Celebration of life
We gathered to honor and celebrate the remarkable life of Carrie Chang on September 15, 2024, at the Sunnyvale Heritage Park Museum. It was a gift to see the many people who were moved to join us, both in person and virtually.
We chose the venue in part because of Carrie’s longtime association with Sunnyvale, and because it was the last place our family had come together, to celebrate Carrie’s mother’s 80th birthday in January 2024. The space was transformed into a mini-gallery of Carrie’s vast creative output, including issues of Monolid and Lotus, copies of her many volumes of poetry and fiction, a selection of her paintings and poems, and other photos and memorabilia.
Event recording / speakers
Our program of speakers featured remembrances of Carrie, interspersed with readings, including many of her own poems. We know not everyone got to see all the wonderful remarks, but by happy accident we managed to get footage, however imperfect, of most of the event. So in the spirit of artistic reimagining, the materials below are a mixture of what actually happened and what was intended to happen. Both, we believe, remain true to the spirit of shared appreciation for Carrie and all she brought to our lives.
Here is the video reconstruction of the program of speakers, along with the slide deck presented at the event:
Click ontext boxes below to display text.
We had two blocks of speakers, listed below. Click timestamps to jump to the speaker’s segment in the video above, ortext boxes to display text.
Pre-Break |
| Nikki Mirghafori, family friend 1:15 |
| Nancy Chang, sister 8:31 Poem: The Blanket text 13:12 |
| S. Chang, sibling 14:36 |
| June Honma, close friend since kindergarten 18:40 |
| Rina Hui, close friend since high school 23:59 Video: Cherished Memories Poem: For the One Who Waits Patiently text 27:22 |
| Lena Rindegard, close friend since college 31:18 Poem: Of Miss Saigon, Madame Butterfly, Etc. text 31:40 |
| Valerie Mih, friend since college and co-designer of first Monolid issue 34:20 |
| Phoebe Chang, mother 37:40 Song: Green Island Serenade text 38:23 |
| Dennis Kuo, friend from Taiwan / Berkeley / New York 40:48 Reading: The Merton Prayer (Thomas Merton) text42:39 |
| Eric Lee, family friend / friend from New York 44:09 |
| Pwu Jean Lee, Carrie’s mom’s best friend since childhood 48:44 Reading: Celebrating the immortal life of Carrie Chang text48:55 |
| Tzuo-Chang Lee, Carrie’s dad’s best friend since childhood 52:04 Poem: Remembering Carrie text 53:09 |
| S. Chang, sibling 55:39 |
| S. Chang and Angela Lai, accompanied by Jason Horowitz 60:09 Song: Forever Young (Alphaville)text |
Post-Break |
| Nancy Chang, sister 1:05:05 |
| Nadine Chiang, cousin 1:12:53 |
| Julie Teng-Williams, cousin 1:16:52 |
| Tzuo-Chang Lee, Carrie’s dad’s best friend since childhood 1:18:20 Poem: A Dowager Reflects Kindlytext |
| Jason Horowitz, family friend 1:21:39 Poem: A Person (Denise Levertov)text |
| Fellow poets from NYU Creative Writing Program / Lotus contributors Shradha Shah1:22:56 Poem: Ode to Crazy Produce text Viola Lee1:24:43 Poem: Last Hotpot text1:26:18 Lucyna Prostko1:27:42 Poem: Retro Pulse text 1:29:26 Susan Brennan1:30:26 Poem: The Outsider text 1:30:44 Emily Gordon & Shradha Shah1:32:11 |
| Anna Ip, cousin 1:35:35 |
| Lydia Lee, friend from Stanford and fellow journalist 1:36:28 |
| Nadine Chiang, cousin 1:38:51 |
| Ann Neelon, Carrie’s poetry professor at Stanford 1:40:04 |
| Viola Lee, fellow poet 1:42:07 |
| Nick Hay and Nora Chang-Hay, brother-in-law and niece 1:45:17 Poem: Frogger For the Seasontext 1:45:39 Nancy Chang and Nina Chang-Hay, sister and niece 1:46:57 |
Printed program
The program for the event is below (PDF). Those interested in receiving a printed copy are welcome to send us a message here.
Other media
Photo slideshow shown at the event (Youtube video | Google Photos album)
Photos and videos taken at the event (Google Photos album)
Playlist featuring some of Carrie’s favorite artists and songs (Spotify playlist)
Gratitude
We are grateful to everyone who joined us and shared in this day, as well as everyone who’s reached out with love and support.
Special thanks to the many friends who helped us get to and through this day (and many others), especially Beth Bartholomew, Deb Roth, Rina Otani, June Honma, Jason Horowitz, Nikki Mirghafori, Mira Bernstein, Bowie Winnike, Xiomara Guevara, Angela Lai, Trevor Stockinger and Sejal Patel. Thanks also to Bernadette Torres, Carrie’s longtime graphic designer, for her tireless work on the beautiful program; and to the caring and helpful staff at the Sunnyvale Heritage Park Museum.Prior to this public celebration, a private burial service was held for close family and friends on May 6, 2024. Read more here.