She has regularly partnered with Center on Halsted for April Sexual Assault Awareness Month and October Domestic Violence Awareness Month, providing necessary platforms, such as Am I Man Enough? show, for people to critically examine the impact of toxic masculinity. She features community members as tellers and brings these events to community spaces for critical engagement and alliance building.
She has worked closely with the National Cambodian Heritage Museum since 2017. Their collaborative projects have received Asian Giving Circle grants since 2019. Through their collaboration, she has assisted the museum in instituting storytelling as part of their institutional practices. In 2020, she became part of the core team at the museum to organize 2021 Day of Remembrance to commemorate Cambodian genocide. Her community work has been widely recognized and well received.
Dr. Cheng has been a speaker for Illinois Humanities Road Scholars Speakers Bureau since 2019. She teaches at Northwestern University as well as Dominican University. Her interests span academia, performance, and advocacy.